There’s no going back from this. I’ve given him a part of me I can never take back. I wait for the regret to hit… but it doesn’t come. Instead, there’s only a strange, warm haze and the echo of pleasure still pulsing through my veins.
Maybe it will come later.
Nico returns with a damp towel. He gently spreads my legs and starts cleaning me with careful strokes. The warmth soothes thesoreness between my thighs. I watch him, strangely touched by the care in his movements.
He sets the towel aside, then slides his arms under me and lifts me off the bed like I weigh nothing.
“What are you doing?” I whisper.
“I ran you a bath.”
He carries me into the bathroom. The scent of lavender fills the air. He lowers me into the warm water. The heat envelops me, easing the ache between my legs almost instantly. I sigh in relief, leaning back against the tub.
“Thank you,” I murmur.
He nods, but when I reach for him, he steps back.
“This is for you,” he says quietly. “Relax.”
He drapes a small towel behind my neck so I can rest my head comfortably. I close my eyes for a moment, letting the warm water and the soft scent calm me.
And in that moment I realize something; I won’t regret it. Not even a little.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Nico
I stand in the bathroom for a long time, just watching Eleonora as she lies peacefully in the bathtub, eyes closed, lips slightly parted, breathing slow and even.
She’s fallen asleep. And for once, she doesn’t look like the chaotic storm that’s been driving me insane since the day I took her. Just soft, vulnerable, beautiful.
Mine.
My gaze shifts from her and drops lower, to my cock, still half-hard and streaked with her blood. Her virgin blood. I haven’t bothered to clean it off yet. I can’t. The sight of it does something primal to me, a deep, dark satisfaction that settles in my bones.
She was scared of being ruined for other men. She was right to be.
Because sheisruined now. But not for the reasons she thinks. She’s ruined because no other man will ever have her. Not while I’m breathing. The deal I made with her father, the Port, the alliance, none of it matters anymore.
The moment I sank into her, the moment I felt how tight and perfect she was, the moment she came crying my name… something shifted.
Eleonora Caruso is mine.
She belongs to me now. Not as a prisoner. Asmywoman.
I’ve never wanted to keep anyone before. But with her, it feels inevitable. I’m not letting her go. Not after tasting her. Not after being inside her.
I don’t care what her father says. I don’t care about the original plan. She’s not going anywhere.
I watch her sleeping face for a while before I finally move to the sink and wash off the streaks of her blood.
I dry off and walk back to the tub. The water has gone cool. I don’t want her catching a chill. I crouch down and gently brush damp strands of hair from her face.
“Eleonora,” I murmur. “Wake up, baby.”
Her eyes flutter open, soft and dreamy. “Hmm?”
“The water’s cold. Let me get you out.”
