Breaking Midnight (Il Paradosso Series Book One)

Chapter forty-five

Love is love.

It may come at an unconventional timing and hit like a tornado, spinning at three-hundred miles per hour. It swipes you off of your feet and holds you up at a dangerous height, while defying the course of gravity.

It's a chemical imbalance that appears in its Godly form, covered in beauteous ink and flawless features that ameliorate the darkness it brings with itself, while blurring the lines of reason.

But how do you resist such a powerful feeling, when its force draws in the weakest parts of your meddled ardor and darkest desires?
And you accept it, despite its bent wings and burning aura, which holds the aroma of a combination between sweet heaven and damning hell.

The devil was once an angel, so they say.

My eyes wandered freely over his bare chest as it swelled and drew back in, with his arm draped across the relaxed muscles of his abdomen.
I remained still, listening to his faint breathing that held a steady rhythm, his eyelashes rested calmly over the mirrors of his soul.

I wondered if he was dreaming of me.

Finally retracting my eyes from the riveting view, I untangled myself from the sheets and walked up to the lengthy mirror. Pulling my satin top up, I turned to the side, examining my flat belly, while wondering how it was going to stretch enough to make room for the tiny embryo growing inside. It would gradually develop into a human form.

The ringtone from my cell phone startled me and I hurried over to where the sound was coming from, unable to locate it under the clothing items that were sprawled across the sofa.

I heard stirring from behind me and a low grunt, followed by a string of profanities in Italian. "Turn that fucking thing off."

Oh, well. Not much of a sleeping beauty. More like a resting beast.

"Sorry," I whispered as I located the target and pressed on the side buttons, quickly turning the volume down.

It was Emma. Why was she calling at such an ungodly hour? I retreated to the bathroom, not to bother the grumpy Italian who had now flipped onto his stomach, his butt partially uncovered and peeking out from under the cover.

"Hello?" I answered in a semi-whisper and immediately flinched at the booming voice coming from the other end of the line.

"Jenny, is that you?"

"Yes, honey! We just landed and thought it would be great to all have breakfast together! You and I have some talking to do, missy! You haven't called or texted for a year, and now Emma tells me that you are living with your boyfriend in a billionaire mansion! What happened to telling Mom everything? Where's my little girl? And what have you done with her!"

My goodness, my ears were bleeding. I had to hold the phone away from my head so it wouldn't explode. Emma's mother had always had a loud voice, even in the early hours of the morning, which used to annoy the shit out of Emma and I when she'd wake us up for school.
But she was the closest mother figure to me I had ever had. Therefore, I loved her to death. I felt a wave of emotions wash over me as I listened to her voice again for the first time in nearly a year.

"I'm sorry, Jenny. I meant to call but I just-"

"Let's talk over food, OK? Be here in an hour and that's an order!"