Page 106 of Meet Me in Montreal

“The police already did ask. They took my statement at the hospital. I don’t think they’ll be back again. I mean, if Claremore and Joe never turn up, I doubt anybody will miss them.”

The look on her face, of certainty, ofknowing, caused a beat of shame to pulse in his chest. Quietly, he asked, “You think of me differently now, don’t you? After what you saw me do.”

Vanessa turned back to him fully, facing him with her head tilted to the side and a soft sadness creeping over her features. She nodded slowly.

“Yes. I used to be unsure where I fit into your life. I thought I wasn’t a priority. It was mostly because of my own insecurities,but Antoinette and the Aruba thing shook my faith in you. In us. But now I think of you as the man who’d risk his life for me. Who would do anything to keep me safe.Anything. The one person who would put me first, no matter what.”

The way she said that, the way she looked at him, almost wrecked him. It was a victory to finally hear that from her, but now he was overcome by confusion. What did this mean for them? Was she holding out more false hope or simply giving him grace before the final curtain dropped on their story?

The thoughts that had been haunting him, the dark crimson visions that were now memories of real things flooded his head. “I don’t regret doing what I had to do to make sure you got out of there. I’d do it again, for you. But my job is to save lives, not take them. I don’t know what this makes me.”

The admission had been so heavy to make, but she still smiled at him, the shine in her eyes the same as it ever was.

With a wry grin, she said, “You know how in those horror movies when somebody knocks the creepy ass killer out and everybody goes on their merry way without making sure he’s dead? Of course, he pops up at the last minute and goes after them again, and it’s so fuckingfrustrating. Well, you did what everybody in the audience screams for the hero to do. Make sure that guy never gets up again, so the good guys can go home and sleep at night.”

That did make him smile, even as the rush of relief inside him was short-lived. “Yeah. That is what usually happens in those movies. Except I’m not really sleeping so good at night anymore.”

“Me neither. The only thing I’m wondering is why the man who’d do that for me would consider getting on a plane and moving across the Atlantic for good. Why?” Those beautiful eyes were flooded with a disappointment he almost couldn’t bear to see.

Santino hedged his answer, simply saying, “Uncle Paulie thinks it’s best if I leave town, at least for a while. Dom hasn’t heard anything. You’re out of it. But they’ll be keeping an eye on you just in case. Bobby knows to go to Dom if he needs to.”

“That’s not the answer to my question.” Vanessa’s breathing became more pronounced, not from her injuries but with rising emotion that battered him from all the way across the room. “Why not ask me to go with you?”

He wanted to laugh. He should have, at her nerve. Anger stirred in him but stronger than that was frustrated desire. Too strong.

“Vanessa, you wouldn’t see me at all for a year. For two years after that, you pressed me for a divorce. You wanted your freedom, I gave it to you. I lost the bet. The end.”

Tears were streaming down Vanessa’s face. Those tears hurt him more than the jagged words that had ripped him up on the inside, too pointed and sharp to hold in. But she was the one who came to him, comforting him with her soft hands on his face. And after weeks of not touching her, not kissing her, not waking up to this face and going to sleep with her by his side, it was too much for him to bear. He didn’t just need pleasure, he needed absolution, the peace he could only find in her arms, in her generous body, from being allowed proximity to her soul even if only for a brief span of time.

How it all happened was a blur, nothing distinct, not the way their clothes disappeared, or which one of them pulled the other down on the bed. But there’d be no forgetting the way they kissed with such desperate passion, the way she moaned when his mouth was on her nipples and his tongue was circling her clit. He had to memorize her taste, take in all of her sweetness and her salt until she cried out his name.

He needed to remember the feel of her taking her time with his dick in her mouth and down her throat. Needed to rememberhow she rode him, her head thrown back with abandon, then pulled him on top. It was hours of delirious, soul-drenching ecstasy until their voices cracked on anguished cries of pleasure and they’d each coaxed every last drop of cum from the other.

Afterward, still soft and wet with sweat and tears and spent lust, she wrapped her arms and legs around him and locked him in. He fucking loved that, loved the feel of her softness underneath him, breaking him down and absorbing every part of him.

The knowledge that this would be the last time was unthinkable.

Finally, he pulled out of her and rolled over, keeping her against his side. Vanessa’s breath was warm as it fanned across the rise and fall of his chest. She lifted her head and kissed him. When she gazed at him, it was still with adoration, tenderness. Acceptance. Something deeper.

She stroked the side of his face with those long fingers. “Are you still going to Italy tonight?”

Those quiet words, spoken in a husky voice, weren’t demanding. She wasn’t begging, wasn’t pleading with him.

Santino nodded. “Yes. What Paulie said…”

Her sigh was soft, yielding. “You should go. I want you somewhere safe. And if you need time to feel better about what happened, I guess I can’t think of a better place for that than with Nonno and your family.”

Santino could tell it hurt her to say that, to reassure him she understood. He’d never appreciated her more than he did in that moment, not just as a lover, but as a friend. His best friend.

“What about you? What will you do?” he asked in an unsteady voice.

“Keep seeing my therapist, maybe like five times a week instead of three. Help out with Everly, even though Bobby thinks he doesn’t need me to. Rebuild my library.” She was trying sohard to keep her tone light, for his sake. “I’ll figure out the rest later.”

“That’s a good plan,” Santino said, stroking down the beloved slope of her nose with his fingertip. “A real good plan.”

She got dressed while he pulled on his jeans and walked her downstairs to the front door and then to her car. Before she got in, she turned to him, and he folded her in his arms.

“I’ll see you sometime,” Vanessa whispered when he pressed his forehead against hers.

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