Page 147 of Wicked Rivals

He pulled back to study my eyes, like he searched for a truth neither of us had been brave enough to admit.

Then he leaned down, and his next kiss became fierce, rough, demanding. His hand went to my throat, but he didn't squeeze. He understood my pain and the bruising left behind by another man who’d never been worthy of touching me.

Stefano held my throat in his hand, replacing my abuser’s touch with his own, erasing the horror from my memory.

His blue eyes darkened.

As he moved his hand down to untie my robe, he didn’t do it slowly, didn’t take his time to explore my body. No, he took what he wanted, opening the robe with a yank.

His commanding behavior overwhelmed me. It lit a strong desire in me. Slick, beautiful heat built up between my thighs.

He grabbed my hair in his fist as he devoured my mouth with his rough kiss. With his other hand, he flicked his thumb over my nipples.

A moan escaped from my mouth into his.

Even after everything I’d been through, all the physical trauma, my body responded to him like a starving animal.

I supposed that was kind of what I had become, a deprived animal so desperate for his touch to sate me.

“Do you want me to make you feel better, little girl?” he growled against my ear.

“Yes,” I said.

“Yes? Yes what, Valerie?”

“Yes, sir. Make me feel better.”

The intense eyes of a very different man burned into mine. The strong man I had always needed. The man I wanted more than anything.

“Only good girls get to come in my bed... and we still have a matter to settle between us.”

Another moan conveyed my agreement.

I wanted whatever he had to give.

“You were a bad girl. You tried to leave me.”

Those words, the way he said them.

I writhed beneath him, my need getting higher and hotter, but he quickly pinned my body down with his.

I gasped. “Please, I’ve learned my lesson.”

“That might be true, but you haven’t apologized,” he said. “So now you’ll show me how sorry you are…”

Then he crushed his rock-hard cock against my stomach.

CHAPTER 31

VAL

I would never escape from this man, not now that he knew what he wanted and planned to take it.

I would never escape this life again.

Stefano chose to bring our past into the present and stop living for the dead. His kiss and his command of my body made it clear he wanted to live for me, for his son, his own family.

No longer could I cling to my own false pretenses either.

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