She was slick with sweat, her skin slipping against his and he knew the climax was going to kill him. He could feel it building inside him, the relentless drag of it like a tidal wave, and he let it come, wanting to be crushed under the weight of it, to have all thought extinguished by the power of it.
And as it began to roll over him, he was aware enough to grab one of her wrists and pull her hand down between their straining bodies, to guide her fingers down to her clit and hold it there, pressing down as he thrust.
She shuddered, sobbing into his neck, her pussy tightening like a fist around his cock, and the tidal wave began to break inside him. A roar escaped him as he felt it hit, the intense pleasure crushing him into pieces, shattering him, obliterating him, until there was nothing left of him, not even dust.
* * *
Kira lay beneath him, struggling for breath, stunned by the aftereffects of her fourth orgasm in a row. Lorenzo had collapsed on top of her, and perhaps it should have been uncomfortable, but it wasn’t.
Who needed air anyway? God knew, she didn’t. Not after that. And hell, she was still seeing stars.
His breath was harsh in the night air, the warmth of it against her neck, his body a hot, hard mountain lying on top of her. But she didn’t want to push him away. She wanted to hold him close, soothe his pain.
She’d had no idea of the grief that had he’d been guarding and even now, thinking about what he’d told her about Katie made her eyes prickle with tears. But it felt wrong to take his grief on to herself, to cry for a woman she didn’t even know, so she blinked them back and lifted a hand to his head, letting her fingers push gently through the thick, damp silk of his hair, while with the other hand, she stroked up and down the bare skin of his back. Beneath the cotton of his shirt, he was slick with sweat just as she was, and she liked the feeling of it against her palm.
His breathing began to slow and calm down, and she liked that she could give him this, too. He’d given her such pleasure already when he’d taken her on his lap and touched her, and she wanted to do the same for him. Help him in some small way.
Nothing could take away the grief or the feelings of blame; she’d learned that lesson well herself. But it was possible to forget the pain for a little while . . .
Lorenzo shifted and she felt the daybed mattress depress on either side of her head as he levered himself up, looking down at her. His straight black brows were lowered in a frown, and the rim of dark charcoal around his iris had darkened, but she could still see jagged streaks of silver threading through it, evidence that his desire was still simmering despite what they’d just done.
God, he was beautiful. Every part of him.
“Are you okay?” He sounded hoarse. “Did I hurt you?”
“No.” Hell, she didn’t sound much better. “I’m good.”
“Are you sure?” He leaned his weight onto one hand as he ran the other down the length of her body, his gaze following as if he was checking to make sure she was all there. “I was rough.”
“It’s fine, honestly.” But his touch awakened oversensitive nerve-endings, making her shudder and causing his frown to deepen.
He didn’t say anything, giving her one hard, searing look before he shifted again, pulling out of her then easing back and away, turning to deal with his clothes. “Come downstairs.” He tucked himself away and zipped up his pants. “You need a shower or maybe a bath.”
Well, she wouldn’t mind that. The muscles of her inner thighs were starting to ache, and she was conscious of a slight burn between her legs, where delicate tissues had been overstretched. The sensations weren’t bad though. In fact, she liked them.
She sat up, sliding an arm around his lean waist and leaning her head on his shoulder, relishing the opportunity to touch him. It wasn’t the right time to talk about the secret he’d shared with her so all she said was, “You’re amazing. I’ve never had a guy give me four orgasms in a row before.”
“You’ve been seeing the wrong guys, clearly.” He didn’t pull away from her, but there was a subtle tension in his posture.
A tightness gathered in her chest. Was it her? Did he not want her touching him? Had she overstepped the mark by demanding his secrets? Did he regret what he’d told her?
Kira let her arm fall away and as soon as she did, he got up off the daybed, pulling his shirt back around him and doing the buttons up.
She shouldn’t ask. She should let it go. She shouldn’t let it matter to her.
But of course, that was impossible for her.
“I overstepped the mark, didn’t I?” She stared at his uncompromising back. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed you to tell me anything you didn’t want to.”
His movements stilled. Then he turned to face her, his shirt half undone, revealing the most perfectly sculpted chest and abs she’d ever seen. But it was the look on his face that somehow reached inside her and held on. It was fierce, burning with an intensity that stole her breath. “No. You were right to ask.” He took a step toward the daybed and reached for her, pulling her off it and onto her feet, gathering her close so the bare skin of his chest pressed against hers. “It wasn’t fair of me to hold back.” His eyes as they looked down into hers were silver-bright. “Not when you gave me everything I asked for.”
The tight feeling eased and she leaned against him, her palms pressed to his hot skin. “Well, I know it can’t have been easy to tell me. But thank you.”
There was a second when he simply stared at her, searching her face as if he was looking for something. “I can’t give you anything more than what we have right now,” he said quietly. “You know that, don’t you?”
She blinked up at him, shock arrowing down her spine. “But I never said I wanted—”
“I know. I just need you to understand that up front.”
She was conscious of something sitting heavily in her gut, something that couldn’t be and definitely wasn’t disappointment. Because naturally he wouldn’t want anything more, not after he’d lost the woman he loved. “It’s okay.” She tried to make her voice sound steady and sure. “I don’t expect anything from you.”
His arms were iron bands around her. “I know you don’t, but you should. God knows, you deserve it.”
Do you though? After what you did?
Kira ignored the snide voice in her head. This wasn’t about what she deserved or even what she wanted. This night together was supposed to have been only about sex, and sure, it had turned into something more, something emotional. But that didn’t mean there was anything more than that to be had. Besides, getting involved with someone was the last thing she needed right now, especially someone who made her feel as out of control as Lorenzo did.
“I don’t need anything more,” she said and this time her voice was as steady and sure as she wanted it to be. “What we have now, tonight, is enough.”
His black brows had drawn down, his gaze laser-sharp, as if he didn’t quite believe her. Then the intensity in his expression eased. “Okay. But what I told you about Katie, it has to stay a secret, understand? I don’t want anyone knowing, most especially not my father.”
The words prompted an unwilling memory to flood through her, of what she was supposed to be doing and why she was Lorenzo’s intern in the first place. She was supposed to be reporting back to Cesare, relaying any “relevant” bits of information. What was “relevant” and what was not had never been explained to her, but she was pretty sure that Katie was going to be “relevant”
The thought of passing on Lorenzo’s secret grief to his cold father suddenly seemed untenable. In fact, her whole position as Cesare de Santis’s spy suddenly seemed untenable. She hadn’t thought about it in any great detail before, too concerned with doing a good job so she’d get that start-up money she needed for her kids’ classes. But things were different now.
Before, Lorenzo had been a distant figure from her childhood. An idol, fascinating but unknowable. Now, though, he’d become a man. A man with a
past and a grief like her own. Carrying the same burden of blame that she did.
She didn’t want to lie to him. She didn’t want to hide the true purpose of her internship from him.
Kira looked up into his hard, beautiful face. “I need to tell you something.”
“What?”
Maybe he would hate her for this, but then, she hadn’t found out anything of any interest yet and so hadn’t been able to report anything back to his father anyway.
She swallowed, her throat dry, her heartbeat accelerating. “There’s a reason Dad pushed you into taking me as your intern.”
His expression remained impenetrable, one black brow arching. “Oh?”
Kira took a breath. “Your father wanted me to intern for you so I could report back on anything ‘relevant.’ I . . . don’t know what he meant by relevant, he just told me that I would know when I heard it. I don’t know why he wanted it, either. All I was told was to get closer to you and see what I could find out.” She searched his face. “I haven’t passed anything on to him so far and you have to know that I’m not going to say a word about Katie, I swear it.”
He was silent, his fierce gaze meeting hers for long unaccountable moments. Then he said, “I know.”
Shock arced through her. “You know? You know I was placed with you on purpose you mean?”
“Yes. Oh, not for certain, but I guessed.”
She blinked. “How? Did I give myself away or something?”
“No. I just know my father. Plus, I don’t take interns and Ivan was very insistent. I’ve actually been waiting for a chance to get you to incriminate yourself but certain . . . things kept getting in the way.”
Her cheeks heated. “Yes, well. That’s the reason I didn’t try harder to find something incriminating.”
“You wouldn’t have found anything. Or at least, nothing I didn’t intend you to find.” He stared at her a moment. “What did he promise you?”
“Your father? Nothing. But Dad told me that if I did a good job, he was going to give me some start-up money for a business I want to get off the ground.”
“What kind of business?”
She could feel herself flushing even more. “It’s nothing big. I want to start up some arts-and-crafts classes for kids with ADHD and learning difficulties. You know, give them something to do with their hands, something to focus on. Something to feel proud of once they’ve completed it. It’s something I would have loved as a kid, and if it helps even one child . . .” She trailed off, feeling self-conscious then annoyed with herself that she felt self-conscious. No, it wasn’t a silly idea. This was important. Important to her and the kids she would help.
Lorenzo lifted a hand and tucked a curl behind her ear in a casual, intimate gesture that somehow took her breath away. “Don’t worry about your start-up. I’ll help you with it. But you should know that he has reason.”
The offer of help surprised her, so much so that she didn’t pay quite enough attention to the other thing he said. “What do you mean? Who has reason?”
“My father.” Lorenzo’s fingertips grazed her ear, lingering there. “He has reason to be suspicious of me.”
She felt herself tensing, an odd foreboding winding through her. “Why?”
Silver glittered bright in Lorenzo’s gaze. “Because I’ve discovered the old bastard has been skimming company profits. Which means, of course, that he has to be taken down.”
Chapter 10
Kira’s eyes widened. “You’re certain?”
“Oh yes, I’m certain. I just don’t have the hard evidence I need yet.” He slid his hands down the elegant arch of her spine, settling them over the curve of her butt, her skin soft and warm against his palms.
Touching her was soothing and right now, he needed soothing. Anger burned inside him, along with the acid sting of an old and familiar grief that mention of Katie always brought up. Not that he mentioned Katie. Ever.
He’d broken his silence on her now though, and even though it had hurt, it had been good to say her name, good to acknowledge who she’d been to him, because it had been such a long time since he’d even said it out loud.
But it was only after that he remembered why he shouldn’t talk about such things and especially not to Kira. He should have known, not that it was information that his father could use in all probability, but it was a weakness Lorenzo didn’t want him to know about.
Except . . . maybe his father wouldn’t know.
Lorenzo stared down into Kira’s wide eyes, now almost as dark as the sky above their heads. He hadn’t been expecting her to confess, not at all, but he was glad she had.
It meant she trusted him.
You can use her.
It was what he’d been wanting to do all along, and at the beginning of the evening, he’d had no problems with that. Yet that had been before she’d told him the truth about herself, about the difficulties she’d been trying to overcome.
Before he’d told her about Katie.
They’d shared secrets, and like he’d feared, it had changed things between them.
Yet what else could he do? If he wanted to investigate Ivan’s role in his father’s activities, the best way to do that was to use his daughter. Hell, his father and Ivan were using her to get to him anyway, so if she was discovered, say, searching her father’s office, then she could spin some lie about how she needed information for her own mission. Or she could act like a pretty airhead who’d stumbled into the wrong office.
He couldn’t do it himself, not when they were already suspicious of him. Anyway, the worst that could happen to her was that she might get told off, no big deal. She wouldn’t lose out on the money she wanted for her little business, he’d make sure of it.
No, he couldn’t not use her. He needed that evidence. His father had killed his mother as surely as Lorenzo himself had, and the old prick needed to pay.
“I can’t believe it,” Kira murmured. “I mean, stealing from your own company? Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t care. All I care about is finding that evidence. He’ll probably find some way of getting out of a jail sentence, but I’m pretty sure he won’t be able to get away with remaining CEO.”
Her darkened gaze searched his face. “What? And you take over?”
“Yes.” He found himself stroking her unconsciously, his thumbs moving back and forth on her soft, silky skin. “He’s always been planning for me to do so anyway, so this will just be earlier than he thought. And of course, his retirement will not be voluntary.”
Her brow creased. “You sound . . . pleased.”
“Of course, I’m pleased. I’ll be fucking ecstatic.” His anger simmered, a constant smolder that had been burning for years. “I don’t want a needy bitch, Lorenzo. I’m already married to one . . .”
Kira frowned suddenly, her fair brows drawing down. “You hate him, don’t you? Why?”
Christ. Was his anger really that noticeable? He’d thought he kept it better hidden than that.
She gave a shiver, and he realized that he wasn’t stroking her anymore, but gripping her hard and probably far too tightly. He relaxed his hands, taking a deep, silent breath and trying to force the fury away.
She was still naked, and he’d torn her dress off her. Clearly, he was going to need to fix that. Shrugging out of his shirt, he held it up. “Put your arms out.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Come on, you can’t distract me that easily. What did he do to you, Lorenzo?”
“Arms.”
Sighing, she did as she was told and he drew the cotton up to her shoulders then concentrated on the buttons. There was no reason not to tell her, and part of him wanted to. He’d told her everything else, so what was one more thing?
“It wasn’t what he did to me,” Lorenzo said as he began to do the shirt up. “It was what he did to my mother.”
“Oh.” She remained still as he fastened the buttons on the shirt, but he could feel her gaze on him. “What did
he do?”
And you. You’re to blame, too.
Lorenzo focused on slipping a button through the button hole. “She was from Wyoming and never adjusted to life in New York. It made her unhappy, but Dad wouldn’t let her go back.” Yes, and you know why. “He made her stay in a place she hated, with a husband who cheated on her and didn’t give her any fucking support. He knew she was emotionally fragile, but he treated her like dirt anyway. So she self-medicated with pills and vodka.”
Maybe if you hadn’t begged her not to leave, she might have been happier. Maybe if you hadn’t given your father ammunition to use against her, she wouldn’t have ended up dead.
He shoved the thoughts away, hard. That had happened so long ago, back when he’d been twelve years old, overhearing a conversation he shouldn’t have listened to. Full of fear that the parent who actually seemed to care about him was going to leave.
“Man should be an island, son . . .”
He should have learned that lesson back then. But he hadn’t.
The soft brush of Kira’s fingertips along his jaw made him blink, bringing him back to the present. “He was really that bad?”
“He was worse. I told you that’s why I wanted to keep Katie a secret. He would have used her against me at some point.”
The way he used you against Mom . . .
Kira’s hand dropped to his shoulder, the feel of her palm on his bare skin somehow delivering comfort as well as an electric shock that went straight to his cock. “So this is . . . revenge?”
He hadn’t thought of it in those terms, especially when revenge was an inherently selfish motivation and he wasn’t supposed to be that person anymore. “Not for me. For my mother.”
Her thumb moved on his skin, as if she couldn’t bear to stop touching him. “I can understand that.”
“Good. Because it’s going to happen. You can make sure of that. But . . .” He hesitated, looking into her deep blue eyes. “I am going to need help.”
One fair brow lifted. “What kind of help?”
“I told you I need evidence I can take to the board. But that’s been difficult to find. Mainly because it looks like Dad’s got someone hiding his digital tracks.” He paused, belatedly realizing that she might have something to say about his suspicions regarding her own father.
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