Maid for the Hitman: A Steamy Standalone Instalove Romance by Flora Ferrari (lightweight ebook reader txt) 📗

I almost groan when she does that, her arms pushing her breasts together gorgeously, drawing my eye all over again. I swallow a thousand wants and force my gaze to remain on her face.

“You think you’re ugly,” I say. “And I hate it. I fucking hate that you’d ever see yourself that way. I wish you could see what I see.”

“What do you see?” she murmurs, some of the fire draining from her face, replaced with something softer.

“Beauty,” I say, voice husky. “Beauty like I never could’ve dreamed existed before I laid eyes on you. Everything about you is perfect. I’ll convince you of that one day.”

“One day,” she says, still in that same breathy tone. “So I was right. This is more than a fling, huh?”

I laugh darkly and rise from my seat, walking over to the railing and laying my elbows against it.

“You’ll think I’m crazy if I tell you,” I say.

“Try me,” she murmurs, walking up next to me.

She pauses beside me. Out of my peripheral vision – honed by years of awareness, of bloody work, of violence – I see her lift her hand and then drop it.

She was going to place it on my shoulder, but she lost her nerve at the last second.

I turn to her and grab her wrist, moving her hand to my shoulder with a smirk.

She giggles.

“I’m—No, I can’t say sorry, can I? Okay, then I’ll just say I get a little nervous. And I’ve never been intimate with anybody before. Earlier – what we did – it’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like that.”

The base of my cock throbs and pulses, fresh need trying to make me rock solid.

“You have no idea how crazy that makes me,” I snarl.

“Why?” she says, her hand getting tight on my shoulder. “You haven’t explained anything. None of this makes any sense. I want to understand, Ryland. I thought you were going to kick me out when I refused to have sex with you earlier.”

I laugh grimly, lifting my hand to cradle her flushed face.

“My perfect little virgin maid,” I tease, and she giggles. “Only immature little dickheads throw hissy fits when a woman rejects them. And don’t worry. You’ll be giving yourself to me, truly giving yourself, very, very soon.”

She whimpers at the force of my words.

“But why?” she moans.

I loop my arms around her body and pull her close to me so that there’s no space between us, our bodies feeling like they could collapse into each other at any second.

“Because we’re going to be together forever,” I growl. “Because you belong to me, and me alone. Because the second I saw you, saw a photograph of you, I knew you were the woman I’ve been waiting my whole life for. That, my perfect sexy maid, is why.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Rosie

I stare up into his swimming silver eyes, struggling to take in what he just told me in my mind.

He’s been waiting his whole life for me?

I almost laugh at the thought. It speeds through me like a bullet of impossibility, shattering parts of me that only started to grow when I laid eyes on him.

No, earlier than that.

These crazy emotions swirled to life inside of me when I heard him through the door, as though he could transmit all this want and desperate desire without me even needing to see him.

“Rosie, you’re going to give birth to my children one day. And one day soon, I hope. You belong to me. That’s why I’m not mad about you being a virgin. Hell, that’s why I like it. Because it means I get to be the only one to claim you. No other man is ever going to touch you. You belong to me. Everything you are, everything you will ever be, it’s mine.”

“And that’s why you saved me,” I murmur, feeling as though I’m throwing these words over a gap many miles away.

His hands tighten on my hips, making my belly twist with desire, making my womb sing. I thought I was crazy for thinking things like that – things about wombs and families and destiny – and yet he’s just basically told me he feels the same.

“No,” he says. “I mean—yes, I would never let anything happen to you. But I wasn’t lying when I told you I’d never hurt a woman.”

I turn away, pacing over to the opposite railing. Any second, I’m sure, my legs could fall out from beneath me, just turn to smoke and leave me small and defenseless on the floor.

“What is this then?” I hiss, facing the garden, the sky, anywhere but him.

If I face him, I might find myself believing what he’s saying, and that’s craziness, just plain insanity.

“I don’t know,” he says, voice rumbling. “I can’t explain it. It’s just the way I feel—”

“No,” I snap, spinning on him despite my need not to lock eyes with him, despite knowing that staring into those shivering azures could make me weak and gullible. “I mean, why are you saying these things? What twisted game is this? Did Vito put you up to this? Did he want you to mind-fuck me before you killed me? Is that it? Because it makes no sense, Ryland. I’ve never…”

He drifts over to me, his lips twisted into something like a frown. But there’s more to it than simple sadness. It’s more like he’s disappointed in me, and I find myself wanting to rage and scream and tell him I can be better. I can be worthy of his attention.

He stops just shy of me, staring down at me with that all-consuming gaze of his, the gaze that makes me feel as though I’m the only woman alive.

“This is not a trick,” he growls. “You belong to me. You always will. Your virginity is mine. Your tits are mine, now and when they start milking. Your ass is mine. Your thighs, your mind… everything belongs to me. You need to accept that.”

I