Page 69 of Phantom Mine

Finally, he falls, spent. His entire body covers mine, his harsh breaths fanning the top of my head. He strokes my hair casually, whispering gentle words of praise and reassurance as we lay quietly on the floor of his office. It’s almost more intimate than everything we just did, and it has a warm glow burning inside me.

Chapter Eighteen

Matteo

Valentina fixes what’s left of her clothes and looks around at the floor for anything she might have forgotten, doing her best to avoid the gaze she feels pinned watchfully on her.

I was rough with her.

I was rough with her, rougher than I’d planned on being, and she liked it. She took it all and now it’s making me wonder how much more she could take.

The low, needy sounds she’d made as she fell apart hit me right in the dick. I made her come over and over again, just so I could hear that sweet melody one more time.

“Are you okay?” I ask.

“I’m fine.” Her legs shake as she rounds my desk. She has to keep a hand on the surface to steady herself. I resist a smirk at the sight.

“Not too sore?” I ask, sitting at my desk.

Valentina finally pins me with her dark gaze. “We don’t have to do this.”

I lift a brow at her. “This?”

“This.” She motions between the two of us. “This gentle, caring lover routine you’re trying to embark on. We fucked. It was good—”

“Good?”

Valentina glares at me. “Alright, it was great. But we fucked, that’s it. No need to pretend this is anything other than what it was.”

“Which is?”

She juts her chin at me. “A one time thing. One and done.”

This version of Valentina is harder than the one I met a year and a half ago. There’s a hardened edge about her, from the wariness in her gaze to the tightness in her shoulders. She’s leaner than I remember. Tone and honed. Different. Tough as nails. Somehow, even more attractive.

Equal measures of strength, resilience, and stubbornness radiate off her. She’s no Aphrodite. She’s Athena, the goddess of war, in disguise.

I drum my fingers on the surface of my desk. “No.”

Valentina laughs mirthlessly. “Your input wasn’t asked for.”

“And yet it was given.”

“Too bad.”

I drum my fingers again. Her gaze drops to follow the motion. “Are you ready to tell me what you’re doing atFirenze, masquerading as a stripper?”

Valentina steels her spine, an indecipherable wall coming down in her gaze. “That’s none of your business.”

It’s my turn to chuckle coldly. “You think I’m going to continue letting you roam around without getting some answers first?”

She shrugs. “We can fight if you prefer. I’ll gladly punch you again.”

I smirk, repositioning myself in my chair. “I’d prefer we fuck. My cock is hard again for you,cara. Why don’t you get on your knees and introduce your mouth to him?”

Valentina grits her teeth, but I don’t miss the way the skin of her neck flushes red. “Not going to happen.”

“Then let me in,” I argue. “I’ve proven to you that I intend to keep you safe, haven’t I? Trust me.”

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