Page 92 of Blue Blood

A confession and a vow.

With a guttural groan, Gio sealed it with his lips.

A pleasurable hum rumbled through him as she combed through his hair, sifting through the curls that had gotten tangled in the night. Gio’s face was shoved into the curve of her neck as his body lay almost entirely over her, pressing his weight in a way that made her feel anchored and safe. Keeping the memories at bay.

He’d hardly spent an inch away from her since she’d told him everything last night. Partly from protectiveness but also, she suspected, from fear of this peace vanishing. There was a sense of deep harmony between them now, so new and sweet. Free of all the doubts and distance that had plagued them before.

She wanted to cling to it. To him.

Gio turned from her neck to the curve of her jaw, kissing a hot path up to her ear, where he nipped the lobe. A zip of electric shock pulsed through her, a sensation she didn’t think possible with the guard’s grimy touch still fresh in her mind.

But her husband’s touch had always undone her, consuming her so wholly that it left room for nothing and no one else. Its intoxicating spell began to weave around her again as his hand closed around one breast. He rubbed maddening circles around it until her hips jerked up.

Feeling just how turned on he was, Ana moaned exultantly.

And, in an instant, it was gone.

“Don’t stop,” she cried, grabbing his arm, wanting him to reassure her that everything would remain the same between them. Free of the past.

But Gio reluctantly retreated until his weight shifted to her side, still lying flush against her. His dark eyes were slumberous but assessing. “I’m hurting you.”

She shook her head, shivering when he fingered the long strands of her brown hair. His hands continued moving over her, absently trailing from her breasts to her hips before returning up to shape the contours of her face. He thumbed her lower lip, and it parted on a frustrated sigh. If he was trying to be gentlemanly and give her space, he was failing dismally.

“Did I hurt you?”

Ana frowned at his gruff question. “No, I told you–”

“Not now. Back then, on our wedding night.” A troubled look passed over Gio’s face, his expression pained. "I thought I would give you time and space after the wedding. But when you approached me first…I lost my mind and took you. I never stopped taking you." He huffed angrily.

Ana gingerly rose on an elbow, peering down at him worriedly. “You never hurt me,” she insisted. "I enjoyed it, more than I thought I could."

Gio barely heard her though. He flopped onto his back, staring at the ceiling in deep reproof. “I still shouldn’t have pushed you. I could tell you were nervous.”

“Yes…” Her hand cupped his lean jaw, pulling his troubled gaze back to her. “But you didn’t push me. I did, remember?”

Recalling her outlandish suggestion to prepone their wedding night to the afternoon, Ana wanted to laugh. “I didn’t know how I would react to someone touching me intimately, so I just wanted to get it over with while there was daylight. It’s always nighttime when he haunts me.”

The creak of his footsteps in the dark still resounded in her mind.

“Even now, it’s hard to fall asleep,” she whispered. “I fear he will be waiting there when I open my eyes.”

Gio clenched his teeth, murder in his eyes.

Brushing the angry furrow between his brows, Ana smiled sadly before shaking her head. “I never thought of him when you touched me. I’d hate for you to ever think that. What he wanted wasn’t about desire or attraction; it was about intimidation…Maybe not in the beginning.” She shrugged uncertainly. “But the moment I rebuffed him, he wanted to put me in my place.”

I know each and everything about all of you, and I will never let any of you live in peace.

She peered out at the clouded sun. More than a year had passed since she had found herself reflected in one of these immense windows, covered in that man’s blood. And it still felt like it happened yesterday.

“That’s what disgusts me most about those rumors,” she said hoarsely. “The idea that what happened was just some fun romp in the sheets, something consensual.”

Miss Perfect hooking up with the lowly guard.

At Gio’s soothing hush, she realized she was hugging herself, trembling lightly.

“I swear to you, those rumors will be gone by the end of today,” he said fiercely.

But how? She turned to him. The texts had spread only two days ago.

---