Page 60 of Corrupt Vows

Tears shimmer in her eyes. I cup her chin, but she steps back and shakes her head.

“I’m okay, really. I just need a few minutes alone.”

“No,” I snarl.

She huffs.

“I just want to cry in the shower,” she says through gritted teeth.

“Good. Cry in the shower while I hold you in my arms.”

“Fine,” she snaps, but relief flashes in her eyes.

As I stand with her naked, slippery body against mine with her quiet crying bouncing off the shower walls, I wish I could bury my fist into her classmate’s face a couple dozen more times before slitting his throat. He deserves a hundred brutal deaths for hurting her.

Which makes Ermanno’s text a few hours later even worse.

Ralf escaped and disappeared off the radar as though he never existed.

Chapter 17

Serenity Vivaldi

When my hand lands on cold sheets, loneliness wraps around my heart. I spent twenty-four years of my life waking up alone, so it shouldn’t bother me now, but after falling asleep pressed against Nico’s big, warm body, his absence hurts.

When I roll over and my head gives a slight throb, I sit up and take the pills he left for me on the bedside table. My shoulder and hip hurt the worst, but the constant nausea is gone and the bandages around my fingertips don’t annoy me as much as they originally did.

I stumble from the bed and find Nico staring out through the glass wall in the living room. Desire pulses through me as I remember his kisses on the couch.

He turns as I approach. Fear tightens my chest at the savage glint in his eyes, but he abolishes his dark thoughts and aims his full attention on me.

His heavy-lidded stare as he sweeps his gaze over me melts my insides and fills me with hunger.

The sky remains dark above the city.

“What time is it?” I ask.

“A little after three,” he says without looking at his phone. The screen glows against his thigh before he presses the button to turn it off.

“Let’s get you back to bed,principessa,” he says as he stalks toward me.

I instinctually step back, but he scoops me off my feet, carries me to the bed, and settles in beside me when I refuse to release his arm.

If teddy bears were lethal, rock hard, larger than life, and smelled of whiskey and cologne, he’d be the most comfortable one in the entire world.

I squeeze him tighter, relaying what I can’t say with actions. In a haze of pain, I almost confessed my feelings at the hospital. It’s way too soon for declarations of love. We barely announced our engagement three days ago, and seven days before then, Nico was set to marry my sister.

I need to call Camilla first thing in the morning. She’s at the best mental health hospital money can buy thanks to Nico.

I hug him with all my strength and snuggle closer.

“What’s wrong, Serenity?” he asks.

I shake my head and burrow closer.

“I should be asking you that,” I huff.

He stiffens before relaxing and gently stroking my hair back from my face, avoiding the lump on the side of my head.

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