HERE

Veronica
“Sit down, and don’t be so fucking dramatic.”
“You know what? This is a dramatic time in my life. Sorry if it’s annoying to you.”
“Christ. Sit down, Veronica.”
“I’m going to bed.” I moved toward the door.
“No, you’re not.”
His chair scraped across the floor, and just as I reached the door, he caught my arm. He spun me around. I collided with his chest and bounced off and would have fallen if he hadn’t had a hold of me.
“You are so good at running away, aren’t you? You just up and walk away when it suits you. When things get tough. Let’s see, this is the third time now. First, there was your trip to the winery, next was Venice, and now this.”
“I wasn’t running away from you. Not when it was Venice. And you had made it pretty clear you didn’t want me when I went to the winery.”
“And didn’t I make it pretty clear that you were wrong when I came after you?”
“You never said it, Stefan.”
“Don’t actions matter to you? Does the fact that I came after you each time not prove anything to you? The fact that I’m here, still, through all of this? It sure as hell does to me.”
I stopped fighting and bowed my head, leaning my forehead against his chest.
“Veronica, I love you. How many times can I tell you that before you believe it?”
I looked up at him, his gaze holding me, keeping me, even more powerfully than his hands held me physically.
“How in hell can I make this more obvious?”
He walked us backward until my back hit the wall.
“You know what I want to do most right now?”
He lifted me up, tilting my legs so I wrapped them around him.
“What I want to do most right now-”
He unzipped his jeans, never losing eye contact with me, shoved the nightshirt I wore up to my waist, and slid the crotch of my panties over.
“Is to drive into you against this wall.”
As if to make his point, he did just that, thrusting his thick length inside me, making me gasp as he stretched me too fast.
“I want to fuck you so hard, you scream my name and wake the fucking neighborhood.”
I dug my fingernails into his shoulders, breathing short and fast as he pumped before carrying me to the table to lay me on it. He tore my panties off and pushed my knees wide. With one hard thrust, he drove into me and planted his hands on either side of my face.
“I want to fuck you so hard it hurts, Veronica. I want you to feel me for days. I want you to know you belong to me. You will always belong to me.”
“Stefan.”
But he wouldn’t let me pull him to me. Instead, he gripped my thighs and pushed them painfully wide.
“No. Feel it. Feel me. You’re too fucking stubborn to fuck softly. You need it good and hard, don’t you?”
He moved differently now, my pussy so wet, he slid in and out easily.
“Is that right?”
The cocky grin was back on his face.
“You need it hard?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a good girl,” he said. “Truth. Always truth.”
He drew out of me.
“No,” I whined, looking at his thick cock wet with my arousal.
He grabbed hold of my hair and dragged me down to my knees.
“On your knees, Veronica. Suck my cock. Fucking worship it if you want it inside you again.”
He didn’t give me a moment to think, to react, not a single second. Instead, with his hand gripping my hair, he slid himself into my willing mouth, thrusting in and out fast and hard. True to his word, he wanted me to feel him, to know he owned me. To know he liked hurting me a little.
“I should come all over your pretty little face.”
Instead, though, he drew himself out of my mouth and lifted me to my feet. He claimed my mouth, moaning as he kissed me, his tongue inside, one hand in my hair, the other kneading my ass.
He pulled back and, without ever taking his eyes from mine, ripped my nightshirt off.
“You need to be naked more often.”
He looked down at me, leaning forward so he could take one nipple into his mouth, then the other, sucking hard, drawing out each nipple in turn with his teeth.
“I need you inside me,” I managed, reaching for him, drawing him to me. “Please.”
He straightened, grinning, and bent me over the table. Gripping my hips in either hand, he spread me open and slid his cock into my pussy and his finger into my ass.
“Fuck me, Stefan. Hard. Make me come.”
He did. No more words, just fucking. Just taking and owning and hurting me a little, making it feel so damn good. He swelled inside me, and when he wrapped one hand around the back of my neck and squeezed, I came. I came so hard that when I closed my eyes, I saw stars, and when he squeezed harder, I thought I’d die, I’d stop breathing, that I’d never be able to catch my breath again.
We slid to the floor together, Stefan cradling me in his arms, holding me to him, my head resting against his chest. Our breathing slowed down in time, but when I tried to move, he wouldn’t let me. He just held me to him, and I clung tight, closed my eyes, and turned my face into his chest.
“Was that clear enough that I want you?” he asked eventually.
“Was it clear enough that I want you?” I asked in turn.
He carried me upstairs and into my old bedroom, where he’d been sleeping. There, he laid me on the bed and lay down beside me, holding me to him like he had the first night we’d slept together, just slept together after I’d found him in that cellar. He held me like he couldn’t let me go, and I knew I would never be able to let him go.
Stefan
Spring, One Year Later
* * *
She never did sign those annulment papers. My stubborn, beautiful wife.
I stood drinking coffee at the kitchen window, watching Veronica talk to one of the workers. Charlie, full grown and weighing eighty pounds, never left her side.
We’d come back to Tuscany a few days after the bank took possession of the house in Philadelphia. Robyn had come with us and would be starting her final year at a school in Florence geared toward gifted musicians.
Thanks to their grandfather’s greed, Veronica and Robyn had lost everything. Guardia Winery no longer existed, except as an example of corruption and destruction.
Robyn never spoke about any of it. She rarely mentioned her grandfather at all. Veronica worried, but Italy was a good move for her. It got her away from everything, the past, the publicity, gave her anonymity again, and hopefully would give her a fresh start.
I finished my coffee and set the mug in the sink before walking outside. Veronica waved when she saw me approach.
We’d replanted the vineyard. The ground was rich after the fire, and although it would take a few years before the vines yielded grapes for wine, they would come. We’d reestablish the Villa Bellini Winery as it was before my mother’s time. I’d already ordered and hung the new sign over the gates, and, for the first time in a very long time, felt excited. Felt like I had something to look forward to. A future.
Veronica met me halfway, Charlie on her heels.
“You snuck out of bed early,” I said, drawing her in for a hug and kissing her. That was another thing. I could sleep again. And it felt like I was making up for lost years.
“It’s you who sleeps like the dead these days.”
“It’s Saturday. I thought we could spend the morning in bed.”
“You want to spend every morning in bed.”
“That’s your fault, sweetheart,” I said, grabbing her ass.
We walked toward the chapel, Veronica growing a little quieter.
“You okay?” I had a feeling I knew what was coming.
“Robyn’s decided to go back to the States after graduation, but she wants to take a year off before continuing her education.”
“That’s fine. She’s young. And she probably needs the space, honestly.”
“She’s not even going to the audition, Stefan.”
I knew that. She’d told me before she’d told Veronica, knowing her sister would be disappointed.
“She’ll get another one.” With a recommendation from her piano teacher, she’d secured an audition at a prestigious music school.
“She’s going to miss her opportunity. This is a full scholarship.”
“Give her space. She’ll be fine.”
She stopped as we neared the chapel. “You knew, didn’t you?”
I looked at her. Truth. Always truth. I wouldn’t lie to her ever again. “Yes.”
She dropped my hand and walked away, shaking her head.
“Veronica.” I followed her inside.
“She trusts you more than me.”
I caught up with her and turned her to face me. “No. She’s just using me as a sounding board before coming to you.”
I followed her gaze around the chapel, which Stephen and I had almost completely restored. Stephen. That was another thing. He’d grown more distant in the last year.
“Am I that bad?” she asked, sitting down in the last pew.
“You’re that good. She loves you and doesn’t want to hurt you, but this is her life, and you need to let her go. Remember what you said to me once.”
“If you let the past go, maybe it will let you go. Will those words ever stop haunting me?”
“Maybe that’s what she needs now. Her guilt at turning over evidence-”
“She shouldn’t feel guilty. Grandfather is the only one who should have any remorse.”
“Well, life isn’t fair, is it? I thought you got that by now.”
She shrugged a shoulder.
“I have something for you.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small box.
She looked at it, then reached out to touch it tentatively. “What is it?”
Her eyes were already misty when she met mine. She knew.
“Our wedding, although beautiful, it wasn’t right.”
She blinked and lowered her lashes momentarily.
“And you’re too stubborn to sign those annulment papers.”
“I want to be married to you, stupid.”
I opened the box, glanced inside, and, smiling, turned it toward her.
She gasped, her hand moving to her mouth.
“No more ring of thorns.” Inside was a beautiful platinum band with a diamond solitaire set in the center.
She threw her arms around me, her tears wet on my face as she hugged me.
“It’s beautiful. It’s so beautiful.”
“I want to do it right,” I said, holding her, drawing her back to wipe her tears away. “Here. We’ll do it here. Just family. We’ll speak our vows properly and make it right.” I took the ring out of the box and looked at her.
She extended her left hand, and I slid the original wedding band off and replaced it with the new one.
This was it. This was my blank slate, my starting over. Our starting over. The black iron ring replaced with bright, shining platinum. From dark to light. Veronica and I together had somehow moved from darkness into light.
“Will you marry me again, sweetheart?” I asked, my vision blurred when I looked up at her.
“I will. I’d marry you again a hundred times.”