Page 76 of Vega

I swallowed.

He continued staring at me as if the words weren’t enough. “I believe you because you haven’t given me a reason not to. And I’m glad you didn’t let some unworthy nigga touch you just because everybody else acts like virginity is something you’re supposed to hurry up and lose.” His gaze moved over my face. “You protected something precious.”

Heat climbed into my cheeks. The way he said it made my virginity sound less like inexperience and more like something valuable I had preserved for the right person.

I looked toward the breakfast tray. “So, I can trust that you won’t kill me?”

Vega reached for me. His fingers closed softly around my chin, guiding my face back toward his. “If I intended to hurt you, Glasses, you wouldn’t need to wonder.”

The warning should have repelled me. Instead, my clitoris pulsed. The response was sudden enough to make me press my thighs together.

His thumb rested beneath my lower lip while his eyes searched mine. I wondered if he could see what his touch had done to me. The slight shift in his expression suggested that he could.

I pulled away before my virgin, thirsty brain created another humiliating thought.

“Thank you for introducing yourself,” I said, sitting up straighter. “And for attempting to make me feel more comfortable.”

“Attempting?”

“You’re still holding me captive.”

He replied with a slow nod.

For a second, he didn’t say anything. Then his hand slipped into his pocket. He pulled out a small key. Then Vega reached for my ankle. I hated how good his hand felt holding it.

His eyes stayed on mine as he held the key between his fingers. “Promise me you won’t run.”

I lowly groaned.

“Promise me,” he pressed. “I need to know you trust me enough not to run straight into Roman’s hands.”

I looked from his face to the key, then down at the cuff around my ankle. “I won’t run.”

He bent over, slid the key into the lock, and turned it. The cuff opened with a small click, and the metal fell onto the floor.

I stared at my freed ankle, rubbing the place where the cuff had been. Then I told him, “I need to shower and eat breakfast.”

I needed him to get out of that room. I couldn’t think or breathe with him standing there looking down on me with those intense eyes.

Vega nodded but didn’t move. His attention drifted over my face once more, lingering as though leaving required more effort than it should have.

Then he picked up the mask and said, “I’ll be downstairs.”

He walked toward the door, glanced back once, and stepped into the hallway.

The lock clicked behind him.

I stared at the place where he had been standing.

The monster had become a man. A dangerously beautiful one who had just made my untouched body wonder what it might feel like to belong to him.

NOVELLA “NOVI” HART

The last few days had kept me on pins and needles. I had been hiding at Nia’s house while the property that the Cartier’ wanted to move me to was prepared for me. Every knock, slammed door, or set of footsteps outside Nia’s apartment convinced me the people who killed Kash had found me.

That Saturday afternoon, the Cartiers finally relocated me to what they described as an associate’s house. They were still trying to determine who had murdered Kash and what information he had hidden on the burner phone. Until they had answers, I had to stay somewhere secure and disconnected from my normal life.

I resented strangers controlling where I slept, but I understood the danger.