The Price (House of Sin #5) - Elisabeth Naughton Page 0,54

side of her lips curled. “That too. But I don’t need kids to be happy. I just need you. And I need you to let me in, because if you keep holding back and pushing me away every time something comes up, we’re never going to make it.”

“No one knows, Natalie.” Emotions I didn’t understand overwhelmed me, and my eyes burned with a familiar sting, making me close them all over again. “My family, my House... None of them know I’m sterile. I’m expected to produce heirs. Things could get sticky if they found out. When they find out.”

Because I knew they would. Eventually. When years went by and Natalie never wound up pregnant, they’d start to get curious.

“We’ll deal with that when and if it happens.”

I didn’t know how that would work. But I didn’t want to think about that right now.

I blinked damp lashes up at her. “I should have realized what you were worried about. I’m sorry I didn’t.” My throat grew thick, but I forced myself not to look away. “That girl’s not pregnant. I didn’t want that. I didn’t want any of...”

The words dried up in my mouth.

“I know.” She leaned close and pressed her lips to mine again, brushing her soft breasts against my chest in the process. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“I don’t know how. Talking to you about it makes me feel... vulnerable. And I don’t want to be vulnerable with you. I want to be strong so you always know I can protect you, because I will.”

“I already know that, Luc.”

“Knowing and believing are two different things. What you saw changes—”

“Look at me.” She tipped my chin up so our eyes were level. “What I saw changes nothing. What they did or say or will ever do still changes nothing. I know exactly who and what you are. You are strong. You are resilient. You are honorable, and you are faithful.”

Her words were like daggers stabbing straight into my chest, because I didn’t see myself as any of those things. Maybe once, but not now. And the fact she still saw me that way... It squeezed my chest so tight, it hurt to draw air.

Unable to keep looking into her sweet blue eyes, I let mine drift closed and breathed through the pain, knowing if I didn’t, in a minute I wouldn’t be able to hold back the waterworks.

“No, look at me.”

She tipped my chin up higher, forcing me to open my eyes. And I blinked through blurry vision and watched as she smiled down at me.

“You’re also mine,” she whispered. “Which means the only person in the world you have to answer to is me. And I promise you this. If you try to pull away from me, for whatever reason, just know I’ll drag you right back, each and every time. Even if I have to handcuff you to do it.”

My heart felt as if it might burst right out of my chest. I was nothing. I had nothing to offer her, not even the possibility of a family down the line, and yet, she still loved me. She still wanted me.

I didn’t understand why, but I was too weak to fight it. I needed her. I needed her strength and her love, and I needed her to save me. To go on saving me, just as she’d done since the first moment I’d met her.

“I love you.” Blinking against the wetness, I lifted my head and captured her lips. “I’m an idiot who loves you. Don’t give up on me, angioletto. Please don’t give up on me.”

“I won’t.” Her fingertips slid across my jaw, and her lithe body pressed into mine as she kissed me. “I promise I never will.”

I groaned as she slid her tongue into my mouth, and when I tasted her and all her succulent heat surrounded me, I felt as if my soul was coming to life. As if my mind was finally clear. As if she was the key not only to my sanity, but to my very being. And I wondered how the hell I could have ever thought staying away from her would ever make things better.

She tipped her head and deepened the kiss, and when her hard little nipples behind the thin T-shirt scraped my bare chest, all the blood in my brain shot straight into my groin. The only thing I wanted was to bury myself deep inside her where nothing mattered