Filed to story: Submitting to My Bestie’s Daddy Read Online >>???
“She said she wanted nothing to do with any of it, said she just wanted to help out her mother because the two of them hadn’t been living easy ever since the Russians were driven out of Venice,” I said coldly.
“So, her job was to basically keep tabs on you this whole time.”
I rolled my eyes up to the roof of the car.
“It doesn’t matter now anyway, alright?” I said roughly. “The damage is done. I refuse to lose any more men because of my ignorance. It’s over.”
Those last two words came out easier than I imagined. Although, I did not care for the bitter aftertaste they left in my mouth.
I could easily recall the time when I refused to let Natalia go, prior to us ever getting together. She kept me at such a discernable distance that it baffled me how I hadn’t noticed it before. Maybe that wasn’t her just trying to play hard to get. Maybe that was her fighting with her conscience.
What broke her down? What made Natalia finally give me a chance?
Was it really just the looming threat of her uncle that made her act, or was it actually something more?
If I closed my eyes and focused hard enough, I could still hear her voice in my head.
“Well, it’s because I’ve come to the realization that I’ve fallen in love with you,” Natalia had said.
Her voice was laced with so much desperation that it was a true wonder whether what she said held even an ounce of truth.
I would rather have taken a bullet to the chest than have stood there, listening to her clear deception.
“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to tell you those same exact words,” I thought silently. “But your love comes with a deadly price, it seems.”
“Don’t worry, Tallon,” Vinny said assuringly.
I’d almost forgotten I was still on the phone with him.
“We’re going to make those bastards wish that they never stepped foot back in Italy.”
I ran a rough hand through my messy hair and threw my head back. When did I all of a sudden become disinterested in the thought of fighting violence with violence? Wasn’t that the way of things since God knows when? How many generations before me had handled their enemy with the same brutal means?
It was merely a vicious cycle that never wanted to end.
“Is there no other way to deal with this?” I asked out loud.
“What do you mean?” Vinny questioned.
I could tell from the sound of his voice that his brows were pulled together and his mouth was forming a deep frown.
All each side of this ongoing war knew was the monotony of power and bloodshed. But where the hell had that gotten anyone for the past forty years?
If they weren’t dead, then they were suffering from the ongoing nightmares that came with the never-ending war, the worry of constantly looking over their shoulder for fear that someone would come after them.
It was the only way either side knew how to exist.
Well, I’d grown tired of being a pawn in this game.
“Vinny, find a way to contact the head of the Russians. I don’t care how you do it, just make it as discreet as possible. The bastard’s name is Ivan,” I told him.
I ended the call without saying another word. I knew I would need to set my heartache aside if it meant finally putting an end to this useless rivalry.
It was time to turn my rage into strategy.
It was time to end this once and for all.
*Natalia*
It was a full moon tonight. It cast its light through my open window, shining down onto me. But unlike the sun, there was no warmth–just an endless, cold pit.
I stared emptily at the sky, my whole body feeling heavier than usual as I lay curled up under my blankets. The tears had thankfully stopped, but the dry tracks on my face were uncomfortable. Every movement felt sluggish, like trying to move in slow motion.
I tried to hold onto what little warmth I could but the ice had permeated down to the bone, numbing me in my core. I stared at the battery percentage on my phone, watching it slowly countdown but not bothering to plug it in.
Three percent.
I wondered if the moon felt as lonely as I did now–if this feeling would ever fade, or if this was my punishment for deceiving the man I loved, if this numb misery was my new normal I would have to suffer through this for the rest of my life.
The thought was unbearable.
One percent.
The screen of my phone flickered and died, leaving me alone with my thoughts and the moon. I’d never felt so alone as I did now, and I glanced at the sky and the stars shining above. I wondered perhaps if stars could still grant wishes for someone like me.
If they could, I had only one wish.
“Natalia.”
It was impossible. I whirled up in bed, my eyes wide and my heart beating loudly in my chest. Standing in front of my doorway was the person I wanted to see more than anything.
“Tallon,” I whimpered, my heart constricting in pain at the sight of him. There was a blank look on his face and he stood there, not moving an inch but keeping his eyes on me. “You came back.”
He didn’t answer, and despite my best attempts to keep myself together, I couldn’t stop the floodgates from opening up once more.
“I’m sorry,” I wailed. “I swear I didn’t mean to hurt you! I was just doing what my family told me. But you were so kind and loving and I fell in love with you, and I was going to tell you but you beat me to it and–”
I choked on my own tears, dissolving into whole-body sobs. I could barely see through my blurry eyes, the tears burning as they streamed down my face, and just when I thought Tallon was going to leave me again, to turn his back and leave me in the cold again, I felt a warm touch on my cheek.
I jolted from the temperature difference, glancing up as Tallon kneeled on the bed before me, a sad look in his kind eyes.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, his voice like a low hum over the radio. “You didn’t mean for any of this to happen. I forgive you.”
Before I could say another word, he kissed me with everything he had. I latched onto him like he was the only thing keeping me anchored to the ground, opening my lips for him as he caressed my cheek.
And I felt whole and complete. The chill washed away like it never existed and a warmth grew from the middle of my chest down to my fingertips. I threw my arms around his neck, pushing myself into his lap as I craved more and more of him.
He tasted just as I remembered, and I moaned as he threaded his fingers into my hair, tugging my neck back so he could trail his lips down my skin. I tore my hands under his shirt, murmuring his name between relieved shudders as I fell apart in his arms.
“I love you,” I whispered over and over as he gently pushed me onto my back, staring deeply into my eyes. I felt unbearably warm, sweat trailing down my skin and I reached my hands out to touch him, to feel any bit of him that I could.
And I felt nothing.
***
