#il duca

Il Duca, di Matteo Melchiorre

NARRATIVA/RECENSIONE/ROMANZO Il Duca SETTEMBRE 7, 2022 ROBERTO IOVACCHINI Titolo: Il Duca Autore: Matteo Melchiorre Editore: Einaudi “Il Duca” narra la vicenda dell’ultimo discendente della famiglia dei Cimamonte, che ha deciso di vivere nell’antica villa di famiglia che domina il paese di Vallorgàna, da solo, senza grossi contatti con la popolazione locale. Vive di rendita e non ha bisogno…

“I’d… I’d rather not think about the latter at the moment. So, Natalie.

She’s been through things that make a person understandably distant, but she forces herself to always maintain so much distance that… well, I worry about her. I know she’s strong, far stronger than some morons give her credit for (and she’s good at correcting them quickly). But she keeps so much in, and doesn’t lean on anyone ever, that I fear someday she may crack from the pressure she’s put herself under and won’t know how to ask for help. I just hope I’m able to be there for her.

I’m understanding of being introverted and busy running an estate, but sometimes I think she borders on reclusive, and it makes me anxious. What if something happens to her and no one finds out for ages? I just want her to keep us more in the loop on her wellbeing and her life, so we can look out for her the way she looks out for us.

She has a lot of rage that she keeps under wraps, especially about her brother, which I get. But I can speak to the fact that if you don’t give it a sufficient outlet, it can just… burst out, with awful consequences. Ugh, it all comes back to me wishing she’d be more open, at least with me, but that’s the crux of it, isn’t it? If she does explode someday, I just want to make sure she knows she has a support structure in place. A safety net to catch her and help. And that there is no shame in having that even if you don’t always need it.

But other than that, I think she’s pretty much great just as she is.”

//Maaaamma mia…

Antonio, my poor precious little nugget, is faaaaaar too trusting. Look what just a simple acquaintance like Rhee was able to do to him. Look how easily Tristan is playing him and winning his trust. I wanna cry for him sometimes. Honey please guard your heart a little bit better.

He doesn’t actually have a great grasp of when to let his head or his heart rule his actions. In the middle of battle, he’s learned how to plan his way through things just fine, but literally every other aspect of his life has “heart” as the default decision maker and that’s not a great idea in his case. He makes himself so vulnerable, and he ends up saying really dumb stuff without realizing it because why should he have to worry about watching what he says? So many reasons That’s what leads to things like the incident with Christian, where he just can’t control his emotions and they take over and he says really dumb shit he didn’t mean to say and heartily regrets later. Why u do this to urself Tonio? Why?

Marry, Cuddle, Sleep with

Marry: Sopia

Cuddle: Saria

Sleep With: Tatiana

(TW!) Be a slave to, be your slave, sell to a slave market

Be a Slave To: Sophia

Be His Slave: Saria

Sell to a Slave Market: Tatiana

Seduce, Steal from, Serenade

Seduce: Sophia

Steal From: Tatiana

ANTONIO DE LA CRUZ – THE SEMI-CASUAL INSTAGRAMMER AND PART-TIME VINER (who uses hilariously long hashtags and knows exactly how ridiculous it is)

First time he knew he was in love

He knew he was in love when he heard an angel’s voice and thought that heaven had opened above him. He knew he was in love when he saw her golden hair and mistook her for Venus. He knew he was in love when she looked up from the flowerbed she was pruning and he lost himself in the sea of her eyes. He knew he was in love when she did not hesitate to give herself to him, as though their souls had been one before time and recognized their halves on instinct. He knew he was in love when, after they finished for the third time by the garden shed, he said he should go and his heart broke at the thought. It was love on a pure, natural level, and he knew it as well as he knew his own home, for that is what it felt like: coming home.

Growing Old

answered here

First relationship

She was a pretty thing, only a year or two younger than him, raven-haired and emerald-eyed with something wicked lurking at the corners of her lips. But it was the kind of wicked that laughed easily and love fiercely, and she did both for him. She was the only one of the string of lovers Antonio saw near-daily who he felt more than a passing attraction for. She was the only one that he saw more frequently than any other, and at twenty-five, she was the only one he thought might have a chance of sticking it out with him, even though later he was happily proved wrong. He wasn’t the easiest man to grow attached to; he was inconstant and untethered, and he liked it that way. Though he valued his friends and the pack he had declared is loyalty to, in love he was not the sort to settle. At least not yet.

Émeraude Desrosiers visited him three times a week for six months under the understanding that they were not “together” and when her fiancé returned from battle, she would marry him and that would be the end of that. Tonio was content with this, as it meant he was free to pursue many other potential bedfellows as often as he liked. When they were alone together, the flame-fueled alphas were locked in a constant sensual battle for dominance which likely made Sophia even more of a relief to his heart. Émeraude did not accept being treated as a subordinate, not when her father was a marquis and a close friend and adviser to the king. Antonio found that while the thrill of fighting for dominance could be entertaining and result in some incredible sex, it was tiresome in the long run and he did not like having to engage her over this every single time they were together. Where he had at first thought that maybe they might change their minds, that they would temper each other and maybe have something more, he came to feel that her fiancé could not return quickly enough and they would both be glad when he did.