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“I want to see this beautiful body when I play with you.” In one swift move, he tears my lovely blue dress down the middle. “Much fucking better.” I feign a scowl. “You owe me a new dress.” “I’ll buy you twenty.”
“You don’t have to be in control here because I am. I’ve got you, sunshine. Nothing bad is going to happen when I have my hands on you. Understand?”
His gaze burns with fire and longing. “So, relax and give me everything you’ve got, tesoro.”
Her hazel eyes flash with desire as she glares at me. The fire in her is such a fucking turn-on. I love stoking those embers and igniting that spark.
I could train her so well … Except I no longer do that.
“I do, however, have nothing to wear to get out of this library and back to my room without raising an eyebrow or two.” She holds up the remnants of her dress. “And this was one of my favorites by the way.” I wrap her in my arms and kiss her forehead. “I told you I’ll buy you twenty more.”
Something about her wearing my clothes makes a primal instinct take hold, but I shake it off. She’s not mine.
She looks up when I approach, her eyes shining. “These letters are truly beautiful. Have you ever read them?” I hold out my hand. “No. Come to bed.”
“I was Anya’s Dom. I won’t ever be anyone else’s.” Hopefully that’s enough to shut down the conversation.
Every day I let her in just a little further, let her see more of my shattered soul. Someday soon that’s going to have to stop. Or her heart will end up looking like mine.
“What were you saying?” I whisper. “In Italian?” “I don’t remember.” The lie falls right off his tongue so easily.
“To call me Sir is a privilege that no one will ever earn again. Nobody. Not even you. This thing between us—whatever you think it is—will end soon. You know that, right?” My lower lip trembles, but I refuse to cry.
Last night at the piano was a huge mistake. I shouldn’t have played for Mia, but she has me under some kind of spell. She’s gotten too close. I feel her beneath my skin, creeping through my veins and forcing her way into my heart. That’s what I said to her in Italian. How much I need her. How I can’t go a single minute without thinking of her.
This is exactly what she wanted, right? To provoke me enough that I’d beg her to stay?
She flings her arms down by her sides and yells, “I’m leaving because I’m in love with you, Lorenzo.” I stagger backward, feeling like I’ve been sucker punched. She softens her tone. “And I know that you can never love me like that.”
“I could never love anyone the way that I loved her.” Sorrow clouding her hazel eyes, she shakes her head. “I know you believe that.”
So, I miss her. It means nothing.
Her laughter echoed around these walls, her scent filled every room she left. She made this house a home for me again.
“Are you talking about Mia?” It’s been a week since she left, and I’ve barely slept or thought of anything but her. I’ll get over it. It’s nothing compared to Anya.
Your love for another does not diminish your love for me, and you honor my memory by allowing your heart to beat for another.
“Because it hurts so fucking much to lose you. I need you to know that it wasn’t all one-sided. You told me you loved me and I let you believe you meant nothing, when you mean more to me than I thought anyone ever could again.”
But I love the man you are now. And if you truly knew me, you’d know that I would never ask you to let her go.”
should have learned this while Mia was still here and played it for her. I should have done a lot of things while she was here. Like never let her fucking leave.
As it turns out, I still have a heart after all. It seems Mia Stone put it back together so quietly and carefully that I didn’t even notice until I felt it break all over again.
“You can do anything, sunshine. You’re the toughest woman I know. Do you know where to check on his neck for a pulse?” “Uh-huh.” “Go on, sunshine. I’m right here with you.”
Every sinew in my body threatens to detonate with pent-up rage. This is my fault. I should have killed that twisted fuck when I had the chance. I never should have let her leave.
How the fuck could I let this happen to her? I should have done better. I should’ve looked after her and protected what’s mine.
I wait for her to wash herself clean of that fucker’s blood, but she remains still, her only movement the gentle shuddering of her shoulders as she starts to cry. Fuck! I kick off my sneakers and step into the shower behind her, turning her around and pulling her into my arms. She buries her face against my T-shirt, sobbing softly as the water runs over us both.
I have no idea how long I stand with her, holding her while she lets everything out, but I do know that I will hold her for the rest of my life if that’s what she needs.
I lean back against Lorenzo’s strong chest as he lathers shampoo in my hair. He’s surprisingly gentle for a man with such powerful hands.
“That’ll be Max and the guys. You have nothing to worry about, sunshine. They’ll take care of everything and I’m going to drive us home.”
He pulls me close and wraps his arms around me. I hate that he feels so much like home. I hate that within an hour of him being here, I’m already so dependent on him for comfort.
“If I make her stay … She’s like a ray of fucking sunshine, and I’m a huge fucking black hole. I’ll consume her with my darkness, D. I’ll fuck up her life, just like I fucked up Anya’s.”
“Because I was a fucking fool, and I had no idea how much I needed you until you weren’t here anymore. And now that you’re home, I don’t want to spend another night without you, Mia.” “I don’t want to spend another night without you either.” “My tesoro,” he says with a soft groan as he bends low and seals his lips over mine.
He pulls back and glares at me. “In my bed, Mia, you will call me Sir. Understand?”
“Such a needy little sub,” he taunts, sinking his cock inside me once more. How does he have so much stamina? He’s already finished inside me twice and he’s ready to go again.
I was tempted to wake her up by sliding my cock inside her, but we haven’t had any discussions about consent yet.
I LOVE A CONSENT KING
“Then know that I will never hurt you. I will never punish you when I’m angry. I consider it a privilege and an honor to have your submission, and if we do this, your safety is my priority. Always.”
“These limits don’t mean a lot to me, Mia.” My statement is met with a frown. “Your limits do, of course. I will respect them, but there’s very little I wouldn’t be prepared to do for or to you. I don’t enter into this kind of relationship lightly, and I’m not doing it so I can punish or praise or spank you. We could do those things in a conventional relationship too. I told you before, what I want is simply your submission. The very act of you giving up your control is what’s important to me.”
“If you want my submission, you have it. I’m yours.”
“No cheating or sharing isn’t just a limit, Mia. I don’t do jealousy, but that doesn’t mean I don’t protect what is mine. You are mine. If another man so much as touches you without my permission, whether you want him to or not, he will die.”
“This is the man I am, sunshine. You sure you want to go all in with me?” Like she actually has a choice. She’s already mine, and there’s no chance in hell I’m letting her go.
He crouches down beside me. I swear if he pats me like I’m a dog, I’ll bite him like one.
“That’s my good girl.” I don’t miss the way her face lights up at my praise. She needs this after last night. We both do.
“I wonder if I could make you come like this, tesoro?”
Because of Mia, I reclaim the man I once was and thought I could never be again. As her tears soak through my shirt and onto my chest and she clings to me like I’m the only anchor in her storm, a newfound peace settles over me. This, right here, is where I’m meant to be.
“That was fucking porn.” Is he mad? “It’s not,” I insist. “It has a plot too.” He arches an eyebrow. “It does?” “They’re also saving the world from a mutant vampire race.”
Everything about her is good and light. She’s the perfect balm for my wretched darkness.
Nothing exists outside the two of us. She is everything. Where I begin and end.
“Fuck, tesoro,” I groan in her ear. “Sei fottutamente perfetto.”
