Page 30 of Bound to the Mafia King

The words slipped past his lips so quickly I almost missed them.

“Excuse me?”

He licked his lips, and his eyes broke our stare off. “I said, I’m sorry.”

It wasn’t his words that got to me, but rather the look in his eyes. The sincerity swam through his pupils.

“The way I behaved in the shop was unacceptable on my part, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. You didn’t deserve my cruelty. I was just… caught off guard.”

I wanted to ask what he had been thrown off guard by, but he continued.

“You are a guest in my home, and I should have been more accommodating. You have my word that something like this will not happen again.”

To say I was taken aback would be an understatement. Men in this world did not know how to say the word sorry. They behaved how they wanted to, and everyone was simply meant to bend at their will. For him to come forward and apologize, and not only that but having sincerity in his tone, meant a lot to me. My defenses dropped a little, but not all the way, because I was no idiot. His apologies didn’t mean that he was a changed man. He was still Valerio Valdez. He was dangerous, and someone I needed to be weary of, especially with Sergei being my husband-to-be.

“I accept your apology.” I swallowed hard, trying to keep my body under control. “But we need to keep our distance from each other, Valerio. What happened last night can’t happen again. It was a mistake, and we can chalk it all off as an accident.”

The gleam in his eyes vanished at my words. He narrowed his stare. “What happened last night was no mistake. I didn’t mistakenly put my mouth on your pussy and lap you up. What happened last night was meant to be.”

Why did he need to make things so difficult for me?

Valerio reached his hand out and gripped my chin with his large palm. His hold on me was a little hard, but not so much that it caused me pain. In fact, that slight discomfort actually excited me a little.

What the hell was wrong with me?

“You can keep trying to hide from this, from us, but just know that we are inevitable. Everything changed the day of that accident. We became one without even realizing it.” My breath caught at his words. He spoke with so much certainty that there was a small part of me that wanted to believe him. “I am yours, Anastasia, and you belong to me. You can wear another man’s ring; you can even think you will marry him. But the truth of the matter is that there will never be anyone for you like me.”

He drew his face only a few centimeters from mine. The proximity excited and riveted me. His hot breath fanned my face, making my entire system short-circuit.

“So run if you must.” He was so close now that I felt the slight brush of his lips against mine. That small contact alone was enough to have tingles surge throughout my entire body. But just as the anticipation had peaked, he withdrew, leaving me yearning for more. “I enjoy the chase,cielo.”

He stepped away from me looking rather satisfied that he had managed to get me into this state. He had a way of breaking down whatever protective wall I had around myself. Very few had ever bested me in that regard, and it irked me that he managed it so easily.

“See you at dinner, Anastasia.” And with that, he stepped around me and made his way to his parked McLaren, which looked oddly similar to the one that he had crashed that fateful day.

I didn’t dare look back as I entered the house for fear of staring into his eyes again. The last thing that I needed right now was to find myself lost in him again.

This was a very dangerous line I was treading, and one misstep could lead to death. Particularly, mine.

Chapter Twelve

Valerio

The storm roared above me. I looked left and right and found myself in the very same forest where it all began when I was nothing but a small boy. I would know this cursed place anywhere.

This was the day that ended me completely.

What was I doing back here?

The rain beat down on my skin. The thunder roared, causing the ground I stood on to tremble.

No, I knew this place well, and just like I had done when I was a boy, I bolted into the forest. I couldn’t allow him to get me, not like he had all those years ago.

“Vale!” His loud voice moved through the air, causing the blood in my veins to curdle. “Come out, come out, wherever you are, boy!”

I looked up at the tall pine trees and saw lightning rip through the sky violently, momentarily illuminating my surroundings. The sound that followed hit me right in my chest.It was a resounding rumble of the Earth that shook the soil beneath me.

I pumped my legs faster and faster. My lungs screamed in the middle of my chest, threatening to give out at any second. The fear flowed through my veins, paralyzing my heart. I only had one singular thought in my mind and that was to get the fuck away.

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