Claimed By The Mafia Don (Ariella and Asher) novel Chapter 280

ARIELLA

“I’m sorry. I know how much you loved Dominic,” I say, taking his hand.

“It’s fine,” he says. “.... I know it's not fine, but it’s not like there’s anything I can do.”

“Yeah, I know,” I murmur, “but I can see it still hurts you, and it pains me to see you like this, to watch you go through this. I want you to know that I wasn’t close to Dominic. I didn’t know him. But if you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here.”

“Thanks,” he says quietly. His thumb brushes over my knuckles.

“The only thing that I keep thinking about…” His voice falters, then steadies. “I loved him enough to have let him be with Dinara....even forever, if he had chosen to. Even if he had wanted to be with her and start q family, maybe I could have found a way for the two of them to be together, if it was real. But he knew Dinara was playing him. I gave him a chance to save himself…”

I hold his hand tighter. “If there’s any part of you that feels guilty for his actions, I just want you to know that he was an adult, and he knew what he was doing. That was his brother’s wife.... He made his decision."

" I can’t erase it. It hurts,” he confesses.

He looks at me, and my tears slip free, hot against my cheeks.

“Thank you for being here,” he says softly. “Thank you for understanding. Thank you.”

“No, thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you for being honest.”

“Of course,” he said softly. “I have to be honest. We’re going to begin a new chapter, and we can’t go through the next chapter without closing the past chapter, right?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “You’re right.”

He exhaled slowly, his thumb tracing circles against my hand. “So, before this thing ends, before we started the new day, I thought I would come clean about everything.”

“Thank you for trusting me and for telling me the truth about everything,” I whispered. My chest tightened, and tears threatened to fall, but I held them back. “I’m just so…"

I felt them coming, and I held them strong. "....I’m sorry. I don’t feel good about what happened to you and your wife. But…”

Before he found me, I had always thought that one day he would. That he would find me, and he would find our son. And then… we would go home. The three of us would be a family. I never even cared where home would be. As long as I had him. As long as we had each other.

“And I’m sorry that it had to take people dying for us to be together. But I’m so glad we’re together.”

He pulled me toward him. I didn’t sit on his lap exactly, but nestled between his legs, my back against him, my head resting on his chest. He started caressing my hair, slow and steady.

I froze. “Not yet?”

“Yeah.” His lips curved into a small, almost sad smile. “I want this. I want us to be close. I want to feel you against me, hear your heartbeat, touch you… But that’s as far as we go tonight. No clothes coming off. Not now..... Not tonight.”

I bit my lip, a mix of disappointment and understanding washing over me.

“Okay,” I whispered, even though I had no idea why he wanted that. Why did he say that?

Maybe he still wasn't over his brother's death. I am sure he must have been so tired, given everything that happened.

He kissed the top of my head again, letting his hands move slowly over my back, his touch light and warm.

“I want this night to be about us. About feeling each other, being together. We’ll have all the time in the world later for what you want. For now… just this. Is that okay?”

I nodded, snuggling closer into him. My hands traced the lines of his chest and shoulders, and he mirrored me, letting his fingers wander over my hair and arms. We just lay there, pressed together, breathing in the firelight, the sound of the waves outside, the quiet hum of the hotel around us.

I smiled against his chest, feeling a calm I hadn’t felt in months. And even though I wanted more, I was okay with this. He was here, our son was next door, and I had everything I ever wanted.