ALEXEI
It’s already past one in the morning, and I’m still fucking hoping Isabella will come to me.
Turning away from the window, I walk to the bed, and just as I toss the covers back, the door opens, and Isabella comes in.
“You’re still up?” she asks.
“Someone kept me waiting,” I say, just happy she came.
“I waited for Ana to fall asleep,” Isabella explains as she walks to the middle of the room. Glancing into the walk-in closet, she says, “You didn’t move any of my things.”
“Of course not.”
Isabella turns to face me, and then she smiles. “Always so sure of yourself.”
“Thank you,” the words spill from me. “Thank you for coming back.”
Her eyes lock with mine. “Did I make the right decision?”
I nod as I begin to slowly walk toward her. “You did.” When I reach her, I lift a hand and brush a lock of hair away from her temple. “When did your memory come back?”
“Right before the party when Lucian’s helicopter landed on the grounds.”
I thought so. I take a deep breath and let it out slowly. “What did you want to prove that night?”
A slight frown forms on her forehead. “When we had sex?” I nod, and it has her answering, “I wanted control.”
“Hmm…” I step closer and press a kiss on her forehead. “I’m a bit of a control freak.”
“I’ve noticed,” she murmurs on a light chuckle. Her gaze dances over my face. “Sonia Terrero is my mother. How can you look past that?”
“I never judge a child for the sins of their father, or in your case, mother.”
I bring a hand to her face and brush my knuckles over her cheek and down her neck, relishing in the feel of her silky skin.
“Why didn’t you follow in Sonia’s footsteps?” I ask, wanting to know why Isabella turned on her mother.
“Seeing the depraved horror…” she shakes her head, the ghosts of her past shadowing her eyes, “someone had to try and put a stop to it.”
Another reason I want Sonia dead. She’s repeatedly tried to kill the woman I love, and Christ only knows what Isabella has seen growing up in the cartel.
My goddess with a will of steel that’s been forged in the bowels of hell.
My eyes caress her face. “So fucking brave.”
“Is this really who you are?” Isabella asks.
I nod. “Unless I lose my temper.”
“Does that happen often?”
The corner of my mouth lifts. “No.”
Isabella places her hands on my sides, and then she looks up at me. “What are triggers for you so I know to avoid them?”
“I only have two triggers,” I admit. “If someone goes after one of my loved ones and people preying on the innocent.”
Isabella nods. “We’re the same.”
I lean down. “That’s why we belong together.” Pressing my mouth to Isabella’s, my tongue sweeps into her heat. I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her tightly against me as I deepen the kiss.
I take my time reclaiming her mouth until her lips are swollen, and pulling back, our breaths mingle as our eyes lock.
“After the attack, we’ll marry.”
Isabella lifts her arms, wrapping them around my neck. “Okay.” She presses a kiss to my throat and then to my jaw. “I want to feel you deep inside me.”
I lift her against my body and carry her to the bed. Shoving her back onto the mattress, I say, “What my woman wants, my woman gets.”
She lets out a sinful chuckle. “Hmm… I love the sound of that.”
Taking hold of her waistband, I begin to undress her before stepping out of my sweatpants.
I spread Isabella’s legs wide open, and crawling over her, I lower my head and suck one of her nipples hard. I take hold of my cock and begin to rub it against her clit, coating myself with her wetness.
As I position myself at her entrance, I lift my head and meet her eyes. “I just want to feel you bare, and then I’ll put on protection.”
Isabella nods, and as I push inside her, I wrap my arms around her and hold her body to mine. I still once I’m all the way in and drink in the moment of having absolutely nothing between us.
Christ. She’s mine.