"That bad?" Jaxon's voice gentled. "Okay. You don't have to tell me now. But Pretty Girl, I need you to listen to me. Whatever she said? She's wrong. You hear me? She's wrong."
"How do you know?"
"Because I know you. And I know that anyone who tries to convince you you're not worth loving is full of shit."
The tears started again, quieter this time.
"I'll be there soon," Jaxon promised. "A few hours, max. Vale's got you until then?"
"I've got her," Luca confirmed.
"Good." A pause. "Reina? We're not going anywhere. No matter what your mother said. No matter what happens. We're not going anywhere."
"Okay," I whispered.
He hung up.
Luca's hand tightened on mine as we drove through the night, heading toward the cabin. Toward whatever was coming.
My heat was building. I could feel it in every cell of my body. Hours, maybe less.
And when it hit, both of them would be there.
Together.
For me.
The thought should have terrified me.
Instead, for the first time since walking into my mother's house, I felt like I could breathe.
"Thank you," I said quietly.
"For what?"
"For coming to get me. For not asking questions. For just... being here."
Luca brought my hand to his lips, pressed a kiss to my knuckles.
"Always," he said. "I'm always going to be here."
And somehow, I believed him.
11
REINA
My body felt as if I stepped into an inferno.
There was no other way to describe it. Every nerve ending in my body was lit up, screaming, demanding. The heat had finally moved past uncomfortable into something that felt like it might actually kill me if I didn't get relief. This was no pre-heat. This was the real thing.
Luca was between my thighs, his dark hair brushing against my inner thigh. His tongue traced wet, deliberate circles, each one sending electric pulses through my body that made my hips buck upward.
"Please," I begged, my hands fisting in his dark hair. "Please, Luca, I need..."
I didn't even know what I needed. Just more. Everything. Him inside me, fucking me, claiming me.
But he kept that infuriating control, kept his pace steady and slow even as I writhed beneath him.
