Chapter 73

She smirked, and instead of listening, she pulled her hair back and into the water. Her arms swayed in rhythm to keep her above the surface as she floated on her back.

"I don't think so. The water is nice and chilly," Alessandra said to the sky.

It was too much. The loss of routine, the sense of lost time, the knowledge that my plan wasn't coming through. The fear I'd felt, along with my control slipping, was too much. And yet, this woman decided to toy with me.

I didn't think twice. My shirt hit the muddy shore, and my pants slid off my legs. In just a pair of boxer briefs, I submerged my body into the cool water, following her laughter. I swam underwater as the water stung my heated body. The moment she saw how close I'd quickly closed the distance by emerging to the surface, Alessandra's laughter faded as her green gems shined wide. Sensing my dark demeanor, she attempted to distance herself, but it was too late. I'd already gone beneath the depths of the lake, capturing her ankle and pulling her back.

Her legs kicked as I shook the water off my face, watching her arms push against the water, fighting my strength.

Useless.

Now that she'd provoked me, I wouldn't let her get away.

She tried rolling and kicking her free leg against me, but I caught it too, causing her to use only her arms to stay afloat. With both ankles shackled by my hands, I pulled hard, and her face went underwater by the force. I used the momentum of her body and water and held the back of her knees until my hands reached out and grasped her bare ass.

If her struggle hadn't already made me hard, her naked and wet silky skin did it.

Alessandra's head resurfaced in loud gasps as she coughed out of the chokehold the water had put her in. Her hands quickly shot out to tightly grasp my neck while she caught her breath. When her eyes peered open, catching mine, she stared deeply into me with caution as mine held no humor.

"You are awake," she spluttered innocently.

A fucking fraud. Nothing innocent was engraved in Alessandra, and I was more awake than she could possibly imagine.

My hands slipped from her ass to her back and firmly gripped her neck as I swam us closer. My feet touched the muddy ground while remaining underneath the water. With her legs now wrapped around my waist and her tits pressed against my torso, I held her naked skin tighter against me, feeling her, touching her, watching her until I believed she was before me. To ensure my mind wasn't playing tricks and I'd found her.

Naked, swimming, unharmed.

Her doubtful gaze locked with mine.

"I-"

I stopped her words with my lips, pouring things I didn't understand, like the touch of fear I hadn't felt since I was a teen. Or the frustration of knowing I couldn't lock her and chain her to a cellar. The bitterness and failure to acknowledge I couldn't seek my revenge for what the Zanettis had taken from me or her.

I had been a fool.

She made me a fool.

Because now, I would deliver wrath to whoever took her from me.

A Zanetti.

And I hated it.

I hated the weakness she'd brought with every strong step she took with poise and elegance.

I hated her for it.

I felt no love for Alessandra. It was a dark obsession of what belonged to me. And while I'd seen with time how her eyes had grown soft and her need to be near me had increased, I had warned her not to.

She did what she did best. Didn't listen.

Now she wanted my attention, closeness, and intimate moments. Things I didn't do because I was incapable and uncaring for them. I had a wide variety of things to take care of. Cities to protect, cities to burn. Men to rule, men to kill.

Cruel bastards fucked, whether it was their women or empires, but never fucked with feelings, and yet she made me fear.

Fuck her.

"Don't fucking disappear from me like that. Do you understand, Alessandra?" I threatened onto her lips.

With her forehead touching mine, mouth apart and eyes closed, she breathed, "I just left for a swim."

Mio Dio, she couldn't give up.

I tightened my grip on her head.

"I won't," she quickly answered.

"Now, why are you naked?" I nipped her bottom lip and slithered my palm down and up her side, brushing my thumb over the edge of her tit.

"It's called skinny-dipping."

"Yeah, well, it screams fuck me'."

"I'm surprised you caught that after all the time you've spent ignoring me." Her fingers weaved into my hair before she had full fists and my head pushed back.

There it was, the spirit I knew she couldn't contain. The spirit she'd tried to simmer yesterday as I didn't meet her demands and expectations of a doting partner.

With my head pulled back and the delicious tug she gave, a dark chuckle erupted from my throat.

"We'll see how much you like getting fucked in the water."

I snapped my head away from her fingers to catch the confusion in her bunched brows. My hand slithered from the back of her neck to her throat.

"I hope you take a deep breath," I said in one second, and the next, I submerged our bodies.

Sick, was what I was.

Her lower body strained to pull up. The movement rocked her pussy up and down against me. I came up for air and smiled as the clear water allowed the explicit scene underneath.

When I pulled her body up, water splashed as she thrashed for air. I pressed her closer to me, slid my boxer briefs down and buried my dick inside her.

Alessandra gasped as her eyes furiously fluttered against the running droplets.

"Massimo!" she yelled, dubious to believe what my wicked mind had done.

Her tits bounced as she caught her breath, and when my lips curled, her stunning emerald eyes widened, excited. She crushed her lips to mine while she tried fighting our bodies underwater, but with every struggle, the more my body shook in carnal need to feed my demon. With one buck of her hips, I held her waist and sank my dick deeply.

Our mouths battled for control, but my strength couldn't compare to hers while I drove inside her. Alessandra heaves mixed with whimpers as I continued fucking her in the open lake.

Water chilled our heated skin and her struggles never eased. Her thrashing hips never stopped, and my pounding never took mercy.

And as I rammed into her, drowning her in desire, it made me wild with savage demands for the creature I couldn't have enough of. The one that gave my demon what it needed.

I was so close while lost in the sight of her and in the fight. Lost on how she took me, scratching my arm and curving her spine for me to deliver each thrust to her needy and tightening core.

My skin crawled as I continued to fuck such a divine woman into release. She begged above the surface and took me underneath.

I watched each tell, fascinated by her. My hand moved from her throat and over her wet face until reaching and grabbing her hair. Alessandra's body slowly lost the battle, spent and spiraling into release. I pulled her closer. Her hands hooked around my neck, and her breath brushed against my mouth as water fell over her face. Her breathing was erratic, and her whimpers were untamed.

Such a breathtaking sight.

"Massimo." My name fell from her swollen lips, and my eyes shut at her plea.

I held her hips and sank inside her warmth over and over as I walked closer to the bank. I couldn't hold on much longer, and neither could she.

Her fingernails sunk into my flesh, breaking skin, and my head rolled in pleasure.

"Please!"

She whimpered when she felt her bottom leave the water, asking and begging for her release. I stole a kiss and laid her against the rocky beach. I pinched her nipple, and her lips parted as I grabbed and bent her leg to my side.

My knees scraped the sharp stones, and her back bowed with every thrust as the pebbles rubbed her skin raw. The pain only intensified her chase for release, and I used her body as a rake to draw out the pleasure pain brought her.

"Ahh!" Her throat cut out her moans, and her head flew back.

I unleashed my mouth and tongue over her throat and down her hardened nipples.

"Massimo!" Alessandra cried out.

I pulled away, watched her pleasure-ridden face, and pinched her bud, making her buckle wildly beneath me.

I felt her release, the warmth and bliss she rode, and sank again to chase my own.

Holding her face, I took her lips and kissed her until I left all of me inside of her.

Every thought, hate, and fear she'd caused in such a short time. And while my arms shook from holding myself up, I could've mistaken it for something much deeper.

Eventually, my worn-out body won, and I crushed her underneath me as we both fought to even out our breathing.

Alessandra's fingertips danced over my back and up my hair. I didn't move. I didn't want to, not yet. Instead, I waited a few more minutes until I was sure a rocky imprint would be left on her skin, and I slid back into the water. She raised herself up onto her elbows to watch me as I rinsed the gravel off.

I walked back to the shore, and Alessandra's head turned, following my every move as she lay in an exhausted and satisfied cloud while the water played with her toes. I picked up my pants, slid them on, and collected our clothes from the shore.

I made sure not to look in her direction again. I had the vision I wanted to replay for the rest of the day.

"Don't disappear again," I ordered and walked past her.

"Massimo!" she warned.

"I have things to do and people to ignore," I threw back. Little did she know, I wasn't ignoring her. I was trying to keep us both alive, along with the Lombardi name.

"You are taking my clothes!"

My back already faced her and the calm water.

"It's called skinny-dipping in the open air. Careful with the bugs."

I didn't have to turn to know her hand had slid to her thigh, searching her bare leg for the knife that had become a part of her.

"Massimo!" she yelled, and I didn't miss a step, putting more distance between us.

ALESSANDRA

Massimo didn't lie when he said he had people to ignoreme. He'd spent the rest of that day in the bright-colored office with the door shut. All while I still had the memory and marks of our time together. I'd eaten alone and drew in the spacious and quiet living room, too proud to even attempt to go to him. I'd found a bottle of red he'd brought with us, a cherry tempting label I couldn't resist. Before I knew it, I'd drained every drop. I just wanted to drown the silence, not myself, with pity.

Maybe I'd been wrong. This was never a getaway. It wasn't a time for us to spend together or give me a glimpse of his thoughts, the events in his life and factors that made him who he was.