Page 26

Daniil

I want Aria.

I want her for longer than a week.

I want her for as long as I can keep her before I fuck it all up. It’s inevitable that I will and I’m surprised I haven’t yet.

Aria knows how fucked-up I am, what’s been done to me and what I’ve done, and yet she didn’t call me names or yell at me or demand I let her go. No, she asked me to fuck her. And then this morning, I woke to her kissing my scars and I almost threw her off me until I realized it was her I was with and what she was doing. Then I fucked her again to show her how much her gentle strength and complete acceptance of me means so I didn’t have to search for the words and risk it all coming out wrong.

I’d never slept in the same bed as a woman before last night, and it was the best sleep I’ve ever gotten. But it’s not just sleeping with a woman, it’s sleeping with her. It’s all because of Aria. My little doll. My angel. My diamond shining in a black hole that was my soul before her.

I want to keep her, but I can’t.

Her family would never let her be with me, and I normally wouldn’t give a fuck and keep her anyway, but I couldn’t put my brother’s lives and the businesses we've built on the line for Leo Carfano to burn them to the ground out of revenge. My brothers don’t deserve that. I do, but they don’t.

When Aria starts to stir, her arm that’s banded across my stomach tightens, and so does that damn muscle in my chest.

She sucks in a sharp breath and groans.

“Aria?”

I look down to see her eyes pinched closed and her face scrunched in pain.

She digs her nails into my side and whimpers my name. “Daniil.”

“Aria, wake up,”

I urge, stroking her back.

“Come on, baby, I’m right here.”

She jolts awake and looks up at me with tears in her eyes.

“Oh, thank God.”

She buries her face against me and hugs me tightly. Damn, that feels good.

“You’re here.”

“What were you dreaming about?”

She shakes her head and I tug on her hair. “Tell me.”

“I have no idea why I was dreaming about that. Nothing happened that could’ve triggered it. I know I’m safe here with you.”

Fuck yes, she is. I’m not letting anything happen to her. “Tell me,”

I urge again.

“It happened four years ago when I was nineteen. Gia and I were in Ibiza for a swimsuit shoot and we were so excited. We’d been modeling for a year and were booked for so many campaigns and shows. Jonny and Sammy were always with us, but they still let us have fun, too. Not after this trip, though.”

She pauses to take a shaky breath, and I don’t fucking like where this is going.

“The job was done and we were celebrating at some club with the other girls. At some point, I was handed a spiked drink, because all I remember after that was being led away, half-conscience, by some guy I didn’t know. I woke up the next day with Gia sleeping next to me and Jonny and Sammy in the chairs in the corners of the room, watching over us like hawks. Gia told me they found me in a dark spot behind some tall plants, trying to fight off the guy. I was so weak from being out of it already, that I was already naked and he had his pants down. Sammy kicked his ass and left him unconscious, but I still had nightmares afterwards, the visuals so clear of what could’ve happened like it really did.”

“Where the fuck were those assholes when you were surrounded by a sea of predators and were allowed to be handed a random drink to begin with? And Sammy should’ve killed him.”

“They were off to the side, watching us. There weren’t any threats at the time, but now that’s different. I’m never out of Sammy’s sight now.”

“Yet when you were in my club, they were down below and you were in VIP. How the fuck did they know we weren’t going to do shit to you?”

I’m fucking mad. Fuming. Sammy is a fucking idiot and horrible at his job.

“I need to get you a bodyguard that wouldn’t dare let anything happen to you because they’d have to answer to me.”

I can feel her cheek move with a smile and then she props her chin up on the back of her hand on my stomach.

“Sammy answers to Sav and Leo. More so Leo though, since Sav lives in Miami now. I think he’s plenty scary.”

“He’s your cousin.”

“Yes, and?”

“I’m your–”

I cut myself off, not sure where the hell I was going with that. I’m your man. No one would dare let anything happen to you because you’re mine. Just like no one would dare let anything happen to Abri because she’s Leo’s.

“Your what?”

“Mine,”

I tell her.

“Because you’re mine.”

“Am I?”

she asks softly, the hope in her eyes almost too much for me. Why does she want to be mine?

“Do you want to be?”

“Yes.”

That word. That single word is a shot to my sternum and brings me to life like I’ve never been.

“I’d never let anything happen to you,”

I tell her.

“If you’re mine, then you won’t have nightmares, because I won’t let anything bad happen to you that will cause nightmares.”

“You can’t promise that.”

“I can, and I am.”

“Does that mean you’re mine?”

she asks tentatively, a sliver of fear in her eyes.

“Would you… I mean, do you want to be mine?”

I pull her up my body so she’s fully on top of me and her face is right above mine.

“I’ve never belonged to anyone before, kukolka.”

The hope in her eyes starts to dim, and it spears my gut.

“But I want to be yours. I’m not worthy of you though, Aria. I don’t think I ever could be, and I don’t want to ever disappoint you or be your biggest regret.”

“Daniil.”

She says my name again in that reverent tone that has me believing in God for the first time.

I kiss her so she doesn’t have to say anything to try and sway what I know is true, even if she doesn’t think so.

I kiss her until we’re both out of breath and her soaking wet pussy is grinding down on me, begging me to take care of her. I roll us over and slide into her, and it feels like coming home. The rest of the world falls away as my own world looks up at me with eyes so expressive, she can’t hide what she’s thinking or feeling from me anymore.

I don’t want to break her trust. I want to be worthy of it and keep her as mine so long as she wants me. Hell, even when she inevitably doubts that, I’m still going to keep her until she wants me again.

I don’t think she realized giving me herself and asking me to be hers meant that it would be a life sentence. But it is, and there’s no going back. For either of us.