Page 143 of Savage Enemy

This woman inspired me. I would never get enough of her. She was brave, strong, underestimated—not to mention created by God himself to be a Vignali, to be mine.

My queen.

Mia bellissima piccola regina.

I shrugged out of my jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders, and she tucked into the fabric.

“Thank you, Ace.”

I grinned. “You’re welcome, Angel.”

Ace. The nickname she’d given me on our first and last real date. I received an invitation to a high-stakes poker game during our dinner at my father’s casino, and she insisted we attend.

“I’ve always wanted to learn. Let’s go,” she’d said. “It’ll be fun to see you play. Please, I don’t want the night to end.”

The beautiful girl who had turned every head in the room watched me turn my twenty-five grand buy-in into two hundred and seventy grand.

The memory made a wicked sense of pleasure erupt inside me and rush straight to my cock.

With a grin still plastered on my face, I squeezed her hand, then signaled to my men to get to the SUVs and Medico’s plane.

Marco’s car pulled up, and I opened the door for Val to slide onto the back seat.

“Why aren’t we going with the men?”

“Your brother offered us your family’s private jet, so we can have privacy on our way home. We have things to discuss, Val, and I need to take care of you. Apparently, your father had a shower installed, and I could really use that right now.”

She laughed when I made a disgusted face.

We didn’t talk on the drive to the airfield. We had so much to talk about, sure, but first we needed to hold each other. To feel the other. To know that nothing could rip us apart again.

Even after boarding the plane, we stayed that way, quiet and clinging. I pulled a blanket around us and wrapped my arms around her beneath it. She cuddled against me, her head on my chest, her arms around my waist.

Once the plane reached cruising altitude, I used the lavatory at the back of the cabin to wash away her father’s blood.

The limited water supply meant it wouldn’t be the long, luxurious shower I needed, but it would be good enough.

As I stood under the water, my craving for Val intensified.

I wanted her with me. I needed to be inside her. But she was hurting, and the small shower didn’t offer enough space for her to be comfortable. She needed time to recover from her injuries, the physical and the emotional wounds.

I didn’t want to push her too quickly.

After scrubbing all the blood, sweat, and gore off, I stepped out of the lavatory with a towel wrapped around my hips, expecting to find some clothing in a small closet.

Instead, I found my girl lying naked on the bed.

I stared at the bruising covering so much of her body.

Rage reignited in my gut, burning up my fucking soul.

I’d killed the sick motherfucker who hurt her, but it didn’t seem to be enough. I’d taken too long to get her away from him.

After moving my ass around to her side of the bed, I sat down and pulled the sheet over her, then I traced her curves with my fingertips. Using my left hand, of course.

Odd timing, maybe, but I thought for a minute about how I had planned to die if she didn’t survive.

“How about a nap before we land?” I asked. “The pilot rerouted around some weather, so there’s plenty of time.”

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