Children of Ambition (Children of Vice 2)

“Crazy coldhearted,” she corrected, kicking me. I laughed. “They think I don’t believe in love or loving people.”

“I’m not one of those people,” I told her, this time moving and lying on top of her. “You’re a lot of things, Donatella, but incapable of love is not one of them. How else could you write such passionate novels? I was merely shocked that you’d admit all of that to me.”

“You read my novels?” she asked, her eyes wide. I didn’t know why that shocked her so much.

“How can anyone not know you are Odette Odile?” I asked, grinning. The name was perfect for her.

“You only know because of my grandmother, don’t you?” She frowned. “She really is a loose cannon now, isn’t she?”

“Don’t be too hard on her. I quite like your grandmother,” I replied.

“Someone is already getting comfortable telling me what to do.”

“Here we go.” I groaned. Most days she was the dangerous and seductive black swan, but as she laid under me, naked, calm, speaking honestly of herself and the future with the smallest and rarest of smiles on her face, I saw all the beauty and gentleness of the white swan. She was both. “You’re like a pillar of ice on fire,” I said to keep her calm.

“What?”

I nodded. “Everything I heard about you before coming and everything I’ve seen of you since I’ve been here, tells me you are unexplainable. You are two opposite things at once. You are… You are a crazy, coldhearted person, but you aren’t that way all of the time. Sometimes you’re sweet and cute. You just can’t show that part of yourself because of your family so you write it. The heroines of your books are all different versions of the you you’re unable to freely show. I enjoyed reading your work…”

“You’re being very sappy—”

“All of them but the last book. That one was crap,” I cut her off to finish and just like that I saw the fire light up her eyes.

She pushed me off her, and got up. “I’m going to shower, don’t follow me.”

“But shower sex is the best kind.” I pouted, watching her ass as she got up to leave, with a stupid grin on my face.

“Once I come back we’ll go over what happens next,” she replied.

“Next?”

“What happens when we get to Monaco? What have you planned for your family? When will the wedding be? Did you really think I came here just to fuck you?” she asked from the bathroom door.

“Yes.”

SLAM.

Smiling to myself, I lay back and closed my eyes, trying to relax, but instead her words replayed on a loop in my mind.

“Love is what happens when you are fully and brazenly able to trust and depend on another person.”

When I asked her if she’d be able to love me if I loved her, I wasn’t expecting any sort of serious answer… It was more so a gentle joke. I knew now I couldn’t joke about things like that that with her. I said those words not even sure if I’d ever love her. Loyalty yes, faithful yes, kind and caring to what she needed, yes. But love was not my strong suit. Sex I could do, happily, along with flirting, however love in the way she spoke of it… The way I should have thought of it, that intimacy between a husband and wife wasn’t one of my strong suits. She was much more passionate than I’d actually realized.

I wanted her to “fully and brazenly” trust and depend on me. She wouldn’t until I did …but how could I when I kept lying to her face?

“Gabriel?” I heard her voice and the bed shifted but I didn’t open my eyes. She was screwing with my mind as much as she was screwing with my body. I feared if I spoke more, I’d ruin everything before we even started.

“So much for being superhuman,” she muttered and I wished I could see the facial expression that went along with the annoyance in her voice.

Instead I felt the sheets cover me, then the heat of her body beside me. I waited a few minutes, feeling her relax before shifting onto my side, my arm draped over her.

Only then did I open my eyes, allowing myself to see the side of her face… She looked even more beautiful sleeping like this.

Shit. I’m going to fall hard for her.

I might have already been falling.

Glancing up at the camera in the corner of the room, I glared, holding her tighter, before closing my eyes again. I swore to never tell her the truth of my past but to always tell her the