Chapter 18 - Vera #2
“Either I leave you and marry Adrian...” I laughed shakily. “Or he would make sure you disappeared.”
The silence that followed felt endless. “I didn’t know what to do, but I just knew that I would rather lose you than have you killed.”
Pain flashed across his face. Real pain. The kind no one else ever saw.
“So, I lied.” I looked down, ashamed and heartbroken. “I just thought if you hated me and continued hating me, it would be a little easier to let go, and you would eventually move on. Instead, I apparently created a monster.”
For one terrifying second, I thought he might laugh.
Might get angry. Might explode. Instead, he simply stared at me, and something inside him broke.
Actually broke. I watched it happen. The realization.
The guilt. The regret. The horror. All of it arriving at once.
Months of assumptions collapsing beneath him.
“Nico.”
His hand covered his mouth, and he looked away. Then stood abruptly, walking several steps across the room. I thought he was leaving, but instead he stopped and braced both hands against a dresser. Nico lowered his head and the sight frightened me more than any outburst could have.
Nico never fell apart. Never. Not in front of anyone. Yet here he was, struggling to breathe.
For several long moments, neither of us spoke.
Then finally, a quiet voice. Rough and destroyed.
“I’m sorry.”
I froze.
He turned toward me, and the expression on his face stole every remaining word from my mouth.
“I am so sorry.”
The apology wasn’t for one thing. I knew that immediately. It wasn’t about the kidnapping, or the stalking, or the revenge. It was about all of it. About months of pain condensed into four words, and he wasn’t even the one who was at fault here. Not entirely anyway.
“I’m sorry.”
The tears started again, harder this time because I believed him. Nico crossed the room and returned to me, approaching me as if approaching something fragile. Something precious. Something he wasn’t sure he deserved to touch.
“I should have known.” The guilt in his eyes was unbearable. “I should have known you.”
“You couldn’t have,” I sobbed. “I should have trusted you enough to tell you the entire truth and should have asked you to protect me.
So I reached for him without thinking or hesitation.
My fingers found his hand, and his eyes closed instantly.
The reaction was devastating, as if even that simple touch meant everything.
When he looked at me again, all the walls were gone.
Every single one. And for the first time in months, I wasn’t looking at the man who kidnapped me.
Or the man obsessed with revenge. Or the man who stalked me.
I was looking at Nico. My Nico.
The man I loved. The man I had always loved and nearly lost. His forehead touched mine, and somehow it felt like coming home. The room grew quiet.
Neither of us spoke.
And then, as if in unison, his lips crashed on mine as I sought him out.
He came over to the bed beside me, still careful of keeping my arm out of the way.
His hands threaded through my hair and I kissed him softly and passionately and wildly all at once.
I felt too many things, and I didn’t know how to name even a single one of them.
“I want you,” I whispered, and Nico stilled.
“Are you sure? You’re hurt, my love.”
“I don’t care. I just know I need you.”
That was all the encouragement he needed.
Within seconds, he had me stripped naked.
He stepped away from the bed himself and took off his shirt and trousers and came to me at once.
He was sculpted underneath his clothes. No matter how many times I saw him naked, it always gave me a rush.
His hands covered my face tenderly as he looked into my eyes.
“Have I told you how beautiful you are?”
I chuckled. “Quite a few times.”
“Not enough.”
He held me like I was the most important thing he had ever held in his life and rained kisses all over my face. Starting from my forehead, to my eyes, my nose, my cheeks, my lips, Nico continued kissing me as if it was the best thing he had ever done. I loved him. I loved this man so much.
“I love you, Nico.”
He stilled. It had been a while since I had said the words out loud.
“I love you too,” Nico replied.
He held my bare waist in his hands and lowered me on the bed before coming on top of me. I arched my back, and his fingers found their way to my soaking wet pussy like it always did. He had memorized my body in ways only Nico could have memorized my body.
“Yes, please,” I moaned. His fingers found their way inside me, but his touch remained gentle. Soft. Kind. Caring. “Faster.”
I moaned, and he chuckled, stopping immediately.
Instead, he aligned his already hardened erection at the entrance of my pussy and eased inside me slowly. I raised my hips as he made his way inside me, filling me with him. I was already filled with the child he had given me, and I wanted nothing but to have him with me completely. Fully.
“I love you, Vera,” he whispered again, holding me close.
Nico held me while rocking back and forth inside me. It felt as if he was worshipping my body rather than making love to it, and I enjoyed every second of it. My fingers trailed all over his back, marking him as mine because he was.
“You’re mine, Nico.”
“I am,” he agreed, his words coming out in a moan.
He trailed kisses over my neck, and his thumb found its way to my clitoris, and he began rubbing me softly, bringing me closer to climax.
Within seconds, I was worked up and ready to come, and the hardening of his cock inside me told me he was too.
His strokes grew in pace, and our orgasms tore through us, combining us as one.
“I love you,” we whispered in unison, and I had never felt more at home.