“This place was built back in the 1920s by a Russian industrialist,” Gio told me as we walked. “He patterned the fountains on the property after some in St. Petersburg.”
“He liked marble statues, I see.” I’d noticed there were all kinds on the property—mermaids, Greek gods, maidens holding dripping jugs of water. Naked statues seemed to be a theme in this place.
“Yeah, you could say that. The place covers almost ten acres, it has thirty bathrooms, fifteen bedrooms, four pools, three tennis courts, a full gym, even a lazy river in the lowest level inside.”
“Well,” I looked up at him, feeling more relaxed outside where I could breathe, “who doesn’t like a lazy river?”
We moved down another set of marble stairs that overlooked one of the three tennis courts he’d mentioned. A stage was set up on one end of the court, and dozens more people in masks filled the space, dancing to jazz music that floated on the breeze.
“Do you feel like dancing?” Gio asked.
I wasn’t sure what I felt like. I just knew I felt totally out of place. And I didn’t like feeling that way. I liked control. Specifically, I liked being in control. It was safer that way. I didn’t belong in this world, not even a little.
Maybe Luciano Salvatici was on to something.
“I-I don’t know,” I managed, not wanting to think about the Beast.
Gio took my hand again, and I let him because it—at least—seemed familiar. “Let’s get another drink, and I’ll show you the pool and the dock.”
Multiple bars were set up all over the property. I waited while Gio ordered us another drink and glanced out over the bodies moving to the music.
“Here you go.” Gio handed me my drink and took my hand once more. “The pool is really something.”
I sipped my mimosa and wrinkled my nose as he led me down yet another set of marble stairs. This one tasted slightly salty, almost as if the bartender had accidentally dropped margarita salt into my glass. I drank it anyway because I was still feeling unsteady and knew the alcohol would calm me. But I vowed this would be my last drink for the night. I didn’t want to get wasted and do something stupid, especially here, where I was already a major outcast.
“Whoa,” I muttered as we moved down the last set of stairs to the pool deck. “You weren’t kidding when you said it was really something.”
It was one of the biggest pools I’d ever seen, lit up in turquoise by underwater lights with an island in the middle and another naked statue spewing water up into the air. Beyond the pool, a dock stretched out over the dark sound, and I could easily imagine a giant yacht parked at the pier.
The pool was empty tonight, but there were a few people on the chaise lounges around the deck. Some sitting and chatting, one couple stretched out and kissing with seemingly no care that anyone could see them. Out on the dock, I could make out a few more people, but this part of the grounds was definitely less populated than anywhere else we’d been.
“It’s really stunning,” I said, averting my gaze from the couple making out as I took another sip.
“It is. Do you want to check out the dock?”
I eyed the long line of boards that stretched out over the dark water and tried to ignore the sudden roll my stomach took. “I don’t think so. I’m not really a fan of water. Unless it’s in a glass.”
He chuckled.
Silence stretched between us. Whispers and the sounds of kissing drifted our way from the couple on the chaise. Face heating, I turned toward Gio and tried not to notice. “So, um, how often do they hold parties like this?”
“Whenever the mood strikes.” He nodded at my glass. “How’s the drink?”
I looked down to discover I’d already sucked back three-fourths of it. The alcohol was definitely working. My anxiety had ebbed, and warmth seeped through my veins. “Good. Though I definitely think I should have some water after this.”
“Good idea.” He steered me back toward the steps. “Let’s go find you some, then I’ll show you the rest of the house.”
We passed back through the courtyard and into the house. I swapped out my empty glass for a bottle of water and took a long sip. Gio showed me the rest of the main level, then led me downstairs and showed me the game rooms, two-lane bowling alley, the lazy river, and theater room. My skin grew warm, and I knew it was from the heat of the indoor pool. We moved back upstairs and looked around the top level.
“Hey,” Gio said in the hallway after he’d shown me another bedroom suite even more elaborate than the last. “Are you okay? You look a little flushed.”
I wasn’t sure. I was suddenly very light-headed and tingly. Everywhere. I pressed a hand against my brow above my eye mask. “I think I need some air.”
He took my hand and led me toward the stairs. “Come on.”
The palm of his hand was warm against mine and soft. Very soft. All my attention seemed to zoom in on that one spot where we touched.
We wove around people on the stairs and in the massive entry of the house. The air felt stifling, and claustrophobia pushed against me. I instinctively looked for the Phantom, but the faces and masks blurred around me, and I swayed. Gio wrapped an arm around my waist and helped me out the massive front door. When we finally stepped out into the fresh night air, I drew a deep breath that helped a little as I tried to keep the grounds from spinning.
A man lingering outside with a cigarette spoke to Gio in Italian. Gio laughed and said something to the man I didn’t understand, then took my hand and drew me away from the valet and cars still unloading partygoers. I wasn’t sure where he was taking me, but seconds later, we were alone on a dimly lit path that led away from the house into the trees.
“What was that about?” I asked. Tall trees towered above us. The sounds of the party faded in the air to my left. Something in the back of my head warned I should be cautious about where he was leading me, but the gentle breeze felt so good and his hand so soft, I couldn’t seem to pull away from his touch.
“Just someone who recognized me. Are you feeling better?”
“Yes. Much better.” My body felt light and relaxed out here, and away from the swarm of people, I could breathe easier. “I think it was just too many people inside.”
“Yes. Definitely too many people.” He stopped on the path and turned to face me. One arm slid around my lower back and pulled me up against him.
I sucked in a surprised breath and looked up at his face cast in shadows beneath the trees.
“You look scared, bella.”
“I-I’m not scared,” I lied. My gaze dropped from his eyes behind the sinful mask to his lips. His suddenly very tempting lips.
A rush of heat gathered in my breasts and shot straight between my legs, surprising me. Gio was definitely an attractive man, but I wasn’t interested in him. Not once in the last few days had I been aroused with him. Now, though, staring at his plump lips so close to mine, my body felt as if it were coming to life, and all I could think about was pressing my mouth to his to find out if he tasted as good as he suddenly looked.
Those luscious lips slowly curled in a wicked, knowing smile, and his gaze dropped to my mouth. “Your heart is racing. I can feel it. I can also feel your nipples hardening against my chest as you tremble.”
My face heated in the darkness, and my heart beat even faster. I held my breath and waited as he leaned toward me, unsure if I wanted him to kiss me or not. But his lips never met mine. Instead, his cheek grazed my temple then his mouth was at my ear, whispering, “Trembling is good. Very good. Before this night is over, I plan to feel you tremble all over.”
He drew back and smiled that devilish grin beneath his mask, then he released his hold on my waist and slid his hand down my arm until his fingers laced with mine. “Come, bella.”
Come… The word pounded in my brain in time with my pulse. It was a demand, an order, a command I couldn’t seem get out of my head. Why couldn’t I get it out of my head? Why did it sound so blatantly sexual?
&
nbsp; My skin felt sticky, my dress clinging to my flesh in a way that made me want to rip it off and run naked through the trees. Luckily, another house appeared before I gave in to the urge. This one was designed in the same European style as the main house, but on a smaller scale.
“What is this?” I asked as he pulled me up the steps toward the heavy wood front door.
“More of the party.”
He knocked several times. Muffled music drifted from inside. Seconds later, a burly man in a suit opened the door and gave Gio and me the once over. He spoke in Italian—did everyone here speak Italian?—and waited while Gio answered. Seconds later, he stepped back to let us enter.
Music pounded out of speakers somewhere in the house, a steady thumping beat that infused my body with excitement. We moved through the marble entry and into a large, dark living room. A strobe light pulsed over the bodies packed together, dancing. But unlike the couples we’d seen down on the tennis court, these weren’t innocently swaying. These were grinding together, hands streaking over bare flesh and dwindling clothing, kissing hungrily, tongues flicking in the blinking lights. Some bodies grouped in twos and threes and even foursomes as they mimicked sex acts in every form.
My skin tingled even more, and my breaths came fast and shallow as I watched the undulating bodies move to the beat. Gio stepped up behind me, and his heat enveloped me like a blanket as I stood at the threshold of the room. His fingertips traced the line of my spine and hovered just over my backside, sending tingles all across my flesh.
“Do you see something you like, bella?” His hot breath fanned my ear, and a shiver rushed over my skin. I stood still, trying to think, trying to make myself move, trying to find words to speak, but the blood pounding in my veins and gathering in the tips of my breasts was all I could focus on.
“I see lots I like,” he breathed against my other ear, sending another shiver down my back.
Two women, a blonde in a blue butterfly mask and a redhead in a cheetah mask, moved up on my left and grasped Gio by the arm. Surprised, I watched as they pulled him away from me. He grinned back with an impish curve of his lips but didn’t fight them. I stood both confused and mesmerized as the women tugged him into the middle of the room and began to dance—one at his front, her hands sliding up and down his chest while she ground her hips against his, the other rocking her pelvis into his ass as she scratched her manicured nails down his spine.
I wasn’t sure what I was seeing. Blinking several times, I tried to force my eyes away, but I was unable to do even that. The blonde tugged Gio’s shirt free from his slacks and lifted her mouth to his. In the pulsing light, I watched their lips fuse, both shocked and aroused by the scene unfolding in front of me. The redhead at his back reached around to stroke him through his pants, her body continuing to rock and undulate against his ass while he kissed the blonde. Several seconds passed, then Gio broke away from the blonde’s lips and turned to close his mouth over the redhead’s. But not before he sent me another lustful look that shot heat straight to my center.
Their bodies rocked and groped and fondled in the flickering light. Around them, I noticed others were doing the same, but my gaze kept straying back to Gio and the two women, and even though I told myself I shouldn’t be there, that I wasn’t supposed to be seeing this, I couldn’t make myself leave.
My skin was on fire. A hot ball of need gathered low in my belly and slinked between my legs. Gio’s gaze locked on mine as he kissed the redhead, and I saw the same fire in his eyes that I felt. He broke the kiss and smiled at me. The blonde took his hand and drew him toward the stairs. My stomach tightened with both fear and excitement as I watched him lick his lips and nod for me to follow.
I didn’t want to follow. I didn’t even want to be here. But my blood was like lava, my skin sizzling, and every time I watched those women skim their fingertips over Gio, I felt as if they were touching me. Sparks of desire shot straight to my core with an insistent burn that threatened to consume me.
My feet moved as if controlled by some unseen force. I felt as if I were outside my body, watching from a distance as I followed the trio up the stairs. I had no idea where they were headed. My chest rose and fell with my shallow breaths. The women drew Gio into a dark corridor and the three disappeared through an open door. Throat thick, I floated after them. But when I reached the door and looked into the room, I knew I wasn’t floating. I knew because the earth suddenly solidified beneath my feet. As firmly as the doorjamb at my side that I grasped to keep from falling over.
Dimly, I registered that the walls were red—blood red—and lit by sconces. Chairs were lined up around the periphery of the room. A few people were seated, their faces flushed, their hands roving over each other as they watched the show, but my eyes were locked on the middle of the room. On the bodies naked and tangled together on the mattresses laid out on the floor. On the hands touching, lips sucking, and naked bodies thrusting against each other in a sea of groans and grunts and screams.
My face flamed. My limbs grew heavy and loose. Blood thumped in my veins in time with the heavy beat of the music and rushed into my belly and lower, making my stomach quiver, making my thighs tremble, making my sex clench with a need I didn’t know I had.
The blonde tore her mouth from Gio’s, reached for the straps of her black dress, and shoved the garment to the floor, leaving her dressed in nothing but a black lace bra and panty set. A leopard-print tattoo ran up her side, from her outer thigh all the way to the underside of her breast. She dropped to her knees in front of Gio while the redhead at his back made quick work of the buttons on his shirt and jerked it from his chest. I watched with wide eyes while the blonde tore his slacks open and swallowed his erection.
Gio groaned and dropped his head back against the redhead’s shoulder. At some point, she’d shed her dress too and now wore nothing, not even a bra. Nothing but her own leopard-print tattoo that ran across her low back and dipped between her butt cheeks like a thong. I watched her lips press to Gio’s throat and her breasts to his back while she reached around to tweak his nipples and the blonde bobbed up and down on his cock.
My heart pounded as I stood locked in place, barely breathing while I watched the trio feet from me. Everything inside me ached for physical contact. When Gio drew the redhead to his side and squeezed her bare breast, my own breasts grew heavy, my nipples stiffening as if he were touching me. And when he kissed her, tangling his tongue with hers until she groaned, fire exploded inside me, igniting a craving that pushed me forward.
A hand closed over my forearm before I took two steps into the room. Sparks of electricity shot outward from the spot, bringing my attention around. In a daze, I recognized that the man who’d stopped me was tall, his hair dark, and the upper half of his face was covered by a mask that was black on one side and antique white cracked porcelain on the other.
The Phantom. The one who’d watched me earlier. The one who’d made my whole body shiver. The one who was now drawing me toward him like a moth to a flame.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I knew I should be scared. He was a stranger. I knew nothing about him. But the thoughts were flitting, racing away before I could grasp them. All I could focus on was how hot my skin felt. How insistent the ache was between my legs. How plump and pink and tempting his lips looked beneath that mysterious half mask.
The same unseen power that had pushed me up the stairs possessed me, infused me with confidence, with desire, with a blinding, burning need I couldn’t control. I stepped into him and lifted my mouth to his, groaning the second our lips met. Hard male muscles brushed my tingling breasts. Soft masculine flesh pressed against my lips. But it was the swift intake of his breath that ignited the desire inside me like a spark combusting into flame.
That and the way he opened to my kiss and drew me into his mouth like a pit viper luring its prey out of the safety of its shelter and into the dangers of the wild.
Chapter Five
Luc
Giov
anni had drugged her.
I wasn’t sure with what, but I’d suspected as much as I’d watched my brother lead Natalie back through the main house and out the front door. The flush to her skin, her dilated eyes behind the purple mask, the way she’d clung to Giovanni’s arm as they’d strode through the entryway when only thirty minutes before she’d flinched at his touch… Those were all classic signs Giovanni Salvatici was up to his old shit.
I’d followed them out to the “playhouse” just to be sure. Had watched her watching Giovanni with those women downstairs. Suspected her inhibitions had been significantly lowered when she hadn’t seemed appalled by what Giovanni was doing right in front of her. But I knew it now by the way she thrust her tongue into my mouth and rubbed her sinful body against mine for all to see.
She didn’t know who I was. I’d seen no recognition in her glazed eyes before she’d lunged for my mouth. If I hadn’t grabbed her, I had no doubt she’d already be naked on her knees in that room with my brother.
Closing my arms around her lower back, I drew her into the hall with me while I let her kiss me, not wanting to give her any reason to rejoin my licentious brother. Her tongue slid over mine with long, languid strokes as I maneuvered her around the corner and away from the sights and sounds of the orgy. She answered by groaning into my mouth, sliding her fingers up into my hair, and kissing me harder.
A sizzle of heat rushed through my veins. She was warm and soft and curvy in my arms, and she tasted faintly of citrus and sin—a sin I knew better than to get lost in. But as her plump breasts grazed my chest and her sweet thighs brushed mine as we moved, resisting her advances became harder to do.
Sparks of electricity shot into my belly and slinked south, awakening my dick. My back hit the wall at the end of the corridor, and she fell hard against me, crushing her feminine curves and sultry heat to me from chest to knee. And when she groaned once more against my lips, tangled her tongue with mine and rocked her pelvis into my growing erection, all the blood in my body pounded straight into my groin, stiffening my cock to painful proportions.