Children of Ambition

  “Rest for now, Sebastian, we can leave early tomorrow morning,” I heard him say; I noticed a beat-up leather notebook on the dresser closest to the balcony, I walked forward and lifted it up carefully. “It’s fine. She’s still saying goodbye to her family, I’d rather not rush her. I still have time.” He went on, followed by the sound of the faucet, and I didn’t bother to listen more than that. I looked to his journal, captivated by his drawings.

  The first set were just random people on the streets.

  A few birds and other animals.

  But in between that there many drawing of a woman who looked very much like him. They had the same eyes and I just knew she must have been his mother. His drawings were in color, so detailed. Almost every other page of the first half of the book was of her until…

  Until it got to me.

  Nothing else, just me.

  Me, angry. Me, laughing. Me, looking out the window, swimming and me…naked. He seemed to have spent plenty of time imagining my breast size, waist, and hips as they were slightly different in each drawing.

  “Who knew you were such an artist?” I said when I heard the bathroom door open.

  “Almost everyone is an artist in Europe… The only difference is if they are known or not.” His steady voice replied behind me, he didn’t seem startled or even thrown by me being there.

  Since his arrival, that’s all he had done to me; he’d startled me, thrown me off my balance. He’d upset, confused, conflicted, doubtful, and excited me. Like a tornado, he came in and ripped everything out of place, became the focus of my and everyone else’s attention. The power shift was so swift, I barely had time to grasp it, to grasp that I was being sucked in and there was no saving me because part of me wanted to be uprooted.

  “Donatella,” he whispered, standing directly behind me now, his voice sending a shiver down my spine. He reached around me and tried to take the notebook from my hands, but I pushed his hand away. “Did you need something?”

  “We can’t leave tonight,” I said, flipping to another page. “I want to see my parent’s grave with my brothers in the morning. I came to tell you that. But it seems you aren’t ready to leave yet, either.”

  “I wanted to give Sebastian at least one night of rest before we flew out,” he answered.

  “You really care about him.”

  “He’s loyal. I honor loyalty. Doesn’t everyone?” he asked.

  I didn’t reply, merely flipping through his book. He sighed softly and took a step back from me. It was only then that I turned around and saw the bandages on his bare back and the one over his arm. He was only wearing his trousers. He didn’t complain or even act as if he were hurt. He simply kept it in.

  “Gabriel,” I called out to him and he turned partly, his eyes immediately looking down my body slowly.

  “Do not do this to me now,” he snapped stepping forward, pinning me between himself and the desk, his gray eyes filled with lust. “I’ve spent the day fighting for my life. First with the men this morning, then with your family. Verbally sparring with your brothers is exhausting, as you already know. I do not have the energy to pretend I’m not turned on by you and this display of…whatever it is you are seeking to do. I’m on the edge of sanity, Donatella; do not push me unless you’re willing to fall alongside me.”

  Reaching down to undo the tie of my dress and allowing it fall down around my feet, I said, “I have a beauty mark on my left breast and a crescent-shaped scar on my right thigh, so next time you draw me properly—Ah!”

  I gasped, my mouth dropping open as he, without shame, cupped my breast, his hands so cold it made me shiver. Leaning over, he licked my nipple. His tongue running circles over and around it before he sucked on to me. His right hand dipped between my thighs, stroking my pussy. Stunned, I couldn’t do anything but let him grope and suck on me, grasping on to his shoulders and moaning loudly as he slipped his middle finger into me…and then another one.

  “Ahh!” I couldn’t form words anymore. I just rocked up and down on his hand. Standing straighter and licking his lips, he pumped faster, staring down at me like he wanted to tear me apart in the best sort of ways.

  “What happened to needing a crown?” he smirked as my eye twitched, and I held on to his arm. He looked too fucking smug.

  Reaching into his pants, I grabbed his cock, trying to ignore how big it was and how hard it throbbed in my hand. As I slowly ran my finger over the tip of him, my fingers coated with a layer of his arousal. “There already is a crown on my head. Can’t you see it? There’s no turning back now, Gabriel. The moment I stepped in here, the second you touched me, you sealed your fate indefinitely.”

  Just like me, his mouth parted as he tried to breathe through the pleasure. Leaning in again, his lips were on mine, his tongue in my mouth and mine in his. Both of our tongues brushing against and over the other’s. Wanting more, leaning into him, my breasts bouncing on his bare chest, I rode his fingers as I stroked the length of his cock. “Now be a good husband and make me moan.”

  Without a second to waste he had us both on the floor.

  “Do you want to moan like wife or a whore?” He pulled his fingers out of me only to bring them to my lips. Leaning forward, I licked.

  “Both,” I answered.

  His nose flared and the grin spread on his lips as he grabbed my thighs, forcing me on to my back and pulling me forward. He lifted my leg on to his, spreading me wide before sucking on me.

  “YES!” I cried out, grabbing on to his hair and rocking against his mouth. My whole body shivered as his tongue entered me. My nipples were so hard, my breasts bouncing so much that I had to grab on to them. My eyes rolled back as I pinched my hard nipples, the pain and the pleasure. It felt so good I could feel the pressure in my stomach rising.

  “Cum for me,” I heard him demand and I wanted to, but the way he commanded me made me want to fight back.

  Not yet.

  It felt as if I was at his mercy. I didn’t want that. I want him to feel this… I wanted him to be immobilized by my mouth. Kicking my other leg on to his shoulder, with all the force I could muster, I pushed back.

  “Urgh…” He groaned in pain but only brief as I got on top of him. Staring down at him, I smiled and kissed his lips before turning around so my ass and pussy were in his face. I stuck out my tongue, licking from the tip of him all the down to his balls. Feeling him moan against me only made me shiver more.

  My whole body felt like it was being electrified. I felt wild, bolder. I craved him, wanted all of him in my mouth.

  “Mhm!” I heard him moan again on my pussy.

  It was music to my ears as I sucked harder, my head going up and down his as his fingers sped up in me.

  “OH!” I cried feeling my toes curl as I came…only a few seconds before he did. I drank all of him like he did me.

  Rolling on to my back and closing my eyes, I wiped the corner of my mouth, “Not bad, Your Highness.”

  He didn’t say anything and I thought he may have been spent, when all of sudden I felt his strong hands on me, lifting me off the floor. Opening my eyes, I looked up to see his jaw tensed…a moment later, I felt the soft sheets of his bed under me.

  “Not bad? You say that like we’re finished,” he said. He stripped out of boxer briefs, his cock still hard, still twitching for me.

  My eyebrows raised and with a smile on my face I said, “Forgive me, I forgot I wasn’t dealing with just any mere man.”

  “After tonight, princess, you’ll never forget again,” he said, climbing on to the bed.

  GABRIEL

  I knew she was dangerous but I didn’t think she’d be this hazardous to my life. There was so much I still wanted to do, no, needed to do in my life. And yet at this very moment, as I thrust my hard cock deeper into her wet pussy and heard the noises her body made, I knew I could die happily like this.

  “Harder!” she cried out as sweat rolled down my face and dripped onto her back.

  “Please…
please…” she begged and it was beautiful. She was…perfect. Her body, her voice, the look in her eye, everything.

  “Cum with me,” I said, hunching over her and grabbing on to her breasts. They bounced from the force. “Come on.”

  “Ohh!” she cried out and bit the side of her shoulder to keep from crying out more as I came inside her. We stayed like that a few seconds before I pulled out and collapsed beside her. Both of our chests rising and falling.

  “Jesus Christ,” I laughed, reaching up to rub my eyes. I’d fucked her so hard, I was seeing spots. I’d lost count how many times we’d done it. And what made it was worse, I still wanted her. It was like she was a drug; the more I had her, the more I wanted. If this was just the first night, how was I going to make it?

  She moved to rest on top of me and feeling her breast on my chest, I wanted to cry out in frustration, at being too tired to have her again.

  “Give me ten minutes,” I said, between breaths.

  “What are you made of?” she asked, and I opened my eyes to see her smiling down at me, her dark hair a beautiful wild mess on her head, a few strands even sticking to her face. “We’ve fucked four different ways already.”

  I frowned. “Only four? I must be out of shape.”

  She laughed softly, and I smiled at that, reaching up and brushing her hair off her face.

  “Why are you out of shape? Not enough women in Europe?” she asked.

  “Out of respect for my future princess, I’ve been out practice for the last ten months,” I said.

  “I haven’t,” she said without shame.

  I frowned at that. “Are you trying to make me jealous?”

  “No, just telling you the truth,” she said, drumming her fingers on my chest. “I can’t promise much more than that.”

  “What?”

  “I told you: I’m temperamental, prone to violence, and hostile to authority,” she smiled down at me. “I’ve never been able to see myself as a wife to anyone. I’ve never liked anyone to that extent. I always figured I’d marry for power, if I married at all… When that time came I’d tell my future-husband…you, not to expect too much from me. I’m loyal to those who are loyal to me. I will respect you if you respect me. And I’ll always be honest if you are honest with me.”

  “And if I love you?” I asked, bringing my thumb over her lips. “If I love you, will you love me?”

  She stared at me for what felt like forever, but I did not mind because it gave me an excuse to shamelessly look into her beautiful green eyes.

  “Yes.”

  I was shocked she had admitted that. “Yes?”

  “Yes,” she repeated, never looking away for me. “If you truly love me, respect me, and are loyal to me, in time, I will love you back.”

  She really was honest. So honest, I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “You weren’t expecting that answer?” she asked, rolling off me and lying beside me. “But loving people is easy even though it may not seem like it. But if two people are trapped on an island with only each other to rely on, they will fall in love. Attraction is important. But love… That comes from two people forming a bond. Knowing that one other person is always in your corner. Will always stand by you. Fight with you. Love is what happens when you are fully and brazenly able to trust and depend on another person.”

  I stared at her. No, I stared at her lips, beyond amazed by the words coming out of them.

  “What? You’re shocked, I think. Why?” She snickered. “Most people think because I’m so…”

  “Bitchy?” I offered, as she couldn’t seem to find the right word.

  “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
truth of present and future.

  It was my only option.

  TWENTY-FOUR

  “Some are born great,

  some achieve greatness,

  and some have greatness thrust upon them.”

  ~ William Shakespeare

  DONATELLA- 8 YEARS OLD

  “Do you feel better now, Super Dad?”

  “Do not start with me, Mel; I’m doing all I can not to—”

  “NOT TO WHAT?”

  My eyes snapped open and I rolled over in my bed…my bed?

  “Keep your voice down, she’s sleeping!” Daddy yelled.

  Rubbing my eyes, I sat up and looked over to Wyatt’s bed, but he wasn’t there.

  “You do this all the time, Liam! You are always undermining me!”

  “I apologize for not letting you lock our daughter—”

  “She was one room over, Liam!”

  “She was crying!”

  “SO WHAT?”

  “I will not tell you again. Lower your fucking voice, Melody!”

  “DO NOT BARK ORDERS AT ME!”

  Walking to their door, I looked through the tiny opening just as my mom’s hand made a fist. She stood on the other side, her whole body shaking.

  “You are always hard on her. She’ll grow up thinking you hate her. Worse, she might even hate you! For fuck’s sake, Mel, she doesn’t need to be —”

  “Strong? Independent? A Callahan?” she asked, looking up at him.

  “You know what I mean—”

  “Yes. I do. She’s girl. She’s your little princess. When she cries, it breaks your big soft heart. Fine! I won’t bother with her. You can keep her locked away, feed her ice-cream and cake all day. When she turns grows up, she’ll be the type of woman who gets used then thrown away; she’ll be like Natasha.”

  “Watch your mouth!”

  “Or what, it might say too much of the truth?”

  “Goddamn it, Mel!” Daddy raised his hands and balled his fists, but Mommy just crossed her arms like she did when she was waiting for us to get ready and we were late. “She’s eight; she’s already doing self-defense, you have her swimming before the sun is up, running before the sun goes down. Let her breathe! Let her enjoy something!”