I’ve become. The man that fucking evil bitch turned me into. A monster to look at, and the things I’ve done…” I shook my head, but Valentin put his fingers over my lips to silence me. “Kotyonok, I am your Tbilisi monster. I stole you like the monster stole the children. I hurt you just like the monster hurt them. Only you can’t see it.”
His piercing blue eyes—the only part of his face untouched—searched mine. I knew he was waiting for the penny to drop. He was waiting for me to realize I didn’t want him.
He’d never been wanted.
Only this time he was, and he didn’t know how to deal with it.
Removing Valentin’s fingers from my lips, I clutched them in my hand and said, “You’re right.” I watched as his face paled with devastation as soon as those words left my lips. Feeling his pain in my heart, I stepped even closer, until our chests touched, and continued, “You are the Tbilisi monster, Valentin. You stole me. You hurt me. You brought me pain.” Valentin had stilled, but with a tilted head and an expression of pure love I added, “But from the minute I heard the story I had an obsession with that monster. And when all the children were running away from the dangerous monster in the woods, I would instead stand at the edge of the line of trees, searching through the darkness of the forest, trying to bring him home, so he would not be alone, so he would never again be alone.”
Valentin’s expression caused my heart to crack. I knew the regret for what he’d done to me was taking its hold.
“I can’t make love,” he abruptly whispered. “I can only fuck, brutal and hard. It’s all I’ve ever known.” He stepped back as if his very presence would wound me.
I followed this movement. “That’s fine, because I can make love to you.”
His head shook in protest. “I’m not soft or kind or loving, or—”
“That’s fine, because I am all of these things and, besides, I love you. You, not someone you think I should have.”
Valentin groaned as though he couldn’t cope with my words. His hands lifted to grip the sides of his head. “I’m fucked up. The Mistress fucked me up. I’ll cause you pain even when I want to make love.” He paused, and with lost eyes he said, “And I look like this; I’m designed to scare everyone I meet. I was never meant to be loved.”
Closing in until we shared the same air, I reached down and took hold of his length, and I said, “And all that is fine, because I love you unconditionally, and I will not break. You can be who you need to be with me. You can dominate me, possess me, and own me. Because I want you and accept whatever that comes with. I want to love you and want you to love me back, so that we both are never again alone.”
“Zoya,” Valentin whispered painfully, but this time I heard a hint of acceptance in his tone. His length hardened at my touch.
Flesh to flesh, I moved my mouth below his ear and said, “I am going to make love to you now. I am going to take the lead and show you with my body just how I feel for you, in my heart.”
Valentin’s forehead fell onto my shoulder, and he admitted in a hushed voice, “I’m not only scarred on the outside, kotyonok; I’m scarred on the inside: my mind, my heart, and my soul.”
I fought back tears and the raw emotion of his confession. Turning my head until my lips met his long scar, I pressed them against the raised skin and said, “And I will find those scars as beautiful as I do these.”
A strangled moan fell from Valentin’s lips. As it did, I pushed him to sit on the bed, my hands on his chest.
Valentin lay back on the mattress. Wet and ready, needing to physically express my love, I straddled Valentin’s thighs and crushed my lips against his.
As soon as I tasted him in my mouth, I rolled my wet center along his length, slow and controlled, lovingly, not rushed. Valentin wrapped his arms around my waist. Following my lead, he lazily massaged his tongue against mine. I was breathless from the slow intensity of this moment. Needing more, needing to show him just how much he was wanted, I lifted my thighs and, with my