Snorting, I shut off the water and stepped out of the shower. I pulled the towel down off the rack and covered myself. I was used to covering up my internal pain with a smile, a sneer, a flick of the wrist.
I could do the same with him.
The wardrobe still had nothing but lingerie hanging there. As much as I wished I had some comfortable pajamas, I slipped on a black floor-length gown with an exposed back, and climbed into bed. Exhaustion washed over me and I was suddenly aware of just how tired I was. The sheets smelled like him, and heaven help me, I might have pressed my face into them.
I already wanted him again.
That couldn’t be good.
It didn’t take me long to fall asleep, however.
My body was sated.
And my dreams were filled with Valentino.
Chapter 26
Lucas
I sat on the terrace outside the study, a drink in my hand as the still night moved around me. I hadn’t touched the drink since I poured it, too busy thinking about what had happened earlier and what the hell I was going to do about it.
I had fucked Leda D’Agostino. It hadn’t been the plan, not this soon. But now that it was over and done, all I wanted was to take my happy ass upstairs and do it all over again.
Leda wasn’t just some object I had bought, a pretty vase that I could keep in the room, touch once, and ignore for the rest of my lifetime.
I had a taste of her.
And I wanted more.
“Stop it,” I leaned my head against the chair and breathed.
What had possessed me to lose control like that? I had tried to do it the way I wanted to, to keep her face away from me so that she would be nothing more than a plaything.
Yet every time I closed my eyes, I heard her breathy moans, the way she had started to meet me thrust for thrust, and how I wished I had turned her around to see her reaction.
It wasn’t what I needed to be thinking about. Leda wasn’t what I expected from a Mafia princess. Actually, I had no idea what I was expecting. Certainly not the hellcat that she actually was—one who was just as turned on by being humiliated like she was.
And to add to that, she was a virgin. A surge of primal pride ran through me. I was the only man who ever had her, the only one to have given her pleasure like that. And no matter how hard I tried to keep it cold, she wanted it as much as I did.
But one thing continued to bug me.
Why the hell hadn’t she broken down in tears? Other than a token resistance at the end, she never once begged menotto take her.Thatwas what I expected from her.
I blew out a breath and looked up at the stars. What would she be like the next time I opened her legs? Would she hurl the insults I was supposed to hear for a man who stole her innocence? Would I find a completely different person in the bed by morning?
Whichever it was, I wanted to go back and find out.
It wasn’t just lust. It was curiosity.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I wanted to fuck her. Hell, I would keep fucking her until neither of us could walk. But there was a part of me that—and I fucking hated to admit this—wanted to find out more about her.
She was a fighter—strong, resilient, and made of sterner stuff than I had given her any credit before.
I wanted to know why.
And how.
It was bad for me to care like this, to have this craving inside that couldn’t be sated even after I had her. She did something to me just now.