Sweet Hope (Sweet Home #4)(35)

Hope.

Being with Aliyana like this… her accepting soul only seeing me for me and not my past, a f*cking unwarranted blind faith… she filled me with hope.

Lei era speranza… She was hope. La mia luce… my light.

It reminded me of what my mamma would hope for me when the gang had me deep in its clutches. I’d kiss her good-bye, heading out to meet Gio and my crew as Mamma lay unmoving in her small bed, her ALS keeping her body hostage. She’d watch me with those huge sad eyes, eyes that prayed for our lives to be better, and she’d brokenly whisper, Io prego perché tu possa trovare la tua luce, mio figlio smarrito… I pray you find your light, my lost son…

My heart beat faster as the memory invaded my mind, constricting my chest. Aliyana’s fingers slowed as if she could sense I was f*cking falling apart inside, the sweet sounding melody gradually coming to it’s close.

Something inside me took over, and unable to stop myself, I slid off the bed and silently crossed the room. I moved to stand behind Aliyana just as her fingers on one hand danced over the higher keys of the piano, the final high-pitched note hanging in the air.

Before she’d even had a chance to move her hands from the keys and her bare feet from the pedals, I took her chin in my hand from behind, turning her face to press her lips against mine. The pressure in my chest disappeared as soon as her sweet taste entered my mouth.

Shocked at my action, Aliyana moaned into my mouth, her arm rising up to wrap round my neck. Without breaking the kiss, I hooked my arm around her waist and lifted her off the stool, her back flush against my front. I walked us forward just a few steps to the side of the piano, our tongues still clashing. Unable to wait any longer, I leaned her forward to press her stomach against the cold wood of the grand, still keeping her lips on mine. Hooking her right leg over the inside of my elbow, I raised it enough to open up her *, and in one steady push, slid my cock deep inside her. I wasn’t rushing this. I wasn’t f*cking her now… It was something more… because she was more…

Aliyana slipped her mouth from mine as she quietly cried out my name. “Elpi…”

Slowly gliding up my arm, her free hand lay on top of mine over her stomach. As I rocked within her, my thighs burning from the feel, Aliyana lifted my hand and entwined her fingers within mine.

Dragging in a breath at the feel of her small hand squeezing mine so gently had me fighting to not drop to my knees and f*cking beg her to never leave this room. We didn’t need the world outside. We had this room. We had just her and me in this room.

When Aliyana glanced back to meet my eyes, I paused inside her and stared right back. There was no music playing to drown everything out, no words said to break the silence… It was the most intense and meaningful moment of my life. Here, deep inside this woman who only knew the man I was now, not the unfeeling bastard I was before, was my more.

I’d never once thought that I deserved a second chance, never wanted one. As far as I was concerned, I deserved to spend the rest of my life miserable for what I’d done. But here, deep inside the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, the woman who just got me, I was bartering with God to let me keep her… just for a while… to keep feeling… this… whatever this was…

“Tu sei bella…” You are beautiful, I whispered and noticed Aliyana’s eyes glisten. She careened forward and pressed a brief kiss on my lips, then tilted her head to the side, urging me to kiss down her neck. My hips started rocking again, Aliyana lightly panting with every drawn-out thrust.

Aliyana tightened her grip around my neck, and with our entwined fingers holding tight, I built up speed, taking us further and further to the edge.

Minutes later, our damp skin scalding hot, Aliyana quietly moaned as she came. Her eyes fluttered closed and, after two more thrusts, I tucked my nose into her hair and came too.

“Elpi…” Aliyana murmured quietly, and I tightened my arm around her waist. I held her as close as I physically could. And Aliyana let me. Let me hold on to our connection without saying a word.

“What was that music you played?” I suddenly asked. “Just now, what was that?”

“Yiruma’s “Kiss the Rain,”” she answered breathlessly, her tired body sagging in my arms.

I committed the title of that song to memory. “Kiss the Rain.”

Pulling out of her, I scooped her up in my arms, only stopping to lift the sheet off the floor, and carried her back to my bed. As we lay down, Aliyana softly peppered kisses all over my face before resting her cheek affectionately on my chest.

“I’ve missed you, Elpi…” she whispered sleepily.

I squeezed her closer to my side, wishing I could tell her I’d missed her too. Instead, I curtly ordered, “You’re staying here tonight.”

Aliyana nuzzled into my chest and I felt the muscles in her cheeks pull into a smile. “From the first time I ever saw your angel sculpture, it seared my heart… I always knew if I could meet you in the flesh, your soul would do the same.”

The words she spoke might as well have been a f*cking Hail Mary from God himself, a free pass for the f*cked-up sins of my past. But that could never be true. I had to pay the piper. I’d ruined lives. Karma didn’t work this way, giving you everything you could dream of without paying some kind of price.

I pressed my cheek on the top of her head and closed my eyes.