Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 125368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125368 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 627(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 418(@300wpm)
How badly I had fucked up.
Sometimes, I’d wake up breathless—screaming for Valentin to stop.
My nights had been riddled with nightmares.
And my days, every waking hour, every time I looked at Valerie, I was reminded of how badly I had failed her. It was a never-ending circle of torture.
Just thinking of all the things he had done, it made me so fucking incensed.
But I was powerless.
For now.
Two more weeks.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
Valerie said she was strong. She really was. Strong and beautiful. Her heart had been broken so many times, yet she still found a way to smile at me. How? I didn’t know.
She said she loved me.
But…I loathed myself.
Love couldn’t be so blind. Love couldn’t be so accepting. Love couldn’t be so…innocent and pure.
Yet Valerie made it all of that. Accepting. Innocent. Pure. Beautiful. Something otherworldly. She had a heart full of love to give, and I wasn’t sure I was strong enough to withstand it.
She had shown the devil a piece of heaven, and he was greedy for more. He kept coming back, starving for another taste. In this end, it broke him.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
A touch of my shoulder caused me to stiffen, causing my thoughts to halt. Swiveling around, I faced the intruder.
Shock coursed through my body, and I stared at the woman standing in front of me, naked and wet from the water spray. Staring at me with beautiful hazel eyes that told me silent stories.
Valerie.
“Viktor,” she whispered gently. Her gaze traveled the length of my body, and her expression grew pained at the sight of my injuries.
She touched my chest lightly, her brows furrowed and her lips wobbling with an effort to keep her cries inside. “Why do you do this to yourself?”
My sweet myshka was here. In my room. In my shower.
I must have gone mad. My mind was playing tricks. I couldn’t think. I heard her speak yet my ears couldn’t register her words fully. Shock could only make me silently stare at the exquisite vision in front of me.
How?
Valerie was never allowed to leave her room. Yet here she was…in the middle of the night. Like a little siren, she had come here to tempt me with her words and her beautiful broken soul.
I decided this was a dream. It could only be.
Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. Exhale.
“Valerie,” I said, my voice hoarse and quiet.
She stared at me silently, her fingers caressing the tired muscles of my chest and shoulders.
A dream.
I never wanted to wake up from this.
“Let me bathe you.”
My eyes closed, her voice so sweet and so real to my ears. It was music, a symphony to my bruised heart. Valerie soothed the ache and she healed the wounds.
Don’t wake me up. Please. I never want to wake up from this dream.
My chest ached. My head throbbed. My lungs clenched. When my lips parted to speak, I could hear the way my voice cracked under the weight of my emotions. “Don’t leave me.”
***
Valerie
Viktor’s words made me choke back a sob. Don’t leave me. His voice cracked and it sounded so…broken…so lost. His shoulder caved in, his body shaking under the cold water that was seeping through bones.
I hated to see him like this.
Viktor Ivanshov, the one I fell in love with, he was a strong man. Powerful. Someone always in control. Someone who liked to play games.
Once upon a time, he was the predator and I was his willing prey.
To see him like this…so small, so lost, hurt and bloodied, my lungs seemed to tighten under the pressure of my emotions. It became harder to breathe.
“I am not leaving,” I murmured, placing a kiss on his jaw. His muscles ticked under my lips, and I kissed him there again, waiting for him to relax under my touch.
My lips feathered over his cheek while my hand went behind him, switching the water from cold to hot. I waited for a few seconds before the cascading water turned warm enough for us to stop shaking. My teeth stopped chattering and my bones were no longer chilled. I slid closer into Viktor’s body and wrapped my arms around his waist.
Hugging his slump body to mine, I shared my warmth with him. His hands landed on my hips, and I inhaled a shuddering breath.
It had been a week since that night.
When I had confessed my love to Viktor, I thought it was all over.
When he had kissed me so sweetly and worshipped me with his touch, confessing his own love for me, I thought we’d moved on from what Valentin had done to us.
But I was mistaken.
That night, he woke up screaming, shaking and sweating profusely. He said it was just a nightmare. Viktor wouldn’t tell me what he dreamt, but I saw the darkness in his eyes, the agony and the way he stared at me…so helplessly.