LOGINHere we gooo 👀✨ In a few chapters, we’ll be hitting the fast-forward button and jumping straight into their wedding era 💍🔥 I’m dying to know what you thought about the heat in today’s chapter, was it doing things to you? 😌 Drop your thoughts in the comments and tell me everything. I’m reading them all. XOXO 💋 — Jane 🌹
Alessia ─ ∘❉∘ ─I climbed into the passenger seat, the leather feeling cold against my leggings before quickly warming to my body heat. He closed the door behind me with a soft thud, and for a second, I felt utterly sealed away from the world.He walked around the front. He slipped into the driver's seat, the engine coming to a powerful hum beneath us. He didn't look at me right away. His eyes were focused on the road, on the way away from the estate.From the corner of my eye, I sensed him, felt him before I actually looked his way.My gaze drifted to his hand resting on the steering wheel. Large. Strong. Inked in dark tattoos that curled up his wrist and vanished beneath the sleeve of his turtleneck. And the veins, God, the veins. This was the same hand that had been inside me, now wrapped around the wheel with effortless confidence.His thick, dark hair was perfectly styled, not a strand out of place, yet still looked effortlessly rugged. His beard was trimmed so precisely, it hig
Alessia ─ ∘❉∘ ─It had been two days since I’d dropped the bomb, two days since I told my nephews that Rino Lombardi was the first one who had agreed to help us when we had nothing and that I was going to marry him.Vincenzo was sitting at the head of the table, his suit jacket off, his white sleeves rolled up to reveal forearms that looked like they were carved out of granite. He wasn't eating. He was just staring at the wall, his jaw so tight I thought his teeth might crack.“I want to meet him,” Vincenzo said suddenly.I froze, my heart leaping into my throat. For the first time in forty-eight hours, I felt a spark of real, genuine hope. Maybe he was finally coming around. Maybe we could be a family.I blinked at him, a soft, tentative smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. “You do? Really, Vin?”“I do,” he stated, his dark eyes finally shifting to mine. There was no warmth in them, only that cold, hard sense of duty that made him the man he was. “I need to look him in the eye.
Alessia ─ ∘❉∘ ─I chose to cook alone.Not because I had to but because I needed to.Claire had hovered in the doorway more times than I could count, sleeves already rolled, ready to jump in. Madeleine had offered too, quietly, carefully, like she was afraid of stepping on a landmine. She’d been struggling lately. Finding her place, in our family, feeling the weight of our name press down on her in ways no one prepared her for.The house carried that tension now. So I hadn’t told anyone about my decision. I planned to keep it that way until Claire cornered me earlier, hands on her hips, eyes sharp.Either you tell them, or I will. So here I was.I was standing in the kitchen, sleeves pushed up, hair pinned back. Garlic hit hot oil. Tomatoes broke down under my spoon. Pasta water salted just right. I cooked the way I always did, perfectly. I exhaled slowly.Then I felt a presence. I glanced to my left. Salvatore stood there, staring at nothing like it had personally offended him.M
Rino ─𖤝─ I leaned my forehead against the cold tiles, the water slamming into my neck and shoulders, but it did nothing to kill the fire in my gut. My eyes were slammed shut, and all I could see behind my eyelids was her, the way her skin looked against that emerald silk, the way her head thudded back against the wood when I bit her, and the way her body finally gave up and broke for me. I reached down and gripped myself. I was rock hard, pulsing, a heavy ache that had been building for years. I wrapped my hand around the base of my cock and started to stroke. Jesus, I haven't done this in years. I wasn't being gentle with myself. I didn't have any gentleness left in me. Every time I stroke harder, I thought about the wet, slick heat of her. I thought about how hot she was, how she felt like she was going to snap under the pressure of my fingers. I could still feel the phantom vibration of her climax against my knuckles. The memory made me shove my hips forward, my breath comi
Alessia ─ ∘❉∘ ─ The tea in my cup was stone cold, but I kept stirring it anyway, the silver spoon clinking against the porcelain. My skin still felt tight every time I moved, the silk of my blouse brushed against the spots where Rino’s teeth had sunk in. “Do you think… I don’t know, Claire,” I started, “Do you think a man like him expects things? Scary things? Things I just… I can’t do.” Claire leaned back in her chair, popping a grape into her mouth. She was looking at me with that knowing look again. “He’s just so... passionate,” I struggled with the word, my face heating up. “It’s like he’s always at a ten. It’s too much. I don’t think I’m like that. I wasn't even this… intense back when I was with Antonio.” Claire’s eyebrows shot up to her hairline. She set the bowl of fruit down and leaned over the table, her eyes sparkling. “Okay, back up,” she said, grinning, “When you say ‘passionate,’ are we talking about romance, or are we talking about, like… dirty, low-down, grimy s
Alessia ─ ∘❉∘ ─ His thumb shifted, pressing into my hip bone hard. “Do you know what that does to a man like me?” I looked up at him, my vision blurring at the edges until all I could see were his dark, blown-out pupils. My lungs felt like they had shrunk to the size of coins. “No, I don't...” I whispered. He smiled, serpent-like, “You’re about to fucking find out.” Then he snapped. His hand flew from my hip to the side of my neck, his palm large and hot, forcing my head back against the wood. He lunged. His mouth crashed into mine with a force that made my teeth clink together. It wasn't a "first date" kiss. It was a man finally taking back something that had been stolen from him years ago. His tongue tasted like bourbon and pure, unadulterated hunger. I made a small, broken sound in the back of my throat, my fingers clutching at the lapels of his suit jacket. His chest was a wall of solid muscle, crushing my breasts flat against him. I could feel the heat radi







