Chapter 28
VALENTINA
The hot water pours over my naked body, and I welcome the heat seeping into my skin. It doesn’t do much to clear my mind or to fully relax me, but it takes some of the edge off, at least for a few moments. I’m tired, having barely slept last night, but Michael is well rested and calm.
I got lucky with the very nice motel receptionist who brought a portable playpen for Michael. I can hear Michael playing in it, safe and sound while I shower.
“Mama will be right out, sweetie,” I tell him again when he gets a little antsy and calls for me.
The bathroom is small but reasonably clean. I get out, wrap myself in a towel, and take a look in the mirror above the old-timey porcelain sink.
My face looks tired. It echoes a broken heart.
I put on a smile for Michael and go back into the room, only to freeze in the bathroom doorway at the sight before me.
Victor is holding my son in his arms, holding him close and smiling, as my boy fiddles with his beard, cooing delightedly.
Luca sits on the edge of the bed, looking at me with muted rage—until his gaze softens slightly.
“Luca, Victor…” I mumble, suddenly cold.
“Victor, would you mind taking Michael back to the house? My wife and I have a few things to talk about,” Luca says.
He’s calm, too calm, unnervingly so.
Maybe if he got angry, smashing things like he did last night in his study, I would feel less awful about leaving him. Maybe I’d find a way to stay strong and determined to cut this bond forever. But Luca just lets out a heavy sigh as Victor nods and looks to me.
I nod, knowing this conversation needs to happen, and I do not want my son to be here when it does.
As he steps out, Victor gives me a reassuring smile. “We’ll be waiting for you there, Valentina.”
“Thank you,” I whisper.
The door closes behind Victor, and Luca stands.
“I’m not going to apologize,” I say, raising my chin in defiance.
“Do you realize how dangerous this was?”
His voice is low, almost a growl. He doesn’t move, though. His eyes drill holes into my soul, and I feel naked and helpless before him, water still dripping down my bare shoulders.
“It was a risk I was willing to take,” I reply, “to try and get my son as far away from this life as I could. I just needed to cross state lines, and then—”
“And then what?” he snaps, shaking the entire room around us. “Then what?” he asks again, regaining his self-control. “You and Michael would live happily ever after? Forever safe? Away from the Mancusos and me?”
“That was the plan, yes.”
“Did you really think leaving Illinois would stop me from coming after you?”
“I hoped it would at least make it harder for you and for whoever is trying to kill me to find us,” I admit. “Clearly, I was wrong.”
“You would’ve succeeded,” he says, “had Caroline not had a change of heart. But I will deal with her later.”
My blood runs ice cold as I look at him. “You need to leave her alone. I reached out to her for help. This is my issue, not hers.”
He scoffs and closes the distance between us. I don’t even register the movement or his speed. I merely find myself in his grip, his fingers digging into the back of my neck and forcing me to hold his smoldering glare.
“Do you have any idea what kind of hell you put me through, Valentina?”
“For that, I am sorry. But I’m not sorry for trying to free myself and my son of this.”
“Of me?”
“No, of this!” I scream and yank myself out of his grip. “Of the fighting and the bullet dodging and the constant threats on my life. My stepfather wants to take my son away from me. There are people with guns who are looking to kill me.”
“And I fucking told you that I can protect you, that I would stop at nothing to keep you and Michael safe!”
“You’re not all powerful, Luca! You’re not a god, you’re just a man, and you can bleed, you can die, too. I’m the woman you plucked out of a perfectly good hiding place so you can claim on my son.”
Luca shakes his head, his gaze hesitating between my eyes and my lips. “Valentina, I will burn the whole city down for you. You should know that by now.”
“That’s not what I’m talking about,” I say, bursting into tears. “Luca, I can’t have my children raised in this violence, in this mayhem, this uncertainty!”
He stills, his shoulders dropping.
“And I can’t really trust anyone, and you can get really scary and dangerous when you lose control. I never asked for any of this,” I add, shaking and crying my heart out once again.
“Valentina.”
“What?”
He steps closer, his frame filling my field of vision, and it feels oddly comforting, all of a sudden. His hands cup my face, beckoning my eyes to meet his, but it’s a different kind of meeting. It’s a meeting of hearts, not of angry words.
“You said children,” he whispers.
Blinking back another deluge, I find the courage to tell him, because I can’t hold it in any longer. Perhaps it’s self-sabotage. Perhaps it’s the inevitable conclusion of a fight I knew I would lose from the moment I escaped the mansion, the end I knew would find me.
“I’m pregnant, Luca.”
“Fuck.”
I can’t read his expression within the first second, and nothing terrifies me more than not knowing how he will react. Quivering in his hands, I give up, tears flowing freely down my cheeks and trickling over his fingers.
“I should’ve seen this coming,” I say.
“No, Valentina. It’s just… I never thought I’d be a father,” he says, a soft smile stretching across his lips.
He kisses me deeply, instantly dispelling every intrusive thought that’s been plaguing my mind since I took that pregnancy test. My heart swells, swiftly healed and enveloped in liquid sunshine, as he places a hand on my belly.
“That is my child you’re carrying, Valentina.”
“It is, and I don’t want us to be afraid anymore.”
“Baby, don’t you see?” He looks into my eyes, and I do see the pain in his hazel eyes, swirling like a tornado and tearing him apart on the inside. “I’m nothing without you. You and Michael are a part of me.”
I place my hand over his. “Oh, Luca…”
“I love you more than anything in this fucking world, and nothing in my possession or in my control makes any sense if I can’t be with you,” he says. “And this right here… it’s our miracle. Our child. Please don’t leave me again, Valentina.”
A bitter laugh escapes my throat. “Honestly, I don’t think I can. Not anymore. Even before you found me, I had my doubts. I kept trying to tell myse—”
“You’re mine,” Luca interjects, his mouth crashing into mine.
Luca tears my towel off with one swift move. We kiss like ravenous beasts, desperate and hungry for each other. I wrestle with his shirt; our tongues tangle in a devilish dance.
“You’re mine,” he says it again, his lips brushing against mine.
His hands roam everywhere, while I peel the clothes off his gorgeous body, one item at a time.
I find him hard and throbbing in my hold, and he hisses when I stroke him once, from hilt to tip.
My hand can barely handle his gargantuan girth, and when he dips his head and takes my nipple in his mouth, I lose it.
“I am yours,” I whimper softly.
His tongue flicks. His teeth nibble, a delicious sting dissolving into my ribcage while his hand kneads my other breast.
“Don’t ever leave me again.”
“Oh, Luca,” I moan when his fingers slip between my slick folds. I’m already hot and wet for this man.
“Spread your legs, Valentina.”
I do as I’m told, stars dancing before my eyes.
“Say you’ll never leave me again,” he commands me. “Say it!”
“I’ll never leave you again!” I cry out when he slips two fingers inside me and starts working me into an uncontrollable frenzy.
“You’re mine. Say it.”
“I’m yours! Oh, God, I’m yours, Luca!”
He fingers me into oblivion; the ball of his hand pressed against my swollen nub. The pressure is too much, his fingers curling inside me as he takes pleasure in every second of my torment. A devilish grin slits his face from ear to ear as he watches me get close to the peak.
Suddenly, I explode, gushing all over his hand. I come hard, shuddering in his grip, gasping for air while my heart unravels and my body comes apart, atom by atom. The orgasm is a singular, all-consuming event, and Luca kisses me again to seal the deal and renew his claim over me.
“I need you inside me,” I beg him, clinging to his broad, muscular shoulders. “I beg you.”
He pulls me closer to the bed, then turns me around and scoops my hair over one shoulder. He kisses that insanely sensitive area just below my ear, turning me into shimmering mush as I quiver against his hard, burning body.
“Bend over,” Luca says.
Without hesitation, I do as I’m told. He guides my hand around my hip and between my legs, and I know what he wants me to do.
“Oh, fuck!” I scream when he spears me with his full length.
“God, you are perfection incarnate.”
Luca holds me firmly by the hips, his fingers clasping, claiming every inch of my skin. My breasts bounce with every thrust. I lean onto the bed with one hand, while the other circles my tender, hyperexcited clit.
Every flick sends shock waves through my body.
Anticipation builds up as Luca goes harder and deeper.
“That’s it,” he says. He can feel me clenching around his cock with each thrust.
I can feel his vein pulsating, my pussy stretched around him. He pounds into me, harder with every passing second, as the rhythm builds and falls off the axis altogether.
Before long, he’s splitting me in half while I come again.
“Luca, my love!” I cry out.
“I love you,” he grunts and stiffens inside me.
Pulsating. Shooting a stream of his life essence all the way into my core. My body dissolves into a sheer puddle of joy. My heart thuds furiously as I squeeze every drop of this magnificent man, as I savor his orgasm and mine at the same time.
What a fool I was to think that I could ever bear to truly leave him.
What a fool I was to talk to myself into believing I might be able to live without this man.
As Luca bends down and drops a flurry of delicate kisses down my spine, I push against him for that final thrust. He gives it to me with a heavy growl, then slowly pulls out and spins me around.
The world shifts, and we end up on the bed, wrapped in each other’s arms.
“No matter what comes next, Valentina, I made you a promise.”
“I was scared and confused.”
“I know,” he replies and kisses my forehead, prompting me to close my eyes and soften against him. “But at least you were remarkably smart about it. You almost got away from me, my love.”
I should be mad at Caroline for telling Luca where to find me. But I can’t be mad. Not when I have this man so desperately in love with me, so hopelessly devoted that he would destroy everything in his path to keep us safe and happy.
It took me a while to realize it.
To accept the cold, hard truth.
I will never have the normal, white-picket-fence kind of life.
I won’t be a suburban housewife who bakes cinnamon cookies at Christmas and is the president of the PTA at Michael’s school.
But I will have a good life, one way or another.
I only need to trust Luca and his ability to come through for us.
He’s gotten us this far, after all.