“Fuck, Valentina,” I groan.
The bed frame rattles as the force of my thrusts increases, pounding Valentina harder and faster each time, wanting to ruin her completely. I reach under and begin to rub her clit while fucking her cunt with my fingers. Her moans turn into screams.
I grab her hair in my fist and pull her head back toward me. “I give you six months, you hear me?” I growl in her ear. “Six months.” I wrap my hand around her neck and kiss her savagely on the mouth as I take and demand. And my beautiful Valentina, my gorgeous woman, gives me everything I want. She willingly surrenders her body and soul to me.
“That’s all I need,” she breathes brokenly. Rubbing her own clit, she starts to spasm around me as our rhythm becomes more desperate. More needy. More everything. So close to the edge, I let the beast inside me loose and fuck her as hard and as fast and as shamelessly as I possibly can until we both come undone. We fly so fucking high we reach nirvana. A ragged groan escapes my lips as my seed spills inside her, and she comes shouting my name.
Ah.
There it is.
Total surrender.
I own her like she owns me.
And no amount of time or distance will come between us.
The next morning …
HALF ASLEEP, MY ARMS search for Sébastien but come back empty, finding nothing but a dent where he should be lying. I sit up and yawn, dismissing the last traces of sleep.
“Sébastien?”
I glance around the room searching for him, but it appears he isn’t here. The bathroom door is open and the lights are off. The small desk by the window is empty and so is the couch across from the bed.
Weird.
Wondering what time it is, I turn to look at the clock on the nightstand table when my eyes land on a sheet of paper with the hotel’s logo propped against the phone. My fingers as though they had a life of their own immediately reach for the note.
Grinning, I throw myself back on the bed and stretch my arms. My body is sore and satiated, but I’m full of crazed energy. We will be fine. I know it. Last night (or earlier this morning) when he asked me to go back to Paris with him, I was so tempted to say yes. I still am. After all, nothing could make me happier than to finally be with him without any worries and boundaries, and to be able to love him. Just love him. But deep down I know, especially after what happened with William, that I need to take some time for myself before I jump back into another relationship. I need to figure out what I want to do with my life. Learn who Valentina is when she isn’t an extension of the man she happens to be with at the time. And even though I love Sébastien with all of my heart, I need to make sure I’m with him because I want to be and not because I need to be. Only then will I be able to give him my love, and both he and I will know that it is given freely and without conditions.
I look at the note in my hands and smile knowing that we are doing the right thing.
Our love will find a way.
After placing the card on the table, I get up and head to the bathroom, ready to take a shower. I’m turning the water on when I hear a knock at the door. I frown. Maybe Sébastien left his key in the room. I turn the water off and grab his white shirt, putting it on before going to the door.
“Coming!”
“Did you forget your ke—” I open the door in a rush of excitement and happiness, but my smile disappears when my gaze connects with green eyes.
“Hello, darling. Miss me?”
And just like that, I know it is over …
MY AUNT USED TO SAY that if you wanted to know how a person truly felt about you, just look in their eyes, and find your answer because eyes are the windows to the soul.
William has the kind of charming eyes that invite you to fall in love with them. He laughs, and they shine. He kisses you and they burn. He makes love to you, and they shatter you. They can make you believe anything he wants you to. For they are as deceiving as they are beautiful.
Just like him.
However, he doesn’t hide behind lies anymore.
As he stares at me, all I see is pure, naked hatred scorching the green forest of his eyes.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” he asks pleasantly.
I lick my lips, suddenly dry. “How did you find me?”
“I tracked your phone.”
He takes a step forward.
I take a step back, a shiver running down my spine.
Don’t show fear.
Don’t.
Don’t.
“I don’t know why you bothered coming all the way here. Like I said the other night, we’re done.”
“Oh, really?” He smiles then, a soulless smile, and it chills me to the bone.
“Yes,” I say, feeling ensnared by him. “Please go before I call security.”
“And have them do what? You’re my wife.” Before I know what’s happening, he wraps his hand around my neck holding it in a vise-like grip. “You thought you could escape me, huh?”
He shoves me inside the room, kicking the door closed behind us, and slams me against the wall. The air leaves my lungs, his grip growing more painful. “You thought you could dismiss me just like that, you fucking whore.”
“Please, William …” I claw at his hands around my neck. “Let go. I can’t breathe.”
“You made me a laughing stock in front of our friends and family.” He slams me harder, tightening his grip around me. “If you had only listened to me none of this would be happening. But no, you had to play the victim card. Poor little Valentina …”
With each second that passes, William’s anger grows and grows. Scared to death of what he will do to me, I try to reason with him. “William,” I say, closing my eyes momentarily as the room spins, growing dizzy with the lack of oxygen. “You don’t have to do this. L-Let’s talk … please.”
But William is lost in the jungle of his madness, his once handsome features marred by hatred. “You know this is all your fault. If you weren’t so frigid, I wouldn’t have to fuck other women.” His grip loosens a bit as he drops his gaze down to my body, his eyes roaming the outline of my breasts imprinted on the dress shirt. He snakes a hand under the shirt, his fingers finding me naked where I’m sore, and still full of Sébastien.
“Whore,” he says quietly and sweetly, his voice vibrating with pure hatred. He brings that same hand to his face and smells me on his skin. “You’ve been fucking him behind my back all this time, haven’t you?”
“No … not like that,” I try to say, but the words come out like a whisper.
Slowly and deliberately he squeezes my neck. “There’s nothing sweeter than gazing into your eyes as I drain the life out of you.”
“I can’t breathe …”
Everything becomes hazy…
No.
William doesn’t get to win this.