by Tara Pammi
When he rubbed the pad of his thumb over the plump pink tip he discovered, she sank her fingers into his hair and tugged.
When he licked the knotted tip begging for his caress, she ground her belly against his erection. When he swirled his tongue over and over around the pink peak, she let loose a string of curses that were music to his ears.
When he took her nipple into his mouth and caressed it with press of his tongue, when he closed his mouth around the peak and pulled, she came away from the wall, a litany of cries falling from her lips.
For every small action of his, she reacted like the sky lighting up, like thunder that shook the ground. With explosive passion. With unbound enthusiasm. When he moved his hand from her rounded bottom that filled his hand oh-so-perfectly to the line of her hip and tugged at the string of her thong, she stilled.
“Massimo?” she whispered, a wealth of desire and a flicker of doubt in it.
He covered the mound of her sex with his palm, the raspy brush of hair, the warmth of her stinging him like electric current. Dios mio, he didn’t remember a time when he’d been more turned on. He lifted his head and kissed her. Softly, this time, slowly, letting their mouths dance to the tune their bodies demanded, willing her to trust him. In and out, he plunged his tongue, in a rhythm his erection desperately needed. “You’re so responsive, cara mia. I want to kiss, lick and touch you everywhere.”
Eyes so wide that he could drown in them filled with sudden shyness. “Here? Shouldn’t we go home?”
He smiled, the sight of her swollen lips, lipstick all smudged, the dilated pupils, her hair in a wild disarray, her pulse fluttering—a visual feast he’d never be able to forget.
A sight that made every possessive instinct in him flare into life. The thought of any other man seeing her like this, knowing this intimacy with Natalie, being the recipient of her smiles and her joy and her brilliant mind... Cristo, where was this possessive instinct coming from? Why was he muddying sex with emotion?
“Massimo?” she said, prodding him softly. Kissing him, dueling her tongue with his, just as he’d taught her mere minutes ago.
“Here, Natalie,” he said, resolve filling his very blood. She would be his, only his. Somehow, he’d make it happen. “I can’t f—” He tempered his words, now, today.
Another day, another night, when he showed her how it could be between them, when she reveled in this heat between them, when she realized she couldn’t live without him inside her, again and again, when she understood the power she could have over him and he over her, then he wouldn’t curb his language. Then he would use the filthiest words he wanted and take her every which way.
But for now, this trust she gave him that was so hard for her to do was a gift. A gift he intended to prize above all else.
“I can’t be inside you here. Not without protection.” She colored so innocently that he took her bruised mouth again in a rough kiss. “But I’m desperate to see you come, to hear the sounds you make when you do. When we walk out of here, and the boring monotony of that party makes me want to pluck my eyes out, the sounds and scent of your orgasm will be my strength to get to the other side.”
She smiled, desire lighting up her eyes into a thousand colorful beams. A little naughty. A lot willing. Her hands trembled as she straightened his jacket. “Beneath all that ambition, you’re a wicked man.”
She was laughing when he took her mouth again in a kiss—a sound that seemed to burrow into his veins, and it was the most joyous, arousing thing Massimo had ever heard in his life.
Her mouth matched his this time, hungrily licking and nipping, teeth banging, tongues tangling. As if he and his kisses and caresses weren’t just to meet the needs of her body but to fill her soul, as well. As if it were a challenge she was laying down at him, to meet her fully.
He ravaged her mouth roughly all the while pulling her up, until his hand lodged under her thigh, tugging her leg up, opening her center up for him, until his cock was pressed into the hot V between her thighs.
Goaded by instinct, he rocked his hips into the welcoming groove. Pleasure burst over his skin like a million little charges had burst into life. Their mingled groans filled the air with an erotic thrum.
Cristo, he wanted to be inside her now. Without protection. Without caution. Need was like a thousand needles under his skin, stealing away rationality, urging him toward making promises to her. Promises that would chain her to him.
Promises that would have given him nightmares a mere month ago.
Promises of a future he’d never once in his life even considered as an option.
Instead, he sent his fingers seeking her wet heat. Anticipation had nothing on reality when he pushed her thong to the side and found her sex. Cristo, she was willing and wanton. For him. Only for him.
Moaning, she threw her head back when he found her clit. Jerked as if a lightning storm had hit her when he rubbed her moisture at her entrance, when he slowly penetrated her with one finger.
She was a wet, hot sheath, and every inch of him tightened, imagining how she good she would be around his cock. Sweat beaded on his forehead, restless heat clamping every muscle. “Merda, you’re tight, so ready, cara mia. Look at me, Natalie. Tell me how it feels.”
Eyes glazed, she looked down, her two front teeth buried in her lower lip. Her hands descended to his shoulders, her forehead pressed into his shoulder. “It feels...new, strange. Achy, Massimo. Like there’s a fever inside me. Please...don’t stop.”
“That’s my brave little hacker,” Massimo whispered against her mouth while he pushed another finger into her and stretched her slowly. Every inch of his body corkscrewed with tension, crying for release. He kept his thumb pressed against her clit while working a slow rhythm with his fingers. “Move over my fingers, cara mia. Tell me what feels good, learn what sets your body on fire.”
She came up and away from him, her body tense and shaking, soundless cries falling from her lips. He used his other hand to cup her breast, loving the stiff poke of her nipple at his palm. Color filling her cheeks, hands clinging to his shoulders, she caught on to the rhythm of his fingers. He plumped and petted one breast after the other, rubbing and rolling her nipples, watching her—fascinated, hungry, obsessed with how sinuously she moved, how quickly she learned what made it good for her, how greedily she demanded he move the heel of his palm to exert counterpoint pressure to the slick movements of his fingers.
Panting and moaning, writhing against his fingers, release came upon her, sending her slender body into spasms. Her skin shimmered with a damp sheen, her eyes heavy-lidded. She opened her eyes and held his gaze with such crystal clarity, such a possessive light, tossing them both up into the intensity of the moment.
Dios mio, would he ever have enough of this?
He helped her ride out her climax, her pleasure feeding his, until she arrested his wrist, and flopped onto him like a spent storm. Arms cradling her, he held her while she clung, whispering inanities, telling her what a beautifully wild creature she was.
He leaned his forehead into her shoulder, the musky scent of her arousal filling his very breath. This was not him. This man blinded by lust, egged on by the need for possession.
BCS was his life, his goal, his everything. He never had, didn’t have, time for relationships. He definitely didn’t have what it took to keep a woman like her. Innocent and fragile, complex and defensive. He couldn’t let her mess him up like this, couldn’t let her—
The stinging peal of his watch fractured the moment with the same effect of a hammer swinging at the closed walls. He pulled himself away from the welcoming warmth of her body, frowning.
Natalie stiffened just as he clicked on the warning trigger he’d programmed into his cyber infrastructure.
The alert he’d put in himself took a few seconds to sink in.
A rogue bot program was loose in his network. S
couring every nook and cranny. Searching for something.
He looked up.
Guilt screamed from Natalie’s stiff posture. She looked sexy and wrung out, mouth swollen, a pink mark on her neck courtesy of his teeth, dress rumpled.
“A rogue bot program is scouring through my personal security network, destroying each level of encryption like a deck of cards. I’m assuming that is you?”
That was why she’d been so restless and nervous all evening? Why she had...
He cursed so filthily that the air should have turned blue. “Was that—” he pointed to her disheveled dress, his mouth twisting “—to pacify me when I discovered what you’d been up to?”
Whatever color had filled her cheeks mere minutes ago fled, leaving her pale and shivering under the glare of the lights. But she bucked up, tilting her chin up, gathering that toughness she wore like an armor all around her again. Shutting him out. “Don’t be nasty, Massimo. It doesn’t come naturally to you.”
He flinched. “Then what the hell am I supposed to think?”
Her arms went around her midriff. She looked lost, defensive, utterly enchanting. “I... I didn’t exactly plan for...to throw myself at you tonight. I’ve been wound up all day, wondering where it would end. After that evening of—” her arm trembled as she pointed to the outside world “—pretending to be everything I’m not, of being near you and wanting you and not knowing what the hell is right and wrong—” she bit her lip and groaned “—something snapped inside me. I wanted to be reckless, and daring and just take what I wanted. You... God—” she pushed her hands through her hair “—only you do this to me.
“Really, if you use that incisive mind of yours, you’ll realize that I don’t have either the experience or the confidence to turn...this thing between us to my advantage. A pity that, because then I could’ve gotten myself out of this mess the moment you caught me.”
His watch emitted another beep, jerking his attention back to the pressing matter. This time, it was an alert he’d programmed to go off when anything accessed a particular directory. The one that had files pinning Natalie to the security breach. This time, he wasn’t surprised. He knew where her bot program was going.
“When did you go into the lab?” he asked, trying to sift through the anger and outrage and so many other emotions.
“This morning, when you were meeting with Leonardo. And just before we left, again.” Sweat beaded over her upper lip, a faint tension vibrating through her body. “That second alert means my program found those files, doesn’t it? I saw the layers of encryption around that directory.”
“You planned to destroy the proof?”
“Yes. Then I’d have my freedom.”
“Brilliant as always.”
She laughed, the sound edging into hysteria. Her fingers crept into her hair, tugged, and then she dropped them with a soft gasp. “All day, all night... I’ve been going crazy. When you said you’d let Leonardo handle the situation, I wondered...”
“What?”
“I wondered how long it’d be before you decided you’d been lenient enough with me. I was just waiting for him to turn me in.” She swallowed and looked away. “I was terrified. I felt as if I’d lost everything all over again,” she said, fear turning those beautiful eyes into wide pools. “I was determined to destroy all the files you have on me.”
“What did you intend to do once you destroyed the files?” he said, something building in his chest.
“I was going to beg Greta’s help and run far away from here. From you. She’d have helped me. She hates me.”
“You had everything planned, didn’t you?” He’d been expecting something like this from her. “The sheer nerve of you to hack into my network and let something like that loose...while you kiss me at the same time...”
“Sheer nerve? How about desperation? I’m sinking, Massimo. I don’t know which man to trust and protect and which man to betray...terrified that I’ll make the wrong decision.”
“It’s not hard to stay away from the man who’s doing illegal things. Not hard to stay on the right side.”
“Only a man born to privilege can be so absolute about right and wrong. A man who’s never known hunger. A man who’s never had to worry where he would sleep that night. I don’t know why he’s doing this, but he’s not a monster.
“He saved me from a bully, from a bastard of a foster brother. He saved me from going to juvenile detention. He...he...for years, he looked out for me. He...caught me trying to steal his wallet and fed me a meal when I was starving.
“He found me a place to live, gave me money to get my own place. All these years, he never asked me for anything. He only gave, Massimo. He...said he saw something of himself in me. Years and years of favors.
“And when he asked me to do this one small thing of taking down BCS, wrapped it in lies I could swallow, I bought it willingly. I did him the favor. I... The second time, when he asked again, I could have said no. He wouldn’t have pushed me. But I’d been caught in my own hubris, lured by the challenge of taking you on.
“So, no, I can’t betray him. Even if I hate that he threw me into the middle of some awful vengeance scheme he’s been cooking for who knows how long. Even if I hate that he’s causing you...this much trouble. And I don’t even hate him fully for involving me in this, because how could I?
“If not for him, I wouldn’t have met you. If not for him, I wouldn’t have known what it was to want a man so much that I can’t breathe. Can you imagine how twisted up I am in all of it?” She wiped the lone tear off her cheek, her chin setting into that stubborn tilt. “So the only rational thing I knew to do was to try to steal that proof before you sent me to jail.
“But... I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. All evening, I’ve been wondering if I’ve gone insane. Wondering if I’m really losing it.”
Massimo felt as if she’d hit him in the solar plexus. Punch after punch solidly connecting, knocking the breath out of him. “What do you mean you couldn’t?” Another damned peal from his watch.
“That bot program is only meant to locate my files. I... I couldn’t bear it if you hated me. I couldn’t bear to break your trust.
“But I had to break this impasse. So I went back and I tweaked the program to just locate the files. I meant to show you that I’m capable of saving myself, of betraying you, again, but I choose to not do it. To show you that I... I would never break your trust again, Massimo. Just please don’t ask me anything more. Don’t ask me for what I can’t give.”
So much she held on to, so fully, so completely she gave of her loyalty even under the harshest conditions. It wouldn’t have cost her anything to give this man up. To look out for herself. And yet, she wouldn’t... He didn’t know whether to kiss her for her guts or to banish her out of his life for making everything so complicated.
He thought he knew her.
Dios mio, she’d told him enough about her background. He knew enough to understand that to survive in a harsh world, she’d become tough, and that she hated to be vulnerable in any way, that she was a wild thing that wrapped herself in layers of armor to protect herself...but this, for her to be willingly vulnerable to him, for her to give over her freedom, her security, into his hands, trusting that he’d do the right thing—the devastating result of that was in her eyes wild with fear, in her mouth that didn’t stop trembling, in her body vibrating with tension.
This was ravaging her.
And yet, she’d done it.
To gain his trust.
The weight of her admission humbled Massimo, the emotional expectation beneath that decision...did he even deserve it? Did he want it?
She rubbed her eyes, smudging the mascara, ruining the makeup that he hadn’t, leaving her still breathtakingly lovely, starkly beautiful. Eyes that had glazed over during her release filled with alarming tears. “I hate that you make me so we
ak. But I’m done fighting it.”
The swish-swish of the elevator doors behind him revealed the stunned faces of Leonardo, and Greta. With Gisela and her father behind them. They’d been gone too long. Maledizione, the last thing he needed was the whole world to hear that his fake fiancée had been ready to leave him.
And still, Massimo couldn’t find a mask to pull. Couldn’t dig deep enough to care.
Let them think it was a lovers’ quarrel. Let them see how crazy Natalie could drive him.
He pushed his hands through his hair and went to her, not wanting the world to see her like that. Not wanting anyone to see the vulnerability in her posture. Clasping her jaw, he tilted her face up to him. “What shall I do with you, cara mia?” Laughter burst through him and she stared at him, as if he’d lost his mind.
Had he? Would she leave with him with not even a semblance of control? It felt as if he had crossed some hitherto invisible line, had left safety and sanity behind. She’d dragged him into a new place, a place where he didn’t know who he was anymore. Where emotions barreled through him.
He struggled under the weight of tenderness, of possessiveness, of deflated outrage. God, this woman...she stole the very breath from him. “You’ll drive me insane before you’re through with me,” he said, before he kissed her hurt mouth. His lungs seemed to fill with air, his limbs infused with energy again, as she sank into the contact. He tasted her tears, her soft admission, her vulnerability. He held her tight, wanting to capture the essence of her.
“I... I’m tired, Massimo.” She clung to him like a rag doll. All the fight and fury had deserted her. Her breath whispered over his jaw, her hands roving over his chest. “I’m tired of being tough. I’m tired of being pulled apart. I’m tired of worrying about my brother, about you, about the man who started all this. About everyone else when all I want is to...
“You...you’re shredding me into so many pieces.” Her fingers traced the bridge of his nose, his mouth, his chin, even the small scar on his temple.
