VALENTINA
“Ilove you,” Diego says, gazing deep into my eyes.
“I love the way your hair glows in the sunlight, hell, any light. I love the way your eyes sparkle, reminding me of warm honey. I love the way you give a flicker of a half-smile before you give me a full smile. I love the way you speak your mind without hesitation. I love the shape of your ears.” He tucks some of my hair behind my ear.
“My ear?” I whisper.
“Yep. I love that little tremor you get in your voice when you’re holding something back.
I love the way you sigh. I love the way you say my name.
There’s so much emphasis on the D and I can’t explain it, but you’re the only one who says my name like that and I love it.
I love how you trust me, how you don’t judge me.
I love the sound of your laugh. I love how insanely hot it is that you know how to kick someone’s ass and crawl all over them with those killer strong thighs. ”
I bite back a shy laugh as warmth blooms through my chest.
“I love how you put everyone first. I love how you’re out here protecting people, half of whom don’t even know you exist or what you do for them.
I love that every single person here admires and cares for you because of what you’ve done.
I love how you never gave up on Tabitha even though it seemed hopeless.
That kind of focus and devotion?” Diego’s hand moves back under my chin.
“I love how you didn’t give up on me even though I got fucked up in my head and left. ”
He leans up ever so slightly while using his light grip on my chin to guide me down into a deep, slow kiss.
“I love you, Valentina,” he murmurs against my lips. “And I mean it. More than I’ve ever meant anything in my life. I love you. I love you.”
This has to be a dream.
In the time we’ve known each other, my feelings for Diego have only ever grown, but I never imagined he felt the same love as deeply as I do.
Part of me feared that it was trauma that kept us together, or that he would gradually see what my day-to-day life is like and decide that I’m not worth it.
Yet here he lies, detailing things I wasn’t even aware I did and he holds them so highly in his heart. Just like he holds me in his heart.
“You’re such a sweet talker,” I reply softly, lingering so close from the kiss that I write those words against his lips with my own. “Are you always going to be this way?”
His hand slides up until his palm rests against my cheek.
“I’ve lost everyone I’ve ever known. Some of them weren’t even worth knowing and were draining me.
I just never realized it until I met you because you haven’t drained me.
You’ve filled me with love and life and hope. I never want to let that go.”
Warmth stings behind my eyes and I adjust my weight on his hips while curling my bracing hand into the sheets below. “You swear?”
“I swear. Besides, if I ever change, you can just have me kidnapped again. I think that would soften me right up.” He laughs against me and tilts his chin up, capturing my lips in a warm, sweet kiss.
I want more.
I hunger for it.
But we’re both still recovering. My hair now hides the stitches of my head wound, and every other cut and scrape has grown into pink scars. Diego’s tongue might be stitch-free, but his hand is still recovering from having his nails ripped out, and his thigh is a long way from being fully healed.
That doesn’t stop the yearning in my heart from colliding with the adrenaline from rescuing Tabitha. Every word of love further ignites the desire pooling low in my gut, so I kiss him again.
And again.
We lock into a gentle battle of soft, sweet kisses.
Some press his upper lip, some caress his lower lip, and when he parts his lips and invites me in, I move as slowly as I dare.
Diego’s still him, he just has a few extra scars and my heart squeezes repeatedly each time my tongue drifts gently over the new scar indent on his tongue, or the new scars on the inside of his cheeks.
Diego doesn’t appear to care, though. He kisses me just as deeply, caressing my cheek up into my hair and a rush of tingles spreads down my bare arms and back.
“I love you too,” I whisper with a soft gasp as we break for air. Panting softly, we share the same bubble of space that warms when interest stirs from Diego’s cock hidden beneath me.
“You do?” he asks huskily.
“I do.”
Then it’s my turn, not that I’ll ever tire of admitting or admiring every detail of Diego that I love.
“I love the way your hair curls to the right even though you’re always brushing it to the left.
I love the way your green eyes make me catch my breath every single time you look at me.
I love the way you look at me, as if it’s the first time you’re seeing me, and you do that every time.
It makes me feel like you’ve missed me and are desperate to see me. ”
As I talk, Diego’s shirt unbuttons beneath my skillful fingers and as I shove it off his shoulders, he leans up to help me and laughs softly. “Is it that obvious?” he murmurs.
“Yes. But I love it. No one’s ever looked at me so intensely before.
You look at me like I’m the anchor to your world, and I love that.
” I kiss him as gently as I dare. “I love how warm you are to the touch. All the time. There’s never been a moment when you’ve felt cold. I love that you have a big heart.”
My hand drifts up his bare chest, over healing bruises and marks, to rest over his heart. It lurches beneath my hand and Diego’s hand drifts to my shoulder, where he slips his thumb under the strap of my nightdress and lets it fall.
“I love how you care about everyone. You give your all to people, even those who you know don’t deserve it.
Everyone in your life has felt that care and that’s why they kept coming back.
” Mindy wouldn’t let him go and Tech hounded him for the exact same reason.
Diego caves because he likes to help people, because he cares.
I shift my weight and move my hand to kiss directly over his heart.
“I love how that big heart saved my life. Without it, you never would have done everything you did to keep me safe. You never would have trusted me. You would have called the cops and ended things immediately. But you care. I love how you worked so hard to keep me safe even when I didn’t realize it, and I love how even here, you weren’t ready to give me up. ”
Diego’s breath catches in his throat and he huffs softly, silenced only when I kiss him again. His hands drift down across both my shoulders until the straps of my nightdress have fallen free, then he gathers the material at my waist and lifts.
The dress slips free from my body and he tosses it to the floor. Then, he turns his warm gaze back to my naked body. A flush of pink suddenly rises across his cheeks and I smile.
“I love how you look at me when I’m naked.”
“Can you blame me?” Diego groans as his cock continues to harden beneath me. “You’re fucking beautiful.”
“So are you. I love that you’re tender with your touches and yet you can fuck like your life depends on it.” I smirk as his cock fully hardens beneath me, and he groans, then tips his head back, exposing his long throat to my wandering lips.
It doesn’t take long to free him from his jeans and boxers, and as I take his heavy cock in my hand, I balance on my knees so as not to put weight on his injured thigh.
“I love that you risked your life for me.”
“You can’t say that,” Diego gasps, and his abdominal muscles ripple as I stroke his cock from base to tip.
“Why not?”
“You’ll train me to be horny when I’m risking my life for you!”
“Oh, really?” I smile coyly, continuing to stroke him. Every second his cock twitches in my hand is another second for the heat pooling low in my gut to tighten and dampness quickly beads between my thighs.
“Yup,” he groans, gazing down at me. “But if that’s how you want to play it.”
“Should I stop?” I pause my fist at the crown of his cock and swipe my thumb over the glistening head. “Do you want me to stop?”
“Please, no,” he gasps. “You’ve no idea how badly I wanna be inside you.”
“Ahh. So should I stop telling you I love you?” One final stroke and I tease the tip of his crown again with my fingers.
Precum beads from the slit so I gather it on my pointer finger and lift it to my lips as I crawl back over him.
“Should I not tell you how much I love that your eyes crinkle when you smile widely? Or that the sound of your laugh brings me so much joy?” I suck my finger into my mouth, savoring his taste while Diego groans deeply beneath me.
“You can tell me,” he gasps. “Tell me everything and anything.”
“I love how flustered you get even though you know this is all for you. I love how you risked your life for me, how you never betrayed me and even when you were faced with something as terrifying as what you went through…” I pause and brace my hands on either side of his head, locking eyes with him. “I love how you protected my name.”
The second I sink down onto Diego’s cock, taking his thick weight as deep inside me as I can, everything settles inside me.
My thoughts calm, the rush of adrenaline rises to my heart and sends it racing, and all the desire pooling in my core finally breathes a deep sigh of satisfaction.
That, coupled with the moan that rises from Diego, brings me a deep sense of peace.
There’s nothing more to say. Nothing I can think of. Nothing that will make it past my lips because as soon as I start to ride him, it’s all I care about.
Every moan and whimper that escapes the two of us, every gasp and groan, every twitch of his cock deep inside me as I sink down and let him fill me until my core is throbbing; it’s all perfect.
His hands settle on my hips, then my waist, then they rise to my ribs and trace the scars there that he helped heal. I kiss him deeply, working my hips back and forth while pressing one hand over his heart and soaking up the deep thrum of each pound.
I love him.
I love this.
Never in my life did I think I would be this lucky. Who would ever be brave enough to try and take the Queen on a date? No one I would ever trust. My walls were built so high and so firm that I was resigned to a life alone.
Until Diego.
Faster and faster my hips work over his cock, drawing him deep every single time and clenching on every rise up as if even my own body didn’t want to let him go.
We exchange soft yet frantic kisses, barely giving one another time to breathe in between.
He caresses my body, gently gropes my breasts and rolls my nipples, caresses the side of my neck and my hair until my entire body is aflame from his touch and hungry for more.
Sweat gleams across my body, every muscle tightens and white-hot heat pools low in my gut. My bounces grow in speed, matching our frantic kisses and Diego’s arms slide around me in a warm, strong embrace.
My orgasm crests suddenly and every part of me tenses.
My lips remain open, caught mid-kiss, while my core and pussy flex repeatedly through every ripple of ecstasy moving through me.
Then, Diego moans so brokenly and heat rushes inside me along with the deep, pleased sensation that we came together.
I collapse down onto his chest, panting softly while our bodies twitch in unison and every deep, satisfied sensation rushing through me accumulates in a rush of overwhelming love in my chest.
“I love you.”
I don’t know who said it. Maybe we both did. It doesn’t matter.
What matters is we both know it’ll last us for the rest of our lives.