Safehouse

~ Seraphina ~

He stared at me, seconds, then he closed the distance between us and held me pinned. His breath was hot against my mouth, eyes dark with something that trembled between restraint and surrender.

“I’ve waited too long,” he rasped, every word roughened with hunger. “Say the word, Seraphina.”

The contract, the rules, the games we’d played to keep ourselves in check—all of it shattered inside me in that heartbeat.

“Fuck the contract,” I whispered, clutching his jaw, staring into those burning eyes. “You own me.”

His anger was swallowed in the kiss that followed, fierce and shaking, as though he’d been starved for years. Of course, he had.

His hands were everywhere—at my waist, in my hair, sliding lower, urgent but reverent, like he didn’t know whether to claim or worship. 

The wall caught my back with a sharp thump, and I gasped into his mouth, clutching him tighter.

Clothes fell away in a frantic blur. Buttons popped, fabric tore, neither of us patient enough to care. His chest pressed to mine, hot and unyielding, and when his lips trailed down my neck I shivered, arching for more.

“You are mine,” he growled against my skin, and I answered by wrapping my legs around him.

He was a mass of muscles, hard as rock, rigid as iron, nothing like I had had before. With that strength, he lifted me as though I weighed nothing, carrying me to the edge of the bed. 

He set me down, but only long enough to follow me, crushing his mouth to mine again. The mattress dipped, sheets tangling beneath us as his body pressed me down.

The difference was immediate—he wasn’t just taking, he was giving. Every glide of his hands made me tremble, every kiss mapped me like sacred ground. My ex, Mark, had touched me to claim release; Alessandro touched me to know me, to unravel me. My back arched to him, my nails dragging across his shoulders, my breath broken with every shift of his hips against mine.

When he pushed into me, my gasp broke into a cry muffled by his kiss. My body clung instinctively, tightening around him, refusing to let him go. His forehead pressed to mine, breath shuddering as he moved inside me, deep, steady, then faster.

“Yes…” The word tore from me, breathless. “Don’t stop, Alessandro.”

He groaned, his hands gripping my waist, his body answering every desperate lift of my hips with more. The bed creaked, my hair fanned across the pillow, and my nails raked down his back until he shuddered. Each thrust pulled me higher, and I met him, moaning his name against his throat.

Suddenly, he pulled me with him, dragging us upright. My legs clung around him as he stumbled us toward the bathroom. I laughed breathlessly, then gasped as the cold door pressed against my back, contrasting his heat.

“I need you everywhere,” he murmured harshly, kissing me hard enough to bruise.

“You have me,” I whispered, tugging him closer, wrapping myself tighter around him.

The tile was cool beneath me when he pressed me there, his movements wild now, driven by weeks of restraint breaking apart. Our bodies slammed together, his hips pinning me, my arms locked around his neck. I whispered his name into his ear, my lips trembling against his skin, urging him, claiming him as much as he claimed me.

Every thump against the wall, every shiver racing through my body told me the truth: this wasn’t about hunger. It was about love—raw, overwhelming, consuming. With every kiss, every whispered vow, every shuddering breath, Alessandro made me feel it was never just sex. It was us.

And I never wanted it to end.

---

I woke tangled in twisted sheets, the air heavy with the musk of us. My body ached, not just from passion, but from the surrender that had gutted me.

Alessandro stood by the window, shirtless, his back to me. The dawn light cut his body into shadows and steel.

“You can’t stay here,” he said without turning.

My chest tightened. “What do you mean?”

His reflection in the glass looked like a stranger—hard, unyielding. “Dino has eyes everywhere. If he learns where you sleep, where you breathe, you’re gone. My enemies will carve your name into their bullets.”

“You’re scaring me,” I whispered.

“You should be scared, Sera.” He turned, and the torment in his eyes made my breath catch. “I cannot protect you around me. The mansion is known. The club is watched. My fortress is not enough. He will find you. He always finds what I love. That's why I want to keep you in a place that is not bought in my name.”

Something inside me trembled at the word. Love.

“So what then?” I asked.

He came to me, kneeling by the bed, his hand rough against my cheek. “I’ll move you. To a place no one knows. A safehouse beyond the CCTC zones. Ten thugs as neighbors, sworn to silence. You’ll be invisible there. And I’ll visit—in disguise.”

“You’d leave me?”

His jaw flexed. “To keep you alive, sì. I’d rather burn alone than see you bleed for me.”

I should have fought him. Demanded he stay. But fear silenced me. I wanted to live too.

---

The safehouse was nothing like his fortress.

A bungalow crouched at the edge of nowhere, hidden among wild trees and houses that pressed close like watchful sentries.

Alessandro’s hand never left my waist as he guided me inside. The walls were plain, the furniture sparse—nothing of the opulence I had seen in his world of marble and gold. But the locks were heavy, the windows barred. It was not a home. It was a cage dressed as safety.

“Here, you are invisible,” he said. His eyes swept the room, cataloguing every corner, every flaw. “No cameras. No signals. No trails.”

“And you?” My voice was small.

“I’ll always come when I can. I’ll wear another face, another name. Dino won’t know.” He kissed me, hard, his lips trembling against mine. “Trust no one but me.”

We locked hands for a while. Dino! Dino!! Dino!!! I wanted to say it, but I couldn't. He could just kill him. He could have shot him there. But maybe there were things I didn't know. 

I clasped his hands in an embrace, and he held me tight. I felt his heart beat. He would feel mine too. 

I wondered how it would have been if Dino hadn't existed. But then it was meant to be. If he hadn't existed, Alessandro wouldn't have stalked me all these years. 

Then he was gone.

The silence swallowed me whole.

Minutes passed, endless and heavy. I paced the small space, my thoughts looping like chains. I wanted to believe I was safe. I wanted to believe Alessandro’s power could shield me. But the walls felt too thin, the night too loud.

When I looked through the window, I saw them, Alessandro’s thugs, surveying, looking, particularly when someone walked the street, and when cars passed. 

Finally, I reached for the phone. My hands shook as I dialed.

The call was answered. 

“Mom?”

Her voice broke me. Tears stung my eyes. “I’m fine,” I lied. “I just… I miss you.”

She asked questions I couldn’t answer, and I twisted words into half-truths, weaving a veil she couldn’t pierce. She told me about the offer from Alessandro. He had told her it was a job offer. If she knew where I was, what I was living, her heart would break.

Suddenly, a knock came.

I froze.

“Hold on, Mom,” I whispered, setting the phone aside.

The knock came again, louder this time. My pulse thundered. “Who’s there?”

Silence.

The guards. They should have answered by now. Where were they?

My hand trembled on the handle. My heart screamed don't!. But something colder, sharper, pushed me forward.

I opened the door.

He stood there.

Tall. Smiling. Dressed in shadows like they obeyed him. His eyes, dark as the grave, found mine, and I knew—Alessandro had been wrong.

“Benvenuta, mia Sera,” Dino Moretti purred in Italian, his voice dripping with mockery and possession. Welcome, my Sera.

The sound of his voice unlocked the past like a poisoned door. I remembered the schoolyard—the jeering boys, his fist slamming against the lockers beside my head, his hand yanking my braid until tears blurred my vision. I remembered the way he whispered threats, promises of what he’d do if Alessandro ever touched me.

The memory struck harder than any blow.

The phone slipped from my hand, clattering to the floor.

My heart skipped a beat. Darkness surged and this time, I couldn’t fight it.

I fainted in the doorway, falling into the shadow of Dino Moretti.