Chapter 23: Emelia

Massimo’s skin feels warm against mine as he takes both my hands into his.

The caress of his fingertips on my skin renews the swirl of delight I’ve been floating in for the last few days.

“One more step, Princess.” He smiles, and his eyes sparkle in the moonlight.

I gaze down at him, floating in the still salty waters of the sea. I’m already waist deep, and I know one more step will take me away from the sandy floor. Taking me out of the bounds of safety, placing me in a position where I’ll have to trust him.

“It looks deep,” I breathe, and he smoothes his hands over mine.

“It is deep, but you won’t learn to swim in shallow waters.” He smirks, inclining his head, and a trail of water runs from his slick, wet hair down the side of his face.

This little idea was his. He wanted to go swimming in the moonlight. Ironically, we’re around the corner from the place where I was planning my escape. We’re on the other side of the beach near the caves and jagged rock formations that look like small shadowy mountains against the night.

“You’ll be fine,” he adds, releasing my hands so he can take hold of my waist.

“Massimo, if you let me drown, I’m coming back to haunt you,” I warn playfully, and he laughs.

I like him like this. I love that sound. The sound of his laughter. It fills me with something I can’t quite describe every time I hear it. It’s a good something.

“Princess, I’m not fucking letting you drown,” says the man who wants to destroy my father. Except tonight he doesn’t look like that man.

Massimo hasn’t looked like that man in days. What he looks like is the man I’m fast becoming closer to in ways that I’ve never been with anybody.

I guess that’s what happens when you give yourself to somebody and they have that part of you that no one else has claimed. It’s trust.

He tightens his grip around my waist and I feel safe. On that thought, I take that step, and like I anticipated, the water engulfs me. However, I’m reassured quite quickly when Massimo holds me and I secure my arms around his neck, holding on as the cold water covers my shoulders and immerses my hair.

He smiles at me. “I got you, Emelia. Just relax and feel the water.”

“I’m trying.”

“Relax,” he repeats. “All I want you to do is hold onto me.”

The compelling magnetism of his stare pulls me in as I gaze back at him and allow his words to seep into my mind and my soul.

Hold onto him. I want to, but not the way he thinks or the way I should be. What I want to hold onto is this version of him.

“I will,” I reply.

“Good girl. Tonight we’ll just get used to you being in deep water. Try to move your legs slowly against the waves. But that’s all.”

“I think that’s all I can do, Massimo. The rest of me is too afraid to do anything else.” I wince and push myself up onto him as a wave splashes against my shoulders.

“Don’t be afraid when you’re with me,” he says, as if I could trust him enough to take care of all my troubles no matter what they are.

Massimo secures his grip on me with one powerful, muscular arm, and with the other, he wades through the water.

We move away from the shallow, floating until we’re bobbing up and down with the subtle waves, and it feels like we could be the last two people on earth. We’re in the sea, swimming in a world of our own, existing without the details of who we are and how we came to be.

It feels good. The distance we’ve gone is the farthest I’ve ever been in any kind of water. There’s something freeing about facing such a fear.

“You okay?” Massimo asks.

“Yes, but it feels weird not being able to feel the sand.”

“It will at first, but you get used to it.” He grins, and I look around me. “You know I’m going to ask why it is you can’t swim, right? Our fathers came from the same place in Sicily. Everybody I know in San Leone can swim. My parents practically lived in the water, and we grew up like it too.”

He’s right. Everybody I know in San Leone can swim too. It’s a seaside town and port south of Agrigento. Whenever I visited relatives, there wasn’t a day that passed where they didn’t spend it by the sea. I’m just a little different.

“My mother tried to teach me, but I saw something once that put me off.”

He studies me. “What did you see, Princess?”

“When I was ten, I saw a boy from my elementary school drown.” The instant I say that, concern fills his eyes. Another emotion I’m not used to seeing.

“How did that happen?”

“It was a school fundraising activity by the beach. He fell off the pier, and no one could get to him in time. It was awful, and I’ve been wary of the water since. I wasn’t exactly fond of it in the first place. When that happened, I stayed away.”

“I’m sorry that happened and you had to see death in such a way.”

“It was awful. I didn’t know him personally, but I saw him at school all the time. I had a hard time trying to unravel him from my mind after it happened. He was one of those kids that brought life and laughter everywhere he went.”

His name was Jamie Scottsman. He played in the little league team, and because of that, he was very popular. I remember his face well. Him alive. It took me a while to shake the image of him lying on the sand, dead, after people tried to revive him and couldn’t. I remember Dad taking me away from the scene as I cried, knowing what was happening.

“The sea can be a dangerous place, but it can also be magical.”

“Magical?” I smile at that and try to imagine it as such.

“Yeah. Magical. Look around us. I’m sure you’ll see things differently to me. I can’t see a winged Pegasus on the water like you did the other day.” He grins. “If you think the way you do when you’re painting, you’ll be able to shift the fear out of your mind.”

I believe him because I’ve overcome many things by relying on my creative abilities. Deciding to take his advice, I look around and focus on the sliver of moonlight that kisses the water’s surface. It shimmers and sparkles like it’s truly been touched by magic.

“What do you see, Princess?” he asks, and I allow my imagination to run wild.

“Mermaids,” I answer. That’s what I imagine. In my mind’s eye, I see four of them, beautiful and enchanting, just like in the fairytales and depictions people have illustrated over the centuries. “They’ve just surfaced in the moon’s path, and they’re singing.”

He chuckles, and I look back at him. “Mermaids? I like that.”

“Do you?”

“I do. My mother liked mermaids. She painted them too. It was her who taught me to swim, but as you know, sailing is more my thing. That came from my father.”

I like it when he shares things about himself and his past. “That’s cool.”

“Yeah. My dad’s family is heavily into it. And they’re very old school.”

“Like how?”

“Superstitious.”

“Like no women on the boat?” I raise a brow. The other day when he’d said it, it sounded like something you’d hear in a pirate film.

“Like no women on the boat, but I think I might have to make an exception and brave the curse for you.”

That sends a thrill of arousal through my body. The thought of him doing something like that for me makes me feel special. It makes me feel like it’s something he’d do only for me, and not someone like Gabriella.

“Would you, now, Massimo D’Agostino?”

“I would, Emelia Balesteri.”

As I gaze back at him, I want him all over again, and again. I know I shouldn’t, but whatever magic he thinks is here has me under its spell.

I lean closer and brush my lips over his. It’s a brief touch that intensifies in seconds, turning hot as we kiss and our tongues tangle with the wild desire that always takes us.

He pulls back with a seductive glint in his eyes. “Lesson over.”

“What are we doing now?” I giggle.

“Something wild. It’s time to play with you again.”

Play…

I like playing…

Before I can say anything more, he starts swimming backward with me, splashing the water as we go.

As we get closer to the beach, my feet connect with the sand and he takes my hand.

We walk out of the sea and head over to the large stone walls of the cave. I’m about to ask him again what we’re doing when he pushes me against the wall and recaptures my lips.

The way that Massimo kisses me speaks of what we’ll be doing tonight and where we’ll be doing it. The latter becomes all the more apparent when he runs his fingers over the edge of my bikini bottoms and I feel the monstrous head of his cock pressing into my belly through his shorts.

His fingers find their way into my pussy, and I moan against his lips when he starts a low steady pump.

He pulls his fingers out, moves away from my lips, and slides his fingers into his mouth to lick off my juices. That always, always turns me on in a way that drives me closer to the insanity that takes over when I’m with this man.

Every nerve in my body tingles when he leans in close to my ear and runs his hand over my breasts.

“I’m going to fuck you right here against the wall of this cave, Princess.”

My stomach does a crazy somersault, and the flames of desire licking over me beckon me to allow him to do whatever he wants to me. Outside though? Jesus…

“Out here, Massimo?” I whisper, and he catches my face.

“I’ll have you wherever and whenever I want. You’re mine.” His gaze holds mine with that last word.

Previously when he’d told me that it sounded like destruction, like captivity, no freedom. Tonight I relish it.

When he takes hold of me and positions me to take his cock, I no longer care that we’re outside. There are probably guards patrolling on the path above us, and they’ll most likely hear us, but I don’t care.

As he cups my sex and slides his thick cock into my passage, I most of all no longer care about who we are and how we came to be.

His lips press to mine as he starts moving inside me, and I know I’m falling for him.