The scent of her fills my senses, making my head swim.
"I can't stand by and watch him hurt you."
Valentina pulls back just enough to look at me, her gray eyes filled with tears.
One escapes, tracking down her cheek.
I catch it with my thumb, the simple touch sending electricity crackling between us.
"What are you saying?"
I'm saying too much.
Risking too much.
But with her looking at me like I'm her only hope, I can't stop.
"I'm saying there are always options. Always choices." My hand cups her cheek, an intimate gesture I have no right to make. "I won't let you face him alone."
Hope and disbelief play tug-of-war in her eyes. Her hands clutch the front of my shirt. “How can that happen? He won’t let you?—”
“I don’t know yet.” Right now, my choices are to kill Maksim or run away with her.
I could do both.
Maybe I could convince Alessandro to back out of this part of their deal.
I look deeply into her eyes that have haunted my dreams for weeks now.
The fear in her eyes shifts, and I’m glad for it even as I understand what’s changing is equally as dangerous as defying Maksim.
The intensity between us crackles with forbidden energy.
Her lips part, and God help me, I'm falling.
Falling into her, falling for her, with nothing to break my fall but the hope that she might catch me.
"Will you…" Valentina's voice trembles, her fingers tightening their grip on my shirt. "Now that you know what awaits me, will you take my virginity, Cristian?"
My body responds before my mind. Heat rushes through me straight to my dick. My heart charges at breakneck speed.
"I can't bear giving that part of myself to him," she continues in a rush. "Not knowing what he'll do to me once I'm his. I want it to be with someone who…" She swallows hard. "Someone who sees me as a person. Someone gentle. Someone I choose."
God help me, I want to say yes.
Every cell in my body screams to claim her, to mark her as mine in the most primal way possible, to show her what it means to be touched by a man who worships rather than possesses.
I cup her face in my hands, our foreheads nearly touching.
Her breath is sweet against my lips, and I'm dizzy with want.
But it’s more than a physical desire.
The raw vulnerability in her request tears at me.
I’d give everything for her.
My life, even.
