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He pulls on my hair again, his lips hot against my cheek. “Tell me you’re mine, Val. Tell me you want this, that you wantus.”
God help me, I do. Almost more than anything.
My heart aches when Alek’s words come rushing back at me like an all-consuming, crushing wave.
Because I know I can’t have it all and my course is already set.
Impending dread knots my gut.
If I have to choose, I can’t pick Quinn.
I won’t… even though I know deep down he’d always pickme.
Until he figures out the truth… that I’m the biggest liar of all.
Chapter26
Quinn
Ilean forward against the window in one of the bedrooms in the safehouse, pressing my forehead against the glass. A day has passed and my injured side burns worse than someone holding a hand torch against it. But I’d gladly smile through the scorching pain a million times over just to feel Val’s body glide against mine, writhing with pleasure only I can bring her. Being with her has turned me inside out because it’s so much more than just mind-numbing, earth-shattering sex.
She’s so much more than my partner and my fake wife.
My mom always used to say that things happened for a reason, even if that reason was so far beyond comprehension. Just like the cancer that ravaged her young life and yanked her away from us, shattering my family forever.
She always said you had to have faith that things would work out, no matter how insurmountable the obstacles. And when I think back to the hell that came to our doorstep years ago, starting with my oldest brother Conor, I know she was right.
So much betrayal. Even more secrets. Our family had been torn to shreds by them both, and for a long time, I didn’t think we’d ever be able to patch ourselves back together. But we did. Heaven married into the Villani family, forming an important union for our future. And then we found Boris Vetrov and Red Ladro. Slowly but surely, we picked up the jagged pieces. We gave back to the community. We helped kids who had shattered family lives because we understood them and what they needed to rise above their circumstances.
It became the light at the end of a very long, very dark tunnel.
I haven’t always made the best decisions, but I’ve tried to do the right thing. I came out here to Vegas for that reason, to make up for my bad judgment and to help my family—both immediate and extended.
And somehow, in the middle of the shitstorm I created, I found the girl whose life I saved years ago. The girl who sent me away because she couldn’t stand to accept what she’d let happen to herself and her half sister.
I gaze at her reflection behind me in the clear glass.
Kind of the way I feel about losing my brother Niall to our enemies. Maybe that makes us kindred spirits, people who were meant to find each other again.
Jesus. I usually make fun of people for buying into that kind of bullshit.
But as her eyes lock on to mine, I suddenly feel like it might not be bullshit after all. We connect on a level I’ve never experienced before. She knows it, too. I can feel it in her gaze, in her touch, in her words. It’s like she knows there’s something pulling us together, but she can’t put her finger on it.
I want to tell her. I’ve swallowed the words so many times since she told me about her memories of that night. But I also don’t want to drive her away, and it’d be too much of a reminder of everything she wants to forget.
So I keep the words buried. She’s here with me now, and that’s all I need.
I grit my teeth.
Except this next part is about to blow shit wide-open and put her in danger again with nobody to protect her.
But fuck Alek. I’m done taking orders from that prick.
Val moves toward me, a smile on her lips. Her fingers are electric. They graze my skin. Tingles in my groin explode in response to her touch. She massages the back of my neck with her lips, then moves to my earlobe. I suck in a breath when her lips and teeth tug at it. Every muscle in my body tenses. Her hot breath sears my neck, awakening a fierce and carnal hunger that swirls through my insides.
I twist and grab her around the waist. “Is that pussy screaming for me again?”
“Careful,” she murmurs against my ear. “I don’t want you messing up your stitches. One wrong move could—”
