Chapter 32
GIOVANNI
Dressed in a black suit with a midnight dress shirt underneath, I sit on the bed and watch Valentina move around the bathroom. Her hair is loose and hanging down her back in effortless waves, and her skin is glowing in the aftermath of multiple orgasms.
My glow is for a different reason. Those three words she spoke at the start of her sentence slammed into me like a bullet to the chest.
I love you.
For a second, I couldn’t breathe. Then the rush came. It was hot, wild, and unstoppable.
My pulse pounded like war drums when I fought heaven and hell to coerce it out of her again.
My cum was dribbling down her thighs, and she was on the verge of a coma, but I refused to give up.
I pushed and pushed and pushed until every shadow she could hide behind retreated, and my dedication paid dividends.
The woman I have an immediate, borderline-possessive obsession with loves me.
Now tell me again nothing good comes from insanity.
I’ve waited years for this. I bled for it. And now it seems surreal.
Incapable of not touching Valentina for longer than ten minutes when we’re in the same room, I join her in the bathroom, band my arm around her waist, and prop my chin on her shoulder.
She smiles at my neediness before she commences placing a final coat of mascara on her long lashes. Her strokes stammer when I whisper, “Say it again.”
Her eyes—those eyes that fucking undo me—meet mine in the vanity mirror. They show her defiance, but they also reveal we don’t have enough time for another marathon fuck.
Her mother is due to arrive in less than an hour.
The world tilts on its axis when Valentina answers my demand without the zaps of an orgasm coursing through her. “I love you.”
Those three little words make me soft, but fuck if I can give them up.
I’ll shield her from the monsters I dine with and the so-called foes who hide their knives with their smiles.
I’ll stand between her and every blade, bullet, and lie because she’s the most valued possession I own.
To get to her, you’ll have to get through me first.
I pull her close until her heartbeat carves itself into my bones like it did the day I first saw her.
“You know you don’t need all this shit, right?
” I wait for her eyes to align with mine before I lower them to the makeup spread across the vanity.
“Martina supplied them with your dress in case you didn’t have any makeup to suit the fabric.
” Martina is the designer brought in to make Valentina’s dress.
Dad has gone all out with Concetta’s birthday celebrations.
It is a black-tie affair. “She assumed the heat on your cheeks when she took your measurements was artificial. We know better, don’t we, dolcezza? ”
Valentina nods slowly before she dumps the mascara into the makeup bag Martina supplied. Then she scrubs the makeup off her face.
“Much better,” I murmur when her natural beauty peeks out from beneath layers of foundation and concealer.
Once she’s scrubbed her face clean, she spins in my arms. Her watch is confident but also shadowed with worry.
“Vanni,” she whispers my name like the spell she cast on me might break if she speaks it too loudly. “I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there’s an option we can take to identify the biological mother of your child before birth.”
I stiffen. This is not where I thought she was going when she whispered my name.
With my throat too constricted for a long sentence, I keep things short. “Go on.”
She walks us into the main part of our room, plonks me on the bed still rumpled from our hours of escapades, then sits next to me. She’s close enough that I feel the warmth of her body, but not enough to drown out the loud thuds of my heart.
“While waiting for my appointment at the clinic, I read every pamphlet in the waiting room. One was about amniocentesis testing. It’s usually done to check for genetic conditions or infections, but it can also be used for DNA testing.
” Her breathing is uneven now, but she pushes on.
“They use a really thin needle.” She traces the air with my finger as if that makes it less frightening.
“It’s inserted through the abdomen and into the uterus so they can draw out a small amount of amniotic fluid from around the baby. ”
The image her description paints slices a knife across my jugular. “No.”
“Gio—”
“No,” I repeat, louder this time. “I’m not letting anyone put a needle in your stomach.
” Just the thought of someone doing that to her has me itching to kill.
The doctor who came to collect a blood sample last week to check her HCG levels barely made it out alive, and his needle was minute compared to the one I’m imagining.
“I don’t care what they promise or how safe they say it is. It’s not happening.”
Before I can pace out my anger, Valentina grabs my hand and holds me still. “They do it with ultrasound guidance, so they see exactly where the needle goes. It’s quick, but…” Her words trail off to silence.
“But?” I ask, my brow arched.
She considers lying, but the combined scents of our arousal on the sheets scrunched around her ass stop her. She knows I can force the narrative, so she chooses honesty.
“It’s not without risk. There’s a tiny chance of miscarriage… and infection.”
“To you?” The fear gripping my throat makes it difficult to speak. “Is the risk of infection to you?”
She sheepishly nods. “That’s why they only recommend it when there’s a valid reason.” I shake my head when she murmurs, “This is a valid reason. I can’t carry this child for nine months and then hand it to Valeria.”
“You won’t have to.”
“You don’t know that. There’s no prerogative with cases like this. It all falls on which family the judge deems the better fit.”
“Which will be mine.”
She acts as if I never spoke. “We could both lose custody if Valeria wins the popularity contest she’s been priming for her entire life. I’m—”
“Worth a million times more than whatever her strongest point is.”
You have no idea how hard it is not to strip her bare right now and fuck her as raw as the emotions in her eyes are shredding me. The only reason I don’t is because she needs this. She needs to shed the dead layers of skin Valeria’s lies coated her in.
Eventually, Valentina discloses the true cause of her unease. “If you don’t want to do the amniocentesis test, we need to play nice.” She drags her shaky hands down the front of her dress, ridding her palms of sweat. “That’s why I invited Valeria to my mother’s birthday dinner.”
I jackknife back so quickly I mentally book a chiropractic appointment. “You did what?”
She doesn’t reply. She doesn’t need to. Her silence paints the entire picture.
“That’s fine. I’ll tell her she’s no longer invited. I doubt she’s even started getting ready yet. She’s infamous for being late.”
Valentina slows my stomps to the door with a confession. “She’s already here. She is getting ready down the hall.”
I turn on my heel like a dog detecting fear. “You invited her into my home without considering how I would feel about that?”
She stands her ground, and as much as I hate admitting this, I’m glad. “Don’t do that. Don’t tell me I have as many rights here as you do, then strip away the privilege when it doesn’t suit you. Either I have a voice here, Giovanni, or I don’t. Which one is it?”
I love her gall. It proves what I’ve always known. Every man in this house would fall on his knife for her and then kneel at her throne. But it doesn’t hide the truth. “She hurt you.”
“Because she’s hurting, Vanni. Gosh. How can you not understand that? This is hard on her, too, and since I’m the easiest person for her to take it out on, I’m subjected to the brunt of her wrath.”
“It is only hard on her because she’s not getting her way.”
My hands twitch to spank her when she rolls her eyes. “Hello, pot, meet kettle.”
I don’t understand her metaphor, so I ignore it. “You don’t know this woman, dolcezza. You don’t know what she is capable of.”
“Because you’re not letting me form my own opinion. You’ve kept my head in the clouds so much the past three weeks I can’t think straight.”
“There’s a difference between being distracted and placing yourself at risk.”
Valentina slants her head, aligning our eyes. “I’m not distracted.”
“Yes, you are.”
Her laughter is as brittle as her words. “With what?”
I stalk closer, my steps purposely slow. “With me.” My nostrils flare when I breathe in deeply to suck in the scent of her rising arousal. “That isn’t a bad thing, dolcezza. Especially when it keeps you out of trouble.”
Valentina’s throat bobs harshly when she spots the determination in my eyes. It will take a tank to evict us from this room before I have her pliable under my touch… and that’s exactly what arrives when a knock sounds at my door a second later.