Twisted Hearts (The Camorra Chronicles #5)(110)

I wiped my chin as I straightened. Gemma lowered her arms but kept leaning against the cage. “So do I have reason to be smug?”

“You do,” she admitted breathlessly. I kissed her. Gemma was always honest, that’s what I’d always appreciated about her.

“Do you want more?” I asked.

With hooded eyes, she nodded. I shoved down my shorts and lifted Gemma higher, her back against the cage. Then I lowered her slowly on my hard cock, never taking my eyes off her face to see if this position was okay for her now. It was still a tight fit and I had to go slow, but no sign of pain showed on her face. “God, Savio,” she pressed out when I was buried all the way inside of her.

I grinned cockily, and her lips tightened. “I didn’t call you God.”

I silenced her with my first deep thrust, driving her back against the cage. Gemma’s head fell back. “No,” I growled. “You’re going to watch while I fuck you.”

She met my gaze. She’d never admit it, but she was turned on by my dominant side. Soon I established a faster rhythm. I shifted my legs to get in a better position, my fingers digging into Gemma’s ass cheeks as I pounded into her with deep, hard thrusts that filled the gym with the rattling of the cage.

When we both came, I sank to the floor with Gemma on my lap. She hung limply in my hold. “This is what I call a good workout,” I said.

Gemma laughed. “I’m just glad nobody came in.”

“Even if my brothers came by, they’d knew this wasn’t the sound of fighting.”

Gemma groaned, pressing her face against my throat. I stroked her back. “How’s the cage burn?”

“I’ll be bruised tomorrow.”

“That’s the desired result of fight training.”




Back home, we settled on the sofa for another movie night. This time Adamo’s qualification race for the biggest race of the year. My brother was driving like a madman as usual.

I could tell that Gemma was mulling on something.

“Why do you have such a problem with showing real emotions? Like what you feel for me.”

Fuck. I kept my eyes on the screen. Emotions were a liability. My past had proven that over and over again. “I show you what I feel for you. Twice today.”

Gemma reached for the remote and turned down the volume. “That’s not what I mean.”

“Come on, Gem, don’t ruin this evening with emotional bullshit. I married you, what else do you want?” I took the remote from her hand and turned the volume up again.

Gem faced the TV with an expression of stone. “You make it sound as if you gave me a huge gift by marrying me, as if I should be grateful that you deigned to end your man-whoring ways for me. You never put any kind of effort into this.” She lifted the finger with the engagement ring. “If this is your way to show how much you care for me, then you’re an idiot.”

She pushed to her feet and stalked away. Groaning, I slumped back against the cushions. That’s why I’d never bothered with relationships. Watching Gemma disappear upstairs, I couldn’t stay on the sofa though. When other girls had run off hurt, I’d not given a shit, but with Gem, things were different, not only because we were married.

I got up and followed her upstairs, where I found her on her side of the bed. The shaking of her shoulders was a good indicator of what she was doing. Feeling like the biggest asshole, I moved inside and slid into bed behind her. Gemma could be a tough fighter, but her core was mushy soft. Wrapping my arms around her from behind, I kissed her neck. “Don’t cry, Gem. I hate seeing your tears. They feel like a punch in my heart.”

She didn’t say anything, only stared stubbornly ahead.

“Our father didn’t show emotion. He probably didn’t have them, just like Nino. Only my brother isn’t a sadistic psychopath… well, to the people he cares about.” I paused. Taking a trip down memory lane was something I avoided at all costs. “Remo and Nino were never the touchy-feely kind of kids, but I was a horrible cuddler and too sensitive for the type of surroundings I was born into. A bit like Adamo, only that I got rid of that annoying trait very quickly.” Gemma had stopped crying and was all ears now. “Problem was my father would have rather killed me than shown any kind of affection, and my mother did try to kill me…Remo and Nino had their own demons to battle and once we were in boarding school surrounded by strangers and potential enemies, I learned quickly to hide my emotions from them. They reported back to our father and probably other parts of our traitorous family. Later when my brothers and I were on the run, hiding my emotions behind sarcasm and humor was a good way to help Remo. He wasn’t supposed to worry about me. He had enough on his plate, so I used my sarcasm as my armor. That way, he could focus on what was really important: winning our territory back. It’s become second nature, Gem, using sarcasm and jokes to get out of emotional situations. It doesn’t mean I don’t have emotions. It just means I’m crappy at showing them.”

“Yes, you are.” She turned around in my hold, facing me with her puffy face. I kissed the red tip of her nose like I’d done before she was really mine. “So you have emotions for me?”

I dragged her closer. “Yes, I have emotions for you. Plenty of them.”

“I have emotions for you, too,” she said teasingly.