Page 72 of Hidden Ties

“I love you, Valerie. You didn’t have to ask me if I love you. It was plain to see if you’d just looked. I love that when you get scared, you act crazy. I love that we share the same love of computers. Iespeciallylove that you love sex,” he groaned, bucking his hips under hers. He stopped his teasing to grab her hips in a tight grip, pulling her harder down on him. “You have a crazy-as-fuck sense of humor and do even crazier things without thinking them through. But you still frighten me, Valerie, and that’s the truth.”

She stopped riding him. “How do I still frighten you?”

Flipping her over without warning, he pressed into her beneath him until she felt surrounded by him. “Because I thought I might lose you up on that rooftop, and I don’t know how I’m supposed to survive if anything ever happens to you.”

“Nothing’s going to happen to me.”

“You can’t promise that any more than me not dying during a blue moon.” Sal’s large hand cupped her cheek as his voice went so small from pain. “I’d die if I had to go back to being alone … and I don’t want to be alone again.”

“You won’t ever be alone,” Valerie promised him while secretly promising to herself that Sal would never have to feel that pain again, not if she could help it.“You have too much family now,” she softly reminded him of the blessing he had found.

Arching under Sal when he started moving again, she raised her legs to his hips, holding on tightly as Sal showed her just how much he loved her. And when she felt him climax inside of her, she let herself break apart in his arms, whispering in his ear howmuch she loved him, wanting to make up for all the times she had wanted to tell him over the past month.

She expected Sal to go to sleep after they had sex and was thinking about sneaking a snack. However, her eyes flew open when she felt herself lifted out of the bed.

“Why are you taking me to the bathroom? I was going to sleep.”

Sal turned on the shower. “No, you weren’t. You were waiting for me to fall asleep so you could get a MoonPie. You sleep a total of four hours, and you’re done for the next twenty. All the sugar you’re consuming keeps you from getting more sleep.”

She didn’t bother to tell The Great Salvatore that he was, in fact, wrong and that he didn’t know everything about her yet.

Until she had turned eighteen and left home, every gram of sugar she had consumed had been monitored. Her stepmother had been a fanatic about it, believing the same thing Sal did—that sugar was the culprit of only needing a few hours of sleep and constantly being hyped up. It wasn’t the sugar; it was simply how she was wired. She just didn’t require a lot of sleep, and she was always hyped up because life was too short to miss out on what made you happy.

“So, you think a shower is going to help me sleep?” She wasn’t against the shower; she would just rather have the snack. Not to mention two showers in one night was a bit excessive for him.

“No, I thought you might want to try that position we tried the last time that didn’t work.”

I can wait to eat …

“You think you’ll be able to make me exhausted enough to sleep longer?”

Sal nodded slyly, like a fox. “Yes.”

Taking off her favorite oversized T-shirt she had stolen from Sal, she opened the shower door. “I’m always ready to play, baby. Just don’t blame me when you’re lagging.”

TWENTY-SEVEN

EVERY DAY AFTER

“Ican’t live like this, Sal!” Valerie slammed the pantry cabinet with a thud. While she was grateful her dream came true of Sal bringing in the groceries, he was stingy when it came to buying her candy and sweets, trying to help her with her addiction.

“I just bought those yesterday.” He nodded toward the empty box of MoonPies on the counter.

“Well, you had a few yourself,” she muttered in frustration.

Sal quickly corrected her. “Yeah. Two.”

She was about to burst into tears, when Sal wrapped his arms around her in a tight embrace. She had been waiting on pins and needles for a phone call for the last week, and her cravings were at an all-time high.

“You’re just stressed out, baby. Would you like me to fuck you again?”

“No—I mean, I do,” she quickly explained, trying to relax in his warm arms. “It’s just that it’s only been five minutes since the last time we did it, and then ten minutes before that. The last time we did it back-to-back like that, you wouldn’t let me touch you for two days.”

“Yeah, that might not be the best idea, then,” he agreed, remembering. You could tell even Sal couldn’t believe the predicament he had landed himself in by unlocking a secret nymphomaniac.

Placing a tender kiss on her forehead, he began to drag her out of the penthouse. “Come on; I think I might have something else to take your mind off it.”

“What is it?” she asked eagerly, strolling along beside him, hand in hand. She’d do just about anything to forget that she had resubmitted her game to Game Hookup with her updated characters.