Giovanni
“Why did you bring me here?” she asks when we’re in the car. “I thought you needed me, but you just seem really pissed off with me every time you see me.”
“I’m not pissed off with you. Being back here is harder than I thought it would be. That’s all.”
“Then let me help you.”
I turn to her. “Stay away from my brother. That’ll help me.”
“You’re wrong about him. He’s really just being nice.”
“What did he tell you about me?”
She looks straight ahead as we drive. “He told me about your parents and Ann.”
I snort. “What did he say? Paint her to be a saint?”
“No, actually, he didn’t. He told me about the affair and finding out he was your brother by blood. And he told me how much influence his mother had over your father. He gave the impression she was unfaithful, and you tried to protect your father and that it backfired.”
I’m silent for a moment because it’s the truth. And I guess I didn’t expect Declan to tell the truth. Or maybe that his version would be different than mine.
That’s twice in one day now that I’m surprised. Caught off guard.
First, it was my grandfather this morning giving me the one thing my father did leave me. I feel the weight of it in my pocket and it deepens my already heavy sense of loss. And now this. Now Declan telling her the truth about what happened. Declan knowing it.
“And I get the impression no one seems particularly bothered that his mother died too, along with your father,” she continues, and I’m grateful to be drawn from my thoughts.
“She wasn’t a nice person,” I say.
“Still, she was his mother. I’m sure that’s painful for him.”
“Don’t worry about Declan. He’ll be fine. Always is.”
We get to the bridge that connects the small island upon which the house is situated to the mainland and I see how Sienna sits up.
“It’s safe. I wouldn’t take you over it if it weren’t.”
I park the SUV and climb out. “Wait here,” I tell her, getting the boots I saw she’d bought out of the trunk. “Put these on.”
“Why? It’s just a short walk to the house.”
“We’re not going into the house.”
I wait for her to put on the new boots and take her arm to walk her around and behind the house. Two of the dogs follow us part of the way as we make our way through the moist fields and I try to ignore the rain soaking my sweater.
It’s about ten minutes before I hear the sound of the sea. It grows louder as we climb over several hills and get to the cliffs. I stop when we do because even in this rain, I can’t not stop. I can’t not look at this.
Sienna hugs her free arm around herself and I watch her take in the view. The vast gray sea, the wild waves in the constant wind.
“This is unbelievable.”
“It’s the most beautiful place on earth.”
She turns to me. “How did you leave it?”
Her question reminds me why we’re here and I tug her along, walking fast, catching her when she trips on the jagged rocks. A few moments later, we’re inside a small opening in the cliffs, sheltered from the rain but with a view of all of it.
But it’s not that I look at. It’s her.
I think about what I felt when Alice told me the three of them had gone into town. How James had been so sweet holding her hand. I think about how they were together, cozy in the bakery. A ready-made family.
Sienna turns to me and her smile vanishes. I’m not sure she’s aware that she’s taken a step away from me.
“What is it?” she asks.
She puts her hands against my chest when I step toward her, walk her backward to the wall.
“I don’t want you to go anywhere with him again.”
“What?”
I unzip my too-big jacket that she’s wearing and open it, unbutton her sweater and open that too, then take her breasts out of the cups of the bra, tucking them underneath the heavy mounds. I cup them, weigh them. Knead the nipples into hard points.
“What are you doing?”
I meet her eyes and keep them locked as I unbutton her jeans, unzip them and tug them down to mid-thigh.
I look at her like this and it’s almost pornographic, her half-dressed, half-naked. My gaze slides from her eyes to her lips to her breasts and finally, to the slit of her sex. With a hand at the back of her head, I pull her to me, kiss her.
“You’re mine, Sienna. Mine. This mouth, it’s mine,” I say, crushing my lips to hers, sliding my hands to her breasts again, taking them in my palms. “These breasts are mine. This pussy,” I start, lowering one hand to cup it while with the other, I undo my jeans, push them down only as far as I need to.
“Giovanni-”
“This pussy,” I say, bending at the knees to get underneath her and thrust hard into her.
She gasps, nails digging into my shoulders.
“This pussy is mine,” I say against her mouth, pumping into her once, twice before pulling out.
I take her by a handful of hair and spin her around so the side of her face is at the cave wall and with my other hand, I finger her pussy and drag the moisture there to her back hole.
Because that’s mine too. And it’s time I claimed it.
“Every part of you is mine,” I say, bending my knees again, pushing against the tight hole. “You belong to me, Sienna.”
I rub against her, using my fingers to collect more of the moisture, rub it into her. I tug on her hair and she watches when I spit into the palm of my hand and rub my dick.
“Mine. Not his. Not anyone’s.”
When I take her clit between my fingers, it’s like pushing a magic button because her muscles relax, and I push the head of my cock into her ass and it’s tight and hot and all mine. All fucking mine.
“Giovanni,” she starts, gasping for breath.
“And when you see him again, you’ll feel me inside you. You’ll remember me inside you. You’ll remember you belong to me.”
The last part I say as I thrust deeply and thoroughly.
Her head is bent backward, and I kiss her mouth, her throat, bite the curve of her neck.
“Giovanni,” she starts, almost panting, and I hug her to me, fucking her harder, faster. She fists her hands against the wall and when she comes, she calls out my name again.
I thrust once more, deep and hard, and as I feel her throb around me, I come too, and it’s with a roar that’s more animal than human.
Because I am an animal and I’m staking my claim when I empty inside her.
Sienna is mine.
All fucking mine.