Chapter 21
VALENTINA
Iwatch Michael as he sleeps in his bed, snuggled under his baby-blue blankie and holding his favorite plushie, a tiger almost as big as my boy, with beady eyes and large black stripes on its back.
I listen to the sound of his even breathing, finding comfort in the rhythm, as the moon pours into the room and shimmers across his sweet face.
I hear Luca’s footsteps echoing from the hallway, followed by the sound of a closing door. He’s in our bedroom now, so I make sure the baby monitor is on before I join him.
“Luca,” I say, finding my husband as he stands near the window.
The same moonlight glazes his powerful frame in a subtle, silvery glow. I see the blood on his shirt, the bruises on his knuckles, his chest rising rapidly with every deep breath. He furrows his brow as he turns to look at me.
“Darling,” he whispers, unbuttoning his jacket.
I’m freshly showered and wrapped in a silk robe, a soft layer of deep red pouring over my body as I approach him. My bare feet sink into the thick, warm carpet while my heart races the closer I get.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
“It will be,” he says, removing his shirt, then his pants.
Lust burns brightly in his hazel eyes. He doesn’t have many words left in him, not tonight, anyway, and while I have plenty of questions to ask, I’ve learned the value of timing when it comes to Luca Petrucci.
My husband is a powerful and a dangerous man.
And I’ve had plenty of time to think since Victor brought me back to the mansion.
I’ve yet to make my decision, but the more I ponder, the clearer it becomes that the day might come when I will have to bid Luca farewell, when I will take my son and find a way out of this world—for good.
Until then, however…
I admire his athletic frame, a dark shadow against the backdrop of the French-style window.
My gaze follows the sharp lines of his jaw, his broad shoulders and strong arms, the ropes of muscle stretching down his abdomen, the raw force of his thighs expressed through thickness and mass, and his massive erection beckoning me closer.
“For what it’s worth, I’m getting closer to the truth,” Luca says.
“What did the shooter tell you?”
“Everything he could, though it wasn’t as much as I would’ve liked.”
“What will you do with the guy?” I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.
Luca snakes an arm around my waist while his other hand loosens the cord of my rob. The move is swift and decisive, revealing my naked curves to his hungry eyes.
“You don’t have to worry about that anymore,” he says.
I know what it means. The implication is right there in front of me, but the sizzling heat between us becomes unbearable and impossible to ignore. I cave in, embracing the monster beneath the man, begging for his love and his affection, for his savagery and shamelessness.
He grabs me by the back of the head, forcing me to look up at him. “You’ve turned my world upside down, Valentina. And I don’t know how to navigate it anymore. It used to be so simple before,” he says, his voice low and dripping with desire.
“I don’t know what to do with myself either,” I confess.
Ignoring the pang in my heart, the whisper that tells me to find my way out of this crevice before I’m swallowed up and definitively destroyed, I let my palm rest on his bare chest, fingers brushing over the dark curls of hair. Luca exudes manliness and fire through every pore. He is irresistible.
And he will be the end of me unless I find the strength to pull back.
Not tonight, though. Tonight, I need him, and he needs me.
“You were afraid,” Luca whispers, his lips brushing over mine, “tonight.”
“I was until you shielded me.”
“I wish I could tell you it’s going to get easier from here.”
He kisses me. Deeply. Intensely. Our tongues meet, playfully tasting at first, but when the hunger takes over, we devour each other. Our lips crash, our souls untangle, and our hands roam everywhere.
“Oh, Luca,” I gasp when his fingers dig into my hips, squeezing and kneading the soft flesh as his head drops to conquer my breasts.
His lips close around one nipple, and he suckles until I quiver in his hold, until a whimper escapes my throat as the sting dissolves into my ribcage. He pulls me closer to the bed, his breath heavy and ragged.
Savage darkness lingers in his eyes as he looks at me. “Do you trust me?”
“With every part of me,” I confidently reply.
“Get down on your knees then.”
Eagerly, I obey, kneeling before him with a devilish smile. My mind has already left my body, letting my most primal instincts run free. As the shadows of the night wrestle with the blades of pearly moonlight everywhere around us, I take my husband’s gargantuan cock into my mouth.
He’s hard and throbbing, damn near unhinging my jaw in the process.
Slowly, he slides down my throat, lovingly caressing my face with one hand while he keeps the tie tight with the other.
“That’s my girl,” he grunts softly, his hips jerking forward.
I feel a vein pulsating against my tongue, the rhythm of his arousal fastening as I suck him with unmatched greed. I massage his rock-hard balls, then stroke him with slow but determined movements, twisting my grip from the tip to the base before I take him into my mouth again.
“Fucking hell,” Luca manages. “You’re so good at that.”
“You taste like heaven,” I tell him, liquid heat dripping along my inner thighs.
I’m clenched tightly, burning for this man with everything I’ve got.
He tightens his grip in my hair, and I can’t breathe for a moment.
My mouth opens wide and he goes in, all of him, deep-throating me without a shred of mercy.
Tears run down my cheeks, but I don’t want him to stop.
I love nothing more than to lose myself in his darkened eyes, while he watches me sucking his cock.
He loves this too much, and I love him. It’s too late to unring this bell, I see it now.
I love him.
I take every glorious inch until he can’t take anymore, until he lifts me off the ground and kisses me, his arms coiled around me like a snake’s deadly grip. I’m soft and sizzling against his chiseled body, heat coursing through the both of us like a restless inferno.
“Put your hands up,” Luca says.
I put them up, and he wraps his tie around my wrists, high above my head. My breasts rise to meet his smoldering gaze as he ties me to the bed’s wooden poster. I’m stretched and wanting, shivering with a desperate need for release.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he whispers, his eyes wandering over every curve, every soft spot, every inch of my skin. “These hips, this belly… Whoever made you feel like you’re too much, Valentina, cannot appreciate true beauty. Men used to go to war for women like you.”
“Luca,” I mumble, deeply touched by his words.
“Your breasts...” he pauses to fondle and kiss them, letting his tongue flick over my nipples before he nibbles on each, relentlessly until I cry out. “Fucking delicious.”
“Oh, fuck!”
He sucks one until I tremble and cross my legs. The arousal becomes unbearable and all-consuming, but he isn’t done with me. He kneels before me, his hands tracing the contour of my hips, then my thighs.
“So thick and juicy,” he says, fingers grabbing, squeezing, pinching.
Then his right hand slips between my legs. He finds me hot and wet and decidedly swollen, aching for release.
He looks up, and our eyes meet in heavy silence. “You’re ready for me, and then some, aren’t you, Valentina?”
“I’m always ready for you,” I tell him.
“Fucking hell, woman,” he growls and dives head-first.
The devastation follows quickly and without a shred of remorse, as he eats me whole and slides three fingers inside me. My pussy clenches delightedly as he suckles my clit, his tongue flicking over it.
The silk rope digs into my wrists slightly. Luca decides to throw my legs over his shoulders, holding me up as he delves even deeper into my pussy.
“Oh, my God!” I moan as he goes down on me, finger-fucking me into the sweetest madness at the same time.
A new rhythm builds up as my hips sway forth to receive him. His tongue slides and registers every inch of slick, simmering flesh. Setting every nerve ending in my body on fire while his fingers curl with every retreating motion before they jolt back in. He is aggressive, possessive, destructive.
And I fall apart against his mouth.
I come hard, gushing, trembling.
“Luca, my love,” I cry out his name, hoping the moon will hear me. “Oh, God.”
I feed on his rough touch as he squeezes every drop of my orgasm. Before I can make my way down from the heavens, Luca comes up instead, my legs wrapped around his narrow hips.
He holds me tight against the bed post and spears me with his full length. My pussy clenches immediately, stretched and filled to the brim, while Luca’s eyes lock on mine.
And in this moment of stillness, we see each other in our purest, wildest, most vibrant forms. We’re honest about this. Raw. Mindless. Luca starts to move slowly at first. Every thrust brings me closer to another climax, and I can feel the pressure gathering in my core.
“Being inside you is like worshipping a goddess,” Luca says.
He trails kisses down the side of my neck, fucking me harder and deeper as the rhythm progresses. I moan harshly, calling out his name, over and over, as he takes me higher into the stratosphere.
“Yes,” I hiss, my voice breaking when he starts pounding into me like the beast he truly is. His grip is ironclad and firm, his cock throbbing inside me with every push.
I feel that vein swelling, teasing my senses until I can’t take it anymore.
And then he goes even harder.
Even deeper.
Faster.
My breasts bounce as he growls and takes a nipple in his mouth, beads of sweat trickling all over us. The heat becomes unbearable, but we cling to one another—my legs locked tight, my hips rising to meet him at every thrust.
I feel him stiffening inside me.
“Valentina!” Luca growls, drilling hard as he drains deep inside me.
My pussy ripples in delight, clenching and releasing as I squeeze every drop of him. I’m safe in his arms. I melt against him, coming again as he thrusts his last thrust and holds me close.
His fingers run through my hair before they move up to remove the tie from around my wrists. When I’m free, he doesn’t let go; he gently sets me on the bed and settles beside me, drawing invisible circles with his index finger along the valley between my breasts, smiling in silence.
We rest for a while.
“I almost lost you tonight,” Luca admits.
All I can do is stare at him and admire the way the moon glints over his sweaty forehead.
A droplet falls directly onto my skin, and he licks it clean, leaving a glistening trail behind.
The afterglow envelops us both in its silvery haze, making me feel awfully sad for the moment when we will inevitably have to put our feet back on the cold, hard ground.
“But you didn’t,” I tell him.
“I keep saying I won’t let them get any closer, but there are times when I still fear the worst.”
“Me, too, to be honest. Yet we somehow always pull through.”
He inches closer, his hand gently cupping my cheek. “Whoever they are, they will die before they take you or Michael away from me. That, I am sure of.”
“I believe you.”
At least I want to believe him. Every fiber in my body begs me to believe him, yet that sliver of doubt hidden in the back of my mind refuses to loosen its grip on my reason. There’s always a clash between my body and my mind where Luca is concerned. Between my heart and my survival instinct.
“I never imagined it would come to this,” Luca says.
“This?”
“When I first heard about you and Stefano, I admit, I wondered what the hell he was thinking? Fanning the flames with the Mancusos, and for what?” He pauses to lower his gaze for a moment, admiring my naked body next to his. “But I see it now. All of it. It makes so much sense.”
I sigh deeply, caressing his firm and stubbly jawline. “You shouldn’t forget that Stefano never really wanted me. He only wanted to hurt my stepfather.”
“I think, deep down, my brother burned for you. But his selfish mission to infuriate Mancuso was a priority. Stefano was many things, including an idiot in some respects, but a woman like you, Valentina… I know he understood that a woman like you only comes around once in a lifetime. His ego pushed him to ruin everything, to hurt you.”
“It sounds almost romantic,” I chuckle softly, “but I’m grateful now.”
He gives me a curious, slightly confused look. “What do you mean?”
“Had he not broken me the way he did, I never would’ve had a wonderful boy like Michael. I never would’ve met you,” I say. “All of hell’s roads led me to you, Luca.”
And I mean every word, even though the truth hurts.
The truth is that tomorrow, I’ll have to devise my way out. I will crush the man I love in the process, but I’ll find my path into a future that knows nothing of the violence we experienced tonight.
My child deserves it.
And so do I, regardless of how I feel about Luca.