Page 121 of Mario

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I close my eyes, forcing my body to relax, and for the first time in years, I fall asleep with someone in my arms.

Chapter Thirteen

Victoria

I wake slowly.

Not all at once, with the panicked snap of my eyes flying open at 3:00 in the morning, my body hot and aching and Mario Conti’s dream voice still in my ear.

I wake naturally.

Like a person who actually slept.

For a few blissful seconds, I do not move. I do not think. I simply exist in the warm comfort of my bed, my face half-buried in the pillow, snuggled under the blanket, sunlight pressing against my closed eyelids.

Sunlight.

My eyes open.

The room is bright.

Not dawn bright. Not early morning gray. Bright.

I blink at the wall across from my bed, at the strip of light falling across the floor, at the clothes scattered like evidence.

My sweater near the foot of the bed.

One of my decorative pillows on the floor.

The wine-colored lace bra hanging off the edge of the nightstand like it was tossed with abandon.

Everything comes back at once.

Itwastossed with abandon.

Mario.

His mouth.

His hands.

His body over mine.

Inside me.

Finally.Finallyinside me.

His voice in my ear.

Mine.

I go completely still.

Then my entire body reacts.

Heat rolls through me, slow and deep, followed immediately by a soreness that makes me inhale carefully.

Oh.

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