My peony,” he emphasized. “And it’s only for us, no one else.” He liked the intimacy of having a special name for her no one else knew but the two of them.
I look at you and know what a miracle you are. The feel of your skin, soft and inviting, the way you move, like water flowing, the brush of your hair like silk, the feel of your body surrounding mine, completing me, giving me the strength I need to continue a task that seems so hopeless, but so necessary. I look at the way you are made, so beautiful, your body so perfect, made for mine.
She looked desperate. He felt that way. He wasn’t about to be separated from her. “No matter what, I’ll be with you,” he promised.
You make me feel alive, Grace. Every cell in my body wakes up around you. My heart. Who knew it was even possible?
We’re all going to die someday, Sasha. We can only live our lives the best way we can. I believe in family.
He was lonely. He wanted his own family. A wife. Children. Someone to come home to. Someone to care for, to take care of. He needed a purpose. His lifestyle had no balance. He needed someone to become his center, to anchor him.
A woman, young, full of life and laughter, a human with a psychic connection to him. A human filled with compassion, intellect, and strength. Death and damnation could wait another day while he satisfied his curiosity.
It was at home, when she was alone with herself, the way she’d been her entire life, that she was lost. She had no purpose. No focus. No center to balance her. Now, this man, Vittorio Ferraro, an amazing, sensual, intelligent man offered those things to her.
I want you to be mine completely. I need you to give yourself to me the way you kiss me. More importantly, I need to be your man. The one who shelters you, protects you, gives you everything.
Someone to care about him. Someone to be his center. Someone to make him feel alive and passionate about living.
His voice. It was beautiful. Low. Soothing, yet the same time, there was absolute command, as if he ruled the world and knew it.
It was beyond his imagination that such a miracle could occur. Just when he knew he would walk into the sun without hesitation, he had been sent an angel. A slow smile softened his mouth. His angel refused to do anything he told her.
She was the one. His only. He knew it with every fiber of his being.
She had the beginnings of trust in him. He needed that from her. To gain the kind of absolute faith and trust he needed from her, he had to show in every way that he would always be there for her. That trust could never be in any way taken for granted or abused.
She didn’t think she had anything to offer him. He got that. She had no money, no family, nothing at all in her eyes. Yet she gave him this magnificent gift – her and her trust, when she had no reason to trust anyone, least of all him.
I was always in danger. Always. I felt every minute of the day that I was walking a tightrope and any moment I was going to fall. Part of me just wanted it over.
How could she not answer him more fully when he was looking at her so directly? When the deep, commanding way he said her name made her feel that if she didn’t tell him the truth, he would be disappointed.
Where was her sharp intellect? She relied on her brain. She could think fast and was good at details. When Vittorio was around, the only details she could remember were how his smile was so beautiful and how his voice was so gentle and yet compelling.
He settled on the balcony outside her second-story window and became still, a part of the night, blending for a moment into the very fabric of the building. Her bedchamber was one of the rooms with a light, proclaiming that she was unable to sleep. His dark, burning eyes found her through the clear glass, found her and claimed her.
I don’t want you in my life so I can use your body. I’m good at seduction, Lexi. I can go to a bar and pick up a woman and use her if that’s what I wanted. I want love. When you touch me, I feel love in your hands. When you kiss me, I taste love. I’m not in a rush. I’m enjoying all the firsts you’ve given me.
It was as if the very shadows connected them and she could feel his emotions.