Dalio hadn’t been lying when he told her he had never felt like this before. Their bodies fit together so perfectly and they shared the same sense of humor—a deep connection that he wanted to explore …he wanted to know every single facet of her.
Her fingernails were digging into his buttocks, her lovely face flushed and damp with sweat as they fucked hard. After they came, he flipped her onto her stomach and pushed into her perfect ass, gentler this time, taking his time to drive her to a state of ecstasy. They played all night—Dalio bound her wrists with his tie so she couldn’t touch him while he went down on her until she was weeping with pleasure; Piper straddled him, commanding him where to touch her while she rode him hard. Their lovemaking was by turns tender, then rough, pounding each other as they fucked against the wall, in the bathtub, on the desk, and on the floor.
By dawn, they were exhausted, but forgoing sleep, they instead talked of their hopes and dreams and how they would make a relationship work.
“My job is so important to me,” Piper said. “Especially now, with Emeli having the baby. I know she wants to open branches around the world, so maybe …”
“Maybe she’ll consider one in Rome?” He smiled. “Cara mia, I am fortunate to be in the position to never have to work again, so if we are to make this work, for as long as you want me, I’ll come to you.”
“Moneybags.”
Dalio grinned. “It’s just money.”
Piper was lying on her stomach, looking at him. “Never had it. Money was never a goal for me as long as I had a roof over my head and food on the table.”
“I can see that about you. Would you believe I felt the same—until I had money, of course. But it isn’t the material things. It’s the freedom and the security.”
Piper smiled. “I like that about you. You’re so different to that creep Wentworth. How the hell did you ever go into business with him?”
Dalio stared at the ceiling for a moment. “Right now, I couldn’t tell you. I told him tonight that I’m dissolving the partnership. I don’t expect he’ll take it easily. I’m probably looking at a protracted court battle.”
Piper propped herself up on her elbow. “You could probably just tell the court he’s a coke head.”
Dalio turned to look at her. “You saw that?”
Piper hesitated. “He cornered me in the photocopier room. I saw his dilated pupils and his flop sweat.” She shuddered and a look of fear passed over her face. Dalio frowned.
“Did he do anything to you?”
Again, he saw her hesitation. “There was some groping. I slapped his ugly face.”
Dalio felt his anger rise and he threw his legs over the side of the bed. Piper sat up, obviously alarmed. “Where are you going?”
“To beat the shit out of that figlia di puttana,” he raged, tugging on his jeans. Piper reached for his hand.
“Don’t. Don’t confront him tonight. I’m scared of what he might do if he’s been doing coke all night.”
“It’ll just make him vulnerable.” Dalio continued to get dressed. He leaned over to kiss her, and Piper tackled him to the bed and sat on top of him. “Piper, come on. Let me up.”
“Nope.” She straddled him and started to unzip his jeans again. Dalio started to laugh—how could he resist when this beautiful, sensual, gorgeous woman was naked on top of him?
“Dalio, darling, Wentworth has no place in our night,” she said, freeing his cock from his pants and stroking it, then sliding the tip along her damp sex. “Not when we have such fun stuff to do.” She notched his cock into her cunt and sank down on it, taking him in all the way. Dalio reached up to cup her lovely face as she let out a soft moan. Damn, this woman …
They fucked until they were too exhausted even to talk and then fell asleep in each other’s arms.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” Piper said to Emeli as she met her downstairs, late. Emeli grinned, nodding at a red-faced Dalio who slipped past them and into the lecture hall.
“Don’t worry about it …damn, that man is exquisite. I’d be late too.”
Piper laughed. “No arguments here. Look, let me catch up. What can I do?”
Emeli handed her some abstracts. “Go disseminate these before the speaker starts, would you? I forgot to put them on the seats earlier.”
“No problem.”
Piper handed out the papers to the delegates, smiling politely at them. When she handed Dalio his, he grinned and winked at her. God, your smile makes me wet She smiled back at him, her body reacting to him. He was like a drug.
Speaking of which …it was with relief that she saw that Carter Wentworth was absent from the room. She really didn’t want Dalio to confront him and risk a fight in the middle of the conference. It would embarrass Emeli, let alone Dalio and herself.
As she gave out the final pack and walked back out, Dalio caught her hand and squeezed it. She smiled down at him. I’m crazy about you, Dalio Corri. How was it she had only known him for two days?
She was still smiling when she caught up with Emeli. Her boss sniggered at her smile. “You’re glowing, Ms. Le Jeune. You’re stealing my thunder.”
Piper chuckled. “Sorry, boss. You’re the radiant one, Em. Look at you.” Her boss, petite and slender with huge dark brown eyes and elegantly bobbed curls, had pink, flushed cheeks and her eyes were sparkling. Emeli waved her left hand at Piper.
“Guess what?”
Piper gasped. On Emeli’s hand was a huge diamond. “Well about damn time!” She hugged her friend. “I’m so happy for you, Em. So, so happy. God, this has been a hell of a week, huh?”
“For both of us,” Emeli smiled. “Intense.”
Piper scanned down the schedule of the day. “Listen, you should be with Philip today. It’s a pretty light schedule …we’ll be done by two. Why don’t you take off? I can handle the rest of the day.”
“Are you sure?”
Piper nodded. “Very. Go have some fun.”
Emeli nodded. “Well, okay, but I’ll do the last session tomorrow morning, and you and the gorgeous Italian can stay in bed.”
Piper flushed. Emeli always told it like it was, and Piper had always appreciated her honesty. She knew she would always repay that honesty, and so, with a deep breath, she told Emeli about Dalio’s plans. Emeli looked excited for her.
“You’re owed some time off, Pipes, so have at it. Take a few weeks. Go to Italy and figure out if you can make it work. If you can, then I don’t see why a Rome office is so far out of my plans.”
Piper was surprised. “You’d consider it?”
“To keep you? Hell, yes. Listen, we’ll talk more about it, obviously, but we can work it out. I like Dalio very much, but what can you tell from a couple of days? Once you know him better, we’ll talk.”
Piper was still thinking about what Emeli had said as she began to tackle some the paperwork from the conference. The hotel was quiet, and as Piper sat in the café, she couldn’t help but look out at the beautiful surroundings. Was it all too dreamlike? Would she and Dalio return to normal life and find that their bubble had burst? It was a risk, certainly, and was definitely out of character for the reserved Piper, but …Dalio was different. There was an intensity to him—a truth. She knew in her bones he was the one.
Checking her watch, she saw she had a half-hour before the lunch break. She made her way back to the kitchens to check that everything was on schedule. As she thanked the chef, she walked back out into the hallway.
“You fucking little bitch.”
She whirled around at the sound of Carter Wentworth’s voice, and he punched her so hard that it felt like her eye socket exploded. Piper didn’t have time to react before he dragged her to the floor and began to push her skirt up to her hips. Still stunned, Piper began to scream, clawing at Wentworth’s face, but his weight was crushing her, his mouth on hers. She bit the tongue that was shoving into her mouth, and Wentworth rocked back, screaming in pain. His fist slammed into her again. Piper screamed again as Carter u
nzipped his pants, trying to force himself into her.
Suddenly he was knocked away from her, a raging torrent of anger and cussing in Italian, and Piper, shaken, backed away from Dalio and Wentworth. Dalio was pounding the crap out of Carter, his beautiful face alive with rage. Two members of the hotel staff came to help Piper as Dalio punched Wentworth to the floor, and Wentworth finally collapsed, breathing heavily, knowing he was defeated.
“Get your stuff and leave this hotel, right now, Carter. Piper, honey, do you want the police involved?”
Piper was too shocked to process what had just happened, and she shook her head dumbly.
“Piper, honey,” Wentworth mocked as he clambered to his feet. “I just wanted to see why that whore’s magical cunt has you so entranced.”
Everyone in the room heard the audible crack as Dalio’s fist broke Wentworth’s nose and it began streaming with blood. “Bastard!”
He lunged for Dalio, but two hulking security guards held him back. “What do you want to be done with him, Mr. Corri?”
Dalio had gone to Piper, wrapping his arms around her. “Throw his ass out in the snow. Wentworth, go home, get some help, and go to rehab. You’re lucky Piper doesn’t want to take this further. As far as our business goes, I’m done. You’ll sign those papers today or your attempted rape of Piper will be common knowledge. You’re finished.”
The guards took a raging Wentworth out and escorted him toward the door. “We’ll have someone fetch your belongings, Mr. Wentworth,” the manager said coldly. “Please never come to our hotel again. If you attempt to, we will have no option but to call the authorities.”
Wentworth, his nose and face blooded, turned back toward Dalio and Piper. He smirked. “If you think this is the end of it, you’re wrong.”
Dalio took Piper up to her room and helped her clean herself up. There was a small cut above her eyebrow and a nasty bruise was forming. Piper was trembling but not crying, too shocked to do anything but lean into Dalio’s comforting arms.
He stroked her hair, and she could feel the tension in his body. “I am so sorry, Piper. I could kill him.”
She closed her eyes, shaking her head. “Don’t stoop to his level.”
Dalio cursed in Italian, and she let him rant, holding his hand, and leaning her head against his chest. “Dalio, I just want to forget it. He needs help.”
“Fuck helping him.”
She tried to smile. “I don’t mean us—he’s obviously strung out on coke. He’s not insane. Sooner or later, he’ll realize what he’s lost. I really don’t want to talk about him anymore.”
They laid on the bed together, talking, then Piper looked at her watch. “God, I have to go set up for tomorrow.”
Dalio sat with her while she sorted out the paperwork, and she knew he was there to make sure Wentworth didn’t come back as much as because he wanted to be with her. Another delegate, a French businessman, came in asked Dalio for some information.
“Will you be okay here alone?” He asked Piper, who grinned.
“I will. Take your time.”
Dalio winked at her and left with the man. Two minutes later, a worried looking Emeli arrived, dragging Philip with her.
“God, Pipes, I just heard …are you okay? God, your face …” Emeli looked as if she were about to burst into tears. Piper smiled at her.
“Em, calm down. I’m fine. It’s all under control. The hotel threw Wentworth out …after Dalio beat the shit out of him, which I admit was very satisfying. I’m sorry if this reflects poorly on the company.”
“Are you insane? I’m only worried about you.” Emeli looked shaken, and Philip steered her into a chair.
“I’m really, really fine,” Piper assured her. “Actually, now that you’re here, could you hold the fort for a few minutes? The copy machine is broken here—I think I burned it out—so I have to run down the street to the copy place. Do you mind?”
Emeli shook her head. “Not at all, but take your coat. It is freezing out there.”
Piper picked up the photocopies and thanked the girl in the print store. Balancing the box of papers carefully on one arm, she stepped out into the dark evening and headed back toward the hotel. One more day and she would be flying to Italy and warm weather with Dalio. She couldn’t wait.
As she passed an alleyway, she was grabbed. Too shocked to scream, she was pulled back against her attacker, the papers she was holding scattering, and her attacker ripped open her coat. She saw the knife just for a beat before it was plunged into the center of her belly. Agony. Complete, overwhelming, searing agony. Her attacker stabbed her twice more before forcing her back against the wall. Piper tried to fight him, but he just laughed and knifed her again.
“Please, stop …please …don’t …”
He clamped a hand over her mouth. He was wearing a hoodie, but as she gasped for air, she saw his eyes.
Carter Wentworth. Piper went cold. Oh my god …His expression, both of anger and satisfaction, didn’t change as he knifed her mercilessly. Piper couldn’t believe what was happening, but she started to pass out from the pain. Jesus … he’s killing me …we were wrong about him … he is insane …
Carter dumped her broken body to the icy ground and walked off. The attack had taken less than ten seconds. Piper gasped for oxygen, her body wracked with pain, and she tried to call out for help, but she knew she was losing blood fast. She passed out, her last sight one of the people passing by the end of the alleyway, unaware that she was dying only a few feet from them.
Dalio …oh god, Dalio, we didn’t have enough time …not nearly enough …
Emeli came to find Dalio as he was leaving the last lecture, her pretty face creased with concern. “Dalio, have you seen Piper? She told me she was going to the copy shop, but that was a half hour ago.”
Dalio patted her arm. “I’ll walk down there, don’t worry.”
She smiled at him gratefully. “Thanks—I need to see to the guest speakers so I can’t go.”
“I’m sure she’s just chatting.”
Dalio tugged his coat around him as he stepped out from the hotel. The temperature had dropped well below freezing and his breath froze as he went down the steps—and stopped. Across the road, he saw a figure, a large man in a hooded jacket, staring across at him. As Dalio watched, the man took down his hood. Carter. Carter smiled at him, a nasty, triumphant rictus, then slowly and deliberately look up along the road toward the town, before looking back at Dalio and smirking.
His meaning was clear. Dalio went cold and started to run, slipping and sliding on the ice, desperate to get to Piper. He almost fell into the print shop. The women behind the counter looked at him in alarm.
“Please,” he said, his voice breaking. “There was a woman--beautiful, African-American—she was wearing a black coat, a lilac sweater …”
One of the women nodded, smiling. “Yes, yes sir. She left about five minutes ago.”
Dalio felt a shot of fear go through him. He would have seen her walking back toward the hotel. “Did you see which way she went?”
The women exchanged confused glances, and the first woman indicated the way back to the hotel.
Oh god. “Thank you,” Dalio said and retraced his steps, checking in every store-front. No sign.
He heard a woman exclaim further along the sidewalk and dashed to her side. She looked at him with horror in her eyes and pointed down to the ground. Blood—a lot of it—was trickling in a stream from down the alleyway.
Dalio’s heart failed him, and he knew as he started to walk along the alley that the crumpled figure lying bleeding at the other end was Piper.
She was still—so still—her eyes closed and her breathing ragged and slow. Dalio realized in horror that she had been stabbed. Jesus Christ …Carter had stabbed her. He turned to the woman at the end of the alleyway and shouted to her, desperate now. “Please call an ambulance. She’s been stabbed. Please …help us.”
He swept Piper into his arms and moved along th
e street to the nearest store—a coffeehouse. Customers cleared out of his way as, with tears falling down his face, Dalio laid his stricken love on some tables. Patrons rushed to help him as Dalio pressed down on her wounds, trying to keep the precious blood in her. He couldn’t believe it. In a million years, he never would have guessed that Carter would sink to this.
“Can I help? I’m a doctor,” said a woman, and Dalio, numb, nodded. The woman took over and she pushed Piper’s clothes away from the wounds.
Dalio wanted to throw up. She had been butchered. His darling girl …this was his fault. His …if he hadn’t beaten Wentworth …
Blood was pumping from the stab wounds on Piper’s belly, but the female doctor grabbed what she could and pressed down hard. She looked at Dalio. “Come here. Press down as hard as you can. If her abdominal artery is severed, she doesn’t stand a chance, but I think the more blood we can keeping pumping around her body, the better.”
It seemed hours before the air-ambulance came, and then he was flying with her, holding her hand.
Please, he begged silently. Please don’t die, my beautiful, darling Piper …I’m so in love with you, so in love …I swear, I swear, I will revenge you.
At the hospital in Vienna, he waited for hours. It felt like days. Emeli and her fiancé had flown to meet him, and now all three were just waiting for the surgeon working tirelessly to save the woman Dalio loved. And he did love her—he didn’t give a crap that a week ago, they had been strangers. He loved Piper Le Jeune with all his heart.
At four a.m. in the morning, the surgeon came to find them. Dalio took one look at the man’s face …
And knew.
Rio De Janeiro
Three months later …
Carter Wentworth stood on the balcony of his tenth-floor hotel room, smoking his seventh cigarette in an hour. His dealer had let him down and now he was feeling antsy and coming down from the permanent high he maintained now. What the fuck had he been thinking, killing that girl? He couldn’t go back home—couldn’t access his billions. He’d been lucky enough that he’d secured an offshore account with a few million, but it wasn’t the same.
His Sweet Torment: A Bad Boy Billionaire Romance Page 18
