My mother was just as elegant and cultured as she’d always been—her dark hair cut into a sleek bob, her slim body covered in a crisp blue skirt and matching jacket from some designer I couldn’t care less about. At fifty-seven, her skin showed very little age, but it was her pale, almost translucent blue eyes that worried me. Eyes that locked on me like a hawk targeting its prey the moment I stepped through the door.
Natalie turned toward me when she realized I’d stopped, her brow drawing together in confusion at what I knew was my icy expression. “Luc? Is everything all right?”
I couldn’t answer her. All I could do was stare at my mother as she crossed the inlaid floor straight for us. My adrenaline surged. At my side, my hand curled into a fist born of helplessness.
“Go upstairs,” I said in a low voice, not looking toward Natalie.
“But I don’t—”
“Don’t back talk me right now,” I snapped. “It’s not a question, it’s an order.”
Her mouth fell open in shock. Her blue eyes widened as she stared up at me with disbelief and horror at the way I was talking to her.
I didn’t care. This was one of those moments when she had to listen to me. I’d been an idiot to confess to her she had any kind of power over me. The only way I was going to keep her safe was to keep her in fucking line. I knew that now—too damn late.
My mother drew closer, the click of her heels across the gleaming floor like cannon fire in my ears.
“Go now,” I hissed from between clenched teeth, not wanting Natalie anywhere near this woman.
Natalie recoiled as if I’d slapped her, and her face flushed red with embarrassment and mortification. She twisted away from me.
“Luciano?” My mother’s voice stopped Natalie’s movement and brought Natalie’s head around.
Silently, I cursed my stupidity for bringing her to Italy, for touching her when I knew I should have left her alone, for putting both of us in this fucking position.
“There you are,” my mother said in crisp English. “I’ve been waiting here for over an hour.” She turned her calculating gaze toward Natalie, and smiled in what I knew was a condescending way. “So this is the girl who’s been monopolizing your time and keeping you from your duties.” My mother held out her gloved hand. “I’m Francesca Salvatici, Luciano’s mother.”
“Uh.” Natalie shook my mother’s hand. “I’m Natalie James. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.” My mother’s patronizing smile widened, curling her red-painted lips until she looked like the Joker. I had no doubt she knew exactly who Natalie was. “It’s always nice to meet Luciano’s friends. He rarely comes home. I was hurt to learn my firstborn son was in country from the news.” My mother’s shrewd gaze darted toward me. “You told your father you wouldn’t be attending Rome’s fashion week.”
I clenched my jaw to keep my temper in check and to keep from making a scene. “Ms. James is my assistant. And she’s going up to her room now, aren’t you, Ms. James?”
From the corner of my eye, I saw the way Natalie’s spine stiffened and her face flushed all over again. Casting my mother a tight smile, she said, “Yes, I-I was. It was nice to meet you Mrs.—”
“Oh, Luciano.” My mother waved her gloved hand at me and frowned. “Stop ordering the poor girl around like Giovanni does the little tartlets who swoon over him.” My mother turned her devious eyes on Natalie. “Don’t let him frighten you, my dear. He’s all bark and no bite. Now, you’re dating my son, aren’t you? I might be old, but I’m not blind.”
“Well, I—” Natalie’s worried gaze darted to me, then away. “I suppose you c—”
“Suppose nothing.” My mother’s eyes filled with self-satisfaction, and she pinned me with a hard look. “Your father expects you to come home for a visit while you’re in country. And to bring your assistant with you to meet the family.”
Terror clawed at my throat. Terror and a blinding rage that colored everything red.
My mother saw it and smiled acerbically. Without looking away from me, she said, “Natalie, dear, would you be so kind as to give us a moment alone?”
“Um, sure.” Natalie cast me another worried glance, but I couldn’t meet her eyes. All I could do was stare at the woman who’d given me life, yet had let my father take it away the moment I’d drawn air.
I waited until Natalie moved to a couch across the lobby, out of earshot, before I opened my mouth. “I’m not taking her home.”
“Yes, you will,” my mother tossed back. “You’ll bring her home tomorrow, and you’ll do so without incident. The sordid pictures of you carting her out of the Cipriani fashion show are in all the tabloids. Clearly this young woman means something to you. The family has a vested interest in any woman you choose to get close to.”
My pulse was a whir in my ears. “She means nothing to me,” I lied. “She’s just a dumb American I’m using while I’m here. I’ll dump her as soon as I get back to New York.”
“Oh, Luciano.” My mother’s eyes filled with pity as she stepped close and patted my cheek with her gloved hand. “You’ve always been too softhearted. It’s your greatest weakness. You also live in a web of denial. Your destiny will be upon you before you know it. The sooner you accept it, the better off we’ll all be.”
With a sigh, she dropped her hand and looked past me. “Natalie, dear. Come back here, please.”
My whole body grew tight and hot with an anger I only barely held back. At my side, I sensed Natalie step near but I couldn’t turn to look at her.
“Luciano is going to bring you to the villa tomorrow. Have you ever been to Tuscany?”
“No.” Natalie glanced up at me—at my hard jaw and enraged eyes—then back at my mother. “Never.”
“Wonderful. You’re in for a treat.” She looked back at me. “Luciano? Give your mother a kiss. My driver is waiting.”
My muscles vibrated with restrained rage, but I leaned down and kissed my mother’s cheek like the good boy she thought I was.
She smiled sweetly, then looked at Natalie. “I’ll see you both tomorrow.”
Her heels clicked across the floor, echoing like a doomed drumbeat at my back. Beside me, Natalie said, “Are you all right?”
I moved straight for the elevator.
No, I wasn’t all right. I was as far from all right as a person could get. My blood churned with hate and disgust until it was a frenzy in my veins, growing hotter by the second, threatening to erupt in a firestorm of fury. I didn’t want to unleash it in public. I didn’t want to unleash it on Natalie. I feared it was already too late to stop it from happening.
Because everything I’d thought was perfect was crumbling around me. I’d stupidly convinced myself bringing Natalie to Italy would keep her safe, but now I knew the truth.
My inability to resist a woman I never should have touched had made her a target. In my quest to do the right thing, I’d fucked my life up good.
And now, because there was no way for Natalie to escape the clutches of my horrific family, I’d fucked hers to hell as well.
6
Natalie
Luc wouldn’t talk to me. He wouldn’t even look at me. I knew that was a bad sign.
The scene in the lobby replayed in my mind as we rode the elevator up to our room in silence. My stomach twisted at the look I’d seen in his eyes as soon as he’d spotted his mother.
The flirty, tender man I’d spent the day with was gone. In his place was one who looked as if he could tear walls down with his bare hands.
A ribbon of fear threaded through me, but I reminded myself he was still the same man who’d saved me from that party in New York. The same man who’d rescued me from that right-wing fanatic in Rome. The same man who’d touched my heart in a mere matter of days with his kindness and strength and unrelenting passion.
The elevator doors opened with a ping. Luc stalked out of the car, moved down the hallway, and unlocked our door. It flung hard against the wall with a clack. Stoma
ch tight, I followed him into the suite and quietly closed the door at my back.
I didn’t know what exactly was wrong. All he’d told me was that he didn’t get along with his father. I could see how that might not make him want to go home, but I sensed there was something more he wasn’t telling me, something that was eating away at him now like a disease. The only thing I wanted was to rescue him from his torment the way he’d rescued me time and again.
“Luc,” I said softly from the entry hall, watching him move through the living room, shoulders tight, back rigid, every muscle in his body coiled and flexed beneath the khakis and white button-down shirt he wore. “Luc, stop and talk to me.”
He didn’t turn, but his feet did come to a halt. “Go in the bedroom and lock the door.”
My heart picked up speed at his icy tone, one that was even more menacing than when he’d told me to stay away from David Bonello.
I sensed he was teetering on the edge of that control that ruled him, just as I sensed the safest thing for me to do would be to follow his order, but I couldn’t. Not because I wanted to defy him, but because he needed me right now. He needed someone on his side. He needed someone to love him.
And I did.
My heart contracted as I stared at his tense back. I loved all of him. I loved his gentle side, I loved his playful side, I even loved the darkness buried inside him because it was part of what made him him. After this last week, after the things he’d made me feel, I could no sooner turn away from him than I could turn away from myself.
My pulse raced like wildfire as I stepped up behind him, and I swallowed hard because I knew he was going to be upset with me for not doing what he wanted, but I didn’t care. This mattered. He mattered.
“No,” I said softly. “Luc, tell me what happened with your mother that upset you so.”
“Porca troia,” he growled, rounding on me. I sucked in a sharp breath at the fury darkening his features and turning his gray eyes to raging tempests. “I don’t have to tell you anything. You’re nothing but a lowly assistant. Get your ass in that damn bedroom right now and lock the fucking door.”
My skin prickled at his words, but I recognized he was still trying to keep me safe—from what, though, I wasn’t sure. “No, I’m not leaving you like this. Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on.” I reached for his hand. “I want to help.”
He wrenched his arm out of my reach. “You can’t help me. You’re the goddamn problem. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be in this fucking mess at all.”
My stomach caved in. I told myself he didn’t mean it—he was upset. But a tiny part of me couldn’t help hear the truth in those words. I took a shaky step toward him. “Luc—”
“Dio dannato. I told you to get the hell away from me, Natalie.” He yanked a lamp free from the table at his side and hurled it toward the far wall.
I gasped and jerked as it shattered into pieces and clattered to the floor.
“Get in that room and lock the damn door before I fucking hurt you!”
My heartbeat whirred in my ears as I stared at him, wide-eyed from both shock and horror. Every instinct inside me said to run, that he’d already passed the point of no return, but my heart wouldn’t let me. He was in pain. It was coming out as anger, but I knew deep down it was pain, and I couldn’t—I wouldn’t—let him suffer through it alone.
“No,” I said again. “I’m not leaving you. You need me.”
“I don’t need you,” he sneered. “I needed a body to fuck and use, and you were willing.”
His words hit me hard. A swift punch to the gut. But I stood my ground and shook my head. “That’s not true.”
“It is true.” He was on top of me in seconds, staring down at me with malice and rage. “I saw the way you reacted to that orgy in New York. Why else do you think I targeted you?” He laughed, a menacing sound that made the hair on my nape stand straight. “I went after you because I knew you were an easy lay. I knew you’d let me do whatever deranged thing I wanted to do to you. And I was fucking right.”
My face flamed with anger and humiliation, but I knew in my heart he didn’t mean what he was saying.
“That’s not true,” I said in a voice that shook even though I tried to keep it steady. “You’re upset right now, and you’re taking it out on me, but I don’t believe you. I know the real you, and this isn’t it.”
His hands clamped around my upper arms, and he shoved me back against the wall. I gasped at both his tight grip and the way he held me pinned to the unforgiving stucco.
“You think you know the real me? This is the real me. You called me a fucking beast, remember? I am a beast. I’m brutal and I’m savage, and I don’t give a damn what you think about me. You, on the other hand, you’re just a stupid girl who doesn’t know what she’s gotten herself into. Stupid girls who don’t do what they’re told get used like fuck toys in my world. Is that what you want?” His grip tightened. “Is it?”
Pain ricocheted through my arms, bringing tears to my eyes. My heart pounded so hard, I knew he had to hear it. He was waiting for me to back down, waiting for me to crumble. And I wanted to. I wanted to scream at him to let me go so I could run. But something inside me knew if I did, everything between us would shatter like that lamp. And I didn’t want that. I wanted him. I wanted us.
A knot formed in my throat when I realized how I could get through to him. I swallowed hard as I stared into his wild eyes and the idea spun in my head.
He’d told me on the dock that I held the power in this relationship. He’d said when I trusted him, I could make him absolutely weak. Submission was about trust, wasn’t it? About trusting another person not only with your body, but with your heart and mind as well?
My pulse beat even faster, and my palms grew sweaty. I’d learned to be fiercely independent from a young age. I’d shut people out and built walls around my heart so I couldn’t be hurt. I’d never let anyone—especially a man—get too close because I knew loving someone required a form of surrender I wasn’t willing to give.
But with Luc… Letting him in, trusting him, loving him didn’t make me feel any less of a woman. It didn’t shatter who I was inside. It made me strong. It made me powerful. It made me feel whole… probably for the first time in my entire damn life.
“I want you,” I whispered, lifting my eyes to his before I could change my mind. “I want to give you whatever you need. And if that’s me, then yes. I want you to use me in any and every way you want.”
Something shifted in his eyes, and he released my arms as if they’d burned him. I saw the disbelief churning in his stormy gaze. I saw the doubt. I knew this was the moment I either went all-in with this man who’d changed my entire world in a mere matter of days, or the moment I left him forever.
My heart felt as if it might fly right out of my chest, but I grasped the hem of my yellow sundress and tugged it up my body and over my head. It fell to the floor at my side, but I didn’t look at it. I didn’t look at him. My whole body trembled as I dropped to my knees in front of him and twisted my hands behind my back, keeping my gaze on his shoes.
Long minutes passed where the only sound I heard was my roaring pulse and his heavy breaths above me. I wanted to look up. I was terrified of what I’d see if I looked up.
Tears burned the backs of my eyes, and I squeezed my eyelids tighter as I knelt in front of him in nothing but my lacy white bra and thong. My heart and soul were completely laid bare for him to either cherish or demolish, and I was deathly afraid of which he would choose to do, but I knew I was making the right choice.
I needed this. I needed it probably more than he did. I needed to know if I could truly trust another person with everything I was or if love was only a myth.
“Natalie,” he said in a harsh voice. “Look up at me.”
I blinked damp lashes and gathered my courage. Slowly, I lifted my gaze to his.
His eyes were still rough swirling storms, but they were no longer enraged. They were tinge
d with something else. With an emotion that seemed to almost…overwhelm him.
“Ho un debole per te.” His hand slid into my hair, and he dropped to his knees in front of me. “Vieni qui e baciami.”
I had no idea what he said, but when he pulled me to him and kissed me, I didn’t care.
His tongue plunged into my mouth, claiming me with a hunger I hadn’t known was in him. It wasn’t brutal, it wasn’t savage as he’d threatened. It was fervent and possessive, sucking up all the air around me, consuming me from the outside in. All I could do was moan. All my heart could do was beat faster. All my body could do was surrender fully to every one of his demands.
I kissed him back, tangling my tongue with his as he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me onto his lap. My legs spread on instinct, and I straddled his hips as he sat back on his heels and pulled me close. The hard line of his erection rubbed against my clit. My hands landed on his shoulders. He kissed me deeper, holding me so close, I didn’t know where he began and I ended.
My head grew light. His mouth made me weak. His hands streaking over my body caused me to tremble. And when he rocked up against me, my sex grew tight and wet and achy for the release only he could give me.
His big hands captured my face, and he drew back from my mouth, staring at me with wonder and—my heart squeezed so tight when I recognized the look in his eyes—tenderness. “You wreck me. I am completely and greedily addicted to you. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, sweet Natalie. Forgive me.”
All the worry, all the fear and heartache escaped me. Tears filled my eyes as I leaned forward and kissed him.
He groaned into my mouth, wrapped his arms around my waist, and lifted me off the floor. I felt my body turning, felt him carrying me, but I didn’t break the kiss to see where we were going. I just wanted him. I just wanted us. I just wanted this.
“Dio,” he whispered against my lips. “I want to fuck you into a million pieces and put you back together one kiss at a time.”
The Fall (House of Sin Book 2) Page 5
