by Olivia Gates
Something swelled inside his chest until he couldn’t breathe. So he didn’t, let himself succumb to those whiskey eyes as they penetrated him to his core with their absolute truthfulness.
No one besides his brothers had ever treated him without artifice. But their candor had been nothing like this. It was indescribable being exposed to hers. Her ruthless bluntness at once slapped him for being a pathetic show-off and bestowed on him the most validating evaluation of his life.
He got adulation wherever he went, but no one had ever told him anything like that. That his intrinsic value remained unchanged without everything he’d achieved or acquired. It was what he’d told himself since he’d escaped The Organization. That his abilities would bring him success, would amass fortune and power, would re-create them if he ever lost them. But only Liliana had ever expressed that exact same belief in him.
And she did so when she still considered him an antagonist. She was fair enough that she’d give even an enemy his full due.
She raised her cup to her lips. “Though I commented because you dragged me to this creepily empty seven-star establishment, I hope you don’t always feel the need to flaunt your wealth and impose your worth on the world. I assure you you’re the last man on earth who needs to do that.”
He finally exhaled his pent-up breath. “I’ll be sure to make a note of that.”
So not only had he failed to impress her, she’d ended up counseling him.
To make things worse, he’d totally lost track of time. Six hours had passed, when he’d intended to tantalize her for only a couple of hours and leave her wanting more, so next time she’d be more eager, or at least, less resistant.
But he’d been incapable of ending the most enchanting day he’d ever had, the most exhilarating duel he’d ever waged. He’d been swept on the tide of their affinity, the hunger that had been building inside him demanding more of her. It now craved all of her. Now, not later.
She pushed her cappuccino cup away. “Was that leisurely enough for you?”
“Not quite.”
“C’mon, you said lunch, and it’s now time for dinner.”
“Then we have dinner. At a place of your choosing.”
“You think it’s possible for me to eat anything else? I can barely breathe. But you’re a big boy who needs his nutrition, so you go ahead. I’ll walk back home.” She tapped her slightly curved belly through that dress whose color made her skin glow and her hair and eyes sparkle with red and gold fires. “I can sure use a long, hard walk.”
“So we’ll walk together. Then I’ll drive you home.” She started to object and he cut her off. “You don’t think I’d let you go back home on your own, do you?”
“Why not? I’ve been doing it since I was a kid.”
“You’re not doing it on my watch.” Before she could say anything else, he was on his feet, his hand extended to her.
Though she grumbled that he was an entitled chauvinist, she gave him her hand. It was all he could do not to yank her by it, slam her against his aching body and drink her dissension dry.
As they stepped out into the night, the warm, humid ocean breeze was so strong it swept her curls across his face. He groaned, getting another whiff of her scent, which had almost had him pouncing on her back in her house. His hardness had long crossed from painful to agonizing.
Giving in, he reached out to catch those locks. He’d send his plans of taking it slow to hell, would capture her by that lush cascade of silk, push her against the nearest building and devour her.
But she aborted his feverish intentions, pulling her locks away, one from between his lips. And their hands touched. Jerking hers away as if he’d electrocuted her, she mumbled that her hair came alive in the wind, produced a clip from her purse and secured her rioting hair in an improvised updo.
Triumphantly declaring the problem contained, she starting walking. It took him a moment to get his stiff legs to fall into step with her. His breath had clogged in his chest so hard again he had to force himself to breathe.
That tightness increased all through their two-hour walk down the bustling streets. As did his enjoyment.
They argued, agreed, bickered and shared companionable silences. He even got her to laugh many times, once so hard she shed tears.
Getting her to lower her guard enough with him, then to respond to his wit and teasing so unreservedly, was the most rewarding thing he’d ever done.
Then to his dismay, she said that her feet were starting to hurt, being so unused to heels. He should have considered this, at least realized her discomfort when she’d slowed down. Not only had he been inconsiderate but now their walk had to end.
He offered to carry her so they could go on, and she laughed it off, thinking he was joking, which he wasn’t. He called Paolo to deliver his car, and she took her sandals off while they waited, so he did scoop her up. No matter how much she spluttered for him to put her down, he insisted he wasn’t letting her stand barefoot in the street.
Once driving, every cell of his body on fire, he kept wondering how he’d prolong the drive and his time with her.
He didn’t want this night to end.
Then he felt her looking at him. At the next light he turned to her, found her gaze fixed on him with what looked like distressed embarrassment.
The tightness he was getting used to feeling around her returned in full force. “What’s wrong?”
Her lips twisted. “Just that you went to great lengths to show me a good time and I was only a rude jackass in return.”
“You only said what you thought without filters.”
“Which is the definition of rudeness. I played back our whole outing and I realized you’ve been nothing but gracious while I’ve been obnoxious. At first I was so on purpose, but then I decided to stop, and I was still downright offensive.”
“You were no such thing. You even paid me the biggest compliment anyone ever has. To everyone I am my success and power and money. You’re the only one who ever thought I am the one who gives worth to my achievements and assets.” Those wide eyes he never wanted to stop staring into grew larger. He gritted his teeth as he had to turn back to the road and drive again. “And even if you’ve been rude, I would have deserved it, since you consider I’ve coerced you into this outing.”
“You didn’t. I know I could have said no. But I did want to come. And I did enjoy everything, because I was with you. You’re the best company I’ve ever had.”
His gaze swung to her, caught her expression as she’d said these unbelievable statements.
Had he ever thought her anything less than the most perfect thing he’d ever seen? Was that how she truly felt? Could he be that lucky?
And whatever remained of his premeditation snapped. “I don’t want to drive you home, Liliana. Come with me to mine.”
The moment the words were out, he wanted to kick himself.
This was the last thing he should have said. He’d barely gotten her to trust him enough to enjoy being with him and to admit it. And he had to go and crash through her limits like an overeager teenager.
Now she wouldn’t only refuse, she’d swat him back to persona non grata status. Women usually played demure at this point, so men wouldn’t think them easy. But her refusal would be the most legitimate response ever.
Amidst the fury of self-disgust, he almost missed her answer. Braking too abruptly at the light, jerking her in her seat, he turned to her, disbelieving.
“What did you say?” he rasped.
Looking up at him without the slightest trace of guile, she repeated what he hadn’t believed he’d heard her say.
“I said okay.”
* * *
Entering Antonio’s sprawling mansion a fraught half hour after he’d asked her to go home with him, Lili still wondered if she was hav
ing another wish-fulfillment dream. One far more detailed and realistic...and outrageously ambitious. She kept wondering if she’d wake up any moment now.
But the dream continued, tangible, all-encompassing, like his heat at her back, his aura intoxicating her like the champagne had failed to. Everything was way over the top.
Problem was, it was really happening. He’d asked her to come home with him and she’d accepted. In embarrassing speed and eagerness.
“Would you like a drink?”
She swung around at his quiet question, almost losing her balance, and found him watching her with the most unreadable glance he’d leveled on her so far. Every fiber in her body quivered. He’d been almost silent since she’d said okay. Now the way he regarded her... What was he thinking?
To give herself space, to figure out what to feel or do, she nodded. With an even more disturbing glance, he nodded back as his powerful hand loosened his tie and undid a button as if they were suddenly suffocating him. Her dry throat convulsed as she watched him turn away, cross the lavish, ultramasculine great room to a wet bar at its end, his every movement sheer poetry of grace and control.
Her mind raced as he prepared their drinks, every now and then saying something that only necessitated monosyllabic responses from her.
She was now convinced he was interested in her. As a woman. Also known as sexually. While she could tell him he couldn’t have picked a worse candidate for such interest, she doubted he’d listen. His intense fixation on her had only grown at her attempts to dissuade him from coming closer.
Maybe because he could talk to her, or she jogged his jaded senses, or she was a type he’d never encountered. Whatever the reason, he was interested.
But interest was too mild a word, insultingly so, to describe what he provoked in her.
She craved him.
When she’d never wanted anyone. Or anything, for that matter. Besides scientific discovery. Not that she’d ever felt anything this out of control for science.
Still, mere craving didn’t describe her feelings now. Every last component of her being was aroused. Her mind, her senses, her body. She was in an uproar. For him. Only ever him.
But while his interest had grown directly proportionate to her resistance, since she’d stopped resisting him back there in his car, something had changed. He’d been almost...subdued.
Had he regretted inviting her here the moment she’d agreed? Had he only done so because, based on her behavior so far, he’d fully expected her to decline? Was he already losing interest now that she’d suddenly stopped providing him with the only things that had attracted him to her, resistance and surprises?
This probably explained the way he was behaving now.
Even if it didn’t, she knew if she capitulated and joined his worshipping hordes, he would lose interest in her and move on. Sooner would be better than later. The longer she was exposed to him, the more severe the havoc he’d leave in his wake.
That led her to one possible decision. She’d give him what he expected as his right from all mortal beings.
He was sauntering back now with the drinks, as if he were postponing reaching her as much as he could. Stopping two steps away, when he’d always kept only one between them, he brooded down at her as he handed her a glass.
Gulping down agitation and regret, she took it. Then she reached for his glass, too. His eyes widened as he unclasped the glass and let her take it. Trembling in earnest now, she put the glasses down on a nearby coffee table.
His expression was perplexed when she straightened. It became stunned when she covered the space he’d kept between them, then reached up and pulled the tie he’d fully undone right off.
Dropping it to the ground, she lowered her eyes, unable to take the brunt of his blazing eyes this close up, or his disappointment that she’d turned out to be like every other woman he’d ever met. Squeezing her eyes shut, she did what she’d been aching to do since she’d laid eyes on him.
Sliding her hand beneath his shirt, she longingly glided her shaking, prickling hand over his hot, hard flesh.
Six
Antonio felt his mind short-circuiting.
Liliana. She was touching him. Igniting him into an uproar. Shocking him into paralysis.
This wasn’t even among the things he’d expected or hoped for. He’d planned to court her, to break down her resistance in stages. But with a single “okay,” she’d thrown everything out of whack. He felt like he’d been pushing with all his strength against an immovable object when suddenly all resistance was removed. He found himself hurtling with unstoppable momentum, falling flat on his face.
He’d still been struggling to adjust his thinking, and his actions accordingly as he’d handed her that drink, when she’d thrown him for a loop again by taking his, too, then proceeding to whisk off his tie. As the silk had hissed against his neck, as if relieved to part with his shirt, he’d frozen, his every sense converged on her eyes, trying to fathom from her expression what the hell had been going on.
But they’d been turbid with so many emotions. He thought he’d seen shyness, uncertainty, resignation, recklessness...and hunger, before she’d closed them as if to escape his analysis. Not that he could have been certain of anything. His mind had been a tangled mess by then.
And that was before she’d touched him.
Now a small, delicate hand slid beneath his shirt, as if searching for his heart. He felt as if she’d found it, taken hold of it. It was the only explanation for why it boomed in erratic thunder, when it had always remained steady in emergencies and under literal fire.
Her touch was like nothing he’d ever felt. It was like he’d never been touched before, and her tentative softness was his first exposure to human contact, to sensual stimulation. Sensations he’d never felt before exploded within him, detonating every single barrier inside him. The last dam was his control.
He was no longer in command of his thoughts or reactions, nor did he want to be. Of its own accord, his hand clamped her wrist, stopping the torment of her touch. Her eyes jerked open and up, alarm and mortification spreading in their gold depths. And his last thread of restraint snapped.
A primal rumble surging from his depths, he did what he’d wanted to do every second of the past three days. He yanked her against his body, hard. He growled something incoherent at the music of her cry, enveloping her in his arms and crushing her against him.
For one suspended moment, their gazes merged. Hers was at once stunned and surrendering. His heart felt as if it would explode if he didn’t possess those lips that spilled those mind-melting sounds of submission.
“Antonio...”
He swooped down, his open mouth swallowing her gasp as he drove his tongue between her lips and plumbed her depths. The taste and scent of her, both overpowering aphrodisiacs, made him growl again and again as he feasted on her.
Opening to him, letting him all the way inside her, she whimpered, squirmed. He gave her what she was wordlessly begging for, deepening his possession, every glide against her moist silkiness, every thrust inside her fragrant deliciousness pouring fuel on his fire. Mindless with the need to devour her, to invade her, he hauled her up into his arms and strode to his bedroom with her curled up against him.
He flung himself down on the bed, taking her on top of him. She cried out as she impacted him, then again as he reversed their positions, taking her yielding, trembling body underneath him. His hands were almost rough in his haste to push her dress up and open her thighs. He groaned at the feel of her velvet firmness filling his hands. Lodging himself between her splayed smoothness, he rose on his knees to take off his jacket and shirt, tearing the latter in his haste.
Her eyes grew heavier as he exposed himself, her body undulating its plea beneath him, her voice quavering as she gasped his name between fractured breaths.
With pants still on, he slid over her again, undoing her hair’s improvised confinement, driving trembling hands into her thick tresses, his gaze feverishly roaming her flushed face. That face, that essence, had taken control of his desires and fantasies from the instant he’d seen her. Now he’d take her body. He’d possess it until she wept with pleasure.
Her eyes glittered with molten gold then overflowed. He jackknifed up, gaping at her as tears spilled down her hectic cheeks in pale tracks. His thought just now had been metaphorical, but she was shedding tears for real.
She was that aroused? As aroused as he was?
Triumph and hunger raged through him like wildfire. He should be shocked at their ferocity. But he reveled in feeling out of control for the first time in his life.
“Antonio, please...”
Her tearful plea, her body buzzing beneath him with a need as brutal as his own, undid whatever sanity he had left.
He fell on her like a starving predator, his lips wrenching at hers, his tongue driving inside her as he ground himself against her.
Suddenly she was heaving beneath him, her moans becoming strangled shrieks.
It was only when her cries in his mouth turned to whimpers and her body melted limply beneath his that realization trickled through his fury of arousal.
Had she...climaxed?
Struggling to stop grinding against her, he raised himself on shaking arms, found her staring at him from slit lids, panting through swollen lips, her body nerveless.
