by Silver James
“Ah, cailín. Ya slay me with that look on yer face.”
Before she could respond, the man had wrapped her in his arms, careful of the babies in their pouches. When her breathing was more normal, he released her then relieved her of both children.
“C’mon then, let’s go have a cuppa tea—without your special additive.”
Blushing furiously, she hoped the man couldn’t see her. “How did you know?”
He tapped the side of his nose but didn’t reply. This time, he led her through a door from the pool area and to a bank of elevators. They rode up in silence. In the room, he helped her put the twins to sleep in the crib then ushered her back to the living area. Puttering around in the kitchenette, he stated, “You’ve got good babies, ya know.”
“They are now. Luca, he cried almost constantly, and Luiza wouldn’t eat.” She clamped her teeth to keep any more words from spilling out.
“How did you get by with no help?”
When she didn’t respond, he stopped in his preparations and turned to look at her. “I admire you, ya know.”
Embarrassed, she lifted a shoulder more in self-defense than a shrug. “I didn’t have a choice.”
“Aye. Ya didn’t now, did ya? But ya got away. And you were smart enough to find help.”
Head shaking, she denied his assertion. “No. Help found me.” Which was true. A stubborn old man had seen something that bothered him and he hadn’t given up until he’d found her.
“It did indeed. So could ya explain to me why yer running away from it now?”
Her eyes felt like half the beach at Barefoot Bay was lodged in them. “I thought I could…” Thought she could what? Trust Nick? Fall in love with him? That he would fall in love with her? People like her didn’t get happy-ever-afters.
“You can, you know.” He set a cup of steaming tea in front of her, along with a plate of chocolate chip cookies.
“I can what?”
“Trust us. Trust Nick.”
“Why should I?”
“Nick called us for help, Peni. ’Tis the only reason we’re here. Have we hurt ya? Has Nick? Our only aim is t’keep you and the twins safe.”
She caught her bottom lip between her teeth as she considered the facts…separating them from her dreams and hopes. Nicholas had been kind. Caring. Sweet, even. He’d taken care of her. And the twins. He’d kissed her and her body had responded in ways new and thrilling for her. She felt safe with him sleeping beside her. Her nights since their rescue from Mimosa Key had been full of bad dreams, with tossing and turning. Sleep mostly eluded her—that hadn’t been exactly a lie. She just didn’t want to take drugs to make her sleep.
Nick was different from any man she’d ever met. He lived an exciting life, was exciting. He made her feel things she’d never felt before. He touched secret places of longing she’d only suspected existed within her. He did alarming things to her heart and mind she couldn’t explain. He was dangerous in ways that should scare her, and that was exactly why she wanted him. But what did he see in her?
She hugged herself. “How can I?”
****
NICK JERKED AWAKE and it took him a few seconds to reorient himself. He was still in the front seat of the rental car, parked down the block from Theodore Vasile’s Boston home. Soft, salmon-colored light filled the street as crimson fingers touched the tops of the buildings across the street.
“Red sky at morning, sailors take warning,” Dom murmured.
“How long was I out?” Nick leaned forward, arching and bowing his back to ease the cramp that had awakened him.
“Couple of hours. No movement but the light came on in the third floor bay window about fifteen minutes ago. I was getting ready to wake your ass up.”
A black limousine cruised down the one-way street and nosed into the empty spot in front of the historic South Bay townhouse. Nick unholstered his Glock and opened the car door. Dom laid his hand on Nick’s forearm.
“Don’t, man. This isn’t the way. We’ll see him put away legally.”
Nick shook off his cousin’s hand. He had to take out Theodore Vasile or Peni, Luca, and Luiza would never be safe. He’d promised her he’d keep them that way, and he knew of no other way to keep that promise, but he hesitated. Could he go back to Peni with blood on his hands? With more blood, he amended. He wasn’t a white-hat hero. Not now, not ever.
He settled back into the seat and closed the passenger door as the front entrance on the house they were watching opened, spilling a splash of light down the front steps. Cezar appeared and Nick tensed. That SOB deserved to die a long, slow, tortuous death. The man strode to the car, gaze darting up and down the street as he opened the back door. A few beats later, Theodore Vasile himself stepped from the house and marched down the steps, crossed the sidewalk and slid into the backseat.
As Cezar closed the limo’s door, Nick asked, “Have any idea how we’re going to get the goods—”
The red dawn he’d seen in the sky erupted on the street. He scrunched into the floor board at his feet while Dom laid out across the seat. The windshield imploded as the limo’s bumper hit it. Shrapnel peppered the car, along with wetter things.
Nick exchanged a look with his cousin as they waited until the last metallic pings stopped. Dom sat up and Nick climbed back onto the seat. They both stared down the street. The limo was a burning hulk. Car alarms wailed like air raid sirens and in the distance the bansidhe shriek of emergency vehicles echoed off the buildings.
“Well…” Dom eventually said then closed his mouth when no other words formed on his tongue.
“Shit,” Nick finished for him.
****
PENI WAS BACK in Barefoot Bay, back in Villa Caralluma, only there was no Nick. She had a new bodyguard or guards. She wasn’t sure. They all looked vaguely alike and took shifts patrolling around the villa. They worked for McBain Security. Poppy had dropped in, bringing food, formula, and diapers. All the clothes Nick bought her and the twins were still in the drawers and closet of the bedroom.
Exhausted, she slept when the twins napped but was up at the first sign of distress from Luca. Now she sat on the lounger next to the pool. The twins were in their mechanical swings, cooing happily. A shadow spilled across the pavers and she startled. Gabe Rossi stood in the gate that led to the beach. A man stood behind him.
Peni stilled, her breath and heartbeat mere whispers in her chest. “Nick.” She mouthed his name, unable to break the silence blanketing the space between them.
Gabe stepped to the side as Nick drew even with him. “You sure you want to do this?”
Nick nodded, not taking his eyes off her. “I’m sure.”
Without a sound, Gabe disappeared through the gate, shutting it behind him. Nick didn’t move. His eyes flicked over Luca and then Luiza, assessing, checking, and the tightness around his eyes eased a bit once he’d ascertained they were well.
“We need to talk,” he said, his gaze now on Peni.
She stood and raised her left hand, as if reaching for him. “Nicholas? Why are you here?”
“C’mere.”
She walked to him instantly. She thought he’d open his arms and she could melt into them like she had so often in their time here in Barefoot Bay. He didn’t so she halted a step away. Raising a hand, he brushed knuckles across her cheek. Something was happening, something Peni had no experience with but her emotions were zinging.
“Vasile is dead.”
She blinked and her skin pebbled from the chill bombarding her body. She covered her mouth, mumbled through her fingers. “Dead?”
Peni’s eyes widened and Nick recognized each emotion displayed in them—shock, relief, and the one that hurt the worse…fear. Of him. He backed up a step. Dom had been right to stop him in Boston. He could not have come to Peni with this blood on his hands. He probably shouldn’t have come at all.
“You’re free, Peni. You and Luiza and Luca are safe.”
She inhaled several times and her lip
s quivered as she formed the question hanging between them. “Did you kill him?”
“No.”
“Then…how?”
“A bomb. Cops think it was a rival mob.” He pushed his fingers through his hair, stared at his feet unable to meet her gaze any longer. “But I wanted to, Peni. I had the pistol in my hand, was getting out of the car. I planned to walk up to him, pull the trigger point blank. Him and Cezar both. I promised I’d keep you and the kids safe. That was the only way I knew how.” He sucked in a ragged breath, raised his head to look at her. “Someone beat me to it.”
Luca fussed, breaking the tension. Without thinking, Nick turned, stopped the swing and unhooked the baby boy. Habit had him carrying Luca inside to the Pack n’ Play. He changed the baby’s diaper with practiced ease. With Luca cradled against his chest, Nick pivoted, almost running into Peni who’d followed him inside, holding Luiza.
“Is she wet too?” Talking about the twins was safe ground. Anything else was a quagmire Nick wasn’t sure he was ready traverse. Peni nodded, eyes wide as she watched him. He traded Luca for his sister and with now-practiced ease, changed Luiza’s diaper. “Do they need to eat?”
Peni nodded once again, still not speaking. Fear continued to paint uncertainty across her expression. He didn’t ask if she was going to breastfeed. Instead, he headed into the kitchen and prepared two bottles mostly one-handed. Luiza made grabby motions with her hands and cooed. Luca slapped at Peni’s face and yelled. He was one ornery kid.
“Here,” he said, walking to her. “You take the princess and I’ll take the terror.” Once again, they traded babies and while he settled on one end of the couch, Peni opted to take Luiza to the bedroom.
Twenty minutes later, Luca was fed, burped, changed again into the overnight version of his disposable diaper and Nick was pacing, waiting for the kid to drop off. When walking didn’t work, he defaulted to the lullaby his yiayia and father both sang to him. An echo of the song wafted through the room. Nick discovered the source—the baby monitor. Peni was singing the Greek lullaby to Luiza.
Nick had stopped just inside the bedroom door. Peni was bent over the crib, rubbing Luiza’s back and crooning the lullaby. Luca yawned and burbled, his eyes drifting shut. Walking across the room, Nick placed the baby next to his sister. Both infants remained asleep so he retreated to lean against the door jamb, arms folded across his chest. “Can we talk now?”
Peni’s heart raced and she wondered if she’d faint. He looked so stoic. Cold and distant. But there was a light in the depth of his eyes that was pure heat. She nodded, knowing she’d never get words around the tightness in her throat.
As if he knew she couldn’t speak, he continued. “Can we talk about us? Whether there is an us.” He hesitated. Inhaled and exhaled several times. “That day when I called you at the hotel.”
She wet her lips, remembered to breathe, nodded.
“You didn’t give me the chance to finish.” He dropped his gaze, appeared to be studying the pattern in the rug. “I don’t know what to do for you, Peni. I don’t know what you need. You don’t have much experience when it comes to relationships. And I have too much. I want to share my experience with you. Teach you. Show you how it can be.” He glanced up, snagged her gaze and held it. “But damn it all to hell, Peni, most of all, I want you. I fucking want you so much it hurts.”
Peni studied him, every last nuance of his expression. She knew so little about this man—about any man, yet she knew everything. He stood before her like a supplicant seeking…what exactly? Atonement? Forgiveness? Redemption? All of those, yes, and more. Something blossomed in her chest. Unfurled. Her heart. Her trust. Her belief in him.
She had to wet her lips and swallow before she could speak.
“Teach me.”
Chapter 14
NICK’S CELL PHONE rang and the curse torn from his throat was as raw as his emotions. He stabbed the accept button after checking the incoming number.
“Not a good time, Rossi.”
“We have a situation, Karras. I need you. Now.”
More curse words tumbled through his head as he stared at the woman he wanted more than life. “On my way.”
He approached Peni warily, stopping just close enough that he could reach out to brush his fingertips across the soft skin of her cheek. “Will you wait here for me?”
She nodded. Not trusting himself if he kissed her, he backed away without doing so. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Wide-eyed, she followed him to the front door, watched him unlock and open it. “Lock it behind me, Peni. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” Or he’d kill someone in the process.
Peni wasn’t moving as he closed the door behind him. Nick pressed his ear against the wood, until he heard the click of the lock. She spoke then, and he heard her clearly.
“I’ll be waiting.”
****
MIDNIGHT HAD COME and gone before Nick returned. Two of McBain’s people had caught a prowler—who happened to be a high-level assassin. The million dollar bounty on Peni and the twins hadn’t disappeared despite Vasile’s death. Nick had to call in another favor from his cousin’s boss while Gabe worked his side of the dark net. Interpol finally located the numbered account and froze the funds.
Nick keyed the lock, securing the door behind him. He crept to the bedroom, pushed open the door and froze at the sight—Peni sprawled in the bed. His jeans were no longer loose. And as much as he wanted her, he was rooted to the spot as he watched. When he could move again, he stripped, pulled on a pair of running shorts, and moved to the bed where he stood, watching once again.
Almost from the moment he’d seen her, he’d sensed the raw truth of her heart. It sheltered a potent sensuality, and he could all but taste Peni’s pent-up longing for release. Her good-girl demeanor? What a man saw is what he got, but Nick saw deeper, saw the truth of her. She was a good girl. A very good girl. Shy, but with an innate passion that was barely a flicker. He had every intention of nurturing that buried spark until it burst into flame. He would walk through her fire, bringing her into the joy and release she so richly deserved.
Nick didn’t have to be told to be gentle. He could be nothing else. She might be a mother, but she’d never made love. And that was exactly what he intended to do. Teach her how good things could be between a man and a woman. This woman was so sweetly submissive and every dominant bone in his body demanded he take care of her needs, that he introduce her to the joys of surrender.
She sighed, the sound quiet as it whispered across his skin.
“I didn’t mean to wake you.” He lied. He’d meant to arouse her with his touch. And he had. He skimmed the rough pads of his fingertips along the line of her jaw then teased her lips. “I came in and you were sleeping.”
Peni stretched and yawned then jerked fully awake. “The babies.”
He caught her, hands cupping the points of her shoulders and holding her still. “They’re fine. Sleeping soundly, both of them.”
Breathing hard, her breasts lifted and fell and he could see her dark areolas peeking through the thin cotton of one of his old T-shirts. He spread his right hand, tweaked one nipple with his little finger and it immediately pebbled. Her eyes darted up to meet his gaze before she lowered them. He kissed her forehead then slid the palm of his other hand down her bare arm. Capturing her hand, he lifted it to his mouth and kissed each finger, starting with her pinkie and ending by sucking her thumb into his mouth. He teased the digit with his tongue and smiled when her breath caught and she dared glance up at him again.
“Soft.” He murmured the word around her thumb. He released it and turning her hand over, placed a wet kiss in the middle of her palm. “Lovely.” Still holding her hand, he tipped up her chin with his. “Mine.”
Even in the dim light spilling from the shaded lamp across the room, he could see her skin darkening in a blush.
This time, when her gaze collided with his, she didn’t hide. She held his eyes, studied him. T
his was the woman he wanted to tease out of the shy shell she used as a shield. He wanted her to find the strength he saw when he looked at her. The dominant side of his personality craved her submission, but until she recognized the power she held over him, they couldn’t truly come together as one.
“I want to see you, Peni. Touch you. All of you.”
“Why?”
He pulled the hand he’d continued to hold to his groin, pressed her palm against his erection. “This is what you do to me, babe. The whole time I was gone, I got this hard whenever I thought about you waiting here in bed for me.” He rubbed against her hand and all but howled as her fingers curled around his dick. The only thing between his erection and her palm was the loose pair of cotton running shorts that weren’t going to cover shit if she did that again.
“I’m on the very edge of my control—and never losing control is something I’m known for. I…” His breath hissed out and he had to break away, put distance between them so he could think. He was a strong dominant and enjoyed pushing sexual limits. And he never, ever lost control.
But he’d never been with Peony Comanescu. He was drawn to her like… Nick chuckled softly, his gaze remaining on her upturned face. All the usual comparisons trailed across his brain like the ticker board at the New York Stock Exchange. He was an alpha male, dominant and knowing exactly what he wanted in a sexual encounter. Peni was all wrong for him. She wasn’t his type. He chose partners who knew the rules of the game, understood them, played by them.
This woman? He didn’t want to take her. Use her like he had others, giving his other partners the release they wanted, in the way they wanted it. That was Nick Karras in the clubs. With Peni, he wanted to offer tenderness. No, that was wrong. He wanted to be tender. He wanted to make love to this woman, to induct her into the mysteries of passion and sensuality and all that happens between lovers.
Her expression didn’t change but he saw something in her eyes. He moved closer, touched her, teasing her breast again. He groaned as her fingers instinctively reached for then tightened around his dick. He gritted out a demand in a husky voice. “I need the words, sweetheart.”
