Page 47 of Wicked Rivals

CHAPTER 10

STEFANO

Val returned my kiss with furious passion.

And I fucking hated her for it.

She didn’t want to share her life or my son with me. Yet she didn’t fight me. Didn’t shove me away. No, she opened her sweet mouth and kissed me back without hesitation.

As our kiss deepened, I pushed my way inside her robe, exploring her body, remembering every one of her curves like I’d just had her the night before.

She dragged her fingertips up my arms, softly, over my chest, and then she dug her nails into the back of my neck.

This woman still intoxicated me after so many years apart.

So easy to believe she was meant for me.

This spunky little barista who couldn’t have been any more my opposite if she wanted to be. Innocent, filled with light, thoughtful, a loving mother. A woman who wanted nothing to do with my money, my lifestyle, or my influence.

But she couldn’t deny wanting me.

Val opened herself to me like she’d spent the last ten years waiting for me to come back, waiting for my attention, longing for my touch. My touch, only mine.

Despite the shit storm between us and all around us, the secrets, and the lies, her body responded to mine with just as much greed and hunger.

Twenty seconds into kissing her, and I wanted to take her right there against the wall, even with our son sleeping on the other side. Just a kiss with anyone else could never make my cock so hard. Val owned that.

I wanted her with a desperation too dangerous for a man in my position, even after everything she’d put me through when she left me, kept my son from me, and put him in harm's way.

True, I didn’t want children.

But Enzo had come along, like it or not, and he was my flesh and blood, my heir, a Vignali.

Val had robbed him of his father and his family.

She let me believe I didn’t have anything to live for, nothing to lose, while she hid the boy who should have been my reason for getting up in the morning all along.

Despite that, after one fucking kiss, for Christ’s sake, I was ready to give up the ship.

My plan for vengeance, the rage that fueled my every move, it seemed almost insignificant with this woman in my arms and our son under my roof.

But then her mouth fell away from mine, and she pushed me away. I stared at her, working to catch my breath, watching her catch hers. A few seconds later, I caught something else… the full force of her open palm slapping my face.

Before I could react and punish her, she buried her fists in my hair and pulled me in for another kiss. I pushed her against the wall again with my body and let her kiss me with everything she had, everything she would ever be.

All of it, mine.

Her familiar scent, the sweet taste of her tongue, and her warm skin touching mine overwhelmed me. I needed more. I needed to have her in my bed.

I slid my hands around to grip her ass.

She had filled out so perfectly over the years.

With a growl, I squeezed and pulled her harder against me while letting her continue kissing me, tasting me. It took everything in me to bring myself to break away.

I rested my forehead against hers, giving her a minute to calm down and myself time to re-engage my brain and think.

“We need to talk,” I said. “About a few things. I don’t want to wake the boy.”

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