Page 55 of Heartless Vows

I pull over before I cause an accident and throw the car into park before moving both hands to the wheel, afraid I’ll hurt Aurora if I touch her right now.

“Why are you telling me this now?” I growl.

“Because I can’t make it make sense anymore!”

The agony in her voice reveals more than I can dissect, but her wild eyes, pale face, and rapid, shallow breaths suggest she’s on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Only one thing could bring her to such depths.

“You can’t send him away, can you?”

My gravelly baritone ruins my attempt at delivering the news gently, but instead of breaking, she turns haunted eyes to mine.

“I’m a selfish coward, aren’t I? I should let him go, but I need him in my life. I just can’t figure out how to keep him safe.”

“Are you asking for my help?”

“I… I don’t think I can do this alone anymore, but…”

“But you think I’ll turn him into a monster?”

She sighs and drops her face into her hands.

“He can’t become my father,” she mumbles.

Her answer isn’t what I expect, but it doesn’t surprise me. I peel my fingers off the steering wheel and gather her to me with as much gentleness as I can muster. She drops her hands into her lap. I cup the back of her head and frame the side of her face before forcing her teary eyes up to mine.

“He has a solid, loving foundation because of you, Aurora. No matter what I teach him, he’ll still be the Tristan you know and love. He willalwaysregard you as the most important person in his life, at least until he starts his own family, and then he’ll still welcome you into his home with open arms.”

“How can you say that? You only saw him for two seconds.”

“Two seconds is all I needed. He needs you the same way you need him. That’s why you can’t send him away, Aurora. Not because you’re selfish, but because he still needs you. You recognized it, even if you couldn’t put it into words.”

“I don’t know what to do anymore,” she whispers.

The first tear escapes from her lashes and trails along my hand. I tuck my thumb under her chin and pull her closer to my face.

“Let me protect him the best way I know how. Let me teach him. The things I do may not always be legal, but I have my own morals, Aurora. He’ll still be the Tristan you raised with love; he’ll just also have the skills to survive the cutthroat, cruel world we live in.”

“How can you promise me something like that? You can’t—”

“I can and I will. Haven’t I proven I’m a man of my word?”

She takes a shuddering breath and searches my expression. When she closes her eyes and nuzzles against my hand, my heart melts.

“You have.” She filets me alive when she aims her shimmery emerald orbs at me. “I trust you, Giorgio.”

“Mio Dio, didn’t I warn you about saying my name?”

Her pupils shrink.

Despite the urgency pulsing through me, I take her mouth in a long, drugging kiss, and when I pull back, her swollen lips and dazed eyes fill me with pride and longing. She shifts in her seat, rubbing her thighs together and pressing her breasts against her shirt. My cock pounds at the agony of being denied.

“Stay just like this, all soft and desperate for me, until I get us home. Are you wet already,mia topolina?”

When she mindlessly nods, I growl and dive back into her mouth, but pull back when lust threatens to break the dam of my control.

I wipe her tears off her face and steal a lick of the corner of her mouth, enjoying her gasp of surprise before settling my hand on her knee and pulling out into traffic.

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