Love is Just a Moment (5 page)

Authors: Taylor Hill

Tags: #New adult romance, #mafia, #mafia romance, #italy, #Crime, #gangster, #Thriller, #young adult, #love, #novella, #short story, #Italian, #Sicily, #Suspense, #Adventure, #action

BOOK: Love is Just a Moment

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“You’ve lost so much,” she said, “but now you’ve gained something once again. You’ve got me and if you want me then I’m yours. That is the universe Piero,
that’s
destiny. This is how it works.”

Still he would not look at her, still he struggled to hide the pain from his expression, and yet still he allowed her to pour her love and acceptance into him through her touch.

“Tell me you don’t want me,” she said, “tell me you don’t want to be with me, to get to know me and spend days and weeks and maybe even months and years together after this. Tell me that and I’ll go right now. Because truthfully, I have no desire to sit here and watch you doom yourself forever.”

Over their shoulder, Libano and his men burst forth into guffaws of hateful laughter and Piero’s mouth twitched with anger in response. Rebecca squeezed his hand tighter and now at last he squeezed back.

“My mother,” he said, his voice barely audible in the darkness of the night, “my father… everything is gone.”

“I know,” Rebecca whispered, “and I know that I can’t imagine how hard that must be but I promise you that if you want me I will be here for you. I’ll let you return to goodness again and leave all that rage and pain here where it belongs. Come with me, come with me back to Palermo and we can figure it out from there.”

His gaze drifted to her face and his deep brown eyes widened with such sorrow and pain and internal conflict. With all these forces raging inside of him it was no wonder that he couldn’t speak. But now they did not have the time to wait any longer. She would have to do something drastic.

“We have five minutes before the bus arrives,” Rebecca said, “I’m going to go wait for it and you can do whatever you believe is right. But remember what I said before, if you go to those men then I will never forgive you. I will never forget the joy, the brightness and the hope that might have been before you destroyed it all.”

She stood to her feet and tried to take her hand from his but he would not release her, he stared up at her with such anguish that she wished to embrace him with a fierceness that was almost violent, to crush the darkness that had impelled him here with such force and power that only love could remain. Above all, she wanted to kiss him, to taste his lips again and have them wipe out all thought of the outside world as they had done before. But she knew that she could not. Not now, at least, in this moment.

“
Rebecca…
” he whispered as she took his hand away.

Tears brimmed to the sides of her eyes but she fought them back. “No,” she said, “don’t even say goodbye to me. If you kill that man then you have no right to leave me now on any kind of good will. You will have destroyed me along with yourself.”

His hand lay limp on the table as she stepped away from him. She walked back across the courtyard, tears now streaming freely down her cheeks, but she did not look back even once as she returned to the street. The terror inside her begged her to return, to try to force him out of action with her presence, but she knew that she could not. This was the only way and her courage demanded it of her. Piero would have to decide for himself and if he did the wrong thing then she would never forget the pain he had forced her to endure. She was sure at least that he knew that now.

She walked back to the bus stop, a short distance that felt like miles with legs that seemed crafted from concrete. She walked back to the bus stop and there she waited.

The nights were warm in Sicily, balmy and soft as if the sky was a dark blanket that covered the world. Rebecca’s heart raced and the tears still fell but as they slowed and dried on her face she felt a kind of numbness take over her. It was as if there were simply no more emotions to drain from the well of her soul and an approximate sense of peace—one that held with it still the dull ache of anguish—began to fill her body. Now there were no thoughts, no words in her mind, it was just her and the bus stop and the night.

She did not turn to the sound of footsteps that she soon heard approaching from behind her. Instead she continued to look out at the brown and purple tapestry of the island at night, the twinkling lights of the towns and villages and houses below like a mirror to the ancient stars in the sky above. In the distance she heard the sound of garbled laughter from back at the café, carried and distorted on the wind as if the voices were ghosts from some distant age, long forgotten in the mists of the past. The footfalls slowed as they approached her, her breath catching in her chest as they stopped behind her. She felt a hand, soft but firm, reach out to take her own.

“I could not say goodbye to you,” Piero said, “my voice had disappeared. I could not bear to lose you, to live in that loss, even if it would only be for five more minutes on this earth.”

She turned as he pulled her gently around to face him, the guidance of his touch soft but determined.

“I couldn’t say it either,” she answered, looking up into his beautiful solemn gorgeous face which was, like hers, also streaked with the dust of tears that sparkled in the moonlight like the reflection it cast on the ocean. “You have to know that I don’t blame you, that I understand. What you’d been through…”

“I know,” he said and the smile that lit up his face banished all numbness, all anguish, all pain from her soul like the blinding light of the sun after winter, like a fresh sparkling oasis after miles and miles of aching desert. “And I cannot say goodbye to you now either,” he said, “I
will
not.”

Without thought, she threw herself into his arms, wrapping herself around his slender well-toned body, breathing in his cool, masculine smell, and squeezing, squeezing so tight that she almost felt like her body would meld into his from the force. He reached up underneath her flowing hair, caressed her back, his sparkling fingertips meeting the nape of her neck and driving sparks alive inside her. His soft, strong fingers gently brushed up her jawline, tilting her head as she leaned back with his guidance and then, instead of kissing, he simply looked down at her, his eyes into hers as she did the same back to him and, like that, the two just stared into each other, knowing each other, understanding each other, committing to each other now and for the long haul.

And finally, when she thought she couldn’t wait any longer, when every fiber of her body trembled for his taste and tongue and lips on hers, finally then he kissed her and darkness was banished forever from the night.

The bus was empty when they boarded and Piero told her that it was likely they would have it to themselves, or almost to themselves, all the way back to Palermo. They took to the backseats, as far from the driver as they could get, so that the two of them could be alone completely in each other’s company. Rebecca didn’t know what would happen next. She’d reserved a single bed at the hostel in Palermo but if Piero could not find one for himself then it would still be no concern. They would wander the night streets of the city together if needs be, watch the hot, forgiving Sicilian sun as it rose up at dawn and bathed the world in the light of the new day. Piero had nothing to leave behind here and back in Naples she did not either have much for them to wait for. But now she had him and he had her and wherever they went from now on they would have all they could ever need.

They sat at the back of the bus in darkness as it bounced and rumbled over the bumps on the road, Piero caressing her side with one hand, while with the other he toyed gently with her hair, whispering closely in her ear about the sights and sounds hidden in the darkness outside. The heat of his breath on her ear and the poetry of his words imbued her and she thought for a moment about how she had climbed these same hills only hours earlier, how she had found exactly what she’d been looking for at the top of the mountain and how even then she couldn’t have imagined just what that would be. Now they were together and for the first time in her life she felt strong, she felt whole—she felt complete. This was life and at last she was ready to live it.

Romeo of the Streets

A new adult romance/Mafia crime thriller novel by Taylor Hill

(Free Sample)

You can’t run from who you are…

Sandy Guilianno is just like any average girl—a committed student, a hard-working barista and the only stable presence in the life of her wayward brother and aging, hospitalized mother—and now that she’s escaped the rough Italian American neighborhood she grew up in for college, she feels certain she can finally leave the past behind and get on with her life. But the past has a way of repeating itself.

When Sandy’s brother Lou gets involved with the local Mafia, Sandy is torn between wanting to escape the forces that dominated their early life and the desire to protect him--and the fact that he’s started dating her best friend only makes it more complicated. But when Sandy meets Lou’s new partner in crime, the brooding, mysterious Romeo Mancini, she finds herself inexplicably drawn closer to the heart of their criminal underworld…

Romeo Mancini is not what he seems. Fresh out of New York and working with the Chicago FBI, the young undercover cop has escaped his own troubled past, only to find himself embroiled in more danger and deceit than anyone should bear. He keeps his head down and stays focused on his goal, but he wasn’t counting on Sandy Guilianno…

From the moment they meet, a spark is lit. Mutual desire and attraction grow into something neither can repress and now everything they’ve worked for in their separate lives is at risk. And the forces of darkness are already closing in.

Published by Choco Lune Imprint 2014

This sample of
Romeo of the Streets
is for example purposes only and may not be copied, shared or re-sold without prior written permission from the author or publisher. To buy the full book in .mobi format visit Amazon, or to request the .epub edition email the author at
[email protected]