“Princess, look at me.” I shake my head. “Now, princess.” He infuses his words with his alpha bark, but they no longer affect me as they once had. “Haylee, baby, it was a joke. Nothing happened last night. I wouldn’t do that to you. If I did start something and you didn’t rouse, I wouldn’t continue.”

“Son of a bitch,” I hiss, quickly grabbing the pillow next to his head and whacking him over and over with it. “How could you make me think that!”

“Alright, alright,” he laughs, swatting the pillow away. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. But you should have seen your face.” A genuine smile breaks out across his face, softening all the harsh lines that are normally present.

He drops his arms back around me, and I hit him one more time for good measure. Wanting this last hit to really dive the point home, not to pull that shit with me again. He snatches it from my grip and tosses it across the room, effectively disarming me.

Vinny cups my cheeks and pulls me further up his body, my bare skin dragging along all the dips and valleys of his flesh, igniting my core with the same need from last night. He may have sated me last night, but this morning is a whole new ballgame. Today, I don’t plan on leaving this room without a home run.

Look at me quoting baseball. My dad would be so proud.

Ugh. Don’t think about Dad. Don’t think about Dad.

Vinny fries my brain, erasing all thoughts with a soul-searing kiss. All that’s left is him and I. The heat of our bodies sliding against each other. The feel of his hard length stabbing me in the belly. Just us, our bodies entwining in the most primal way possible. The way it should have been from the beginning.

My legs shift and move, straddling his narrow hips and grinding down on the fabric concealing him from my view. That won’t do.

Breaking away from our intense kiss, I trail my lips across his cheek and down his neck, leaving open-mouthed kisses down his taunt pecs, following the valley between his abs. With every inch I move down, I take his sweatpants with me until I uncover his hard cock and suck him into my mouth. His shout rings around his bedroom as I encase his heavy length, sucking and licking every inch of him I can fit between my lips.

My hands roam his hips and further down, shoving his pants down as far as they will go. I want them off. Fuck, do I. But I don’t want to stop tasting him. Getting what I wanted last night before he took over.

Vinny’s hips lift, dislodging me from my treat. “Hey, give that back!”

He chuckles, a delicious sound I feel all the way to my bones. He grips my waist, moving me beside him so he can get his sweats the rest of the way off. Before they even make it past his knees, I duck under his arm and take his cock back into my mouth. The pre-cum at the tip is a little salty, and he has a musky smell to him. Combine that with his leather and sin scent, and he’s an aphrodisiac to my senses.

His legs kick, knocking the pants off from around his ankles, leaving him completely bare before me. I pull back, my gaze taking in his body appreciatively. Now that I think about it, this is the first time I’ve seen Vinny naked. I saw his cock last night, but he’s always had some part of him hidden by a swath of fabric.

The scar from where he was shot when he took the bullet instead of me stands out against his tanned skin. The puckered mark is pink, something it will always be, but it’s healed. That’s the most I could ask for.

Pressing my lips to the scar, I push my love—the words I’m too scared to voice, even though I know I do love him—and my thankfulness that he survived into him. I don’t know if he understands what I’m voicing without words, but his body relaxes under the touch, a soft sigh coming from his parted mouth.

From the scar, I kiss my way up his body, stopping to trace the outline of the Andoneli family crest on his pec with my tongue. When I’ve traced every line, I move up his neck to his lips, kissing him for all he’s worth as I straddle his hips once more. His rock-hard cock nestles perfectly between my slickened folds. It’s slippery as I glide up and down his length, but I don’t make a move to put him inside me. Not yet.

A little more teasing is okay. Or at least that’s what I’m telling myself.

Vinny doesn’t seem think so, though.

He shifts his hips, pushing up every time the head of his dick gets anywhere near my entrance. He makes a noise of frustration when I evade his attempts for the third time.

With a growl, he flips us, my back slamming into the mattress and bouncing slightly. He covers my body with his, his tip prodding my entrance. I expect him to slam into me the same way Hunter does, especially after seeing how Hunter takes me, but he refrains.

He doesn’t even enter me.

Uncertainty flashes through his hazel gaze as he sits back on his calves, taking his body heat with him.

“Are you sure, Haylee?” There’s a tremble to his voice as he asks. “I know nothing can really make up for what I did. But if you’ll let me, I’ll spend the rest of my life trying.”

I get to my knees in front of him. His eyes close as I trace down the bridge of his nose across the cupid’s bow of his upper lip and around his plump lower one. “Of course, I’m sure, Vinny. I want this. You. I want you.”

He takes me into his arms, laying me back down on the bed, and doesn’t hesitate this time, sliding into my wet heat. He holds still for a moment, savoring the connection between us. It’s then that he starts rocking his hips slowly like lazy waves lapping against a shoreline.

He’s making love to me, I realize. Whoever this man is above me, he isn’t anything I expected. He is the kind of man I expect to take what he wants—how he wants—like he does in business. The type of man who doesn’t give a shit about anything else but his own pleasure. His own gain.

But that’s not what he’s showing me. He’s showing me the softer, more tender side of him. The side I didn’t realize existed. The alpha that cares about his omega more than just a quick fuck to get his rocks off. The man who cherishes his woman instead of using her for what she can give him in return.

I can only hope this isn’t the one and only time I see it. But I have faith that the dickhead from before is long gone.

Vincenzo grips my face between his large hands, murmuring, “You’re so beautiful, princess,” and peppering me with kisses as his hips thrust a little harder, belaying the fact that he’s still tenderly making love to me. He’s gentle yet assertive. His knot kisses my entrance with each stroke, slowly working himself in. He, by far, has the largest knot of any of my alphas, and I almost worry that he won’t fit. But he stops my thoughts in their tracks as he lets out a heaving breath when he pulls back, then grunts as he finally manages to get himself through my entrance. Locking us together.