Page 89 of Bastard

“Make me remember.”

His eyebrows pitch.

“Us. Before Rome. Before the divorce.”

“The divorce.” Silence, then my name. “Luciana ... Fuck.”

He closes his eyes, blocking me out. How I wish I never gave voice to what’s been on constant repeat in my mind. I press a light kiss to his lips. “I’ve come to terms with everything that’s happened. I forgive you, Hayden.”

That does it, and he opens his eyes to stare at me. “You don’t know the whole of it.”

I frown. What don’t I know?

He flexes his hips, and I groan. “I’ll make it up to you, Luciana. That, you can count on.”

I manage a nod, then anchor my thighs on his hips and redirect our attention. “You can start right now.”

“That right? Then I’ll make it so goddamn good, you’ll forget what a devil I am. Now, eyes on me.”

He withdraws then thrusts hard, using his weight to bear into me.

“Sí. Yesss.”

“Hold on.”

Everything becomes a blur after that. He fucks me like he’s trying to fuse our bodies into one. Wild and with abandon. Watching my every movement, every gasp, every sigh. He feels the same yet different. His body rock-hard. My name on his lips softly murmured like the sweetest caress.

“Luciana. God, Luciana.”

I scream my climax, loud enough to scare off the magpies perched on a branch off in the distance.

Not Hayden. He jerks, then groans my name. “Luciana.” I’ve never heard anything quite as sexy.

He runs a thumb across my cheek. And that’s when I realize I’m crying.

“Sh,” he says then kisses away my tears. “I waited for you to move on, yet you didn’t. I hoped you’d find happiness, fall in love and live a life you deserve. Yet, you never did. Because of me, a bastard who gave everything up for his job. But Luciana, you were always a step ahead of me. You were right all along.”

He kisses my wet cheeks, my nose, my lips.

Though it’s his words that leave me breathless.

“You had your chance. You didn’t take it. And now, God help you, I’m never letting you go again.”

33

Iwake up alone.

But the ever-present ache in my heart has been replaced by the ache between my thighs.

Hayden’s been a reluctant husband and a demanding boss. But as a lover ... Santo cielo, he’s every girl’s fantasy.

My fantasy.He has been for a long, long time.

I hurriedly wash up and dress, listening to a village that’s already come to life around me. Once ready, I head outside.

I find Hayden with several villagers, in the process of lowering a water pump into a hole that’s been dug near the picnic tables. Another group of men a few yards away are securing a solar-powered water heater to the frame of the community building while a different group fastens solar panels to the roof. Nmimpi will soon have hot, fresh water.

And who is responsible for the expensive materials?