Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 110824 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110824 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
“I think this is more than just a hurdle, honey.”
“Fuck, that feels good,” I exhale, my lips stretching into a huge smile as satisfaction fills me.
“Huh?” she asks, clearly having no idea why I’m grinning like an idiot.
“You called me honey,” I explain. I reach up to grasp her hand, pulling it over to press it against my chest. My heart is beating under her palm, and it feels so good that it’s pretty much indescribable. “Do you feel that, Kitten? You are the reason my heart beats. You own me.”
“Victor…”
“Look in my eyes, Gia. The truth is there. It has been there from the beginning. You’ve just been blind to it. I need you to see it now.”
“I don’t know what…”
I squeeze her hand on my chest. “Look, sweetheart,” I urge, willing her to look into my eyes and see everything I feel for her.
She moistens her lips and I beat down the urge to capture the tip of her tongue that is rubbing against her lips. “I don’t want to lose you,” she finally admits.
“That’s never going to happen. If anything, you may get tired of the way I want to keep you within touching distance every single minute of every single hour of the day.”
“I could be completely broken to the point that this won’t work, Victor.”
“You’re not,” I argue. “We will get there together.”
“Why do you even want to bother?” she whimpers, and I can see the unshed tears shining in her eyes.
“What kind of question is that? I want to spend my life with you, Gia. No, it goes beyond want. It’s need. You are all I want. I’ve not made a secret of that to anyone.”
“Except me,” she mumbles, closing her eyes.
“Not even to you, baby. It’s just you saw it all as coming from a friend, not your future husband.”
That makes her eyes open and when she looks at me, I’m smiling.
“You might be insane.”
“If I am, I don’t give a fuck. All I want is you.”
“Boy, are you in for a big disappointment.”
I sigh and let go of her hand. It does make me feel a little better when she doesn’t take her hand off my heart. Still, there’s something I need to address and it’s clear that I can’t wait any longer. “You and I need to have a serious talk,” I warn.
“Isn’t that what we’re doing?”
“Okay, smartass,” I chuckle. “We need to have a serious conversation about something else for a second.”
“What about?”
“You need to understand that I won’t allow anyone to insult you, and that includes yourself.”
“I’m sorry?” she huffs. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“The next time you talk bad about yourself, I’m going to spank your ass until it’s red. I won’t allow you to say that shit. I won’t let anyone hurt the woman I love and that includes you.”
“Victor.”
As she says my name, there are tears in her eyes. Alarm hits me when I see them slowly move down her face. I’ve seen Angelina cry over the past year. Although, it was mostly after we first met. She admitted to me that she never cared for Dante, that she caved because of pressure from her witch of a mother. Still, it was all hard on her, especially the shit her mother pulled afterwards. I held her and was just there for her. I did my best to never let Gia be alone and dried her tears as often as I could. I didn’t mind. It was a privilege. Seeing her tears now, hit me harder. Did I scare her by threatening to spank her? Is she upset because I’m finally being completely honest with her? Shit.
I clear my throat, trying to figure out how to fix the problem that I unwittingly started. “Don’t cry, Gia. I didn’t mean to scare you,” I explain as I roll to my back and pull her in closer to me so her head can rest on my arm.
“You didn’t scare me,” she sniffles.
“Then, you’re going to have to tell me what is going on, because I can’t stand to see you cry. It kills me, Kitten.”
“You said you love me,” she confesses.
I almost can’t understand her because she’s talking and sniffling at the same time. Her voice is so quiet that it isn’t easy to make out. “That upsets you?” I ask, still not understanding.
“Before, when we talked about it,” she stops to try and catch her breath and wipe her tears away. She’s rolled onto her side so that I can see her better and I’m grateful. She uses the back of her hand to wipe away the tears.
“Gia?” I prompt her when she stops talking and just stares at me likes she’s looking for an answer to something. I just have no idea what it is.
“Before you made it sound like you didn’t believe in love.”