(NFTMB)Chapter 54
Victoria
(The Greatest Sin)
After the drama that we all just witnessed, the rest of breakfast went by in a blur. I couldn’t even remember everything that happened afterwards.
It was just like an out of body experience for me. Like I was there and also wasn’t there.
All I could remember was just passing several things over and also asking for several foods to be passed over to me.
Elena made no move to talk about what Niccolo had just done to Jasmine in front of us and neither did the rest of us.
They all acted like nothing happened and I did too. I followed suit and acted like nothing happened.
My anchor and support system was the man seated beside me looking at something on his phone, Valentino.
I’m grateful to have someone like him. We just clicked instantly and became friends.
Maybe I even wished that we were more than friends in my heart.
As Amara cleared up the dishes and the table after breakfast, I itched to leave the dining table. The atmosphere was quite tense in here. It was uncomfortable.
Very uncomfortable.
“Wanna get out of here?”
I almost screamed out in delight at his words. Finally, I was getting out of this weird place.
The tension was so thick that you could slice it with a knife. It’s so uncomfortable and awkward.
“Yes, please. I’ve been dying to leave this place”
As soon as I whispered out those words a smile broke out on his face before he stood up and offered me his hand.
“After you, my lady”
“Thank you”
I felt a jolt of electricity go through my body from the place were our hands were joined. It was like a lightning strike. A zap of electricity.
“Valentino!”
Elena’s calm but authoritative voice cut us out of our fairytale.
Valentino turned immediately looking at Elena’s perfectly packed up bun at the back of her head. Her graying tresses were neatly folded without a strand out of place.
She was the correct picture of prim and proper. Always dressed like there were people watching. She always dressed to impress and uphold the image of being the Rossi matriarch.
“Yes, mother?”
“Never forget your place, Valentino”. She said without turning to look at us as she sipped her chamomile tea without stress.
I knew what she meant. She was referring to Valentino being Alessandro’s brother.
She was telling him in a coded manner that he shouldn’t betray Alessandro by having an affair with me. That he should keep his distance from what Alessandro has marked as his.
She’s saying that he should be nothing to me except my brother in law.
“I have never forgotten forgotten my place, mother”
“That’s good to know”
That was the last thing she said before Valentino grabbed my hand and led me up the stairs and into another wing that I have never been in and never explored.
I looked around in awe at how there was certainly another side to this outrageously large mansion.
Even Alessandro could get lost here. It’s crazy how vast one property could be.
“I take it you’ve never been in this part of the house?”
“Never. This is my first time”
“I am your first?”
I looked at his face to see the smirk on his face as he led me to one of the rooms before opening the door to reveal a very grand bedroom.
“This is my bedroom. You should be honored, you’re the only girl that’s been in here”. Every hair on my body stood rigid as he whispered into my ear.
It left a different kind of sensation in me that I know I shouldn’t have, especially considering the fact that I was pregnant with his elder brother’s child.
I shouldn’t be feeling this way for him.
But I can’t help it. I can’t help my feelings even though I know I shouldn’t see him as nothing more than a brother.
Even though I’ve only known him for a short time, I can’t suppress or deny the way I feel about Valentino.
He made me feel alive. He makes me feel things I’ve never felt with Alessandro.
He makes me feel loved and cherished. Almost like I’m worth something. Like I had value.
But alas, nothing was going to come out of this. I knew that all too well.
I wouldn’t put it past Alessandro to put his own blood brother down if he suspected that there was something going on between us.
He might kill me and my unborn child too. He told me that before, one in exchange for a hundred.
I gasped as I felt his lips land softly on my neck in the lightest of kisses.
It was featherlight. Almost like nothing happened. But I could feel his body heat radiating off him so I knew that he was right beside me.
“Valentino”
I couldn’t even recognize my own voice. It was cringe to my own ears hearing me sound so wanton and needy.
I felt him get closer to me and I pressed myself further into his warmth before he slowly wrapped his hands around my waist and across my stomach.
My stomach.
Alessandro’s baby.
My eyes flew open immediately at the realization.
I am carrying Alessandro’s baby inside me and allowing his brother to touch me so intimately.
I allowed him to hold me so I’m sure he could feel my bump.
I was humiliated by my actions. I was embarrassed that I had acted so wanton before him.
“I’m sorry, I can’t”. I said to him as I looked at my feet like it was the most fascinating thing in the world.
“Hey”. He said before rounding me and coming to stand in front of me before tilting my head upwards to look at him.
“I would never do anything to hurt you or betray my brother. I won’t do anything you don’t want to do”
“I’m sorry”.
I cried.
I cried for how horrible my life had become. I cried for the forbidden romance I desperately craved with Valentino.
I cried because one night of passion with an incredibly handsome man who had power and sex appeal had ended up ruining my entire life completely.
I did this to myself.
I cried because all my life I have never met a man who treated me with so much warmth and care and gentleness like Valentino had done in the past week I’ve known him.
“Don’t cry, baby. Don’t cry”. He said before wiping my tears with his thumb and engulfing my sobbing form into a hug.
He placed his chin upon my head and held me tight against himself as I held onto him like I was holding onto my life force.
Maybe, he was becoming my life force.
Maybe I needed him more than I really should.
“You’re my pretty girl, Victoria and I never want to see you cry”. He said gently while wiping my tears.
“Why are you so nice? You’re making this all so difficult for me. For both of us”. I sniffled clutching onto his shirt tighter as I buried my face deeper into his chest.
I wanted to fully absorb him and smell like him and be with him.
His scent attacked my nostrils as I placed my head on his bare chest through his unbuttoned shirt buttons.
“I can’t help it, my sweet. You bring out the best in me”
I looked up from my comfortable position on his chest to see his eyes clouded with an emotion I couldn’t describe.
He held my face gently as he looked into my eyes.
“We shouldn’t be doing this, Valentino”
My voice was barely above being classified as a whisper as I was lost in his eyes while his eyes were stuck on my lips.
“I know”.
He leaned in quite closely as I braced myself to commit the greatest sin I have ever done in my life.
Second greatest sin if I’m being honest with myself.
Letting myself have sex with Alessandro and ending up pregnant for him was the worst thing and the greatest sin I have ever done.
I closed my eyes in anticipation as I waited to feel his luscious and delicious looking lips on mine.
If this would come with repercussions on my life later, I would accept it wholeheartedly.
For now, I only had one need now in my life and that was to feel Valentino’s lips on mine.
I don’t care what will happen later.
I hooked my hands around his neck which seemed to surprise him actually before I waited eagerly for him to do it.
He looked at me once more before his eyes fell on my neck and a flash of guilt seemed to pass through his eyes before his hands reached down and pulled the neckline of my sweater upwards.
I waited for him to claim my lips as I saw him lean in.
I felt his lips. I felt him.
But it wasn’t where I wanted him.
Valentino placed a chaste and pure kiss beside the corner of my mouth. Almost on my lips but not on my lips.
I opened my eyes to see him looking at me with hooded eyes.
“Why?”
That was the only statement I could form and I’m very sure that he knew what I was talking about.
His hand reached out and gently pulled down the neckline of my sweater down to touch a sore spot.
I hissed in pain as his finger touched whatever it was.
“Sorry, love”
“What’s that?”. I asked him with pain evident on my face.
“I don’t have any right to ask you what you’ve been doing with my brother and I have no right over your body but then somethings still hurt a lot sometimes ”
I didn’t understand what he was talking about. He was going around in circles and talking in riddles.
“What are you saying?”. I whined to Valentino feeling the desperation of wanting his touch on my lips to take over my entire being.
I pressed myself deeper into him but instead of him holding me tighter he took a few steps back and still held my hand but now in an outstretched and distant way.
He was like five feet away from me as he held out his hand which mine was in. He gently placed a kiss on my knuckles before gently dropping my hands and stuffing his hands into his pockets.
“I can’t touch you knowing fully well that my brother has had his teeth and his hands on you last night. I like you and respect you too much to make you feel like you’re being used by two brothers. You don’t deserve that.
Never forget that I would never do anything to hurt you, my darling. You don’t deserve to be treated like a whore, Victoria”