Salvatore #2
"Fuck," he groans, his control clearly wavering. "So fucking tight, Valentina. So perfect."
He starts moving, slow at first, letting me adjust while his fingers maintain their rhythm on my clit. The combination is overwhelming, a completely different kind of fullness that has me gasping and trembling.
"That's it, baby. Take your King," he growls, his pace increasing slightly. "Every. Fucking. Inch."
The dual stimulation—his thickness pushing into me from behind while his fingers work magic on my clit—builds another climax impossibly fast.
"Hmmm, you want to come again, don't you, baby?"
"I can't, it's too much."
"You can," he insists, pressing down harder on my clit. "Come for me again. Let me feel you."
"Please, Salvatore, please come, baby."
His pace becomes punishing, relentless, chasing his own release with an intensity that steals my breath. Each thrust drives deeper, harder, the sound of skin against skin echoing obscenely through the room.
I feel him swelling inside me, getting impossibly thicker as he gets closer to the edge.
"Fuck, Valentina." His voice breaks, control finally shattering.
The combination of his loss of control, the brutal pace, and his fingers still working my oversensitive clit—it's too much.
An impossible orgasm tears through me, even more devastating than the last. My vision goes white.
I can't breathe, can't think, can't do anything but shake violently as wave after wave crashes over me.
His grip on my hips turns bruising, fingers digging into my flesh hard enough to leave marks as he buries himself to the hilt one final time. I feel the hot rush as he empties himself deep inside me with a guttural roar that sounds almost animalistic.
We stay locked together, both trembling, hearts racing, as the aftershocks pulse through us. His chest heaves against my back, his breath hot and ragged against my neck.
For a long moment, we just lay there, enjoying one another.
His arms wrap around me, pulling me against his chest. "I could stay like this all day," he murmurs against my hair.
"We can't." Reality creeps back in, unwelcome. "I'm meeting Lindsay at eleven."
His body tenses slightly beneath me. "Right. Lindsay."
* * *
The sandwich shop is crowded with the mid-day rush. Lindsay's already at our usual corner table, nursing her favorite green tea. She stands when she sees me, pulling me into a fierce hug.
"God, I've missed you," she says.
"I've missed you, Lin."
She pulls back, studying my face with those sharp prosecutor's eyes.
I slide into the seat across from her while Nico takes position by the bar. Lindsay's gaze flicks to him, then back to me.
"You look… different."
"Different how?"
"Well, for starters… I've never known you to wear much lipstick, especially bright red lipstick in the middle of the day."
"Oh, yeah, I mean, there's nothing wrong with looking decent, right?"
"Right." The silence that follows is telling.
She gestures towards Nico. "I see you have a permanent bodyguard now?"
"Salvatore's protective."
"Salvatore's controlling, Val." She leans forward, her voice dropping. "And that's what I need to talk to you about. I've been working on a case. A big one. RICO charges against the Vitale organization." She watches my face carefully. "And I think you need to know what you're getting into."
"Lindsay…"
"Just listen. Please." Her hands wrap around her cup. "The Vitales are not good people. They're criminals. Dangerous criminals who hurt people. I have evidence linking them to at least thirteen murders in the past two years alone. Thirteen, Val."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because you're my best friend. Because I love you.
Because I don't want to see you become collateral damage when this whole thing comes crashing down.
" She reaches across the table, grabs my hand.
"You can still walk away. The wedding hasn't happened yet.
You can leave, and I'll help you. I'll make sure you're protected, that your family is safe.
But you have to choose now, Val. Before it's too late. "
I stare at our joined hands, at the friendship that's been my anchor for years. Lindsay has always been there for me. Always had my back.
But she doesn't understand. She doesn't know about the contract. About my mother's history. About the debt that brought me here.
She doesn't know that I'm not a victim anymore. I'm choosing this. I enjoy this crazy, unplanned life. And most importantly, I love Salvatore.
I love the way he looks at me, the way he protects me, the way he makes love to me.
I love that my touch makes his leg stop shaking, and that despite everything, he let me decide when we could make love.
I love his dark aura, the fact that he's so tall that he towers over me.
There's so much to love I don't even know where to start and where to end.
But how do I tell her that? She thinks I'm in trouble and that I'm afraid. I'm not, but she's not going to buy that.
"I appreciate what you're trying to do," I say carefully. "But I'm not in danger. Salvatore loves me."
"Love?" Lindsay's laugh is bitter. "Val, men like him don't love. They possess. They control. They destroy. You had a life before you met this guy, Val. You read to kids in the library, you were writing a book, now what—you just… walk around the Vitale crime estate all day?"
"No, I still write, Lin. And I read. I plan to return to reading to the kiddos when I can, but right now is just not a good time. I promise life will be normal again, or at least somewhat normal. But right now, I have to get through this wedding, okay?"
"Get through this wedding? Valentina, a wedding isn't something you get through—it's the beginning of something you are entering.
Oh my God, where is my best friend who graduated with high honors, who helped me get through law school while she was working on her master's in literary studies?
Because this woman sitting in front of me, telling me this crazy-ass shit, isn't her. "
"Lindsay, I'm still me, okay? But I ended up in this crazy-ass situation, and… I don't hate my new life, okay? I know it's crazy and abnormal. Like… who wakes up to something like this? But… life has been an adventure, you know? And Salvatore's presence is a lot, but he's amazing with me."
"He's a monster, Valentina."
"Well, maybe I’m into monsters. Lindsay, you don't know him."
"And you do?" She pulls her hand back. "You've known him for what, a few weeks? And you're ready to throw your entire life away for a man who kidnapped you?"
"He didn't—" I stop. Because he did. He absolutely did, but how does she know that?
She must have more than he thinks.
"Lindsay, I understand you're worried. I understand you have this case, and you see the Vitales as criminals. But there's so much you don't understand about my situation."
"Then explain it to me."
I can't. Not without revealing things that would put her in danger. Not without breaking Salvatore's trust.
"I can't."
She sits back, her expression hardening into the one she wears in court.
"Can't or won't?"
"Both, I suppose."
We stare at each other across the table, years of friendship suddenly feeling fragile as glass.
"Lin, if they're so dangerous, why would you risk taking on this case?"
She scoffs. "You know I've never been afraid of a little challenge, Val."
"I don't want to see you get hurt."
"And I don't want to see you get hurt."
"He would never hurt me."
"I have to tell you something."
"What is it?"
"They know about the case you're working on. Someone must have tipped them off or something, I'm not sure."
"Someone? What else do you know, Val?"
I grab her hands. "Your dad has been working with them."
"What? No, that's bullshit." She pulls her hand from mine.
"I don't know to what extent or how, because your dad is… an amazing mayor. But his name is somehow mixed up with them. This could be more than you think, Lin."
"I trust that my father has been working for the good of the people of this city. But if he chose to be on the side of criminals, then, like your fiancé, he must pay for his crimes." She looks at me.
"If you go through with this wedding," Lindsay says quietly, "I can't protect you anymore. The case I'm building… It's going to destroy the Vitale family. Everyone connected to them. Including you."
"You’d let me burn?”
"I'd save you, every time, you know that.
But you have to let me save you." She stands, pulling cash from her wallet and dropping it on the table.
"I have until the end of the month to file charges.
You have until then to change your mind.
After that…" She meets my eyes. "After that, I can't help you.
You'll be one of them. And I don't protect criminals, Val. Not even ones I love."
She walks out, leaving me alone with cold coffee and the sinking realization that everything is about to get much more complicated.
* * *
That evening, I stand in front of the mirror in a floor-length royal blue gown.
It's stunning the way it falls off my shoulder, fitted through the bodice, with a flowing skirt that makes me feel like royalty.
The diamonds Salvatore gave me sparkle at my throat and ears.
My engagement ring catches the light with every movement.
I look like I belong in his world. The thought still feels surreal.
"Ready?" Salvatore appears in the doorway, devastatingly handsome in a black tuxedo. His eyes darken when he sees me. "Cristo, you're beautiful."
"You don't look so bad yourself.
Salvatore’s hand tightens slightly around mine.
“Stay close,” he murmurs, his voice low enough that only I can hear it. “Everyone inside is about to decide what they think of you.”
I glance up at him. “And what if they don’t like what they see?”
The corner of his mouth lifts slightly.
“Then they’ll learn to.”