Forbidden Deception (Deception)

33

L ove is twisted.

Love is sick and ruins everything.

Love is submission and defeat.

Love is…a person.

Sitting next to me.

“Wait. So all this time you actually hated the smell of coffee but knew how to make it?” Eiran says, sipping his water.

I nod, cutting through the steak Rafael’s father made for dinner.

His father has been looking at me ever since I walked through the door. I don’t think he hates me or doesn’t like me. I think he’s trying to decide who I am and if I’m right for his son.

I understand his hesitance. His son is a very successful business tycoon, like my brother.

But I am no gold digger.

“Yeah, isn’t it crazy how well I make it? I genuinely didn’t think I was good until my brother told me to leave exact instructions of how I made his coffee before I moved here.” I laugh, shaking my head.

I’m sure he stuck the Post-it note on his fridge and has Isabella, his cook, make it for him.

“I would love to taste this famous coffee,” Steve, Rafael’s father, says, his eyes soft.

He looks like an older version of Rafael. His head is full of white hair, and wears a stern look on his face, but there is an unmistakable sadness in his eyes that is reflected in every man in this family.

“You got it.” I wink at him, making him laugh.

“You are exactly as Sierra was, carefree and impulsive, never afraid of those in power. I have heard quite a few stories from Mikko and Eiran about you,” he comments with a teasing glint in his eyes.

“Oh, have you?” I eye Mikko, who is suddenly interested in his food, and Liya bursts out laughing.

Liya is a beautiful runway model. She’s very popular and has walked in fashion shows in New York, Paris, and Milan, though she is taking a break at the moment to look after Jasmine.

With slicked-back hair and a red dress and tights, Liya looks every bit of the sophisticated, high-society woman she is with Mikko at her side.

“Venezia, he has accepted defeat in front of you,” Liya comments, her eyes on her husband, who places a kiss on cheek. Mikko can’t keep his hands to himself around his wife, and my heart warms.

“You might have to win me over with a bribe or something.” Eiran points his fork at me.

“Oh, shut it. You are easy to bribe. It doesn’t even need to be anything extravagant,” Khyros says.

Khyros is the quietest brother. Tonight he’s wearing an oversized black hoodie and sweatpants. While Mikko is a bit bulkier, Khyros is the one packing the most muscles. He needs them for his boxing career.

“I want—”

A hand lands on my thigh, and I throw Rafael a glare, but he’s taking a sip of his water. He looks so calm, like there’s nothing out of the norm for him. He’s enjoying the little game he’s playing with me. I turn back to his family, trying to ignore the heat of his palm on my leg.

Rafael’s presence feels consuming. Ignoring him is mission impossible. How could I? This man has been on my mind day and night. His touch makes me forget about everything. He cherishes me like I am his one and only. How could I ignore him when he sits beside me in his home while they joke with and dote on me like this?

Khyros has warmed up to me, and I can’t let anyone down.

“Don’t worry. We won’t judge. You can continue.” Liya smiles warmly at me while Mikko watches his daughter take a spoonful of rice.

“I wanted to actually know how you two met,” I say.

Liya lights up at the question.

Jasmine giggles and grins up at her father, who visibly melts at the sight.

“I have a question,” Eiran asks, sitting upright.

I turn to him.

“Are you here as his assistant or his girlfriend?”

My smile drops.

“Great question, Eiran…” Rafael sighs, shaking his head.

The question makes everyone perk up, including Khyros, the brother who is too quiet yet incredibly observant.

“Wondering the same, actually,” Khyros mutters.

“Can I have that? Please?” Jasmine points at the sparkling water in Khyros’s glass, and he just hands it over.

The sight makes me miss Aurora and Lavinia. I haven’t seen them in so long, and I just want to hug Lavinia and kiss her all over.

“Well?” Khyros turns to me again, and I swallow, casting a curious glance at Rafael. He’s literally sitting there, a smile on his face. Why is he not saying anything?

I hold my breath, not knowing exactly how to answer. What if I get this all wrong? Rafael has been very open about what he wants from me, and that is something long term. He’s not doing this for the sake of doing it.

But it doesn’t matter. The small doubt that someday he may not want me, that he might leave me, haunts me. I shouldn’t feel like just because of my parents, nor should I let it define my future relationships, but I can’t help it.

I keep thinking that after this is all over, he won’t look back. He won’t come back to me.

“Khyros, Eiran, you both know the answer to that, don’t you? So stop grilling Venezia and get on with your food,” Rafael finally answers, easing the knots in my chest.

My phone buzzes on the table.

Pushing away Rafael’s hand, I pick it up off the table and see a green heart emoji.

“Could you please excuse me? I have to take this call.”

They smile and nod.

I walk past the grand kitchen, the three living rooms, and into the hallway with four toilets on either side of the hallway.

I shut the door behind me and open the message.

Helia: I got the software going. It’s on now.

My phone drops out of my hand and hits the floor with a loud crash.

No. I forgot I told him and Remo that I am in Rafael’s family home, and Helia has started to break down their most powerful security defences.

I shake my head, but I can’t stop this now.

Remo and Helia will want an explanation when they wanted for this for so long. We worked so hard for this. I can’t shut down the operation because of my feelings.

Shivers take over my whole body.

I look at the mirror. I’m pale and wide-eyed. My relationship with Rafael is now on a timer. Helia will find an in and discover where Rafael has hidden his incriminating files, then he’ll destroy them, and Rafael will know.

Rafael has all this AI technology in his home because he protects everything around him. He has a deep-seated need to protect himself and his family, and I will be the one to be his undoing.

My breaths turn into short pants, and dizziness steals my balance.

Cold sweat breaks out on my back.

No.

What will I do? How will I tell Rafael?

I don’t know what to do or how to convince my brother to cancel the plan.

A knock interrupts my thoughts.

“Venezia? Are you okay?”

Rafael.

He’s here. He’s worried about me.

And here I am, destroying him.

“Y-Yes, I just…”

“Open the door.” It isn’t a request.

With shaky hands, I unlock the door, and he walks in, shutting it softly behind him.

As soon as he sees my state, his face hardens, his eyes narrow, and he reaches for me instantly.

“Are you okay? What happened?” He looks all over my face, his hand running over my cheek, over my brows, and brushing back a few strands of my hair.

I dressed up today for him in a short black dress with long sleeves and an open back. My hair is down in waves, and gold jewellery decorates my ears, throat, and wrists.

He loves it when I let my hair down.

“Rafael, I…” My own voice betrays me; so I shut my eyes tightly, holding onto his arm with trembling hands.

Rafael bends down and picks me up, then carries me from the bathroom.

“What are you doing?” I say. “Rafael, your family is here. Put me down,” I hiss, tapping his shoulder.

He shakes his head. “Not when my love is in a frantic state like this.”

My hand falls limp at his words, and nausea swamps me.

My love.

He called me my love .

“What did you just call me?” I whisper, leaning into him, forgetting everything except what he just said.

Rafael stops and turns to me.

He takes my breath away.

The streaks of grey in his hair are the sexiest thing I have seen. His chocolate-brown eyes always manage to hypnotise me, and I adore the smile he often graces me with.

“I meant what I said.” His voice lowers. “You are my love.”

His eyes watch me, his brow crinkling, a holding a hopeless look on his face like he wants me to truly understand what he means. He is trying to make me read his emotions that are very clearly written across his face.

“So is that what you’re going to be calling me from now on? You haven’t even asked me to be your girlfriend yet.” I lift a brow, my hand diving into his hair at his nape.

His eyes flutter, and he takes a shaky breath. “You need validation like that? You need me to spell out what you mean to me?”

I tilt my face.

He starts walking again.

“I’ve introduced you to my family. I’ve let you into my home. I kiss you and want to be in your presence every minute of the day, and you don’t think I have given you a label?”

Rafael slowly lowers me to the floor, and I notice that we are in a bedroom, possibly his.

“Who am I to you, Venezia?” He rests his forehead against mine, his hands on either side of my hips.

I smile.

Leaning up on my tiptoes, I press a quick kiss to his lips and loop my arms around his neck. Then I start slow dancing with no music.

“You are my heart, my home, my warmth, my lover, my everything.” I nudge his nose with mine with a grin.

Rafael shuts his eyes for a second, as if soaking in my words. He opens them again and this time they twinkle. How? How does he look so much more in love? Like he has never been this in love, like he has never shown this much emotion.

“And you?” I throw his question at him with a tilt of my head.

We rock back and forth, slowly rotating. We still have no music, but Rafael goes with the flow.

“You are my love, my only love, my first and last, my beginning and my end. If doom were ever spelled out for a man like me, it would come in the shape of you.” His lips land on mine.

We both start smiling during the kiss and end up laughing. Our teeth clash until we are broken apart by our own happiness.

“Don’t you fucking ever question what you mean to me,” Rafael mutters against my lips. “I trust you, and trust doesn’t come so easily for me, Venezia. I told you my step-mother doubted me. She went behind my back to try to pull me apart. She went to extreme lengths to push me off the board team for Gustav Industries. I had no idea and never doubted her until I finally discovered her deception. Everyone knows that, and it’s why I have so much damn security.” His brows pinch.

The sight of his pained face makes me curl my hands around his waist. I wish she were alive. I wish she was here so I could give her a taste of her own bitter words and actions. To doubt your son so much that you were willing for him to lose everything…

“I trust you. You’ve won it all, and there is just nothing left for me to give you because you have taken it all. So no, Venezia, there should be no doubt about who you are to me.” He leans back, creating a couple of inches of space between us and then his eyes drop to my body.

“My…My own mother and father gave me up and put me in an…foster home.”

Rafael reels back like he’s been slapped in the face.

His hands drop from my body, and the frown on his face turns thunderous. He looks ready to commit murder.

“I was nine years old when I found out that I wasn’t going to a new school but to a foster home, where the other children were also left by their parents because they were no longer wanted.”

I thought it would be hard to talk about my past. I thought I would hyperventilate, that I would shake and stutter, but I’m surprisingly okay.

The look on Rafael’s face should scare me, considering how dangerous he can be, but I’m not fearful of him.

“I haven’t said anything except that one time it spilled out of me. I just couldn’t muster up the courage to admit to you that my parents didn’t want me for whatever reason, though that reason became clear once Re—my brother told me our parents had been using me as leverage against him. He took full revenge on them. He took what was mine and gave it back to me, which was my life, my opportunities, my future… He never, not once, let me go.” Emotion chokes me to the point I can’t speak.

My hands shake, and tears drip from my eyes, but I can’t stop. Everything I’ve bottled up for four years spills out of me in a torrent. I couldn’t stop it, even if I wanted to.

“My parents kept changing my location—different schools, different foster homes—and yet my brother was there, reassuring me in his own way. So how could I forget? How could I ever think that no one wants me when my brother tried everything in his power to find me for over a decade? It gets to me, you know? Wondering the real reason they didn’t want me. Maybe I was too difficult to handle. Maybe…maybe I wasn’t what they wanted. Maybe they wanted a boy.” I look up through blurry vision to find a pained look on Rafael’s face.

“You want me. You were so clear about your desire for me. So open. So…perfect. I have fallen just as hard. I never knew you would mean so much to me, that you would show me a side of you that was perfectly made for me. And the trust you have given me…” I wipe the tears from my eyes. “I cherish it. I truly do. We both have a twisted past, but we can find solace in each other. I always have, and will always be, your biggest cheerleader, and all you have to do is stay by my side.”

Grabbing his hand, I lift to my chest, where my heart pounds hard enough to burst through my chest.

“Feel that?” I smile through the tears.

Rafael, the most problematic, the most cunning man in the United Kingdom, has my heart.

“It’s beating this fast for you.”

Rafael stands there for a beat. His eyes honed in on his hand on my chest. He doesn’t look away from my beating heart. In fact, he seems dangerously still. The powerful shadows that often wrap around him are nowhere to be seen, and the overwhelming aura of his presence is more prominent than ever.

“You can’t take this back, Venezia.” His deep voice carries around the room.

“I won’t.”

He finally lifts his eyes, and they could put Remo’s ice cold ones to shame right now.

Rafael looks ready to conquer. He is ready to take what is his and never let go. I can see it in the determination in his eyes.

Looping an arm around my waist, he pulls me against him. “Now, can I please fuck you?”

My brows shoot up, but his expression doesn’t change. In fact, it darkens to the point where I don’t recognise him for a second. It’s a crazy contrast from him saying please to his crude, unfiltered request.