Chapter 19
ADRIANO
My thoughts are all-consuming. How did Ivan know about Eva to go hunting for her?
Why did he think she was alive when everyone else thought she was dead?
Perhaps it was Maksim who started it, and Ivan just finished it. But how did they know of her in the first place?
Granted, our relationship wasn’t a secret four years ago.
Perhaps they determined back then that she could be used as leverage against me.
Did they make a move that my father took to mean she was working for them?
There are still so many questions, but at least one is answered. Ivan hopes to use the love I have for my family to ruin me.
He’ll be dead before that happens.
Nothing will hurt Eva or Mirabella. Not on my watch.
“I’m sorry that you’ve gotten caught up in all this. Not just Ivan, but with my father as well.”
Her gaze holds mine, and in them, I see her mind whirling. "You couldn't have known."
“I should have. I would have if you told me.” I try to say the words gently, not in accusation. All of this is because she didn’t trust me. She still doesn’t and it guts me.
“I was afraid.”
I drop onto the edge of the bed, running a hand through my hair. "I understand now why you ran. Why you had to disappear. My father gave you an impossible choice, and you chose to keep our daughter safe." I understand it even if I hate it.
Eva remains standing, watching me cautiously.
"I failed you both then." I look up, meeting her gaze directly. "But I swear on my life, I won't fail you again. Whatever Ivan wants, he'll have to go through me to get to you or Mirabella." I mean every word. I’ll destroy the world before I let anyone hurt what’s mine.
She doesn’t say anything, even though in her eyes, it feels like there’s so much she wants to tell me.
"I've been wrong about so many things," I admit.
"When I thought you were dead, I became someone else.
Someone harder. Colder." I pause, searching for words that won't sound pathetic.
"But seeing you with our daughter, watching how fiercely you've protected her all these years, I know you thought of her first, as you should have. "
Eva sits next to me. “Thank you.”
"I should have trusted that the woman I fell in love with wouldn't have left without reason. I should have looked harder, fought harder." I turn my head to look at her. "I won't doubt you again, Eva. Whatever comes, whatever truths still need to surface, I'm with you."
She sucks in a breath and looks down. “I don’t deserve—”
“Of course you do. Like I said, I’m going to fix all of this.
” I take her hand, needing to touch her.
"Can we just rewind? Go back to before Ivan showed up and ruined our night?
Let's pretend we came home after the ballet, put our daughter to bed, and then…
" I lift her hand to my lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles.
Her breath catches. "And then?"
"And then I told you how beautiful you looked tonight. How watching you with Mirabella makes parts of me I thought were dead feel alive again."
Something shifts in her expression.
Fear and perhaps guilt turn softer, more vulnerable.
She leans into my touch, eyes closing for a moment.
When they open again, I see the spark that I’d noticed when we first met.
The spark I thought life on the run had extinguished from her.
“I feel it too.”
Her words give me hope that she’s coming around to trusting me. That she wants to take back what my father stole from us.
I press my forehead against Eva's, breathing in the scent of her. “You trust me, don’t you? Trust that I can protect you?”
“I trust that you can protect me.”
A kernel of doubt settles in my stomach. Not that she doesn’t trust me to protect her. It’s that she still doesn’t trust me with her secrets.
I trace my fingertips along her jawline, down the delicate column of her throat, feeling her pulse leap beneath my touch. "I'm sorry I didn't protect you from my father. Sorry you had to run. Sorry you faced it all alone."
Each apology is punctuated with a light kiss on her temple, her cheek, the corner of her mouth.
She responds by sliding her hands up my chest, fingers curling into my shirt like she needs something to anchor her.
"Adriano.”
I capture her mouth with mine. There's none of the frantic desperation that usually crackles between us. Just a deep, aching need to memorize every sensation.
I ease her back on the bed. Her hands find their way beneath my shirt, palms flat against my skin, exploring.
I undress her with reverence.
Each newly revealed inch of her is a gift I treasure.
I press my lips to the scar on her shoulder that wasn't there before, silently promising vengeance against whoever marked her.
"I'm here now," I vow, gathering her against me. “You’re safe.”
She arches beneath me as I trail kisses across her ribs, her stomach, her hip.
My hands worship every inch of her.
Her body has changed since I knew it last.
She has new curves probably from pregnancy.
It makes her more beautiful to me.
In this moment, there are no Russians, no brothers, no suspicions between us. There's only Eva and me.
"Let me," I murmur, working my way down her body. "Let me show you what I've dreamed about every night since I lost you."
Her fingers tangle in my hair as I move lower, taking my time tasting her.
I savor each shudder, each moaned plea.
The sounds she makes drive me to the edge of madness, but I rein in my need, wanting to focus on her.
I work her body, my mouth on her wet pussy, drawing out her pleasure until she's trembling.
Her thighs quiver against my shoulders as I suckle her clit.
I slide my tongue inside her, laving up her sweetness.
“Adriano!” Her back arches off the mattress, her pussy tightens around my tongue.
Before she can recover, I'm moving up her body, positioning myself between her legs. Our eyes lock, and emotion fills me. It’s not just desire. It’s everything.
Her hands find my face, pulling me down for a kiss, and I believe she feels it too.
It’s probably dangerous to hope that this moment changes things for us.
That it means she’ll finally relent and openly accept what I’m offering.
My heart.
My soul.
I enter her slowly, watching her eyes widen and her lips part on a silent gasp.
The sensation is overwhelming.
I hold still, foreheads pressed together, savoring the moment we become one.
Something cracks inside my chest.
A vulnerability I've never allowed myself to feel.
It’s dangerous.
It’s terrifying.
It’s love.