Page 33 of Sin & Sapphire

Instead of protecting her after that fucker murdered her father, I’d sent her straight into the arms of a rapist. Guilt wracked me.

Incandescent fury sluiced through my veins. The chorus in my head that screamed for more, for damage, for murder, swelled until it overwhelmed the pounding of my heart.

My hands shook.

My breathing turned short and choppy.

I raised my fist.

Ana flinched, and even my guilt at her terror couldn’t stop me from punching my hand through the wooden table beside her over and over again until it lay in splinters on the floor. She stood there, silent and brave, not moving a muscle, barely even breathing, as I destroyed the table.

The pain in my hand did nothing to calm my rage, but Ana’s face, utterly blank, as if showing any reaction would provoke me to inflict the same damage on her, brought me abruptly back to earth, silencing the urge to inflict pain on the universe, even if it was for hurting us.

“Ana,” I rasped as I surveyed the damage, horrified at my loss of control.

Valentin hadn’t moved from where he stood on the other side of the room, but his muscles were tense, ready to spring into action and stop me.

My gaze swung back to hers and met her gorgeous green eyes with a calm stare. Her expression hardened, her fear disappearing so quickly I wondered if I’d imagined it, and for the first time in my life, the need to protect overwhelmed the murderous undercurrent that coursed through my veins.

I’d keep my angel safe if it was the last thing I did. Sending her away had been the worst mistake I’d ever made. I wouldn’t make it again.

“You’re safe,” I rasped, and her eyes flicked to mine with surprise. I stepped close and raised my hand to stroke her hair out of her face, only for her to jerk her face away from me.

That wouldn’t do.

My mind raced, searching for solutions. She was the only living Costa woman, heir to a mafia empire, in twice as much danger because that empire was in decline, begging for a man strong enough to seize it and make it his own. To seizeherso he could.

She was bruised and bloody from her ordeal. She was used to men hitting her—her own father abused her. And Valentin hadspankedher.

I needed to think, and I needed to do it when her presence wasn’t overwhelming my senses, stirring my cock and making me want to do anything but treat her with the reverence my angel deserved.

“If I send you to your room, are you going to run?” I asked her quietly, admiring the way her chest heaved as she caught her breath.

“Yes,” she answered defiantly, a flash of spirit returning to her eyes, making me hard all over again. “I’m fucking done. Done with the mafia. Done with men telling me what to do. Fuckingdone.”

I could worship her later. And I would. First, we needed to make sure she wasn’t going to get into any more trouble while we figured out how we were going to keep her safe. And how I was going to get my hands on Grégoire Tchérnov so I could slowly choke the life out of him for what he did to Ana.

“Lock her in her room,” I told Valentin, hoping my callousness would hide the husky need in my voice, praying her eyes didn’t flick to my cock, hot and hard against my thigh.

“Keep your fucking hands off of me,” she snapped as Valentin approached her.

He laughed, his deep brown eyes crinkling with genuine amusement as he backed her up against the door, his size as overbearing as it was breathtaking. “Princess, I’ve already had my hands all over you. And there’s nothing special about you.” Valentin caged her against the door, his hands beside her ears. “Do you want to do this the easy way, or the hard way?”

A bark of laughter exploded out of me. “Has Ana ever done anything the easy way in her entire life?”

Valentin’s shoulders relaxed, as if he’d been waiting for my approval of the way he treated her. He didn’t need it, but he already had it. I trusted him completely, even if I had to suppress my fury that he’d spanked her and my envy that he’d seen the perfect curves of her ass before I had.

He lowered his lips to her ear. “Angelo knows what I like. And he told me to lock you up.”

Valentin took her wrists in his hands and raised them above her, then held them there with his left hand. My cock hardened further, impossibly, when he wrapped the long fingers of his right hand around her throat, not squeezing, just letting her know he could if he wanted.

My lover and my obsession, their bodies locked together, tore through my imagination.Cazzo. This was a bad idea. And I had no desire to stop it.

“Now, are you coming to your room?” he asked her.

The fight should have gone out of her. Instead, she brought her knee up to Valentin’s groin, only stopped from doing damage by the sudden press of his pelvis against hers, shoving her tightly against the door.

I gave up pretending I didn’t give a fuck and adjusted my cock as I watched them. This would end in disaster, but until then, it was the hottest thing I’d ever seen.

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