CHAPTER 58
ALEXIA GREEN.
They kissed right in front of me.
I didn’t need to be told they did to know that. Didn’t need eyes for that either because his fiancé squealed something in Italian and kissed him giving the paparazzi ammunition to puncture and splinter my heart.
‘Care to share about your love story? From childhood sweethearts to getting married?’
‘Christian Vitello back in Sicily. Is it time?’
‘When is the wedding, Athena? What’s the theme? Any information you can share with us?’
‘One more picture of the couple, God knows we won’t get enough of those once you two set sail for the honeymoon.’
Brenda held me from breaking down that time.
She’s still holding me even as we arrive in Christian’s family mansion, even as Jett picks a sleeping Millie from my arms taking her to my room upstairs as Brenda and I follow behind.
Once we are in my room and the smell of something sweet like jasmine fills my nostrils only then does Brenda talk to me, her good mood being a sharp contrast to mine.
Christian went with Athena the opposite way as soon as we left the airport and the paparazzi.
They are about to be married. This Athena sounded like she was in love with him and the sort of woman who would offer herself to Christian if he asked.
Jealousy sinks into my neck like fangs ridding me of all my blood.
Maybe I should tell this Athena that her fiancé slept with me a month and a few weeks prior putting his child in me, maybe I should tell her yesterday her fiancé and I were kissing each other like the world was ending.
“How are we doing, honey? You hungry? I saw you eat a whole burrito on the plane but I know you want some more food, don’t you?”
“I can’t stomach anything”, I say truthfully.
“Morning sickness or jealousy sickness?”
Both.
“Is she—she beautiful?”
“Lex, don’t do this to yourself.”
“She looks like the goddess she’s named after, doesn’t she?”
“You don’t want to tell him about the pregnancy? Fine but at least you can leave, run away and start fresh.”
“Why haven’t you run Brenda? Why are you in Sicily with me?”
“He made me his stand-in nurse till you recovered, can’t exactly run but if we are being honest here, I think he’s using that as an excuse to cover for the fact that he wants at least one friend near you.”
“He hates me.”
He kissed me last night like he loathed himself for craving something so potent.
“He’s the Cosa Nostra himself, I’ve heard rumors about him and when he hates someone, he eliminates them, not keep them around.”
He’s keeping me around to make me suffer just because he suffered.
I feel it in his words. The way I made him suffer, the way I made Juana die.
Eventually my topic with Brenda diverts to lighter topics about the clinic, about how Xavier was left in charge and surprisingly about her new on-and-off thing with Jett.
Imagining her and Jett takes some use to though and I tell her goodnight as we both crash out for the night due to jet lag.
Maybe it’s already past midnight, maybe it’s already day and maybe my blindness is a huge setback but that doesn’t mean my ears and other parts of me don’t work.
I hear him open the door, I sniff his scent of mint and bergamot in the air as he stops to my right where my baby girl is sleeping in her crib and says “Goodnight, baby girl” which makes my heart beat twice as fast.
His nose and his legs lead him to the bed and I feel the mattress dip in to accumulate his huge weight.
I feel him on top of me.
I feel his hands cage me between him but I don’t open my eyes not that they will see anything but he’ll get the message I don’t want him here.
Not after he’s just slept with his fiancé.
“Alexia?” He calls.
A whiff of his whiskey-coated breath knocks me back and burns my eyes and throat.
“Are you sleep?”
“I need you.”
I open my eyes and I hope he can see the glare I’m throwing him right now.
“You’ll wake the baby up.”
“I’m your baby too, baby.”
Yap. He’s drunk.
“I want you to leave, Vicious. You had fun in the sheets with your future wife and you think I’ll take you with open arms afterwards? Hate me all you want but I’m not going to be the other woman.”
“You are not the other woman”, he whispers tenderly,.
I want to arch my back off the bed and find his lips, kissing them but I can’t be weak. I can’t tolerate being handed scraps whether I deserve it or not.
“Yeah? Well, you’ve made it pretty clear who you are with and what I am to you.”
“One kiss then.”
“You are drunk otherwise sober Christian wouldn’t beg. He’d punish me, then he’d take.”
“One kiss then. Please.”
“Christian-.”
“I’ve been dying for a month without you, sunshine. All I’m asking for is a kiss.”
“Did you sleep with her?”
“No.”
“And let her kiss you?”
“Only at the airport. She came for me; I should have stopped her before she did.”
“I can’t let you touch me while you reek of another woman.”
“I bathed before I drank myself into oblivion.”
“Why?”
“Her scent doesn’t feel half as good or any good like how yours feels on me.”
“One kiss. Then you leave.”
The kiss comes like lightning on a sunny day, taking me by surprise and leaving me writhing beneath him and the covers.
He doesn’t let me have a breath before he plunges his tongue inside my mouth, his taste and mine being elevated by the alcohol splotched in how good his lips feel.
Him pulling away lets me breathe but it also makes my core and my spine shiver in sweet delight.
God, he kisses like it’s his sole mission on earth even when he’s drunk.
“Sunshine? I think I lied. I want more than a kiss.”
Me too.
“No. You are going to be satisfied by that single kiss, leave my room and if you are serious about talking and dumping your trust-fund-baby fiancé then we’ll consider more. For now, get out and don’t let the door slap you on your way out.”
I feel his lips on my forehead and I close my eyes falling for the endearment.
Then he leaves and the throbbing between my legs doesn’t leave with him.
***
When I wake up, feel the warmth of the sun through my balcony and hear footsteps inside my own room, I expect to hear Christian’s voice.
Not…
“Alexia? Alexia Green. I’m Athena Pallis, soon to be the wife of your boss, can we talk?”