I pull back.
She whimpers, her hips still rocking, chasing friction I've withdrawn. The sound she makes goes straight through me, but I don't let her see that.
"No," I tell her.
I slide two fingers inside her with ease and she takes them perfectly. I feel her walls clench around me when I press my thumb against her clit. Not moving, just holding.
"You don't come until I tell you."
She grabs both sides of my face, forcing my eyes to hers. No hesitation. No shame. Just her, flushed and breathless and completely undone. Her eyes lock on mine like I’m the center of her entire world, the same way she’s become the center of mine.
"Salvatore."
"Yes, baby."
Her lips part. One beat. Two.
"I want you to fuck me."
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Valentina
The words hang in the air between us.
I want you to fuck me.
I said it. Out loud. In his bedroom. To Salvatore Vitale.
And now the room has gone completely, impossibly still.
He doesn't move right away. He just looks at me with that dark, unreadable expression he's perfected.
Then he moves.
Not fast, that would be too easy, and Salvatore doesn't do easy.
He closes the distance between us with that same measured, unhurried certainty he brings to everything. Like he already knows how this ends. Like he's already won and just hasn't told me yet.
His hand finds my face first. His thumb traces my jaw, tilting my chin up until I have no choice but to look at him.
"I want you to understand something," he says. His voice is low. Quiet. The kind of quiet that precedes a storm. "This isn't something I'm going to let you walk back from."
My heart does something unsteady in my chest.
"I know.”
I reach out and press my palm flat against his chest.
His heartbeat gives him away. Fast. Just slightly. Just enough to know I'm not alone in this.
Something loosens in me.
"Valentina."
"Don't." I look up at him. "Don't talk. Not yet."
He obeys. Salvatore Vitale, who obeys no one, goes quiet for me. And somehow that undoes me more than anything else he could have done.
