“What does that mean?”
Chris chuckled. “Well, it means whatever you want. You run this show, sweetheart.”
Valeria gave him a sly smile. “Does that mean you’ll share all your secrets with me?”
“I don’t have many of those, but what do you want to know?”
A quick shake of her head answered his question, and she looked away. “I was kidding, I didn’t—”
“I have four siblings—all brothers,” Chris said. “We’re French-Italian Canadians, but only a couple of us can speak fluent French. All of us are fluent in Italian. My twin, well, this job was almost his, but he’s ... married isn’t the right word, but he needed time off, and so I took the job for him instead.”
Valeria’s brow lifted. “A twin?”
“Identical, too.”
“Like ... the same?”
Chris made a noise under his breath. “On the outside, yeah. Corrado. He’s always been my best friend, so I have to look out for him, that’s all.”
“Like taking this job?”
“Yeah, like this. We’re one set of two twins, and we have an older brother who was the only singleton of our siblings. My mother was also an identical twin.”
“It’s a genetic thing, then?”
Chris laughed. “Seems so.”
Valeria’s smile softened. “And you love them. I can hear it in your voice.”
“All of my family,” he agreed, “to the ends of the earth and back. I would do anything for them, and they would do the same for me. That’s how our parents raised us.”
Chris shook his head, thinking about his family, but more specifically, his twin. “I joined The League—an organization that trains assassins—because I didn’t want my twin to go it alone. I thought he needed me there to watch his back. That’s what my family taught me; no matter what, we look out for each other.”
“And did he need you?”
“Not for that, but it didn’t change what I felt. It’s like this, too, though. I need to fix things. It’s what I do, it’s who I am. All I want to do is fix this for you, to make it better, so you can be happy again. Safe again.”
“I was happy once.”
“When?”
“In New York.”
“Not before?”
Valeria sighed. “When I was a girl, too, I guess.”
“Were your parents good to you?”
That earned him another smile, but it faded fast. Chris hated that, and wanted to get her smiling again, but she was already talking.
“I was an only child, but my papa and mama spoiled me. We didn’t have a lot when I was younger, and my father had grand ideas about all the changes he thought our country needed.”
“That’s why he went into politics?”
Valeria shrugged one shoulder, her gaze dimming. “I don’t know if he thought he would be untouchable because he made it clear his loyalties didn’t lie with those who could buy him, but it didn’t matter, did it? The cartel got what they wanted when they went after the things that meant the most to him. And what good did it do to him—he’s dead, too.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I ... don’t want that to be the lesson my daughter learns.”
“She won’t because her mother is better.”
Maybe it was the strength in his tone—the truth ringing out—but Valeria was quick to nod before meeting his gaze again. “I want to be, yeah. Know, no matter what happens here, or how this ends up ... if I am put in a position where I have to leave without my daughter, I won’t go. I can’t.”
His hands that had slid down to her waist tightened. “I would never put you in that position. If it can’t be done my way, then we will figure out another way.”
“And what is your way?”
Well, that, he hadn’t figured out yet. Chris figured now was not the time to say that.
“And he’ll kill Maria,” Valeria added when Chris stayed silent, “if he even thinks I am planning to leave with her. It would mean hurting me, but also teaching me that if he cannot have me, no one can. She doesn’t matter to him. She is a pawn for him to use.”
“Not for much longer.”
“You say that, but—”
“I get that, Val.” Chris leaned in, and pressed a featherlight kiss to Valeria’s lips as he murmured, “I made a promise to her—and to you, in a way—and I intend to keep it. But trust me. Just trust me.”
With each graze of his lips against hers, her kisses answered him back. Soft, at first. Tentative, before each one of her kisses became more and more hungry. He hadn’t intended to come to her room for this, but her demand was a loud echo—despite their silence—as her hands grabbed at his shirt with enough force to pull the buttons from the loops.
Chris didn’t need to stop and ask Valeria if this was what she wanted with him, or if she was just reacting from her high emotions. This woman had been gaslighted and abused enough in her one relationship—he hadn’t forgotten what she told him that first time she let him touch her, after all—that she didn’t need another man to make her wonder if he was underhandedly second-guessing her.
She was a woman.
Capable of attraction, lust, and desire.
If she wanted to fuck, then that’s what she would do. He was more than happy to give her whatever she wanted because that meant he was fucking her.
It was a win-win, really.
“I ... I want you,” Valeria mumbled against his mouth, her voice a needy whine that had his cock hardening, “please.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely,” he told her in a groan.
He pulled the six-pack of condoms he had bought for this trip to keep on him as a just in case from the back of his slacks, tossing them to the bed while kissing Valeria with enough force to have her walking backward. She only stopped when the backs of her knees hit the edge of the bed.
He’d never seen someone be as graceful or sexy as she was undressing him one piece of clothing at a time. Her intent, as heady as her determination, had Chris checking his more dominant nature to be the one to control during sex.
And then, as she pushed his boxer-briefs down his hips, the last stich of clothing on him, she stilled when his hard cock jerked out in her direction. Chris grinned at the color flooding her cheeks—a delicious red, innocent in some ways, and yet that want in her eyes made it seem so fucking sinful, too.
He thought, a walking complex.
That’s what this woman was.
She was many things.
Alone, or together.
Sinful and innocent.
Harsh, and soft
It amazed him.
And turned him all the way on.
“What do you want, huh?” he asked. “You get whatever you want, Valeria, I need you to use your words, and tell me. I’ll always give it, if you tell me. So, what is it, babe? I can lay you back on this bed, feast on your pussy, and then fuck you until you can’t take it anymore ... or I can let you climb on me, and ride until your heart is content. You can bend over this bed, and let me worship your pussy and your ass, or you can—”
“I want to touch you.”
Chris audibly swallowed.