CHAPTER 15: KING OF HELL

HAVEN'S POV

I heard a knock, and I almost jumped up to a sitting position, but a hand pressed gently on my back to hold me down. I couldn't do anything except lean back against Allessio's bare chest, which I used as my pillow throughout the night.

"Lascia il cibo fuori."

Since I don't understand Italian, I thought he told whoever was outside to enter. But to my relief, the door remained closed.

"We should get up," I whispered.

We haven't left the room since yesterday. That's no exaggeration. We literally haven't step foot outside the room even once. At first, he told me he has somewhere to go, but in the end, he ended up turning off his phone and throwing it inside his drawer so it would stop ringing.

Maybe someone was delivering food again, and he told them to leave it outside. Yesterday I woke up with food already prepared and waiting for us.

He let out a groan and moved. But instead of getting up, he just turned to me, wrapped his arms around me, and held me in a tight embrace. He buried his face on my neck, his strong legs tangled with mine on the sheet.

The day before was... well, eventful. We haven't really gone all the way, but if the things he made me experience already managed to push me towards the edge of my sanity, I think a much-needed preparation must be done if I'm going to do that with him.

"Are you perhaps using me as an excuse to skip work today?"

"I don't have an eight-to-five job, gattina."

"Yeah. You work for far more hours than that," I said with a roll of my eyes.

He lifted his head to look at me. "And you don't like that?"

I chewed the inside of my cheek, but I didn't answer. But it was enough for him to understand.

Allessio seems to enjoy the fact that I hate that he's out to work for unbelievably long hours. Sometimes he gets home early, but mostly he returns late at night. Especially during those times that we were still avoiding each other. Technically, he was the one avoiding me first.

"Alles—"

"I'm not using you as an excuse," he said, answering my first question. "I never miss a day to go do what I have to do. From a very young age, I was already aware of my responsibility as the next capo since I'm the son of one of the most powerful men in Italy. Tardiness is not something I ever entertained in my life. Except when I woke up today and I found this beauty sleeping peacefully in my arms."

I felt my cheeks redden. Allessio has a way with words, and he knows how to sweep me off with it. If I'm going to add the way he is with actions, then he's like a prince in a fairy tale. Except instead of bringing flowers, he's bringing orgasms.

That's why sometimes, even though I have so many questions for him, I forget them in an instant because I get overwhelmed by the things he says and does.

Before I got swept away again, I decided to push him on his shoulder, which took him by surprise. His eyebrow quirked when I lean to him, so he's back to lying on the bed while half of my body is on top of him.

Fire flickered in his eyes when his gaze dropped to my naked breasts, partially hidden by my hair. He reached for it as if he couldn't help but be drawn by them, but I lightly slapped his hand, which made him look back at me.

"Most people that act as petulant as you around me usually lose a body part."

I rolled my eyes. "We both know that you don't want to lose any parts of my body as much as I do."

The corner of his lips went up. "That's true."

I sighed. He's doing it again. He's so good at distracting me that I always end up finding myself forgetting about what I really want for him in the first place. Because he keeps introducing other things to me that I end up wanting more.

I flattened my hand on his wide chest. "I have something to ask you."

He pushed my long hair aside and placed it behind me so he could better stare at me.

"Allessio."

"Hmm?" he said, only partially listening.

Sighing, I gathered my hair on my front so it's hiding the view he's obviously enjoying but he just swipe them away again. This man. Seriously. "Daddy!"

Surprisingly, I managed to instantly capture his attention with just that. The word seem to have a strong sway to him the way his words and actions do to me. "Yes, gattina?"

"I said, I have a question."

"Ask away then." He raised my hand and kissed the tips of my fingers. "You can ask me anything."

"And you'll always answer honestly?"

He considered my question for a moment. "If it's about my work, there are things I can't say, baby."

Allessio sounded so careful, as if he didn't want to upset me with his answer. Honestly, the secrecy didn't really bother me. It's common sense that there are a lot of things in his work that needed to be kept confidential.

"It's not about your work. Well, it depends if your work is one of the reasons why you were avoiding me before." His eyebrow arched and I shrugged. "That's my question. Why were you really avoiding me that time? Was it really just because I was too young for you?"

"Wasn't that enough reason?" he returned.

"I just don't understand why it should be a problem."

"I'm thirteen years older than you. That's frowned upon by a lot of people. I was trying my hardest to stay away from you because it felt like the right thing to do. Besides my age, my life is not exactly clean, and you know that. Between the two of us, you will be giving up a lot more things than I would."

"I'm nineteen, Allessio. Not nine. I know that I come off as an airhead, but I'm not completely stupid—"

"You're not an airhead."

I ignored him. "You didn't force me to do anything. You didn't groom me, muddle my brain, or force me to become yours. All the things we did were with my consent because if I didn't want those things to happen, I would have made you stop, and I'm sure that you would have listened."

"Of course—"

"I can't change my age. I can't change yours. That fact will always be here with us, and people will talk. But who cares? It's not like I'm the first person who became attracted to someone older. And Allessio, only the dead will not be attracted to you. Even an elderly woman with dentures will strip off her clothes if you ask her to."

Laughter rumbled in his chest. "I don't think I like that imagery, gattina."

I gave him a look at that only made him smile more. "The thing about your life... I can't say that I'm not bothered by it." The laughter in Allessio's eyes died down, and I sighed. "I hate what my parents did, and I understand that you're not like that. But I admit that the illegal aspect of your life still makes me worried."

"That's because you're a good person," he murmured gently.

"Not really. It wasn't out of righteousness but more out of selfishness. You have a dangerous job, Allessio. That part scares me."

His eyes search my face. "I'm good at what I do."

"I'm not saying you're not." I squeezed his hand that is still holding mine. "All I'm saying is you're not making me give up anything. You're the one who's giving me a lot. You saved me from a dangerous situation, and since that night, I'm waking up to a day better than that and a year before that. If people will talk about us, they should talk about me. You could have had better, and yet you're here with me, who have nothing to offer you."

"Sei tutto, gattina. You're everything to me."

"But for the eyes of others, it was me who got more. It's me who got lucky, don't you think?"

"No. Definitely not. I'm the lucky one here," he insisted stubbornly.

"Then that's it. We can't control what other people will think." I feel like I'm answering the lingering questions at the back of my mind. There's still a part of me that still wants to doubt what we have, one that wants to question if it could really be more than the physical attraction we have for each other. "We can only control what we think. Yes, one could argue that I was like a princess who became a pauper only to get saved by a prince—or in your case, a king."

I rolled my eyes again when he didn't seem satisfied by the title. "King of hell," I clarified. "But it's not like you're spoiling me like the past year didn't happen."

"I would love to spoil you—"

"But you also made sure that I wouldn't relapse to the old me by strapping me into more skills training than I could count. You didn't just make my life better. You also made me better."

He cupped my cheek, and he lean down to kiss my nose. "I made you better?" He put a hand on my chin and tipped my head back so that I could meet his eyes. "That wouldn't last, gattina. Soon, I'll corrupt you. There's no way I can make you mine without that happening."

My lips were almost brushing with his when I whispered, "Then do it."

"Do it? Bring you to hell with me? Are you really ready for that?"

Before I could lose my confidence, I put my leg on each side of his hips to straddle him. I bit my lower lip when I felt the hardness of his length rubbing against my already heated core. "Didn't you know, Daddy? I'm already on my way."

"Then you'll sit on the throne next to me," he nipped my lower lip. "As my queen."

His face descended towards me again but before our lips met again, we heard a sound of knocking. With cheeks turning red, I slid off his body, wanting to escape from the embarrassment but he just pulled me back to him.

Giving me a quick kiss, he stood up on his feet. My face heated again, but this time it was for a completely different reason.

I couldn't help but watch him as he walked to the door without a single stitch of clothing on him. His confidence is on the next level, and who could blame him? I don't think there's a part of him that is not perfect. Even his buttcheeks could cause worldwide jealousy.

He opened the door without hesitation, and I stood up when I remembered that we weren't the only ones in the house. Pulling a blanket over me to cover my front, I grabbed a discarded towel on the sofa to give it to him, but before I could approach him, he was already heading towards me while holding a tray full of food.

His brow furrowed when he saw me. He transferred the tray to one hand so he could push the door close with the other. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Giving you a towel."

"Go back to bed. Now."

I wanted to argue, but I decided not to. I went back to bed, and it wasn't long before he joined me again.

"I just wanted to give you the towel to cover yourself."

"No one will care if they see me naked." He glowered at me. "But I care if anyone sees you in this state."

"I'm covered!"

"Barely."

I let out a startled squeak when he yanked the blanket away. "Allessio!"

He tweaked my nipple that instantly hardened at his touch. I gasped, but his hand continued a descent downwards until he reached the area between my legs.

"This is all mine, gattina. If anyone else other than me had a glimpse of this, I'd gouge their eyes out."

I threw the towel at him, which he quickly caught. "Then cover yourself too," I hissed and pointed at little Allessio— or rather, monster Allessio. "That's mine."

A sound that is near a growl came out of him. I let out a shriek when he suddenly pulled my legs resulting for me to fell back onto the bed.

"W-What are you doing?" I asked him.

Instead of answering me, he took the small pitcher from the tray that is full of chocolate syrup, and he dipped a finger on it. I watch him bring his finger coated with chocolate to his mouth, and another part of me quivered at the sight.

"What am I doing?"

I gasped when he took the pitcher and tilted it right above me. The chocolate syrup trickled down, coating my skin with its sticky sweetness.

He grinned, meeting my eyes as he lowered himself towards my body. "I'm having breakfast."