Fractured

by Leanne Pearson

  As we are pronounced husband and wife to a chorus of whoops and cheers, a light breeze whips up, coating us in a fine misting of ocean spray. Dominic brings his mouth down to mine, taking me in a scorching kiss. My eyes close, and I’m lost to him, to our first kiss as husband and wife. When we come up for air, my jaw hurts from the smile fixed on my face, tears making the vision of my new husband swim.

  Then, we are surrounded by the Claytons. Daniel and Chase’s mum pulls me into a tight hug.

  “Katy, seeing you bloom like you are today is all I could ever want for you. You deserve this happiness, and this man, love. Mick and I love you as our own. And now, by extension, Dominic too,” she says, her lip trembling slightly, her eyes swimming with joy and affection.

  “I love you too, all of you. Today wouldn’t have been the same without your family here,” I whisper through tears of my own.

  “Hey, that’s enough crying, you two. Come here, beautiful girl.” I break out in a smile as I launch into Chase’s arms. He spins me around before placing me back on my feet, his hands bracing my shoulders.

  “Congratulations are in order, Mrs. Dell’Antonio. It means so much to finally see you this happy again. Never would I have taken Dell for a keeper, but it seems miracles never cease,” he taunts, a crooked grin on his face. “I love you, babe.”

  “Ditto, brother.”

  A few minutes later, all eyes are on us as the strains of our wedding song filter through the crowd. It’s Celine Dion’s “Loved Me Back To Life.” I blink the tears away, tilting my head back to look up at my gorgeous man who owns an even more beautiful soul. The man who has patiently coaxed me back into the present, who taught me that it’s okay to love again even if this makes us vulnerable.

  The lyrics are so close to our hearts. I don’t think there’s a dry eye in the room as we share our first dance as husband and wife.

  Our second dance is interrupted by Roberto.

  “Mi scusi*, Dominico, may I steal your bella sposa* away for just one dance?”

  “Si certo*, Pa,” he replies, then whispers down into my ear, “My father would like a dance with my beautiful bride.”

  My heart swells at the endearment. I nod, and Roberto sweeps me into his arms, while I continue to smile at my new husband from over his shoulder. I can’t drag my eyes away.

  “Kate, thank you being brave enough to open your heart again, for loving our son like you do. His mother and I have been so worried about him since he returned from war. Your love has been a healing for him, as his has been for you. The love between the two of you is a beautiful thing. It’s rare. Continue to build on it and treasure it as you do.”

  “I’m hopelessly in love with your son, and will continue to be until the day I take my last breath. I can promise you that,” I whisper back to him. He smiles at my words, a smile just as captivating as his son’s. Being in the arms of first, Dominic, and now his father, I feel dizzy. Such is the potency of their Italian sex appeal. It’s a physical force field.

  When back in my man’s arms and while moving slowly to the music, Dom nuzzles into my neck, whispering my name into my ear like a gentle caress. I stare up at the twinkle lights swaying gently in the breeze above our heads and smile broadly. In this moment, I don’t think I’ve ever been happier. “Kate, darlin’, as pretty as this dress is, I need to peel it off you urgently and get my hands and mouth on that body beneath.”

  His seductive words and velvety voice ripple through me as a surge of desire sweeps the length of my body. We’ve waited so long for this; I’m trembling with need.

  I think if Dom swept me up over his shoulder right now, carried me off the dance floor, and took me against the wall, I’d high five my inner skank.

  “Not if I get my hands on you first, Mr Dell’Antonio,” I challenge, locking eyes with him.

  Dom grips my hips roughly, moving very suggestively against me.

  “Okay, you two, cut it out. I’d tell you to get a room, but you’ve got one booked already. Now, get outta here, and quit providing your guests with a display in the art of foreplay. There are children here, you two,” Sarah chastises, as she whirls past us on the dance floor, grinning broadly as Travis leads her in a dance.

  While a vestige of indifference remains between the two men, Dominic and Travis have come a long way in learning to tolerate one another for my sake. Travis took a bit of time out from our friendship after things came to a head. I think he utilised the time wisely, and reflected on how precious life is, and how it’s too short to waste on the frivolity of empty flings. I hope he finds someone to love soon.

  As the evening progresses, butterflies take flight in my stomach. I’m nervous about making love to Dominic for the first time tonight. It’s going to be emotional for me. As much as I love Dominic with everything I have, he’s the first man I’ve been intimate with since Daniel. I’m hoping our love, and the powerful chemistry between us, will overshadow my last intimate memories with Dan, which may painfully surface. I will always cherish what I had with him. He was my first lover, but I want to give myself to Dom tonight, free of the inhibitions the shadow of bittersweet memories could evoke.

  ♡ Honeymoon Suite ♡

  Sitting on the edge of the bed, elbows resting on his knees, he looks up. Any concerns about my first time with Dominic fly out of my head the instant my eyes collide with his. His presence in this room is all I feel. The look he spears me with is so intense, so carnal, my knees all but give out. My heart is pounding wildly in my ears, my skin is feverish, as his blistering gaze sweeps over my body.

  Step aside Mr. Christian Grey. This man is the real deal, a triple scoop of sex on a stick: his hair, chiselled jaw, and beautiful azure eyes, and that was just the ten percent of him on show. Knowing I’m about to make love to this devastatingly sexy man—my new husband, the man I’ve fallen so hopelessly in love with—and it’s totally overwhelming. But equally, utterly erotic.

  Slowly he rises to his feet.

  As I close the distance between us, I glance at the king-sized bed, which is littered with rose petals. A bottle of champagne sits in a small ice bucket on the bedside cabinet, but what catches my eye is the small CD player next to it, which has a note attached to the handle.

  “What’s this, Dom?” I ask as I walk over to the bedside cabinet.

  “No idea, sweetheart,” he says, coming up behind me.

  Two words are written across the centre in handwriting I recognise immediately:

  Play me.

  I turn the note over in my hand. On the back is written:

  Thought you may enjoy a soundtrack for your night of passion.

  “Sarah?”

  I nod, the nervous flutterings in my belly of moments ago, now replaced by curiosity. I hit the play button and turn back to Dominic. Strains of Serge Gainsbourgh’s erotic song, “Je-taime,” spill from the small sound system, filling our honeymoon suite with the breathy orgasmic moans of a woman in the throws of her release. I squeeze my eyes closed as a blush sweeps my face, and a nervous giggle bubbles up in my throat.

  I’ll kill the bitch.

  “Je-taime,” seriously? Your friend does know I’m part Italian, right?”

  “I don’t think there’s an Italian version of this classic,” I answer through my giggles.

  “Well, we’ll just have to create our own version then, darlin’.” The raw sexual undertone in his voice makes my toes curl.

  His hands clutch at my hips, and the humour of the song is instantly forgotten, the air between us thick with sexual tension, and sizzling chemistry. His one hand drifts up to graze over the valley between my breasts. Looking up through my lashes, our eyes lock. His are flaring with heated desire. Mine drop to his perfect lips I can’t wait to ravish.

  “You are so beautiful, sweetheart. You have no idea how long I’ve waited to do this, to hold you...to taste you. To make you pay for weeks of teasin’ me,” he growls, his eyes blazing a trail over the rise of my breasts.

  Dom cups m
y cheek with his large hand, and I lean into his touch, closing my eyes as his thumb brushes over my lips, they part and he grinds his mouth down over mine. My hand slides up into his hair, the other grips his firm butt. Squeezing it as he hisses a breath into my mouth, deepening the kiss. He pulls back slightly to look over me once more, our lips barely a half inch apart.

  “Taste so damn sweet, baby. I want to be inside you so badly right now. You are so, so beautiful,” he whispers, his breathing becoming rapid. He flicks his tongue along my earlobe, nibbling it gently. My knees weaken and I have to clutch his biceps to steady myself. Tonight we are on the brink of satisfying the months of longing for a physical release of our passion, our love.

  He pulls back to look down into my eyes. “Get ready to feel the earth move, sweetheart.” As those last words leave his mouth he squeezes his eyes shut. “Shit, sweetheart I’m sorry, that was a poor choice of words.”

  I giggle. I can’t help it.

  My smile fades as I look up into his eyes. “It’s okay, honey.” I slip my fingers across his jaw. He sucks in a breath, his jaw tensing.

  “You already rock my world, honey, in every way possible.”

  The reciprocal emotions he communicates back with his eyes, and his touch, has me trembling.

  Don’t cry, don’t you dare cry, I plead with myself.

  “I…uh…had somethin’ done a while ago.”

  He slowly starts unbuttoning his dress shirt, not taking his eyes off mine. It slips from his shoulders revealing his torso in all its glory. My heart rate kicks up, and desire pulses deep within me, as my eyes drift from his broad chest down to his hands, which are deftly working at the waistband of his pants, a band of underwear already exposed. I inhale sharply as my eyes travel over his obliques and down further to an enticing V leading farther south.

  My heart constricts and my breath leaves my lungs in a whoosh as he slips the garments lower. My emotions catch in my throat as my eyes settle on my name inked in elegant script just above the dense curls of hair above his manhood.

  “Oh, God.”

  My name, indelibly branded on his body, coupled with his stark nakedness, overwhelms me, rendering me momentarily speechless. He is so magnificent to look at. It catches my breath. I love and ache for this man with every fibre of my being.

  “Do you like it, sweetheart?”

  “Oh, Dom. I don’t know what to say. It’s beautiful. You’re beautiful,” I whisper fervently.

  “This is forever for me, darlin’. You’re it for life,” he replies.

  I can’t speak. I only have tears with which to communicate the emotions that I can’t put into words right now.

  “Please don’t cry, sweetheart.”

  “I...I’m not upset. These are happy tears. You have no idea what that tattoo means to me, Dom.”

  I release the breath I am holding, and run a trembling hand down the undulations of his abdominal muscles, halting my exploration just above the scripting of my name.

  At my touch, he jerks to full attention.

  “See what you do to me, darlin’?” he murmurs huskily, just as turned on as I am. I don’t know why, but a sudden combination of lust and shyness overcomes me, causing me to duck my head and curl into his chest, slipping my arms tightly round his broad back, taking in shallow breaths. I feel almost virginal and I know it’s silly, as I’m not, but I’ve only had one other lover.

  “No place for shyness in this bedroom, sweetheart,” he whispers into my ear, nipping at it with his teeth, then feathers soft kisses along my neck causing my breath to hitch once again. “I don’t know how I managed to keep my hands off you for so many months. No woman has affected me like this. Ever.”

  “Honest truth. I’ve had other women. You know this, but you’re the only one who’s ever owned my heart. So this will be the first time I’ll be makin’ love to the only woman I’ll ever love.”

  I feel those words in my chest as a warm flutter, and between my legs as a throbbing ache.

  “Turn around, darlin’.”

  I slowly turn my back to him, my hands trembling slightly. I suck in a breath as he runs the zipper of my wedding dress down the length of my spine in one agonisingly slow movement. The dress pools at my feet, and I feel the intensity of his gaze almost incinerate my skin as I release the clasp of my strapless bra, letting it too, slip from my body. I slowly turn to face him in nothing but a sheer lacy G-string and my diamanté heels.

  His eyes blaze over my exposed flesh, matching the flames lapping between my thighs.

  “Say something to me in Italian,” I ask in a breathy whisper, my eyes raking over his sculpted pectorals.

  He steps closer, then runs his fingers over the swell of my breast, causing my nipple to harden immediately. “Come sei, bella*. Lo vado a fare l’amore con te adesso*.”

  God, that was hot, and I have no idea what he’s just said to me. No foreplay required. Those words, and his deep, sexy voice, light the fuse to my aching core. I’ve never been more turned on in my life. My knees tremble as I drag my eyes back up to his face.

  “Want me to translate that for you, darlin’, or should I just demonstrate without words?” he murmurs into my ear while running his nose over my highly sensitive skin.

  “Tell me, then show me,” I rasp.

  Quickly freeing himself of the last of his clothing, without another word, he walks us backward towards the bed, settling on the edge and pulling me between his legs.

  He drops his forehead against the heated skin of my belly. “I just said...you’re beautiful, and I’m going to make love to you now.”

  As he speaks, my fingers involuntarily dig into the skin on his broad shoulders.

  “Leave the heels on, darlin’,” he commands, before scooping me up onto the bed, laying me down and intertwining our hands, bringing them up above my head, kissing my neck. I hook my leg behind his knee, bringing us flush.

  Looking intently into my eyes, Dom renders me breathless as he takes me in a scorching kiss, his tongue plundering my mouth. His kiss is demanding and commands the attention of every nerve cell in my body. The steady throb between my thighs is almost painful now. He breaks the kiss, holding my face tenderly in his hands. The medley of emotion and raw passion on his face causes my throat to tighten. Before I’m even aware that he’s removed them, he flings my panties onto the floor next to the bed.

  “Tonight isn’t just physical, sweetheart, it’s me about to demonstrate to you with my body just how much I adore every…inch of you.” He kisses beneath my breasts, and my back arches off the bed as he trails kisses down farther, his hot breath fanning over my sensitive flesh causes a moan to escape my throat as his mouth continues on its torturously sweet descent.

  With no layers of clothing separating us now, we then embark on an unhurried exploration of each other’s bodies with our hands and mouths: A deliciously tension-building, tactile exploration of probing, tasting, and mutual pleasure, until I can take no more. Head thrashing against the satin pillow, I’m frantic with need.

  “Please baby, I need you inside me now,” I beg.

  Positioning himself between my quivering thighs, my eyes squeeze shut in utter ecstasy as Dominic slowly enters me, filling and stretching me to capacity, burying himself to the hilt with one delicious thrust. He groans deeply as our bodies start moving as one. My breathy sighs, and whimpers of pleasure, instinctively prompt an increased pace, or change of position from Dominic. His primal grunts and groans feed my raw hunger.

  Neither of us can form coherent words. We move in a beautifully sensual dance of tangled limbs, rocking bodies, and thundering hearts, punctuated by a symphony of low moans, groans, and breathy murmurings. Transcending the physical, this is the joining of two souls. So intense. Exquisite.

  His body is so powerful, yet so restrained as he makes true to his pledge to make love to me, almost reverentially. I know he’s holding back the force with which he wants to take me. Gripping his muscled biceps, I feel the tremble rippl
e through his body as he moves inside me. Beads of sweat form across his forehead as he is lost to pleasure. His eyes squeezed closed. Utterly gorgeous. I clench internally, biting down into the flesh of my cheek as the first tremors of ecstasy wash over my body.

  “Fuck, baby, you feel so good...,” he murmurs into my neck, his voice rough.

  I’d had him gentle, now I wanted to experience the rougher side of his lovemaking, to feel the power of that masterpiece of a body, unleashed, and unrestrained. I want the bad boy to come out to play. His luminous eyes meet mine, darkened by desire.

  “You okay, darlin’?”

  I can barely speak.

  “Hmm, perfect. But...don’t hold back, honey, you can take me harder,” I breathlessly whisper into his ear.

  He sucks in a breath, tensing inside and on top of me. I slip my hands between us, pushing gently against his chest. I want to watch him lose control. He pulls back slightly, the most tender look in his eyes. “Plenty of time for that, sweetheart.” He slows his thrusts, shifting his hips slightly. “Right now, I want you like this…sweet, soft and slow.”

  The significance of our wedding vows and declaration of love for one another evident in each powerful thrust of his hips and the answering rise of mine.

  “Keep your eyes on me, darlin’,” he commands.

  Switching position slightly and straightening his arms, he now provides me with a view of his beautifully muscled and tattooed body in motion as he drives into me. Not taking his eyes off mine, his one hand skates over my breast, rolling the nipple. I’m lost to the suffusion of pleasure as together we climb towards a powerful release.

  I roll my hips while digging my nails into his muscular ass with both hands, and watch as his control breaks. Brows squeezed together, he bites down on his lip, and his pace shifts from languid lovemaking to aggressive thrusting, bringing my body closer to the brink.