Page 20 of The Villain's Beloved (The Villain's Duet 2)

“I’ve always been there.” His fingers weaved through my hair. “You just never saw me.”

7

There wasa storm brewing in the dark clouds outside. I could smell the rain, feel the looming thunder coming from the distance. Maybe it was the universe’s way of telling me that I had made a massive mistake by bringing Charlotte here.

Roma. It was a beautiful city that spoke to my soul whenever I was here, walking its streets and watching its people. Knowing how magical this city was, I couldn’t deny Charlotte’s desire to experience it herself. Yes, my first priority was to keep her safe and out of the hands of the Bernardis. But her happiness had become my priority as well the second I told her I loved her.

Soft hands snaked around my middle from behind, and I closed my eyes, relishing the feel of her. Her presence. Her peace.

“Did you enjoy the spa bath?”

“Hmm-mm. Totally ruined a normal bathtub for me.”

I snickered, loving the thought of pleasing her. Even if it meant soaking in a bath for an hour.

“Thank you,” she whispered, leaning her head against my back.

I placed my hand on top of her twined fingers. “I would do anything for you, Charlotte. Never doubt that.”

The gentle pitter-patter of rain against the windows dwindled the silence. Secretly, I was thankful the weather didn’t allow any sightseeing today. It gave me one more day of being able to protect her within the confines of four walls.

“This hotel room is amazing, Elijah.” She maneuvered her body around mine to stand in front of me, her hair wet, her naked body wrapped with a plush white towel. “But a simple cabin, or even a tent would have sufficed.”

“A tent in Rome?”

She snickered, and her cheeks blushed.

I tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “You deserve the best of everything. And this is the best hotel in Rome.”

“You know,” she smirked, “for someone who supposedly stalked—”

“Observed.”

“Stalkedme…for years, I sometimes get the feeling you don’t know me at all.” She tightened her hold around me, and my cock stirred. “It’s not about money for me, or the fanciest food or most expensive hotels. For me…it’s about moments. Memories. The perfume.”

Perfume. The keeper of memories. The reason she had been buying herself the same brand of perfume for years—a reminder of her late mother.

I touched her chin with a gentle nip between my fingers. “I don’t know what it’s like to have fond memories of a mother, but I imagine it can’t be easy missing someone like that every day.”

The soft light of a single sunray that broke through the thunderous clouds touched the blue in her eyes, her unshed tears glimmering, igniting this deeply rooted need inside me to make it right. To comfort her and slay those motherfucking memories that broke her heart over and over again. But I wasn’t like her. I didn’t know how to comfort, how to sympathize or encourage. All I knew how to do was to hate and kill. I had been programmed not to care—a hardened man who didn’t give a shit about anyone else’s suffering. If I had to care about other people, their feelings, their pain, I wouldn’t be in the profession that I was. I wouldn’t have been able to secure owed debts or exact the revenge my clients craved. I’d be too busy searching for unicorns and fucking rainbows in the eyes of my victims, trying to find some sort of redeeming quality that would give me a simple reasonnotto slit their throats.

No. I wasn’t that man. But for her…I wanted to be.

A simple nudge of my finger lifted her chin so I could kiss her. There was no resistance from her, her lips parting and tongue welcoming me into her mouth, allowing me to explore and taste.

It was an instant high every time our mouths latched and desires collided. Her kiss was honey—an amber sweetness that overwhelmed my tastebuds, causing me to want more while knowing I’d never have enough. Charlotte was my ecstasy, the drug that rushed through my veins, corrupted my mind, and clung to my skin.

Taking everything she offered by opening her mouth filled my heart and enticed my body, tempting me with hers simply by being close. How could I ever be the kind of man she deserved—anything other than a monster? Nothing about me was whole. I was just an empty vessel held together by a thousand broken parts left behind by a boy I had chosen to leave in the past.

While I was with her, touching her, kissing her, hearing her fucking breathe next to me, something felt right. Somewhere between all those broken pieces was something whole…and it was her. But whenever our heated breaths mixed it created this fucking toxic hunger that made my control non-existent. And I didn’t give a fuck about being the man she needed, being the better man who would put his woman’s feelings above his own. All I cared about was burying myself in her, feeling her from the inside, hearing her screams of pleasure, the vibrations slithering across my skin. That was all I wanted.

Fuck this debt.

Fuck the Bernardis.

Fuck Italy.

And fuck that goddamn cello that lured me into her world, because now I had dragged her into mine. That was what monsters like me did. We took. We corrupted. We ruined. Give us a rose, and the petals would wither instantly while the thorns bloomed.

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