by Marian Tee
Text copyright ©2016 by the Author.
This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Melody Anne. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Melody Anne's Billionaire Universe remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Melody Anne, or their affiliates or licensors.
For more information on Kindle Worlds: http://www.amazon.com/kindleworlds
New priorities have forced Vivian to spend significant time away from Italian billionaire Luca Valencia, but it doesn’t seem like Vivian’s powerful, gorgeous husband even notices her absence. Even worse, Luca’s beautiful ex-wife has suddenly returned to the picture and makes no efforts to hide her intentions: Maria wants her family back – and she believes she has what it takes to be a better wife and mother than Vivian can ever be.
Pride forces Vivian to pretend she’s not hurting while love forces her to face the toughest question: is it right to fight for her marriage – even if she’s no longer sure that she’s what Luca and his little girl need to be happy?
Want More Hot Alpha Billionaire and Biker Romances from Marian Tee?
Enjoy exclusive excerpts about my newest and upcoming releases by signing up for my newsletter.
Secrets
By Marian Tee
Prologue
The tension in the bedroom was palpable, the silence draining Luca of strength. But at least this was different from how he and his ex-wife quarreled, the Italian billionaire thought dully. At least this time, he and Vivi were capable of being civil. At least this time, he knew both of them genuinely cared about Eula, which meant that shouting and fighting in front of his daughter were absolutely off-limits.
That was the one and only thing he could be happy about, in the wake of their ongoing struggles.
“Luca.” Vivi suddenly spoke his name in a jerky tone, making him lift his head sharply. She had always looked like a fragile little thing, but in the past she had countered this with a constantly cheerful expression. Then, her gaze had always sparkled with optimism.
But now---
Dark circles underlined her eyes, and the way her floral dress hung so loosely around her body emphasized the amount of weight she had lost. She looked like she was about to break any second---
Because of him.
Looking at his wife, he worked hard to keep his tone even as he said, “I know we’ve been having problems, cara.” He saw Vivi bite her lip hard, visibly struggling not to cry, and his fists tightened at the sight. “We can still fix it if---”
“I’m sorry, Luca,” Vivi whispered. “But I just can’t take this anymore.”
Ah. It hurt to hear the way Vivi choked the words out with tears clogging her throat, but what tore at Luca even more was the way she looked at him.
Those eyes – those dull green eyes were saying his wife no longer loved him.
How did this happen?
Why did this always happen?
Why couldn’t he seem to hold on to the woman he loved?
When he didn’t reply, Vivi slowly crossed their bedroom, but when she tried to reach for his hands, he couldn’t help stepping away, and she whitened. “I’m sorry,” she choked out. “I didn’t want it to be like this. I thought---” She looked at him pleadingly. “I really thought this was what I wanted---”
“Then what changed?” he interrupted hoarsely. “What did I do that---”
Vivi cut him off with a slow shake of her head. “You already know the answer to that, Luca,” she whispered. “Don’t pretend that you don’t.” She hugged herself, saying haltingly, “I’m not cut out for this kind of life. You knew that from the start, and yet---” Her voice shook in the end, forcing her to stop speaking. Looking away from him, she whispered, “If you had really loved me---”
“Don’t you dare question my love,” he charged bitterly.
“But I am questioning it!” She whirled around to face him again, a stricken look on her face. “Because the way I love you means I place you above all else, and that you’re free to do to make you happy---”
“Was it so damn bad?” Luca couldn’t help snarling. “I stopped you from going to school because I knew you didn’t really want to do it. It was a fucking mistake – you were committing the same mistakes Maria did---”
“Oh, Luca.” Vivi gazed at him despairingly. “You don’t get it, do you? I get why you were concerned. I get why you were worried. But it still didn’t give you the right to control me. To cage me. I’m your wife, not your prisoner---”
“Everything I did---” Frustration seethed in him, making Luca raise his voice. “Everything I did was for us to stay together---”
“I wanted that, too,” she cried back at him. “Or at least I did want it until you made me feel it wasn’t even my choice to stay with you.” And this time, tears slowly fell on Vivi’s cheeks like an endless, transparent trail of pain. “That’s when you stopped being the man I fell in love with.”
****
Vivian whispered, “Wake up, caro. You’re having a bad dream---” She shook him again, and this time her husband shot up to a sitting position. Hearing him desperately suck his breath, she quickly pushed herself up as well and twisted around to flick the light switch on.
The pair of bedside lamps flared into life, and when she looked back at Luca, she saw the stream of golden light illuminating her husband, who was still breathing hard. The covers had fallen to his waist, and his powerful, naked body was enveloped with cold sweat. When she lifted her gaze to his, Vivi saw that his light blue eyes had a haunted look to them, and a twinge of pain pinched her heart.
Moving to him, she laid her hand on his arm, whispering, “It’s just a dream, Luca.”
He slowly reached for her, almost as if he was afraid that she would disappear any moment, and instinct made Vivian keep herself still. Her husband’s fingers grazed her cheek, and when he still didn’t say a word, she whispered uncertainly, “Luca?”
He said abruptly, “I dreamt you left me.”
Oh. That such a thing could cause him to have so much darkness in his gaze---
It pinched her heart again, but the pain was a sweet agony because the darkness was also proof of how much he loved her.
This man who had once turned his back completely on love, this man who had once pushed her away in order to harden his heart against her---
Giving Luca a tentative smile, she tried to lighten his mood, saying, “That was the bad part, right? You’re not telling me that the nightmare was the fact that you woke up and realized I’m still your wife---”
In a blink of an eye, her beautiful husband had her pinned under him.
“Luca!”
“I’m not joking,” her husband snarled under his breath, and clasped tightly to him, Vivian could feel the way his heart beat hard and fast against his chest. This suggested that he was seriously worried she could leave him, and she blinked up at him in bemused shock. “Oh, Luca.” Vivian shyly clasped her husband’s face, mumbling, “How can you even think it’s possible for me to leave you? I love you---”
“And I love you, too, cara.” He took her hands, kissing her knuckles gently, and in spite of the simplicity of the gesture, it was still enough to make Vivi’s body shiver in sensual awareness.
“But even so---” The tautness of his tone drew her gaze back to his face. “I still made you cry. I still make you cry---”
“That’s normal,” she dismissed lightly. “And besides, we always make up---”
Her husband�
��s expression remained hard. “All your troubles now are because I made you my wife.”
These last words finally clued her in to where he was coming from, and she sighed. “This is about me being turned down a chair in St. Francis’ board, isn’t it?”
When her husband’s lips tightened, she thought with a mental wince, Bingo. Looking at her husband, she said carefully, “They were right to turn me down, and I was stupid to even have tried applying without consulting you.”
Luca absently threaded his fingers through his wife’s silky dark locks, asking, “Why did you try applying?” Because this was the part he still didn’t get. Although Vivi was the type who liked to help, it wasn’t like her to want a title along with it.
Vivi bit her lip at his question, and he stiffened slightly at the way the sight reminded him too much of the way she had looked in his dream---
Stop being foolish, he ordered himself. A dream was a dream, and it could only influence reality if he allowed it to.
Looking down, he prodded gently, “Vivi?”
“All the wives of billionaires are board members of charities,” Vivian confessed awkwardly.
Comprehension dawned, making Luca ask incredulously, “And so you thought you had to be one as well?”
A tiny nod.
“And I suppose that’s also the reason you recently started wearing suits like those women in CSI?”
A tinier nod.
“And your stubborn insistence on attending college again?”
She gave him a mortified smile.
The billionaire sighed. “Cara. Do you not understand yet?” Fastening his gaze with hers, he enunciated slowly, “I love you as you are.”
His wife’s eyes widened.
“And so it is pointless for you to compare yourself to other billionaires’ wives.”
If only it could be so easy, Vivian thought miserably. “I want to be an ideal wife for you, Luca. I want to meet people’s expectations---”
“Are you saying their expectations mean to you more than mine does?” The Italian billionaire raised one aristocratic brow at her, and the sight momentarily distracted Vivian. It was stupid of her, but she had always found his arrogance a huge turn on, and now was no exception.
“Are they?”
“Y-you already know the answer to that.” Toes curling hard at the way her husband’s gleamed in sexy satisfaction at her reply, she managed to wrench her gaze away from his, mumbling, “Sei tutto per me---” You’re everything to me. Vivian wanted to say more, but there wasn’t a chance to do so because Luca had already claimed her mouth in a rough, hard kiss.
Ooooooh.
Her response was immediate, her surrender without question, with Vivian’s arms wrapping around his neck as she succumbed to his hungry kiss. Thank God for Italian lessons, she thought dazedly. Ever since Luca had admitted to finding Vivian speaking in his native language a huge turn-on, she had done her best to improve her fluency and had come to rely on it as her way of initiating sex.
As Luca’s mouth ran down her neck, she thought vaguely, Maybe one day I can even talk dirty in Italian.
“I can feel you thinking, cara.” Giving her neck one last lick, Luca lifted his head and eyed her heated cheeks with keen interest.
“I’m n-not thinking anything.” But Vivian’s stammered protest only had her husband releasing a low, sexy laugh, the sound of which made her toes curl even harder.
“We both know you’re bad at keeping secrets,” he told her with a smirk.
“It’s really nothing---” Her words ended in a gasp, her back arching as he suddenly moved down to suck one lace-covered nipple. Her back arched even more, pushing her nipple deeper into his mouth as he sucked harder and harder.
“Lucaaaaaa.” She couldn’t help moaning his name as he moved on to the other nipple. A moment later, and her husband impatiently undid the front clasp of her bra and tossed it away. His hands moved down, working just as fast in pulling her panties down her legs.
“You’re so damn hot,” he growled, his hands running over her naked body.
“S-so are you,” she gasped back unthinkingly, making her husband chuckle.
A shiver ran across her entire body as Luca squeezed her breasts, but then his hands moved back down, and her breath caught. His fingers found her folds, and Vivian’s eyes squeezed shut as he stroked her already wet and throbbing core---
“L-Luca, oh God--”
His arousal peaking at her breathy whimper, Luca dug his fingers into the plump cheeks of her bottom. “I can’t wait any longer---” As her clouded eyes clashed with his, Luca plunged his rigid erection into her with a growl.
She moaned at his penetration, her hands wildly moving over the smooth, muscular panes of her husband’s back. He pulled out a moment later before sinking back into her, harder and deeper, and her nails dug into his back.
He started to move, slowly at first but gaining speed with every succeeding thrust, and her breathing became choppy. Her head tossed and turned on the pillow while she instinctively met his thrusts, her hips lifting off the bed.
He was so good, so good.
What had she done to deserve a man this sexy---
Luca’s mouth found her ear, and he whispered, “I love you, Vivi---” His manhood plunged deep into her at the same time.
Aaaaah.
“I love you, Luca!” The words were torn out of her throat in a moan, her inner muscles tightening around his length.
His words echoed in her mind, and her body tightened even more.
Perfect, he was so perfect.
Her nails raked his back. “I love you.” She couldn’t stop saying it. “Ti amo---”
The Italian words of ‘I love you’ seemed to do it for her husband, and he jerked above her, a powerful shudder racking his body.
“Ti amo,” he rasped back at her.
And then he was moving almost wildly, his thrusts fast and furious, and Vivian could only cling helplessly to his hard frame, completely lost in his power.
“Open your eyes, cara,” Luca growled.
She was unable to resist his command, and her eyes fluttered open.
“Look at how our bodies are connected.”
His command had her looking down, all the way to where his engorged erection disappeared into the swollen folds of her core---
The sight was excruciatingly arousing, and she whimpered.
With Vivian still staring, the billionaire withdrew his erection almost all the way out before slowly and firmly shoving back in.
Aaaaaaaah.
“Oh God,” she sobbed out. “Luca.” The sight was addictive, and she could no longer stop staring as he pumped into her again and again.
“Swear to me, Vivi.” Clasping her hips tightly, he gritted out, “This connection will only be for the two of us.”
Her lips parted, but she couldn’t get herself to be coherent, was too consumed by the feeling of having him penetrate her all the way to her womb.
“Swear to me, cara.” Her husband pushed harder into her. “Now and always---” And when she still didn’t answer, her husband’s movements came to a punishing stop.
“Nooooo---”
“Then swear it,” he gritted out.
“I swear---” As soon as she cried the words out, Luca pounded back into her, the force of his thrusts beautifully savage, and she screamed. He pounded into her over and over, and oh, how she loved it, craved for it, her body tightening more and more with every forceful plunge until the pressure inside of her burst.
Vivian came with a cry, and the Italian billionaire followed soon after, his back arching as he hoarsely gritted out her name.
She clung to him, wave after wave of ecstasy beating over their bodies, their orgasm lasting so long that by the time the pleasure started to ebb, even Luca was without breath while Vivian didn’t even have enough strength to open her eyes.
When he swept her up in his arms, she could only lay her head against his chest in utter exhaustion. H
e took her to the tub for a quick soak, and when he was done cleaning her, Vivian rubbed her head against the wall of his chest, curling up in his lap like a kitten.
Luca began to speak in a soft, accented murmur, the sound lulling her into sleep.
“I am always supportive of the decisions you make, cara. I hope you know that. But I must at least express my reservations about the course you’ve enrolled in. Are you truly sure business management is what you’d like to take up?”
Silence.
“I am not saying it’s impossible. You’re strong, smart, and hardworking. I believe you can accomplish whatever you want, but cara, it is ideal that you take up what you are most passionate about. So is this truly what you want?”
When his wife still didn’t answer, he looked down, and the billionaire’s lips slowly curved at the sight of his sleeping wife.
Ah.
It was yet another first, to have a woman sleep on him after sex.
When they were back in bed, both of them still naked but dry, he gently pulled the covers over them before taking his sleeping wife into his arms. Staring at her, he could only think of one thing.
Ti amo, cara.
When his ex-wife had left him, the billionaire had thought that he would never love again. He had decided then that his baby girl Eula would be the only reason for his existence, and he had thought that would be enough.
He had thought he could play it safe for the rest of his life…until Vivian chatted her way into his heart.
He remembered the way Vivian had mistaken him for an ordinary pencil pusher the first day they met, and his lips curved. She had the most beautiful smile and her sunny nature had drawn him in like bee to honey.
Her love made him invincible, but if she ever left him---
Luca gently pressed his lips to the bare slope of her shoulder.
Ti amo, Vivi.
If only he could lock her in a tower that he alone had the key to.
If only he could possess every second of her time.
If only.
But because he loved and trusted her, he fought to crush all such urges every day of his life.
