Page 54 of Valentino | AllFreeNovel

The rest of it is something else.

Something I was never taught.

Something I've spent forty years avoiding by calling it a job.

Amanda

My legs hold this time.

That's the first miracle of the day. I make it from the bed to the door without my knees folding under me like a baby deer. The room still tilts a little at the edges, but I've walked drunk before. This isn't so different, except nobody bought me the drinks and I didn't have any fun earning the spins.

I reach the door. Turn the knob. Pull.

And there's Valentino, sitting on the floor right outside like the world's most heavily armed welcome mat.

He's leaning against the wall, one knee up. When the door opens, his head comes up fast. Then he's on his feet before I've finished blinking, that big body unfolding from the floor with a grace that's frankly rude this early in the day.

How long has he been sitting there?

"I need to take a bath," I say.

My voice comes out rough. There's still that metallic taste at the back of my throat, the memory of someone else's mouth too close to mine. I want to be clean so badly it's a physical ache. A need sitting sharp beneath my ribs.

Valentino nods once.

"I'll bring you clothes."

He steps closer. Close enough that I have to tip my chin up to keep his face in view, and that's when I notice the shadows under his eyes.

He hasn't slept.

"Are you okay?" he asks quietly.

I try to answer, but my attention catches on his mouth, and the room shifts for a reason that has nothing to do with whatever drug is still working its way out of my system.

I cannot stop looking at his mouth.

There's a small split at the corner I hadn't noticed, probably from beating three men to death on my behalf. Romance is dead, but apparently my taste in it is alive and thriving in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.