A Sinner’s Truth (De Bellis Crime Family Book 5)
A Sinner’s Truth: Chapter 23

Have you ever felt like you’re going through the motions and not really living? That’s what I felt like I was doing. I did everything that was expected of me. I had a great life. But there was always something missing.

Until I met James. He filled a hole I didn’t even know was there until I met him. The nights I spend with him are magical. It’s as if we’re one person, so in sync. I can tell him anything and he just listens, doesn’t judge or try to order me around.

I know it’s wrong. What I’m doing to S is wrong, but I can’t stop. I don’t know how. The worst part is, he hasn’t even noticed I’m not around as much. S loves me. I know he does. But how can he love me if he doesn’t even notice I’m already gone?

I need to tell him. He’s really excited about the wedding, though. And every time I open my mouth to tell him what I’ve done, to tell him we need to end things, the words get trapped in my throat. I can’t break his heart. I do love him. I just don’t think I’m in love with him anymore.

Iclose the journal. “Fuck you!” I yell at the tombstone. I gave her my whole fucking life and she did this? I loved her. I thought I did everything right, and she was having an affair right under my fucking nose.

I’ve spent the last year and a half mourning a lie, missing a goddamn fucking lie. My whole life was a lie. For what?

“A fucking cop, Shelli?” I want to burn this fucking journal, but I can’t stop myself from reading all about how my fiancée fell in love with a goddamn pig in a uniform.

Gio said she was the reason Gabe got caught up in all that legal trouble. The reason my brother spent a year of his life behind bars. I don’t know what I did wrong. What the fuck didn’t I do for her?

We’d been together since we were teenagers. She was right, though. I never would have left my family. I’d never leave my brothers. I remember the few times she brought up running away together. I always thought she was joking. I never once believed she was seriously asking me to leave my family for her.

A body fills the space next to me. I don’t need to look to know it’s Aria. I don’t know how she found me. She shouldn’t be around me right now. “You need to leave. Go home, Aria.”

“Are you coming home with me?” she asks.

“No.” I can’t even look at her. I’m supposed to help this woman fake a marriage for the next twelve months. How the fuck can I do that if I couldn’t even keep my real fiancée happy?

“Then I’m good right here,” Aria says.

I’m staring at Shelli’s tombstone. The words ‘fiancée of Santo De Bellis’ taunt me. She wasn’t mine. If she was, she wouldn’t have fucked someone else. She wouldn’t have fallen in love with someone else.

“I can’t be what you need,” I tell Aria.

“You can’t or you won’t?” she asks me.

I turn and look at her. Her strawberry-blonde hair hangs loose over her shoulders. I reach up and tuck the strands behind her ear. So fucking soft. Her hair is always so fucking soft. “I will end up destroying you.” It’s the truth.

“Does it matter if you do? I mean, sometimes the journey that leads to the destruction is worth it,” she says. “It’s not always about the ending, Santo. Sometimes it’s about the beginning and the middle.”

I turn my attention back to the tombstone. “She had an affair,” I whisper. “With a fucking cop, and I didn’t know. Never suspected a fucking thing.”

“That’s not on you. You can’t control what other people do.”

Aria’s so fucking innocent and naïve. My whole world is about controlling what other people do. Making sure they all do exactly what I want them to do. “I should have known.”

“People do shitty things, Santo. I didn’t know Shelli, but I know you. And you’re a good person. Whatever she did isn’t a reflection of you. It’s on her,” Aria says.

I’ve let myself be consumed by guilt for the last couple of days because of the way I want Aria. I thought I was betraying Shelli. Joke’s on me I guess, because she broke us first. “You need to leave, Aria.”

“No.” She shakes her head from side to side.

“I’m trying to do the right thing here, darling. I need you to protect yourself, because I can’t protect you from myself,” I warn her.

“W-what do you mean? You’re not going to hurt me, Santo,” she says.

“No, I’m not. What I am going to do is pick you up, sit your pretty little ass on top of that grave marker, and fuck you like I’ve wanted to since the moment you fell into my lap,” I tell her.

Aria’s eyes widen. “You don’t mean that. You’re just trying to get me to leave,” she says.

“You have five seconds. If you don’t get up and walk away, I’m taking your staying as consent that you want me to fuck you right here, right now.”

“We’re in public,” she gasps while her eyes flick around.

It’s dark, and we’re in the middle of a cemetery. No one is going to see us. Not that I’d give a fuck if they did.

When Aria doesn’t move, I do. Picking her up and sitting her ass on top of the stone before spreading her legs open and stepping between them. My hand fists her hair, pulling on the strands to tilt her head backwards. I don’t let her think about what’s happening as I drop my lips onto hers. My tongue pushes into her mouth, and Aria’s arms wrap around my neck. She gives back every bit of the need I give her. I fucking love kissing her. I never liked kissing this much before.

I guide my hand up her thigh. “Are you wet for me, darling?” I ask while nibbling on her bottom lip.

“We shouldn’t do this here,” Aria says, doing nothing to stop me or push me away.

My fingers trail higher up her thigh. “But you want to—otherwise, you would have left when you had the chance,” I remind her. “Tell me, Aria, how wet am I going to find your cunt?”

She squirms, a little moan escaping her mouth when my fingers glide over the fabric of her panties.

“Soaked. You’re not just wet. You’re fucking soaked through. Is this for me? Or does the thought of anyone fucking you get you off?”

Her legs wrap around my waist as she tugs my body closer to hers. “It’s you. I don’t want people to see,” she says.

I move my hand underneath the seam of her panties, find her entrance, and push inside her. “Are you sure, darling? ʼCause this pussy is begging me to fuck it. I think you want someone to find us. You want someone to see me claiming you, fucking you, making you mine.”

Aria moans. She brings her lips back to mine and kisses me with a ferocity I’ve never known. “I need you,” she says.

Not nearly as much as I need you.

I don’t tell her that, though. Instead, I step aside, pull her panties down her legs, and tuck them into my back pocket. I need a souvenir to remember the first time I fucked her. Because sure as shit, this won’t be the last.

“Spread those thighs for me, darling. I want to see how hungry your cunt is for me.”

Aria opens her legs as wide as she can. Her bare pussy glistens back at me. There’s something fucking hot about seeing her spread open for me. Like this. Here, of all places. Makes me wonder where else she’d let me fuck her.

I smirk. I know this is wrong. In the back of my mind, I know it’s wrong to fuck my wife for the first time on my dead fiancée’s grave. It’s messed up, even for me. But then I remember she’s not just my dead fiancée. She’s the fucking cheating rat who threw me aside and hung me out to dry.

I undo my pants, freeing my cock before I stroke it. “Like what you see?” I ask, noting how Aria’s eyes are glued to my dick.

She licks her lips and nods. Fuck, now I want to fuck her mouth. But that can wait. Right now, I need to get inside her pussy. I need to make sure she—and everyone else—knows she’s mine. At least for the next twelve months.

Closing the gap, I line my cock up with her entrance. “There is no going back from this. Once I fuck you, you’re mine. For the next twelve months, you are mine,” I tell her.

“Make me yours,” she says.

I thrust inside her, bottoming out while her pussy clenches around me. Aria gasps. She’s so fucking tight I know my intrusion has to sting. So I still and wait for her to adjust to my size.

“Wait,” she says. “Condom.”

“You’re my wife. I’m not using a fucking condom.” I pull out and thrust inside her again.

“What if…?” she moans, her legs already tightening around my waist. “…pregnant…?” She’s not able to form a cohesive thought as I continue to pump in and out of her.

“If you don’t want to get pregnant, I suggest you get on birth control,” I reply while fucking her harder than I probably should, as I wrap my hand around her hair and pull her head back. “You are mine.” I grunt as I increase my thrusts. “My wife.”

“Yours,” she moans, her palms closing around my biceps and her fingers digging through the fabric of my shirt.

I continue to fuck her, hard, fast, rough, while reminding her that she’s mine. “I want you to come. Soak my cock, Aria. Show me that you belong to me.”

I’m going to come soon, but I won’t let myself lose control before she does. I need her orgasm.

“Oh, shit, Santo!” she screams, her moans echoing through the emptiness of the night. I hope they’re loud enough to wake the fucking dead. Because I want everyone to know what we’re doing. I want them all to know she’s mine. Dead or alive, I need them to know Aria De Bellis is fucking mine.

Her pussy tightens, choking my cock. Fuck, she feels good. And then she falls apart. My hands press into her back, holding her up as I thrust into her five more times before following her over that cliff.