All Chapters of HER SAVIOR, THE DEVIL: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

And then, they were alone again. In that silence and stillness, Thea felt panic. She’d said too much, perhaps pushed him too far. With a shaking hand, she poured the water into her short crystal glass. The water tumbled and splashed.“A whore…” Damiano repeated softly. Thea said nothing. She couldn’t speak. She didn’t know where to look. The atmosphere weighed heavily on her, thick and tense.“Hmm... That’s a dreadful thing to say,” he continued. His tone was quite normal, but bone-chilling. Thea bent her head.“You are going through something, and I get that. I really do, Thea. But do not use that word again while in my presence. Ever!” Damiano added. “You are and always will be our son’s mother. You are also my wife. You are a Chiaramonte now, and I will not have you demean yourself or our relationship in that manner. Is that clear?” Her stomach churned, and Thea swallowed compulsively, fighting the nausea. Relationship? What relationship?

She did not ask what Damiano meant by that. Better let the subject rest. Maria arrived with Lawry just as the seat belt sign flashed on.“Signora Chiaramonte,” the woman said, and gave Thea her son.“‘Grazie mille’ (Thank you so much).” Thea placed Lawry carefully onto her lap and wrapped her arms around the little boy. Blinding sunlight poured through the jet windows as the Boeing 737 dropped lower and lower until the jet’s wheels finally touched ground. Once on the runway, she dropped a kiss on the top of her son’s head, happy they’d landed safely. As she kissed him, his cloud of soft black hair tickled her nose, and she breathed in his sweet baby scent.“Mommy loves you to the moon and back, Lawry. Don’t you ever forget that, my sweet boy… No matter what might happen to me,” she whispered. Feeling Damiano’s gaze, Thea glanced up, her eyes locking with his. Damiano was sitting across the aisle from her, and yet, she could practically feel him. He had such a

‘It’d kill me if my son grew up and became someone like you.’ It had been hours since Thea had said those words, but they still echoed in Damiano’s head, burning his brain. Those unbelievably hurtful words. And they were coming from the mother of his child… The woman who abandoned him and kept their son hidden… to protect him from his father, ‘the mafioso’… The woman who forced him to rebuild a thick wall around his wounded heart. The same wall she shattered that first night they spent together… so long ago. She didn’t know him. That was the worst part of it. Thea couldn’t seem to understand who he really was, no matter how much he explained it to her, which was something he wasn’t used to doing. Explaining himself or opening his family or his life to scrutiny. Frankly, he didn’t care what people thought of him. And he answered to no one. Because no one could touch him, although in the beginning, everyone had tried, due to his name. Even the

Thea opened her eyes and discovered that she and Damiano were nestled in bed together like spoons. She felt his breath warm on her ear, his body even warmer along her backside. One of her feet was trapped between his legs.“My God… Lawry…” she said in a worried voice, and tried to sit up, but he stopped her.“He’s okay, Thea. He’s sleeping now. I just talked to Maria. She took care of everything,” Damiano calmed her down.“I fell asleep…”“You did. For thirty minutes,” he replied, and placed a kiss on her shoulder. Damiano had one arm wrapped around her waist, the other hand planted firmly on her thigh. Thea allowed herself to relax with her back against his chest, savoring the feel of his warm, hard, lean body, listening to his breath, feeling a sense of… belonging just lying there next to… her husband. Images of their lovemaking made her sigh with pleasure. The way he touched her, the way he loved her… it had been nothing like the other times. She felt so car

“Damiano, perhaps we should postpone the ceremony a little longer. That might give us more time to plan the ceremony and everything after.”“No need. With everyone pitching in, a week will give us more than enough time to…” Damiano broke off as his mother approached and got to his feet to pull a chair out for her at the table.“Buongiorno, mamma,” he said, dropping a kiss on Giorgiana Chiaramonte’s cheek.“Buongiorno, Dami,” the woman replied, smiling at Lorenzo and giving Thea an almost annoyed look. For Thea, that was a sign that his mother had heard most of the conversation, if not all of it. Giorgiana dropped into a chair at the table and crossed one leg over the other. That morning, her mother-in-law was wearing an ivory pantsuit with gold buttons and delicate chains. Her heels were very high, accenting her fashionably slim figure.“Buongiorno, signora Chiaramonte,” Thea said and took a sip from the coffee cup, not waiting for Giorgiana to reply. Thea gl