Matteo (Dark Erotic Mob Romance) (Rossi Family Book 1) (16 page)

Epilogue

Matteo

I’d fallen in love with my own slave. Every single thing she did made me fall for her one piece of my wicked soul at a time. I hated her for making me want more than I was supposed to.

She was simply to be the body to gift me a child so my father would be happy to have an heir. When he found out that I indeed had an heir in progress, to say he wasn’t happy would be an understatement. That night it had come down to me or her and selfishly, I’d chosen myself.

I suppose I shouldn’t say that it was a “her or me” situation, but that’s how it felt. My father told me he wouldn’t honor an heir from a slave or any woman not wed into the family. Especially when he found out Gia was Madam’s daughter, which even I hadn’t known up until he’d announced a source had informed him of it. Madam was a rival family and he refused to allow such ‘dirty blood’ into his family. In fact, he’d said if I didn’t get rid of the baby, he would do it for me or he’d disown me.

While I normally enjoyed torturing her, that night had been different. I hadn’t taken any pleasure in doing everything I could to make sure the baby wouldn’t survive. Normally I had no problem doing exactly the same type of punishment, but it was usually to men and for the family. From the moment I walked away from her, I regretted ever laying a hand on her. Ever bringing her into my home.

It was then that I decided that in order for me to continue under my father’s rule, I would have to keep Gia away from me. My sweet
bella
was locked away in my own house while I courted and wooed my soon-to-be wife. Monique. The vicious bitch with her beautiful face was only there for my money and power as second in line of the Rossi Family. She was everything my father wanted in a bride for me. Someone he could show off as his daughter-in-law with her “good breeding.” The woman made me sick.

No beating, no slapping, no hard fucking. It was simply missionary in a slow, yawn-inducing rhythm.

I put up with it because I was trying to keep the old man happy and it had been part of the agreement between families that I would keep her happy at any cost, even my own unhappiness. Everyone had a piece on the side anyway, and that’s exactly what I had planned on Gia being when I finally allowed her to come up from the basement.

Then Monique spotted her and was instantly jealous. She forced me to make promises I never intended to keep about staying faithful and never messing around with anyone, including the staff. The fact that she included the last part told me she knew exactly what I had in mind. I tried for a while to do as she asked because that’s the man I am, but I couldn’t stay away.

I’d watch Gia in the garden or when she went about her chores. Knowing she loved the garden, I started supplying her with materials to help her learn what she needed without being too obvious.

Hearing that she’d still been dealing with pain from the night I’d forced her to lose the baby hurt. I couldn’t stand it. I had to fix it, no matter what hell it brought me from Monique and my father.

Her recovery gave me time to finally silence Monique’s incessant badgering about marrying.

Upon returning and seeing her with the sun-kissed skin and radiance from the small freedom, I knew I’d made a mistake. She was even more beautiful, and even though I had finally escaped the grips of my wife and her demands that I sign every fucking thank you card, I couldn’t stay away. Making excuses to keep her from looking for me, I went to see my
bella
. I’d made her touch herself, fucked her, and went back to my wife.

When Aida finally told me about her hip, I demanded she use Gia for help with what she could. I knew it was only a matter of time before Gia had to take over for Aida. She was getting up there in years anyway, and I’d known a replacement was going to be needed soon.

Knowing that Aida would be gone, I planned for Monique to leave town for a week so that I could fully indulge in my
bella
again. The need was too strong to deny. The time went by too quickly, and I’d become accustomed to having her nearby to play with or waiting for me every night. When Monique returned, she’d instantly known something had happened while she was gone and started pressing for answers and pestering me about everything.

Since my wife was back, my father invited himself and a few of my cousins over for dinner the following night, which I was thankful for to help ease the tension while I figured out how to get my wife off my back. However, when Monique came screaming to me saying she found my father and Gia having sex, or what appeared to be sex since my father’s pants were around his thighs, his bare ass in view, I was incensed.

I didn’t listen to a single word, only feeling the pain at having been betrayed by not only my father, but also the woman I’d been struggling to hide my feelings for. My heart felt like it had been stabbed, and I wanted her to suffer like I undoubtedly would.

It took me a long time to calm down after that. I constantly fought with Monique about my intense reaction to the situation and the other marks she’d glimpsed on Gia when I’d pulled her to the basement. After that, I found I didn’t care. I didn’t care about my wife. I certainly didn’t love her, didn’t need her in my life. Really, I didn’t care about my family, the crew of men and what we did to make a living. I didn’t want any of it.

Then my father came to my house one day to find me wearing a dirty suit, hair disheveled, and smelling like a bottle of bourbon.

“Look at you. So fucking pathetic,” Fausto sneered at me.

“Fuck off,” I growled, taking another drink.

“What has your panties all in a twist now? Have to kill another member of the family for touching your little slave? Or maybe you’re still upset about sharing with your old man,” he smirked, sitting in a chair across the desk from me.

“She wasn’t yours to touch,” I barked, slamming my glass down on the desktop.

“You are the one in the wrong. Slaves aren’t meant to be treated special. They are fucking property. I wanted to get off and she was the only ass available, so I took it. Get over it,” Fausto said, letting out an exasperated sigh. “You’ve always let pussy distract you, which is why I took her ass. I knew you would cry like a schoolboy if I took that pussy. Plus, it’s more fun to tear open a tight asshole.”

Anger flared in me and I jumped across the desk, wrapping my hands around his neck. His eyes bulged in surprise, but he smiled.

“Oh, that upsets you does it? Knowing that I raped her little ass, tore it wide open, making her bleed on my cock? Then I left the sweet little peach a matching bite mark from good ol’ pop on the other side of her neck so she’d remember who was the stronger man of the two of us,” Fausto spat out even as his face turned red.

I tightened my grip around his throat with each word. It was only then I remembered that Gia had been trying to tell me she’d been raped, that it hadn’t been consensual.

Reaching behind my back, I pulled my gun from my pants and unloaded the magazine into my father’s head. Blood splattered over the walls, floor and chair.

His body fell to the floor, lifeless. His face would be forever locked in the surprised look that had flashed over his face when I’d pulled the weapon on him.

I didn’t need any more of his lies. I wouldn’t put up with him anymore.

It was time for me to take over as head.

Aida rushed into my office, her face pale. She’d only returned the day before when I’d begged her to help prepare food since I was hopeless at it myself.

“Sir, she’s been raped!” Aida exclaimed before noticing the mess in the room and the body on the floor. She slapped a hand over her mouth and stepped back.

“I know,” I said grimly. I’d let Gia down yet again. What a mess I was. The woman I loved constantly suffered from my hand. I wish I had the control to let her go, but I couldn’t. It wasn’t possible.

“A... and I think she might be pregnant,” Aida interrupted my thoughts with the most unexpected statement.

“Find out,” I answered on autopilot.

Aida vanished, and I made the necessary calls to let the crew know a change in leadership had taken place. I also got a cleanup crew on their way to dispose of the body.

“Sir?” Aida was in the doorway again. “She is pregnant.”

I groaned and ran a hand over my face. She’d been down in the crappy basement for months with  very little food and was suffering while she was pregnant. Tugging on my hair, I rose from the chair.

“Matteo, you might want to change your shirt and wash your face,” Aida spoke up as I pushed past her.

I glanced down to realize that I had blood splattered all over my shirt, arms and likely my face. Shrugging out of my jacket and shirt, I grabbed another shirt from the nearby dresser that I always kept extra clothes in for such an occasion before using the wet cloth Aida provided me with to wipe my face and arms down.

My head in a fog, I went down to retrieve my
bella
and hope that I could make up for all the horrible things I’d done to her. I knew I couldn’t stay with her, not while she was pregnant. I didn’t trust myself to not screw up again and hurt her.

After bathing my beauty and doing my best to express the love I felt for her, I put her into her bed, then packed my bags.

My time away was torture. I knew she was upset that I’d left her alone, but I sent Aida in when she was up to it to check on her and the house. She could’ve run and I’d have no way to stop her, but it was her choice. I needed her to make the choice to stay with me or take my child and run.

I was close by when Aida called to tell me they were on the way to the hospital and I sat outside Gia’s room listening to her wails of pain while she handled it all alone, but once I heard the beautiful, innocent cries of the baby, I couldn’t wait. I barged into the room and felt the world stop. Everything fell away except the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen and the tiny baby she held in her arms. My child. Our child.

That was the first time I ever said the three little words no one ever said to me, not and truly meant. “I love you.”

I would never be able to leave them alone again. I
needed
to have them in my life, to see them every day.

Two short days later, I was driving them home and I’d never been more afraid in my life. A gun in my face, a blade at my throat, nothing compared to that little life in the backseat depending on me to take care of him.

Months flew by as I did my best to be there for them, but it was hard. I was putting things into motion with the crew as I took over. A lot of people demanded my attention, and instead of spending time holding my child or the woman I loved, I spent the great majority of it in my office on my phone.

“Hey,” Gia said softly as she pushed open the door one evening. It was late; she’d already served dinner and put the baby down for the night. She had insisted on still doing her chores and cooking as much as she could until I could find a replacement for Aida.

“
Bella
, come on in,” I said, putting aside my phone and leaning back in the chair.

Ever since she’d come home with the baby, things had grown much more comfortable between us, and she didn’t look down when she spoke to me or call me sir anymore. I hadn’t laid a hand on her except to pull her close when I finally crawled into bed in the wee hours of the morning.

She gave me a sultry smile, walking toward me, swaying her hips.

“I need something from you,” she said before yanking her dress over her head, revealing her nude body.

I groaned as my cock instantly grew hard and demanding at the sight.

“No,
bella
. I can’t,” I said shaking my head. No matter how much I wanted her, I couldn’t touch her. Not until I was sure I could control my urges.

“Yes, you can.” She swung a leg over my hips and sat in my lap facing me. Hot, damp heat radiated along my length. “I want you any way you want to give it to me.”

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I sighed and pressed my forehead to her neck.

“Don’t think of it that way. Think of it as giving me what I want, what I need,” she said, rolling her pelvis against mine.

“Tell me what you want.” I couldn’t keep my hands from sliding up her smooth back and back down again to pull her firmly against me.

“You. The belt. The wand. All of it. Spank me. Shock me. Fuck me hard. Fuck me soft. I don’t care, just touch me. Don’t you see? You’ve shown me the pleasure that comes from it all. The pleasure that is wrapped up in pain when it’s done right. The pleasure only you can give me,” she pleaded with me as she gripped the back of my neck.

“On one condition…” I said. I’d gotten the paperwork a few days prior. After battling for so long, I finally gave Monique whatever she wanted just to get rid of her, and now I was free to do what I should’ve done long ago.

“I love you so much. I love Matteo Junior so much. There is only one thing I have left to ask for in this world. Would you make me the happiest I’ve ever been and be my wife?”

She answered without hesitation as a tear rolled down her cheek, “Yes, my love.”