Page 32 of Sin & Sapphire

One of the men nodded, the fool.

I rose, only for Valentin’s hand to tangle in my hair and yank me back down. “They stopped when they realized who I was,” I whispered from where I crouched, half-risen, unable to stand, tears streaming from my eyes at the pain.

He shoved my face against his thigh. “Close your eyes, princess.”

Obediently, as if in a trance, I sank back down to my knees and buried my face in the rich fabric of his trousers, squeezing my eyes shut.

Three shots echoed in the office, followed by the soft thuds of three bodies.

“You belong to Angelo,” Valentin said, tightening his fingers in my hair, his nails scratching against my scalp almost affectionately. “And nobody touches what’s his without his permission.”

“The fuck I do,” I said. Where the fuck was Angelo when Tchérnov was raping me?

Valentin’s lips tilted upward in a cruel smile as he yanked me to my feet. I stumbled, and he placed a hand on the small of my back to steady me before guiding me out of the casino.

“Come. It’s time to apologize to your uncle.”

14

ANGELO

Valentin openedthe door to the apartment, then stepped aside. Ana stood beside him, bruised, bloody, her vibrant blonde hair greasy and messy, but standing tall, her chin tilted up in defiance.

My shoulders slumped in relief. He’d texted me before flying back to Nice from Monaco, but I hadn’t believed him, couldn’t, until I’d seen her with my own eyes.

She wore his suit jacket, drowning in it. Unreasonable jealousy clutched at my heart, only to be replaced with rage that she’d spent the last several weeks in hiding after escaping from Tchérnov.

Fuck.

I didn’t have any right to this girl. I didn’t when I fell in love with her ten years ago, and I sure as fuck didn’t now.

I wanted to, though. I wanted to wrap those bee-stung lips around my cock, to bend her over and plow into her until she screamed my name. I wanted to flip her onto the couch and devour her sweet cunt until she couldn’t do anything but moan my name and beg for more. I wanted her on her knees before me, looking up at me with her eyes soft and sweet, waiting for my next command.

My cock hardened as Valentin nudged her into the apartment with a touch to the small of her back, and ten years of self-loathing collided with lust. She stood in front of him, trembling, vulnerable, spitting with fury, absolutely fucking gorgeous.

“Now,” Valentin snapped at her.

She shook her head.

“Ana!” Valentin’s voice cracked through the room in a rare show of temper. He had little patience for rebellion, and our angel was a brat from her head to her toes.

Achingly slowly, Ana dropped to her hands and knees. One slow, ashamed movement at a time, she made her way over to me.

“Ana?” I asked, not believing my eyes.

Valentin’s gaze met mine. “Je t’aime,” he mouthed. He was giving me a gift—my obsession, on her knees before me, more beautiful than I’d ever seen her, raw and untamed, begging for someone to take control.

Ana reached me, her perfect fucking tits hanging in front of her, nipples hard and pointed, visible through the gaping neckline of her dress. Her eyes flashed with fury, but she obeyed Valentin.

“Ana,” Valentin growled as my cock hardened at the sight before me. Desire and nausea churned together in my gut. I wanted her, despite how forbidden she was. My dead brother’sdaughter.

“I’m sorry, Uncle Angelo. I’m sorry you were worried about me. I’m sorry I didn’t check in.” She looked up at me, and her face contorted with fury. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you I was running away from a rapist, and I was scared you’d send me back.” She scrambled to her feet, shaking with emotion as she glared at Valentin and me. “I’m sorry I didn’t call you because when you finally did find me, this asshole turned me over his goddamned knee and spanked me. Oh wait. I’m not fucking sorry at all.”

Ana shook with fury as she hollered at me for finding her and getting her out of that casino before they could change their minds and do who the fuck knows what to her in exchange for helping a known criminal fleece them.

My eyes jerked to Valentin’s, who’d fixed his gaze on her, his jaw ticking with fury.

Grégoire Tchérnov raped my angel. I sent her off to my father’s without a second thought, smug in the superiority of his control over his lands, and that asshole ripped her away from a home that was supposed to be safe and did his worst.

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