Take Me Home_A Billionaire Protector Romance

by Summer Brooks

  But Vincent didn’t give me the chance. He gently pushed me back onto his bed and then kissed me, his hands sliding down to fondle my breasts. I moaned into his mouth as he lightly pinched my nipples, then slid his hands down to my thighs and spread them.

  When he sank to his knees, I almost sobbed with desire.

  He mouthed at my breasts, sucking my nipples into his mouth each in turn, fluttering his tongue around them. Then he moved further down until he was between my legs, licking and kissing slowly up my thighs until he could bury his face in my folds, sucking lightly at my clit.

  I keened, my hands sinking into his hair as he relentlessly licked and sucked at my folds until I could feel that delicious pressure building low in my stomach. I tried to pull him away, but he wouldn’t stop, not until I was writhing helplessly on his tongue, pleasure shuddering through me like a wave.

  I panted, struggling to get my breath back, as Vincent pulled away, wiping at his mouth with a smirk on his face. “I’ve been wanting to do that since I saw you in the shelter,” he admitted, crawling up my body to kiss me on the mouth. “Show you all the ways I could make you scream.”

  “You haven’t made me scream yet,” I pointed out, just to be contrary.

  “Is that so? I guess I’ll have to remedy that.”

  I hooked one leg over his hips as he slid into me, struggling to hold my body still and let it adjust. It had been a while since I’d slept with anyone and Vincent was big—bigger than I’d remembered.

  Vincent kissed slowly up and down my neck until I rolled my hips, letting him know that I was ready. “C’mon,” I told him. “Make me scream.”

  Vincent grinned at me savagely. “Yes, ma’am.”

  He didn’t even bother to start slow, moving hard and fast and rough. I clung to him, moaning and making desperate little ah ah ah noises as he hit that perfect spot inside of me, my hips snapping to try and keep up with him. It felt so good. I’d forgotten how good sex could be and I almost couldn’t control my body anymore. It felt like I was helpless to do anything except for let his body manipulate mine, that slick friction where we were joined all that I could focus on.

  Vincent seemed to know each time I was close, and each time, he slowed down, denying me over and over until I begged him, scratching my nails down his back, pleading for him to let me come.

  He started thrusting again, letting me get close, his mouth right at my ear.

  “Please,” I moaned. “Please, please, I have to, I need to come, please…”

  “You’re so good,” he murmured. “You’re so gorgeous like this. Go ahead. Come for me, baby.”

  I screamed, my body arching as I came. It felt like I was shattering into a thousand pieces.

  Vincent came with a final thrust, groaning and going stiff, and I couldn’t help but feel a little smug at knowing that I had made him feel like this. I had made this hot guy, the kind of guy who could have any girl he wanted, lose his mind. Over me.

  It was a hell of a rush.

  Vincent rolled to the side and, for a moment, we just breathed together. My chest was heaving. Two orgasms in one night after months without sex can put you down for the count.

  “You’re staying the night,” Vincent said. “You’ll be safe here.”

  “I can’t stay here forever,” I said. “I can’t hide out at your place. I have to keep going to work. I’m not going to let them see that I’m scared.”

  “Let me protect you.” Vincent propped himself up onto his elbow, looking at me in the dark. “I can take care of you, if you’ll let me. Please, Gina.”

  I sighed, heaving myself up onto my elbow, as well. “My sleeping with you doesn’t mean that I can trust you any more than I can trust those guys, Vin.”

  “You showed up at my apartment when you needed help,” Vincent pointed out. “That has to say something.”

  “It says that I couldn’t go home and I know you’re good in a fight. That doesn’t mean that I’m going to trust you unconditionally.”

  I sat up, looking for my clothes. This was a mistake. I’d let myself give in to my lust and it was a bad, bad decision. Vincent was unbelievably hot and good in bed, sure, but it was still too dangerous for my heart. And, it clearly gave him the wrong idea.

  I didn’t trust him. I couldn’t trust him.

  “Let me take you out,” Vincent said, sitting up while I tugged my clothes back on. “A proper date.”

  I stared at him, suspicion rising in me. Vincent wasn’t the “proper date” type. “Is it to a dive bar?”

  “You’ll love it, I promise,” Vincent told me. “Let me take you out. And let me help you with these guys. I have the resources. I have the skills. You said you know I’m good in a fight, so let me fight for you.”

  I frowned, putting my hands on my hips. It was something to consider, anyway. There had been a reason that I’d instinctively come to him when I felt I needed to be kept safe.

  “All right. One date, that’s all you get. And then I’ll consider letting you take a crack at these mafioso. Okay?”

  Vincent winked at me. “You won’t regret it.”

  “That’s what you always said,” I shot back.

  Vincent pulled on his jeans and led me to the guest room. Or, one of the guest rooms. Apparently, he had two of them.

  I raised an eyebrow at this revelation. “If you live alone, how come you need all this space?”

  “I was planning for the future,” Vincent replied. “For a dog. A kid or two one day. Hosting parties.”

  I nodded. Vincent had always wanted a dog, but his dad had never let him have one.

  “You can sleep with me, if you want,” he added.

  I glared at him. “That was a mistake. Nothing else is happening.”

  “If you say so.” His smile told me he knew he’d find a way to change my mind. “Sleep well, beautiful.”

  I hated myself for it, but a part of me hoped that I’d be proven wrong and that he’d be proven right. That he actually would show me that I could trust him, and that we could be together the way that I had once dreamed.

  I shoved such thoughts aside and settled into the ridiculously comfortable bed. I had much bigger issues to deal with. Pining over my ex-boyfriend was not one of them.

  6

  Vincent

  I almost couldn’t believe what Gina had told me. What was this, the 1930s? Was Prohibition still in effect? What next, Al Capone?

  Luckily, it didn’t take me long to do a little digging into the mafia family that had taken over the neighborhood where Gina worked.

  Once you got to a certain level of wealth, there wasn’t a whole lot that you couldn’t pay people to find out for you.

  The Corillo clan was a mid-level mafia family on their way to becoming heavy hitters, but they were nothing too big just yet. Their move into the neighborhood had to be a part of a power grab to try and establish more authority.

  I could work with that.

  I wasn’t a part of the mafia back when I was running around causing trouble. Even Gina would have told me to scram if I was. She was loyal, but she had her principles. I respected that.

  Well, I hadn’t respected that back then, not as much as I should have.

  But even if I hadn’t been with the mafia, you couldn’t help but hear about it in the kind of circles I had run in. And the position that this Corillo family was in was the best one to be in if I wanted to shake things up for them.

  If they’d been too big and powerful, the power structure would be settled. It would be difficult to arrange an internal power struggle. Everything was simply too fixed. If the family was too small, they’d be too loyal to one another, and there’d be no real power to mess with.

  But with the family members trying to establish themselves as the family clawed its way to the top? It was perfect timing.

  I reached out to some old contacts and had them put their ears to the ground for me. It had been a while since I’d done something like this. I didn’t tell anyone, n
ot even Darien.

  Of course, he noticed that I was preoccupied, but when he tried to ask me about it, I brushed it off. I couldn’t keep him—or anyone else—at bay forever, but to protect Gina, I had to keep our involvement a secret. If that Gabriele asshole or anyone else in the Corillo family found out about our connection, they could move in on her, either simply because Gabriele wanted her or to use her as leverage to get to me. Who knew what they’d do with my money and connections?

  While Darien and the rest of my employees wondered if I’d lost my mind, I did some more research on the Corillo family.

  Between my own exploring and my contacts, I learned that the Corillo family was currently run by one guy, Mario Corillo, but that he had two potential heirs: Gabriele and Anthony. Both boys were Mario’s nephews and had about equal standing in the family. It would be difficult for the old man to choose one over the other.

  My contacts also told me that Anthony and Gabriele hated one another. They always had, ever since they were kids. There was some speculation that Mario was taking so long to pick his heir on purpose, in order to play the cousins against one another, to see if one of them would make a move.

  In other words, he wanted to test them.

  I got ahold of Anthony’s information. Or, rather, the information of the small, hole-in-the-wall Italian place where he liked to eat lunch once a week.

  When I slid into the booth with him, he didn’t look pleased. I noticed the two men over at the booth in the corner start to get up, so I quickly smiled at him.

  “Hi. Vincent Carr, billionaire.”

  “I know who you are,” Anthony replied.

  “Then you know that I’ve got a lot of resources,” I said. “I’ll be frank, since your two goons over there look like they want to try and break my kneecaps. I have a proposition for you. I’ve heard about your problems with your cousin.”

  Anthony raised an eyebrow at me. “And why would a billionaire help a middling mafia family with their problems?”

  “I’m starting a new charity initiative involving animal shelters. The neighborhood your family just took over has one. Release it to me, and I’ll help you take down Gabriele so that you’ll be named heir.”

  “Rather bold of you,” Anthony noted. “To just come up to me like this.”

  I flashed him a grin. “You’re not the first shady guy I’ve done business with, pal. Go ahead and look me up. You do enough digging, you’ll see the kind of people I used to be involved with.”

  “And why would I believe you?” Anthony asked.

  “Well, like I said, look me up. I still have people who remember me. They can verify my unsavory past, so to speak. And I’m telling you because if you want to get your cousin into a vulnerable position, you have to do it quickly.

  “He’s taken an interest in this girl who works at the animal shelter. It’s why he wouldn’t give it up to me when I asked him for it. She doesn’t like him—we can use her to get to him. She can get him to go somewhere public, somewhere vulnerable, and she can keep us fed with information. You can catch him unawares.”

  “I’ve heard nothing about this girl.”

  “Exactly. Why would your cousin tell you about her? First of all, you might steal her. She’s got curves in all the right places, if you know what I mean.” I hated to talk about Gina this way, but it was necessary. Anthony couldn’t know that I knew her so closely, and he couldn’t think that I cared about her or he’d know my real reason for sticking my neck out. “Second of all, if you know about her, then you can use her just like I’m suggesting you do.”

  Anthony considered that for a moment. “You rich men. Thinking you must always have whatever you want, and if you can’t have it, you must find a way to get it.” Then he chuckled. “But using my cousin’s out-of-control lust against him? Yes… rather poetic, isn’t it?”

  I chuckled with him, feeling a whoosh of relief in my stomach. “I’ve struck up a friendship with the girl. I can be your go-between. I’ll get her to pick a place or a time that’ll work for you and you can close in. Get him exposed. You’ll have my resources and my funding. You can blame it on me if you want, so long as I don’t see any retaliation from you guys. Fair?”

  Anthony thought for another moment, then nodded, smiling savagely. “Fair.”

  He stuck out his hand for me to shake.

  It might be a deal with the devil, but I’d made a few of those before. And for Gina’s sake, it would be worth it.

  I shook his hand.

  7

  Gina

  It was the day of our date, and I’ll be honest, I didn’t expect much.

  Okay, so I expected a lot, but in the way of money. Some lavish dinner at a fancy restaurant. Something that would show off the wealth that Vincent now had, as if that would be enough to bring me back.

  I didn’t want someone who could financially support me. Vincent could have done that in high school, too, if he had wanted and if I would have let him. His behavior was never about money. It was about rebelling. Against his father, apparently.

  But I wasn’t the kind of girl who could be wooed with money. I wanted Vincent to show me that he actually cared about me. In our previous relationship, everything had been about him. It had been about his problems, his angst, his troublemaking. I wanted it to be about both of us, equally.

  Tabby helped me get ready. “You should definitely wear red,” she told me. “You look stunning in it.”

  I looked at myself in the mirror. I’d come to terms with how I looked. I even liked how I looked in most situations, although I had accepted the fact that I was never going to like my legs. Would just two more inches of length have hurt?

  But when I walked through the door of… well, anywhere, people stared. Even just standing there, I was something to be whispered about. I knew that I wasn’t what a lot of people would call conventionally pretty. It made me feel like I had to be extra dressed up all the time, like I couldn’t ever have a lazy day. That if I was going to show up, then I had to look good—to give them something else to talk about, or at least less to find fault with.

  “I don’t understand,” I confessed, letting Tabby curl my hair in the back where I couldn’t reach as well. “We haven’t seen each other in a decade.”

  “You must have had quite the effect on him, then,” Tabby replied. She’d always had more faith in me than I’d had in myself, and all the confidence that I’d always lacked.

  “Can anybody really have that much of an effect on somebody else?” I asked.

  “I think so, when it’s really meaningful. And besides, you look amazing. No wonder he took one look at you and decided he had to date you again. I’m surprised more men don’t feel that way.”

  Well, I knew of at least one other man who felt that way, but I tried not to think about him. Or about the fact that I’d slept with Vincent.

  God, what had I been thinking? Yes, he was a ten out of ten. Hot as hell. And yes, I’d been attracted to him all over again the moment he’d walked through the door of the shelter.

  But that was no excuse for letting my emotions run away with me like that. I couldn’t trust him, and until he proved that he had really changed and was going to make me a priority, I shouldn’t give him anything. Give them an inch and they’ll take a mile, and all that.

  To be honest, though, I’d never been nearly as logical and sensible where Vincent had been concerned as I should have been. He’d always had a way of making my head spin and sending all sensible thought out the window.

  I picked out a pair of black kitten heels to contrast the bright red fit and flare dress. I’d always been a sucker for 1940s and 1950s vintage outfits. In the shelter, I had to wear practical clothes because of the animals, but whenever I could, I dusted off one of my vintage dresses.

  “I think you should give him a chance,” Tabby said, brushing some of her blonde hair out of her face. Sometimes I wished I looked like her, tiny and trim and blue-eyed.

  Then I looked at myself
in the mirror in moments like this and thought, damn girl.

  I just wished the rest of the world could get on board with that.

  “He’s obviously been thinking about you for all of these years,” Tabby went on. “How do you know how good it could be if you won’t give him an honest chance? Isn’t that what you always say about the dogs?”

  “Dogs are less complicated than people.”

  Tabby shook her head. “No, I don’t think so. I think we like to think that they are. We get all wrapped up in all the reasons why and our history and all of that when really, people just want to be loved and validated and given clear boundaries. Just like dogs do.”

  “Are you saying I should spray him with water when he gets out of hand?”

  Tabby laughed. “Just have a little patience with him. Be clear about what you want and validate him and I think you’ll be surprised at what kind of person you’re dealing with. I wish my high school boyfriend was so cut up over dumping me that he’s back ten years later begging to take me out on a date.”

  “But would you take him back?”

  “Honestly?” Tabby pursed her lips, thinking. “I don’t know. But our relationship wasn’t nearly as intense as yours was. A relationship like that… it’s something special. Aside from how toxic and unhappy it was. But the connection that you two had, the way you describe it. I’ve never had anything like that.

  That took me aback. I hadn’t thought about it that way.

  Sure, dating Vincent had been… like fireworks were going off inside me whenever he walked into the room, yes. But more than that.

  Sitting in the shelter where I’d volunteered as a teenager, playing with the puppies, I’d seen this vulnerable boy that he didn’t seem to show to anyone else. I’d seen someone who looked at me like I’d hung the moon. Someone who would write me crappy poetry and talk about the world’s problems with me.

  We had talks about things that we hadn’t been able to talk about to anyone else. We’d been one another’s safe space. And it was for the sake of that that I had held on for so long.