Becoming Mrs DeLuca novel Chapter 19

19

VALENTINA

Adrian swung his legs out of the bed. His movements were relaxed and unhurried. “I’m going to clean up.”

I couldn’t help it… my eyes followed him. My gaze lingered on the broad expanse of his chest, the way his muscles shifted under taut skin with each movement. My attention slid lower, to the ridges of his stomach, the sharp cut of his hips. He looked like something carved from stone, and for the first time tonight, I felt a small flicker of relief. At least I was attracted to him physically. That had been one of my fears, that I’d feel nothing.

But then my eyes dipped lower still, and heat rushed to my face. Blood streaked his cock, raw evidence of what had just happened. Shame and embarrassment curled together inside me, and I quickly tore my gaze away. I’d been staring far too long anyway.

When I looked down at myself, a mortified sound escaped my throat before I could stop it. My thighs were smeared, sticky and stained with a mix of blood and semen. The sheets beneath me were no better. They were darkened and ruined, the evidence of my first time stark and unavoidable.

Cringing, I slid off the mattress, tugging the nightgown down over my body as if that would somehow make me feel cleaner. My eyes darted to the mess again, and I swallowed hard, feeling humiliated.

“Are you all right?” Adrian’s voice rumbled from behind me.

I turned toward him, grimacing. “Do we really have to show everyone these sheets?”

“That was the point of us sleeping together,” he said evenly. There was no hesitation in his tone.

“Ouch.” The word slipped out before I could stop myself. “So you only slept with me because of the… presentation of the sheets?”

The question weighed heavy on my chest. Now that we were married, I wanted Adrian to want me, not just to endure me. The thought of spending my life with a man who couldn’t bear to touch me seemed unbearable. I had noticed the way he looked, the sharp lines of his body, the controlled strength in his every movement. I liked that about him. His touch was still unfamiliar, yes, and sex had been painful, but it hadn’t been the nightmare my mother and a few of my aunts had warned me about. I could imagine actually enjoying it someday. Especially if his mouth returned between my legs.

Adrian’s eyes lingered on me. His expression was unreadable, as though I were something curious he hadn’t quite figured out. Then his lips curved, and he shook his head with a low chuckle. “I’m a man.”

That was all he said. No elaboration, no explanation, just those three words.

I tilted my head, both intrigued and a little frustrated. “Is that supposed to be an answer?” I asked curiously.

Adrian walked into the bathroom first, and without really thinking, I followed him. He didn’t say a word, but his eyes slid over my bare body, making my skin prickle. I should’ve grabbed a towel, I should’ve covered myself, but after everything, the idea felt silly. He’d already seen me naked. More than that, he’d been inside me. What was there left to hide? And besides, he didn’t look like he minded. In fact, his gaze suggested the opposite.

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Chapter 19

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I quickened my steps when I felt something trickle down the inside of my thigh. Heat rushed into my face, and I nearly darted into the shower, turning on the water before anything embarrassing could happen on the tiles. The warm spray hit me, and I exhaled in relief.

“You can shower first,” Adrian said behind me.

I glanced over my shoulder. “We can shower together,” I blurted before my brain caught up. My cheeks warmed. “I mean, why waste water? There’s enough space for both of us.”

The corners of his mouth curved in the faintest hint of amusement. “Save water, right?”

A second later, he stepped in beside me. The shower wasn’t nearly as spacious as I’d thought. With him there, his height, his broad shoulders, his sheer presence, it felt smaller, almost intimate in a way I hadn’t prepared

for.

I reached for the shower gel, trying to keep my attention on the lather building in my hands instead of the man beside me. But it was impossible to ignore him. Adrian was everywhere. His body radiated heat, his scent clung stubbornly to my skin even as the soap tried to cover it. Every movement I made seemed magnified by the awareness of him standing inches away.

He didn’t speak. He simply washed himself, efficient and calm. Still, from the corner of my eye, I caught the sight of him running his hand down the length of his cock, cleaning away the traces of my blood. A faint swirl of pink colored the water at our feet.

When I worked the soap between my legs, I winced softly. My body was tender and sore from what we’d done. The sting made me flinch, but I pressed my lips together, determined not to make a sound. This was part of it. Marriage. Consummation. And now, this- washing away the evidence.

“It’ll feel better in a couple of days,” Adrian said.

I turned slightly, careful not to brush against him, though the thought made me laugh at myself. A few minutes ago, we’d been closer than two people could possibly be, and now here I was acting like his elbow might burn me. “That long?” I asked, tilting my head. “I thought by tomorrow I’d be fine.”

For a brief moment, his expression changed, like a cloud passing over water. His gray eyes darkened, stormy and filled with something I didn’t recognize but knew wasn’t meant for me. A memory. A ghost. Something from before. What had happened between his wife and him?

“We’ll see,” he said finally, in a quiet voice that left no room for questions. Then he turned the water off.

He stepped out first, reaching for towels with his usual calm efficiency. He handed one to me before pulling another around his own waist. I wrapped mine tight, still dripping, still sore, and watched him as he dried himself off. Broad shoulders, scarred knuckles, an unshakable strength- he was every bit the man people whispered about. And he was my husband.

And yet, despite what we’d just shared, despite his body pressed into mine only minutes ago, he felt distant. Like I could touch him but never quite reach him.

I clutched the towel around me. Physically, we’d already crossed every line. We would share a bed again tonight, and the night after, because I had seen the hunger in his eyes. And, if I was honest, because part of me wanted to feel it again too. But emotionally… emotionally he was locked away, sealed behind walls I couldn’t see over.

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Chapter 19

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Getting close to Adrian, the man beneath the title of Underboss, beneath the steel exterior, was going to be far more difficult than opening my legs for him.

Adrian moved to the sink and began brushing his teeth. The sound was ordinary. The motion was simple, but watching him felt strangely intimate… more intimate than lying beneath him naked minutes earlier. His face was unreadable, all hard lines and control, as if the man I’d glimpsed briefly during sex had already vanished behind his walls again.

I slipped out of the bathroom, giving him space. My own evening routine was done, and though my hair was damp at the ends, I’d managed to keep most of it dry in the shower. I didn’t want to stand in front of him with a hairdryer buzzing between us; even the thought felt too personal, too vulnerable. How could brushing teeth and drying hair feel more exposing than sharing a bed?

In the quiet of the bedroom, I tugged the towel free and dropped it onto the bench. My nightgown lay in a crumpled heap on the floor, so I picked it up and slid it over my head.

The bed waited. I tried to keep my gaze away from the center of the sheet, but of course my eyes went straight to the dark stain anyway. No matter how much I told myself to ignore it, it was all I could see. Proof. Tradition. Evidence. Shame. My cheeks burned even though no one was there to witness me staring at it.

With a small breath, I lifted the covers and slipped underneath, pulling them up to my chin as though they could protect me from the weight of the day or from the man who would join me in this bed soon enough.

I’d been exhausted before. But now, lying beneath the heavy covers, sleep felt far away. My body still buzzed, wound tight from adrenaline and nerves.

Chapter 20