My pulse picked up speed as I turned off the shower and wrapped a bath sheet around my shaky body. I still didn’t know if I should leave as Luc wanted me to do or if I should stay. The only thing I knew was that I couldn’t keep fighting this raging desire. I wanted him. I wanted him regardless of everything he’d said and the fear I’d seen lurking in his eyes. I knew him even if he didn’t think I did. I knew the real him that he hid from the world. And I couldn’t see how wanting that man could ever be bad.
Nerves coiled in my belly. Admitting I wanted him was a start. But where did I go from there? I knew he wanted me just as badly, but I couldn’t force him to take me. I could give up the fight if I was certain he would never act on his desires. What I couldn’t do was walk away if there was a chance for something more.
My stomach twisted, and those nerves hummed inside me as I pulled the wet bandages from my ribs and studied the wound. It was still red and slightly raised but no longer bleeding, and I knew I didn’t need to cover it.
Hanging my towel on the rack, I let the wound air dry as I applied my makeup and fixed my hair. I took extra care with my appearance, making sure my curls fell seductively down my back and that my eyes were sultry and smoky in that way that drove men wild. It was probably childish, but I wanted to awe him with my beauty tonight. And if even that didn’t do the trick, then I wanted him to picture me every night after this one, knowing just what he’d let slip through his fingers.
After brushing my teeth and sliding on one last layer of lipstick, I unzipped the garment bag Bianca had sent over to the hotel. The dress inside was more than I could have hoped for, and a smile tugged at my lips as I pulled it on, careful near my cut so I didn’t irritate the skin.
It was a simple black design that was both classy and elegant. A heart-shaped neckline plunged at my breasts but kept plenty covered. The off-the-shoulder sleeves dipped only to my shoulder blades but made my skin look like porcelain. The mermaid cut hugged my curves in all the right places, accentuating, as Bianca had said, all my assets. Near my knees, the dress flared out again, sweeping behind me in a short black flower applique train over nude fabric that made me look even taller.
Standing in the sensible three-inch black heels I’d brought with me, I stared at my reflection in the full-length mirror. There was no way Luc could think this dress looked slutty. It was regal and sophisticated and made me look like a million bucks. My stomach tightened with a new wave of fear. I just hoped he liked it enough to let go of everything that was holding him back.
Enough stalling.
Drawing in one last breath, I grabbed the small black clutch Bianca had added to the bag, tossed in my lipstick and compact, and turned for the door.
Luc stood at the windows in the living room, his hands tucked into the pockets of his slacks, his tux jacket swept back to reveal his crisp dress shirt and strong, muscular torso as he stared out at the twinkling view of the city and the illuminated dome of St. Peter’s Basilica. My stomach pitched all over again as I took in the breadth of his shoulders, his thick dark hair, and that strong, chiseled profile I could see even with my eyes closed.
He hadn’t seen me yet. His gaze was focused on something in the distance. But even without his eyes on mine, I could feel his worry. I could also feel his deep, desperate yearning and the same damn heat I’d felt the last three days, which was currently resurging through my body to tighten my nipples and send electrical pulses straight into my sex.
“I think we’re going to match tonight,” I said quietly.
Luc’s head swiveled my way, and the moment he saw me, his eyes widened. “Santo Dio.”
A thrill whipped through me, enhancing those electrical pulses. “I don’t have a clue what you just said, but something tells me I can thank Bianca for it.”
He blinked, his gaze slowly lifting from my dress to my face. “Bianca?”
“She sent this over after our meeting this morning.” I lifted my hands and twirled a slow circle so he could see the rest of me. “What do you think?”
His eyes raked my body like a heated caress, and I felt it everywhere. When I faced him again, he whispered, “Penso che tu sei più bella di un angelo.”
My smile widened at both his sexy Italian and the one word I did understand—angel. And the awe I heard in his voice shoved aside every last doubt about what I planned to do next. “I already texted Vincenzo and told him to meet us downstairs. Shall we go?”
He drew in a deep breath, and his shoulders tensed. For a heartbeat, I thought he was going to say no, then he nodded and held out his hand toward the elevator, indicating for me to move in front of him.
My heart threatened to burst from my chest as I walked through the suite and pressed the elevator call button. Luc stopped behind me as we waited for the car, and even though I couldn’t see him, I knew his eyes were on me. I could all but feel his stormy gaze skimming down my hair, running the length of my spine, and grazing the curve of my backside. My breaths picked up speed, and my skin grew hot and tight with anticipation.
The elevator doors opened, and I stepped into the car, turning to face him. He moved in next to me and raked his fingers through his hair in what I knew was a nervous move. My stomach twisted tighter, and heat prickled my skin everywhere as the doors slid closed, locking us into the tight space together. Seconds later, the elevator hummed, and we began to move.
“Natalie.” Luc sucked in another breath. “About earlier, I know you don’t wa—”
I hit the Stop button on the panel before I could chicken out. The car jolted to a halt.
Worry filled Luc’s eyes as he shifted toward me. “What’s wrong? Did you forget something?”
“Yes.” It was now or never. “I forgot this.”
I moved into him, slid my hand around his nape, and lifted to my toes. His eyes widened, but I didn’t let it deter me. I pressed my lips to his exactly as I’d wanted to do since I awoke after that party and found him waiting outside my door.
Chapter Eleven
Luc
My brain completely short-circuited at the first touch. The only thing I recognized was heat—against my lips, across my chest, inside every inch of my skin.
Natalie drew back from my mouth before my brain could process what was happening and lowered to her heels. Cool air brushed my lips, and her hand—her warm and soft hand—slid from my nape to my shoulder and down the sleeve of my jacket, leaving behind a trail of fire that shot straight into my blood.
Her tongue darted out of her sweet little mouth to lick those succulent lips that only seconds ago had been pressed to mine. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, dropping her gaze to my chest. “I thought if I kissed you, maybe…” She swallowed and trembled against me. “I thought it might change something.”
Her strained voice kicked my addled brain into gear, and I immediately registered the loss of her heat. My body responded on instinct, fueled by a week of lust and desire and hunger I could no longer contain.
I captured her hands at the wrists and pushed them to the base of her spine. The clutch fell from her fingers to clatter against the floor of the car. Her gorgeous blue eyes widened with both shock and a hint of fear, but it didn’t stop me.
Grasping both of her hands in one of mine, I lifted the other to hold her jaw still and pushed her back against the wall, pinning her between it and me. She tensed, trapped and unable to move, and the moment her mouth opened on a gasp, I dove in, claiming her lips, her teeth, her tongue. Devouring her as I’d wanted to devour her from the first moment I’d seen her sitting demurely in the Covet lobby back in New York.
Liquid heat seeped into my lips, enflaming the lust scorching every part of my body. I licked into her mouth, kissing her deeper, tasting her panic, tasting her fear, tasting her heat and desire and that wicked attraction I’d been fighting for so long. I wanted to consume it all. Was greedy for everything I could take from her. But more than anything I knew I craved her submission. That darkness inside me thirsted for it lik
e a parched man wandering alone in the desert. And as I kissed her and begged her to bend to my will with my lips, I knew nothing else would satisfy me. Not her kiss or her body or even her pleasure.
Something in her shifted. I felt it in the rush of heat at her wrists where I held her. I heard it when she groaned into my mouth. I felt it as her wicked tongue stroked mine, so warm and wet and erotic, it shot ribbons of electricity straight into my cock that made me instantly hard. But it wasn’t the submission I demanded. As she pressed her succulent breasts against my chest and shifted her mouth beneath mine, I realized it was the fiery defiance she’d showed me time and again. And while that spark of rebelliousness lit me up like a firework and made me abso-fucking-lutely obsessed with her, it also flipped the regulator on my hunger—at least enough so I didn’t shove her skirt up to her hips and fuck her right here against the wall.
I tore my mouth from hers and sucked in a shaky breath. Releasing my hold on her wrists and jaw, I pressed my hands against the wall on both sides of her head, but I didn’t move. My knees were too weak—every muscle in my body was fucking weak from her luscious kiss—and I didn’t trust my legs not to give out.
My chest rose and fell with my deep breaths as I struggled for control. Hers were just as fast and shallow, telling me she was as shaken as me. Thankfully, she kept her gaze fixed on my throat, as if afraid to look at me, and I drew a breath of relief, because if she gazed up at me with longing and desire, I knew I’d buckle beneath the weight of my lust.
“Natalie,” I said in a raspy voice. “You have to leave.”
Her soft fingers landed against my ribs, and Holy mother, her touch felt like flames burning through my dress shirt to lick a path of wildfire all across my skin. “That didn’t feel like you want me to leave,” she said in that breathless, sexy-as-shit voice I’d caused. “That felt like you want me to stay.”
Fuck me, I did want her to stay. I wanted her to stay and taunt me with her cheeky disobedience. I wanted her to challenge me with those gorgeous eyes so I could bend her will to mine. And then I wanted to consume her so completely with my hands and mouth and body that I ruined her for anyone else. So she would always know she belonged to me.
The force of that yearning was so strong, it pushed me away from her, away from what I was moments from taking whether she wanted to give it or not. Swinging my hand out, I hit the button to start the elevator once more. The motor hummed beneath our feet. Still shaking, I swiped her clutch from the floor and handed it to her, then I brushed a hand down my face and forced myself not to look at her or smell her or—fuck—need her.
“Luc—”
“No.” Shit, my self-control was seconds away from shattering, and I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t drag her any deeper into this nightmare that was my life. She might think she was strong enough for it, but she wasn’t. She didn’t have a clue what lurked in the darkness, and I had just enough willpower left to keep her from finding out. “Tomorrow you’re leaving.”
“But—”
“No argument,” I snapped. “You’re going back to Idaho, and that’s the end of the discussion.”
I still had no idea how I’d make her stay there. She was right—if she wanted to leave, I couldn’t stop her. But I couldn’t keep her with me any longer. Not if I wanted her to stay as innocent and pure as she’d been when I’d met her.
Her mouth closed, and from the corner of my vision, I saw the way her spine straightened and her shoulders lifted in another sexy-as-hell show of defiance. But lurking in her eyes I also saw the bite of rejection.
Sonofabitch. I hated how harsh my voice sounded. I hated that because of me, she was hurting. But I needed her to get it. I needed her to be safe, and she never would be with me—not just because of my family and their sick agenda, but because of me.
The things I required from a woman—submission, surrender, obedience—were not things Natalie James was built to give. She was not submissive. She was fiery and independent and defiant and strong-willed, and I liked all those things about her. I didn’t want to corrupt her. I didn’t want to taint what made her special. Which meant I needed to get the hell away from her before I lost the last hold on my sanity and said fuck it to her safety and future and what she wanted and seized every damn thing I craved.
The elevator doors slid open, and I stood still as she stepped off the car. But I couldn’t keep my gaze from darting toward her. Heat and need and a bitter disappointment rocked inside me as I took in the sleek curls hanging down her slim back, as I watched her wicked hips sway as she moved, as my eyes latched on to her luscious ass rounding out the back of that fucking hot dress.
My mouth watered. It took every bit of willpower I had to tear my gaze from her. Swiping at the sweat beading my forehead, I followed her out of the hotel, thankful she wasn’t fighting me on this. Hope surged inside me that she’d finally realized I meant business and wasn’t going to push back—but it was quickly banked by a sharp stab of regret right in the center of my chest at the thought of her leaving tomorrow.
I pushed that feeling down, knowing I was doing the right thing. Vincenzo waited for us at the curb. Somehow, I made it into the car without touching her. I even managed to feign interest in my phone on the drive to the party so I wouldn’t have to talk to her. As we neared the mansion on the outskirts of the city where the party was being held, though, anxiety trickled in to mix with the regret. She was still my responsibility tonight. I had to make sure the events we’d experienced earlier in the day were not repeated.
“You may mingle at the party,” I said in a low voice, staring at my phone, still unable to look at her. “But you’re not to go anywhere without me.”
“Is that an order, Mr. Salvatici?”
My head lifted at the teasing tone of her voice, and I finally glanced across the seat where she sat a foot away from me. A sly smirk pulled at one side of her lush mouth, and the sparkle in her blue eyes was every bit as challenging as it had ever been.
That fire I thought I’d doused came raging back, flashing with a sudden burst of heat that stiffened my cock. I fought against the sudden urge to grab her and drag her onto my lap so I could wipe that smirk from her lips with my own.
“Yes, Ms. James.” It took every ounce of strength I could muster to glare at her so she would know I wasn’t playing. “It is an order. Do not cross me tonight. I’m not in the mood for your insolence.”
The car came to a stop in front of the illuminated Mediterranean villa set at the top of a hill, but Natalie didn’t turn to look. Pursing those gorgeous lips still swollen from my mouth, she lifted her hand in a mock salute. “Yes, sir, Mr. Beast. I wouldn’t dare do anything to frustrate you.”
My gaze tightened on the mischief brewing in her eyes. I saw no disappointment in those deep blue pools that I’d ended our kiss. No anger over knowing I was sending her home in the morning. And I saw absolutely no fear of me or the situation or of what I was trying to protect her from. I saw only trouble.
Vincenzo opened her door. She swung her legs out of the car. Before she could push to her feet, though, I grasped her hand to stop her. “Natalie.”
She glanced back at me. “Yes?”
“I’m serious about tonight. Stay in the same room with me. Wherever I go, you follow.”
“Should I bark when I follow or just stay two paces behind?”
I would have laughed if I weren’t wound tight as firecracker. “Two paces will suffice, like a good assistant. Because that’s what you are. That’s all you are,” I added to drive the point home.
She stared at me for several moments, then softly said, “We both know that’s not all I am.” Her gaze skipped over my features, no longer brimming with mischief but filled with compassion. So much compassion, it would have rocked me to my knees had I been standing. “I’m a lot more to you. You proved it in the elevator. I’ll leave tomorrow if that’s what you really want me to do, Luc. I won’t fight you on it. I just hope…” She hesitated and look
ed down at where I held her, but when her eyes slid back to mine, I saw the dampness in her gaze. “I hope someday someone makes you see yourself the way I see you. I’m just sorry it couldn’t be me.”
She gently pulled her hand from my grip, and I let her because I suddenly couldn’t breathe.
She moved up the steps to the first landing and turned to look back at me. My heart pounded hard as I slowly unfolded myself from the car and buttoned my jacket. But my eyes never left her. Not when I climbed the steps to reach her, or when she smiled at a woman to her left and launched into a conversation I had no desire to join.
“The way I see you…”
My pulse raced, and prickles of heat rushed all across my skin. I didn’t have a fucking clue how she saw me. I only saw how I’d treated her—rudely, as beneath me, then, when I’d finally changed my tactic, indifferently.
“See? Not a devil. My knight in shining armor.”
Her words from earlier slammed into me, jumpstarting my heart until it beat with long, deep, penetrating vibrations I felt everywhere. My gaze shot up to where she already stood at the top of the steep steps that led into the mansion, and a wave of electrical energy surged outward from my heart, charging my cells like a flat-lined patient jolted awake by a defibrillator.
I don’t know how I made it up the steps. I sensed lanterns and candles around me, illuminating my way, but all I could see was the light in Natalie’s gentle eyes guiding me toward her. All I could hear were her words in my head telling me I was not a devil. All I felt was the hard, bruising rhythm of my heart—a heart I feared she had finally shocked to life.
She disappeared into the house before I could reach her, and I was too rattled to try to stop her. The main room was packed with people dressed to the nines, chatting and laughing and mingling. Someone pushed a glass of champagne into my hand. I muttered “Grazie,” and searched the crowd for Natalie but couldn’t see her. Panic slid in to squeeze my heart as I scanned faces.