Chapter 3

Aurelia’s Pov

The penthouse door clicked shut behind me like the final nail in a coffin I had built myself.

My heels echoed across the marble floor as I stepped inside, the sound hollow and far too loud in the empty space that had never really felt like home. My bag slipped from my fingers and landed on the couch with a soft thud. I sank down beside it, knees weak, heart heavier than the divorce papers still burning a hole in my purse.

Leave him.

Grandpa Vincent’s words kept replaying in my head like a broken record. He had handed me freedom on a silver platter- those crisp white sheets with my name and Dante’s already printed in bold black ink. No fighting. No guilt. Just a quiet, loving push toward a life without the man who had slowly killed every piece of me.

I should have felt relieved. I should have been packing my things right now. Instead, all I felt was this sick, twisting ache in my chest. 

Three years of loving Dante Salvatore had ruined me. I had poured my soul into a man who looked at me like I was background noise, and now the thought of actually walking away felt like ripping my own heart out while it was still beating.

He’ll never love you, Aurelia. Not the way you need.

I buried my face in my hands, fingers trembling. My family had already written me off. His mother and sisters had never wanted me here. Dante… Dante had made it crystal clear whose heart he belonged to. Aisha was coming back. And I was supposed to just disappear quietly like the convenient wife I had always been. But Grandpa chose me. For the first time in my life, someone put me first.

I exhaled shakily and leaned back against the cushions, eyes closed, trying to steady the whirlwind inside me. Maybe I could start over. A small apartment. A new city. A life where I wasn’t anyone’s second choice. Maybe one day the pain would fade and I could breathe without feeling like I was drowning in him.

The sudden click of the front door made my eyes fly open.

No. Dante never came home this early. Never. He was always buried in meetings until midnight, always gone before I woke up. But there he was- striding into the living room like he owned every inch of air I breathed. 

His usually perfect black hair was disheveled, strands falling messily over his forehead. His suit jacket was missing, tie already loosened, and those dark, stormy eyes locked onto me like a predator who had just spotted wounded prey.

My stomach flipped. My thighs pressed together on instinct. God, why does he still do this to me? “Why did you meet Grandpa?” His voice was ice-cold, low, and dangerous. It sliced through the silence and wrapped around my throat.

I swallowed hard, forcing my gaze up to meet his. “He wanted to see me.”

Dante took one step closer. Then another. Each one felt like a gunshot echoing in my chest. “Why?”

The intensity of his stare made my skin burn. I looked away, unable to hold it. My fingers dug into the couch cushion. 

“He… he heard about your decision. About Aisha.”

I felt him stop right in front of me. The heat of his body radiated toward me even though he wasn’t touching me yet. 

“I am warning you, Lia,” he growled, using that nickname he almost never said. The single word sent a traitorous flutter through my belly. “If you talked to him about the divorce, you’re going to see a side of me you won’t survive.”

My breath hitched. Lia. He only called me that when he was barely holding onto control. My heart slammed against my ribs so hard I was sure he could hear it.

I lifted my chin, forcing courage I didn’t feel. “What if I did?” The words slipped out before I could stop them. I was testing him. Pushing him. Part of me wanted him to explode. Part of me wanted him to finally feel something- anything for me before I walked away forever.

Dante’s eyes darkened to pure black. A dangerous smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth. He reached up slowly and yanked his tie completely free, letting it drop to the floor like it had offended him.

 “Then you won’t survive the devil, baby.”

He closed the distance in two strides. I pressed back into the couch cushions, but there was nowhere to go. He leaned down, caging me with his massive frame, hands braced on either side of my head. His breath fanned hot across my lips. My pulse roared in my ears.

“Move-” I started, placing a shaky hand on his chest to push him back.

He didn’t let me finish. His mouth crashed down on mine like a storm breaking. Hard. Hungry. Possessive.

My eyes flew wide open in shock. It wasn’t the polite, distant kisses we had shared in the past. This was fire. This was Dante claiming. My fingers instinctively fisted in his collar, pulling him closer even as my mind screamed that I should push him away. 

His hand slid into my hair, gripping tight, tilting my head exactly how he wanted. The other arm banded around my waist and hauled me flush against him so fast I gasped into his mouth.

Oh God…

Heat exploded through every nerve in my body. I should have stopped this. I should have remembered the divorce papers waiting in my bag. But my body betrayed me completely. 

I melted into him, moaning softly as his teeth grazed my lower lip and his tongue soothed the sting. Three years of wanting him like this- needing him like this came rushing out all at once.

He lifted me effortlessly, my legs wrapping around his hips on pure instinct. The hard press of him against me made us both groan. Dante started moving, carrying me toward the stairs without breaking the kiss. 

A lamp shattered somewhere behind us as he kicked it aside, but neither of us cared. His hand squeezed my ass possessively, fingers digging in hard enough to leave marks I knew I’d feel tomorrow.

He kicked open the bedroom door with a bang. The moment my back hit the mattress, he was on me, caging me beneath his powerful body like a lion pinning a trembling kitten. I felt small. Helpless. Wanted. For the first time in our marriage, I felt truly wanted.

Dante ripped his shirt open in one violent motion, buttons flying everywhere. My hands were everywhere- raking down the hard planes of his chest, nails dragging over his abs, tugging desperately at his belt. He yanked my dress over my head and tossed it aside, leaving me in nothing but my lace panties.

Skin met skin. Fire met fire.

His mouth attacked my throat, sucking hard enough to bruise. “Dante…” I moaned, arching into him. His teeth scraped my collarbone, then lower, closing around one nipple and sucking so fiercely I cried out. He switched to the other, biting just enough to make me whimper and writhe beneath him.

“You’re mine,” he growled against my skin, voice rough and dark. “Say it.”

I couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. His hand shoved my thighs wide open and then his mouth was there- hot, wet, relentless. His tongue circled my clit once, twice, then sucked hard. I screamed, back bowing off the bed, fingers fisting in his hair.

“Fuck, listen to you,” he rasped, voice vibrating against my soaked folds. “Already dripping for me. You’re mine, Aurelia. Say it.”

I tried. I really did. But only broken whimpers escaped. He plunged his tongue inside me, deep and demanding, then pulled back. “Say. It.”

“Y-yours-” I gasped, voice cracking.

“Not loud enough.” He sucked my clit again, harder, and my entire body jerked violently. “Louder, baby. Who owns this pretty little pussy?”

“You do- fuck, Dante, you do!” I sobbed, tears of pure pleasure spilling down my cheeks.

He rose up like a god, lips glistening with me, eyes burning with raw possession. 

A sharp slap landed on my inner thigh, making me squeak. He shoved my legs wider with his knees and freed himself, thick and heavy. The blunt head of his cock pressed against my entrance, teasing, threatening.

One hand pinned both my wrists above my head. The other gripped my jaw, forcing my glassy eyes to meet his.

“Look at me while I fucking ruin you.”

He thrust in hard- deep- no mercy, no warning.

I screamed his name as my back arched off the mattress. He didn’t pause. His hips snapped forward in a brutal rhythm, claiming every inch of me like he was erasing every doubt I had ever had. The stretch burned so perfectly I saw stars.

“You feel that?” he growled against my mouth, teeth scraping my lip. “This cunt was made for me. Only me. No one else gets to touch you. Ever.”

I was a moaning, shaking mess beneath him. Legs locked around his waist. Nails clawing down his back hard enough to draw blood. Every thrust pushed me closer to the edge, pleasure and pain twisting together until I couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.

“Beg,” he ordered, voice lethal. “Beg your husband to fuck you harder.”

“Please…” I sobbed, voice wrecked and desperate. “Please, Dante- harder- don’t stop- I need you!”

He groaned, raw and possessive, and gave me exactly what I begged for. His pace turned feral, hips slamming into me so deep I felt him in my soul.

“That’s it. That’s my good girl. Scream it again. Tell me who you belong to while I fill you up.”

“You-only you- Dante, please!”

The orgasm hit me like a freight train. I shattered around him, crying out his name as waves of blinding pleasure crashed through me. My vision whited out. My body convulsed.

Dante followed with a guttural curse, burying himself to the hilt as he spilled inside me- hot, thick, endless. He collapsed over me, lips brushing my ear in a dark, possessive whisper.

“Mine. Forever. Don’t you ever fucking forget it.”

I lay there, trembling, his weight pinning me down, his heartbeat thundering against mine. Tears slipped silently down my temples and into my hair.

Forever.

The word echoed in my chest like a curse and a prayer at the same time.

My hand drifted down between us, resting lightly over my still-flat stomach where I hadn’t told him about the tiny secret growing inside me yet. The divorce papers waited downstairs like a loaded gun.

But right now, wrapped in Dante’s arms, marked by his mouth and filled with his release, I couldn’t remember why I had ever wanted to leave.

And that terrified me more than anything.

Because tomorrow… tomorrow I still had to choose.

And I wasn’t sure my heart would let me walk away anymore.