AllFreeNovel
Share Us
When he pulled out a cutting board, then began slicing and dicing, I grimaced and said, “I can’t eat anything you make, not while you have someone else’s blood on your clothes.”
He cocked a brow. “Fine.”
He took off his jacket and unbuttoned his shirt and pulled it free before he stalked off to the laundry. I could barely swallow past my dry throat. His torso was masculine perfection, his muscles hard and lightly bulging, his shoulders broad and his skin etched with swirls of ink.
When he returned I couldn’t help but ask, “Who did you kill?”
He sighed heavily. “Let’s just say you should feel safe now.”
My head reared back, my eyes focused on his. “You killed Sean?” I asked, my voice breathless and my blood turning to ice even as something too close to hope pulsed through my veins.
“I did,” he finally conceded.
I pressed a shaky hand to my suddenly hot brow as he sliced cucumber, tomatoes and lettuce, before he pulled out some sliced ham, then buttered sliced bread. Such a mundane task, yet my emotions were anything but mundane.
I felt lightheaded and was grateful I was sitting. Was I really truly, finally free? That I was numb to Sean’s death said it all. I wasn’t about to waste my breath on grief for someone who didn’t deserve the privilege.
“H-how?” I asked. “He’s surrounded by his men, he has bodyguards even when he sleeps.”
“No one is invincible,” he said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “He was a gutless little prick without any pride. He begged me to spare his life even though he’d had no empathy to do the same to his victims.”
My detachment was short-lived. “They’ll come for you now,” I said in a shaky voice. “And they’ll kill you and anyone close to you.”
Chapter Twenty
Valentino
I stopped cutting the salad for the sandwich fillings to look at the woman who twisted my heart until it bled. It made my voice rough, hoarse. “They’re welcome to come for me, but if they go near you I won’t hesitate to destroy every member of Sean’s family.”
She blinked. “Why does it matter who kills me? It’s not like you aren’t planning my death anyway.”
I wanted to reassure her and express my feelings, but they were still too raw, too uncharted, and I didn’t yet trust her not to use my fledgling emotions against me. “Plans change,” I muttered.
Her eyes widened, her stare moving over my bare torso. She definitely liked what she saw, but then our attraction had been sizzling from the start.
“What do you mean by that, exactly?” she asked.
“I mean, I’m not yet ready to end your life.”
I winced. Way to fuck things up. I’d sounded about as romantic as a sledgehammer.
Her breath squeezed out of her compressed lips. “So you want sex on tap for a few more weeks?”
I wanted to slap the counter while I growled out my frustration. Patience was a skill I’d acquired over the years, but I was yet to sleep and my adrenaline from earlier was fading fast. That I didn’t want to stuff things up any more than I already had with Chantilly said a lot.
She was important to me.
I resumed cutting, my voice clipped. “You don’t want to have sex with me anymore?”
She gaped. “I-I just want you to let me go.”
I placed the ham, tomato, cheese, carrot, cucumber and lettuce onto the bread, then slapped another slice of bread on top before cutting the sandwiches in half. “Not going to happen,” I finally said before I placed the halves on plates then carried them to the table.
“Thank you,” she said grudgingly as she eyed her sandwich. Despite her hostility, she ate with gusto. I ate sparingly. I was never hungry after carrying out a deadly mission. I usually enjoyed some quality scotch followed by some desperate, hardcore fucking. Then I’d shower and sleep eight hours minimum.
My dick jerked and thickened, and I shifted uncomfortably on my seat, my gaze dropping to her gaping bathrobe. She might have lost weight but her tits were still full and firm, and I knew for a fact her pussy would be tight yet welcoming. Her flat stomach had me suddenly wondering what she’d look like with it bulging with our child.
My breath hissed and my knuckles whitened as I gripped the edge of the table. Had I slipped into another dimension? Because aside from that one brief moment of insanity when she’d questioned me about protection, I certainly hadn’t wanted children before, I hadn’t even had a fleeting thought about being a father.
