Angel’s Trumpet by Sem Thornwood

“You sure you don’t want to come? We are gonna go to Vista afterward.” Dakota said for the hundredth time. They were going to have cocktails at her and Jagger’s house. I still didn’t know what their deal was, but they were living together, and Jagger was very obviously in love with her.

I actually loved hanging out with them and going dancing sounded fantastic. Yet, I had plans for the day. “I can’t. I am meeting Sal.”

Even though none of my friends other than Nate met him in person, all of them knew Sal was my husband. Dakota was actually very eager to meet him because she thought he was being mysterious. I thought she had problems with not knowing things.

Despite her playfulness, she was truly a pure-hearted person.

“Tell him to come!” she encouraged.

I shook my head as we walked out of the building. “We are going out to dinner with the twins.” She also knew who the twins were.

I was actually not very eager to celebrate finishing my first year in university, but Sal and the twins insisted. I was still a little too careful around them. It had been a little longer than one month since the Russians attacked our house, but Verona only recently returned to her old self. She still felt off, but I was grateful anyway.

For a week, she didn’t let me in her room, and every time my heart broke a little more. She refused to say anything to anyone but Valerio. He even slept in her bed every night that week. After that, she let me in, and some nights, I slept with her.

I asked her if she wanted to talk, but she said no.

I asked if she wanted to talk to a professional, and she said yes. Thank God.

She was going to her therapist twice a week now, but at home, she wanted us to act like it never happened. Valerio seemed like he got over it. Maybe Sal was right. Killing Ricci gave him closure. I wished I could give Verona the same.

“You know I really want to meet him,” Dakota murmured, pulling me away from my thoughts. It was probably for the best. There was no point in drowning in my worries. We were a family, and we were going to get over this one way or another.

Sal must be already here. As my eyes searched for his car, I saw something even better. Sal walking towards me with all his glory. God, sometimes I still had a hard time believing this handsome man was my husband. His long form, broad shoulders, those perfect green eyes, and his magnificent dimples were enough to steal any girl’s heart. Luckily the only heart he was interested in was mine.

“This must be your lucky day, Dakota,” I said as Sal got closer and closer to us. My eyes never left his. His presence was like a magnet for my attention. I could never look somewhere else.

Dakota followed my gaze to Salvatore. “Holy shit, that is your husband?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Dude, I was not expecting him to be this hot.”

If someone else said that, I might get offended, but I knew Dakota, so I only laughed. It was only natural that she acknowledged how handsome he was. Everyone in the street was doing the same anyway. I didn’t look at them, but I knew they did.

When we reached each other, Sal immediately wrapped a possessive arm around my waist and pulled me to him for an even more possessive kiss. I was actually not the one to share a very passionate kiss in public, but when his lips were on mine, everything else just faded to the background. It was like magic.

“I thought you were going to wait in the car,” I whispered to his lips when he pulled back.

He grinned, and his eyes went to my back. “Wanted to meet your friends.”

I rolled my eyes as he fitted me under his arm. It had nothing to do with security. After what he did in the warehouse, Zakharov was no thread at all. He lost a lot of power.

Sal had some problem with Riccis, but since Duran committed treason, there was nothing they could say to defend their father. They also couldn’t say anything when Sal gave Bianca’s custody to Franco.

I tried not to blush at Dakota and Jagger’s wide-eyed gazes. I simply pointed them. “Sal, these are my friend from school, Dakota and Jagger.” Then I pointed to Sal. “This is my husband, Salvatore.”

Sal gave them his million-dollar smile – one with dimples and stuff – and extended his hand. “Nice to meet you. Mia talks about you a lot.”

Dakota snorted. “Well, she doesn’t talk about you enough.” When I widened my eyes at her, she just made a thumbs-up sign to me while Sal was shaking Jagger’s hand.

“I was trying to convince Mia to go to Vista,” Dakota blurted out. She was really trying. I guessed that was cute.

“Sadly, we have to be bad hosts this time. We have other plans for the night.” Thank God he didn’t do anything to imply our plans included a lot of fucking. He was probably aware I wouldn’t appreciate his alpha acts now.

Jagger’s brows came together, and he asked. “Host?”

Sal’s amused gaze turned to me with the question, “You keep secret from your friends, huh?”

I was not keeping secrets. It just didn’t come up.

I beat him to it and answered. “Sal owns Vista.”

“We own Vista,” he softly growled.

Both of their eyes widened again. What was so shocking? They already knew I was rich.

“How come you never said it?” Dakota chirped.

Okay didn’t want to have this conversation right now. I pulled Sal towards the building. “We need to go. Just put the bill on my name tonight. We will talk later.” Then I left them there standing.

Despite his laughter, Sal followed me. He found my efforts to seem normal very funny. According to him, there was no way for me to look like an ordinary girl because I was exquisite. Well, I didn’t agree but also didn’t fight him on the matter because how could I when he said such a thing to me?

“You know our car is on the other side.” He loved the use that word. Our. He said, it added value to everything.

“I know. I want to show you something,” I said as I led him to the school. There were not many people left since we finished the brutal final week. In art school, it worked in a different way, but it was still very nerve-wracking to listen to people judging your art in every way possible.

Thank God I got a good grade.

Sal followed without protest. So calm, so casual. I loved being like this with him. Like we were a normal couple.

Of course, I didn’t tell him because he would make fun of me again.

I brought him to the Art Studio. It was empty other than us. Most of the paintings were still here, though. People were probably going to take them later. Mine was here too.

Salvatore looked around with a glimmer in his eyes. “Are you finally going to show me your painting?”

“Well, I told you I will when it is finished.” I nibbled my bottom lip. “Excited?”

He gave me a charming smile. “Of course.” He indeed looked excited, and my heart did a little flip. I loved how he was always mesmerized by my art. “I am sure it is something that will give me nightmares.”

I laughed and stopped in front of my painting that was covered with a sheet. My arms went around Sal. “If you get nightmares, I promise I will cuddle you back to sleep.”

He put a small kiss on the tip of my nose and pursed his lips. “Only cuddle? I hoped that you could suck me back to sleep.”

“Asshole,” I murmured and pushed him away, but he was much stronger than me.

“You love this asshole,” he whispered to my lips.

I couldn’t help it. I kissed him before accepting, “I do.” Then I wiggled out of his hold. “Let me show you the painting.” This time he allowed me out of his arms, but his hands were still on my shoulders. I peeled the sheet off of the canvas in a dramatic way.

I tilted my head to see Sal’s reaction. Like most of my paintings, this one was messy, too, and it usually took a little time for him to see every detail. He never said anything bad, though. He would always take his time to examine it like he did now.

After a few seconds of serious face, a slight smirk touched his lips. “It is a devil.”

“It is,”

He pointed at a dark spot that might look like I accidentally painted black over a light part of the painting. “And that is an Angel. Surrounded by darkness.”

“Yes,” I nodded happily. I was so proud that he could understand my works because not everybody could.

I was originally painting a devil, actually, but it was not going very well. My strength was always giving the monsters feelings. They looked scary, not because they had six eyes or sharp teeth. They looked scary because their anger or agony was just too real, but in this one, that was not working. I thought maybe it was because I was no longer sad and couldn’t create that feeling, but that was not it. I just had a different opinion about devils after Salvatore because he always called himself one.

After the kidnapping, I thought I could reflect my agony to the devil, but that was not going to work as well. I was seeing him as Sal. So, I decided to make him Sal. I wanted to give him an emotion I never gave any of my monsters. An emotion so much scarier than anger or agony.

Love.

For a moment, it felt cheesy, but after I started the green eyes that resembled Sal’s perfectly, it looked really good. I also put an angel in the palm of his hand and surrounded her with darkness. He was in love with the Angel, and it was so scary because you could just tell he would burn the world down if anything happened to her.

Sal touched one of the emerald eyes of the devil. “Did you draw me?”

“I got inspired by you.”

He chuckled. “Should I be offended that you draw me as the devil?”

I gave him a “really?” look. He was the one claiming to be the devil. He laughed, but a little worry consumed me. “I thought that maybe you want to… I don’t know… take it?”

His eyebrows flew up. “Is this a gift?”

“Well, I can’t call it that since it was my final project for school, but I wanted you to have it.”

“It is a gift,” he claimed. Then kissed my naked shoulder. “I love it, Mia. I will hang it in my office at Vista. It shows my darkness perfectly. My enemies are going to run away from me when they see it.”

I laughed a little and turned back to face him. His eyes went between me and the painting. His words were sarcastic, but I could tell he loved it, and I knew he really was going to hang it in his office. He would probably hang a pink unicorn painting there, too, just because it was a gift from me.

My hand went to clutch his shirt because I always wanted to be closer to him. I always wanted to hold onto him. “You know it also shows my darkness too. This is not a portrait of you. This is us.”

The soft look he only gave me consumed his face. “I can tell,” he said softly. “You really are the missing piece of my dark, bloodied, and dirty puzzle.”

I nodded because this was exactly it. “We fit together perfectly, Sal. And this means I can’t live without you. I can’t live incomplete.” I bit my bottom lip. “Will you always be there to complete me.”

He smiled and pulled my bottom lip free from my teeth and nibbled it himself before his lips traveled to my ear. “Try and get rid of me, Angel. I dare you.”

I pulled back just so I could kiss him. I kissed him long and slow. I poured all my love to him, and he poured all his love to me. This was everything I needed and more. Whatever happened, I knew I could get over it as long as Salvatore was with me.

He was the Devil.

I was the Angel.

And we were so deliriously in love with each other.

 

THE END

 

 

 

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