Chapter 38
Salvario
Her heart thrums beneath my ear, its rhythm folding into mine, quieting every storm inside me. She drags her fingers through my hair, nails grazing lightly against my scalp.
We haven’t spoken in half an hour, but even this silence is soothing. Every second in her arms holds the same weight, whether we’re talking, making love, or lying in silence. These are the only moments I feel truly alive.
“Do you feel him all the time?” she whispers.
I hum in response.
“Have you talked to a psychologist about it?”
I hum again. “They tried therapy. It didn’t work.”
“I want to talk to the psychologist who treated Zo. Will you come with me?” She asks softly.
“I don’t want to see another psychologist. Antonio hired a dozen to work on me. I don’t want another.”
She keeps moving her fingers through my hair—steady, slow—keeping me calm even during my least favorite conversation.
I shift from her chest and settle my face on the pillow, turning to see her. Her eyes are red-rimmed, the skin beneath them swollen from crying. Guilt wraps around my ribs, cinches tight, and starts to suffocate me.
She presses her soft palm to my cheek.
“What are you thinking?”
“All I seem to give you is tears.”
She frowns. “That’s an absurd thing to think. Downright ignorant. You’re forgetting about the orgasms.”
“That’s not enough, Princess. I want to give you smiles and laughter. I want to keep you happy—the way your father has, all these years.”
She smiles. “You just made me happy. Saying all that with your straight, grumpy face.”
She brings her face closer. Our noses brush.
“I’m happy as long as I get to see you. Touch you. Kiss you. And have sex with you.”
She presses her lips to mine. “I love you, Salvario. I don’t need anything else. Just your love.”
She sighs. “And a way to communicate with you, so I don’t have to spend hours in the park waiting for your handsome face to appear.”
“I can’t communicate with you without your father finding out.”
I can listen to her surroundings. Watch her through her phone. With the help of the virus I planted in her phone. She doesn’t know about that. And if she finds out the other purpose of that virus, it will ruin everything.
My everything.
“So you’re saying you’ll just disappear again? Not tell me how long you’ll be gone?”
I trace my thumb over her pursed lips.
“I’ll see you at your next concert.”
Her lips curl downward, I feel the movement under my thumb. I pull my thumb away and replace it with my lips, kissing her slowly.
“I’ll talk to my dad.” She says it with breathy determination, the moment I release her mouth.
“I’ll ask him to forgive you and accept you as my boyfriend.”
I know she’ll convince him. But that would mean I can’t move against them. I wouldn’t be able to take my revenge on Alexander. Once I’m part of their system, they’ll know my every move.
“Not yet. Just wait.”
She frowns. “But why?”
“It’s not the right time. Zloban and Matleon want me dead.”
Her eyes widen. “How do you know?”
I shift onto my back. “I wouldn’t have survived this long without knowing things like that, Princess.”
She settles her head on my chest. I stroke her silky brown waves, fingers trailing along the curve of her shoulder.
“Tonight, Avi said maybe Dad caught you. I was so scared.”
I press a kiss to her head. “It’s not easy to catch me. People have been trying for over a decade.”
Her father almost caught me with that fake Jonathan identity. But now I know what he’s capable of—I won’t let him corner me again.
She chuckles, tilting her face up. “Now you’re reminding me of your age again, saying you’ve been a criminal for a decade while I was just a ten-year-old who cried over scraped knees.”
A smile tugs at my mouth.
She pokes my cheek. “I love your dimple.”
I catch her hand and turn it, enclosing her small fist in mine. “I love you.”
“I love you more.” She brushes her lips against mine.
“You can’t possibly love me more than I love you, Princess.”
“Why not?” She props herself up on her elbows, ready to argue the point.
“You have a beautiful world without me. But for me, you are my world.”
She chuckles. “You always catch me off guard when you say things like that with that serious face.”
She wipes the smile from her face and narrows her eyes. “But your cheesy line doesn’t prove you love me more.”
I laugh at the dramatic shift in her expression.
She claps a hand over my mouth.
“Someone will hear you.”
Her eyes fly wide. She slides away from me, quick, jerking open the drawer beside her bed, then another, rummaging frantically. Then she looks at me.
“My phone. It was right here.”
“It’s in the closet.”
“You put it there?”
I nod.
She sighs, dropping onto the bed. I look down at the breathtaking sight of her naked body. I move closer, pressing my lips to the bare curve of her waist. She rolls onto her back. I kiss my way up to her soft breasts. She hums when my mouth closes around her pebbled nipple.
I suck until it slips from my mouth with a wet pop. I slide her thong down and away. I part her legs and rub my tip all around her slick flesh, then slowly push inside. Her body welcomes me, pulls me in, greedy and perfect. Her lips part as I slowly fill her completely.
I pull out completely, bend over her, and push back in, claiming her mouth in a fierce kiss as I do.
There is no end to desire in her presence. She is my beginning, and she will be my end. Everything in between is hers. My body, heart, and soul—scarred, tainted, and tortured—belong completely to this woman.