Page 175 of Wicked Villain

“You knew who I really was and you still came. Why?” If he’s going to punish me, I need to know.

“Because you’re mine.” The fervency in his eyes throws me, and I don’t know what to think.

“But now you know I’m worth nothing.”

“Hmm. You were never worth nothing, Allegra Karsavin.” The words roll off his tongue. “You’re my wife.”

“You married the wrong sister. Everything you need me for is in Gabrielle’s name.”

Slowly, he shakes his head. “No. Not everything. It turns out the only thing I ever wanted and needed belongs to you.”

“What’s that?”

“Your heart.”

My pulse trips and my lungs seize, squeezing like a vise in my chest. I search his eyes, unable to accept this is real.

For the last four years, my entire identity has been stripped away to nothing. I’ve been nothing more than a shell. A body to fulfill a role, while my name is engraved on a gravestone.

But Lev is here, looking at me without seeing Gabrielle, her inheritance, and the reasons he married me.

He’s choosing me again.

“My… heart,” I mutter.

He nods once, running his finger slowly down my neck. “I came for you, Allegra. Because I love you. You made me fall for you.”

My heartbeat evens out as something different awakens within me.

Freedom. True freedom.

The freedom that comes from being yourself. Nothing more, nothing less.

“I love you, too.”

He leans closer and brushes his lips over my nose. “Looks like we’re even, then, malyshka. So, how about you stop running from me and just let me love you? Can we do that?”

I’m already nodding. “Yes.”

He smiles and moves in to kiss me.

As his lips touch mine, the pieces of me that were broken find each other, healing.

And I feel like I’m someone again.

Chapter

Forty-Three

Lev

“Allegra. Allegra. Allegra,” I whisper her name against her ear, getting used to the way it feels on my tongue.

I like it.

She feels more like an Allegra than Gabrielle. And something about her feels more whole. I guess it’s because I’m getting the real her. All of her.

I trace a path of kisses down her neck. She giggles and shuffles to the side of the bed, allowing me access to make my way down her chest and down, down to the deep valley between her perfect, fuckable breasts.