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Marabella sets hot cocoa in front of me. “Drink. It’s lovely, I promise.”
I do. I drink, and it’s thick and rich and wonderful. “Thank you.” I offer a weak smile and then glance at Kace. “I’m remarkably nervous about a phone call.”
“A path to freedom, baby,” Kace says. “You can do this.”
“Right. Freedom.” I sip the chocolate and pull my phone from my pocket. “I need his number.”
Adrian slides a phone across the table in my direction. “Use that one. The number is in the phone.”
I scoot my phone back into my pocket and quickly snag the one Adrian has offered me. Allowing myself no time to be nervous, I punch the call button on the pre-set number. A woman answers. “This is May, can I help you?”
“I’m trying to reach Donelle Bianchini, please.”
“May I tell him who’s calling?”
“Aria Alard on behalf of Kace August.”
“Hold, please.” There is silence for several beats before I hear, “Ms. Alard.”
“Mr. Bianchini,” I say, glancing at Kace. “I got your message. I’m so sorry you’re ill.”
“Well, it does my heart right to hear your voice. Can you come sooner than we discussed?”
“How does Wednesday work for you?”
“Oh much better. I can hold out until Wednesday. Can you come in the evening? I seem to feel better when the sun sets.”
“Of course. What time?”
“Seven would be perfect.”
“We’ll see you then,” I confirm.
“Mr. August will be with you?”
“Yes,” I say, waiting for the unease to follow, but it doesn’t. He’s a fan of Kace’s music. He wants Kace to buy the violin. Of course, he wants him there. “He will.”
“Wonderful.” There is delight in his voice. “Do you think he’ll play the violin for me?”
“I’m certain he’d be honored to play the Fetzer for you.”
“Oh, a dying man’s dream. I would love to hear him play ‘Toccata’ live. I’ll see you soon.”
We disconnect and I set the phone down. “He’s either a good actor or he’s not playing us.” I glance at Kace. “He called you playing for him a dying man’s dream.”
“Then I’ll play for him if that’s what it takes to find out what this is really about.” He glances at Kayden. “I’ll go alone.”
“Aria needs to go as well,” Kayden says. “We’re setting a trap. We want the wolves to bite. Both of you together are the perfect bait.”
“No,” Kace says, his voice absolute. “She’s not going. She stays here where she’s safe.”
I twist around to him. “Kace—”
“No, Aria. I told you. I’m keeping you safe.”
“If Gio’s there, he might not show himself if I’m not.”
“I’m not making this decision for Gio.”
“You’re not making it for me either,” I argue. “We want this to end. I have to have the courage to do what it takes to make that happen.”
“She’ll be well protected,” Kayden assures him. “And you’ll be with her.”
“No,” Kace says. “This is non-negotiable.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Kace doesn’t give in.
He doesn’t want me to go to the meeting with Donelle. In fact, he insists I will not go with him.
After his “non-negotiable” statement, the meeting with Kayden and Ella wraps up pretty quickly. “I’m going to get to work putting the pieces of our operations together,” Kayden says, obviously sensing we need some space to hash out the details of our disagreement.
Once the four of us say our goodbyes, Kace and I walk calmly toward our bedroom, but there is a crackle of tension in the air between us that all but sparks. I’m angry. He’s angry. We’re combustible. Kace opens the tall, heavy door to our room and I walk inside before him. He follows, but I only make it a few steps before he’s captured my wrist and then the other, pulling me to him. I end up against the door, his powerful legs framing mine, one of his hands on the wall above my head.
“You will not go to that meeting. The end.”
Anger sparks in me hard and fast. “What happened to the man who only wanted to control me when we were fucking?”
“All bets are off when you try to get yourself killed. It’s my duty to protect you. That is non-negotiable.”
“Again with the non-negotiable?” I challenge. “I’m trying to keep us all alive.”
“You will not go to that meeting.”
“You don’t own me, Kace.”
One of his hands is suddenly on my head, fingers tangling roughly in my hair, his other hand on my backside, molding me to him. “No?”
“No, and you know it.”
“Do I?” he challenges and I never have the chance to reply.
His mouth comes down on mine, rough with demand, his tongue licking wickedly against my tongue. I try to resist, I do, but the taste of him, possessive and hot, undoes me. I moan and melt into the kiss. And when he has my surrender, he parts our lips and says, “You don’t get to die on me, Aria, and if that means I have to tie you to the damn bed and keep you here in this room until this is over, I will.”
His voice is low, rough, a rasp of sandpaper that would bite if not for the desperation beneath his surface, the pain that lurks there, the pain I know, and understand. “Kace, I—”
I never finish that sentence. His mouth comes down on mine again and all the fight between us becomes passion. We’re ripping at each other’s clothes to undress, kissing each other like we will never kiss each other again, and the next thing I know, we’re naked and still by the door. Kace’s hand cups my face and he doesn’t speak, but he doesn’t have to. I see the words in his eyes, I can’t lose you, and I know they are echoed in my eyes.
Seconds tick by, passion rising between us, and then he is kissing me, and I am kissing him, passion exploding between us again, and we are nearly desperate for each other. We are all over each other, kissing, licking, touching, wicked little bites here and there. The scent of him, so marvelously earthy and male, seduces me, and I inhale it and decide he’s my drug. He’s my addiction. He lifts my leg and presses inside me, cupping my backside and picking me up as he does. He rotates, his back against the wall, and I lean into him, kissing him. I’m as lost in him as he is in me, and I know nothing but the sway and thrusts of our bodies.
When it’s over, he carries me to the bed and lays me on the mattress. “Don’t move,” he orders, and then he disappears, returning with a towel. I accept it and roll to my side. He slides in behind me, his big body cradling mine. “I don’t own you, but right now I wish I did. I don’t want you to go to that meeting.”
I rotate to face him, my hand going to his face, the torment in his eyes stealing my breath. “Kace,” I whisper.
“I love you,” he says. “I’m asking you not to go.”
“I don’t want you to go, either. Can’t we just do it together? Live or die together?”
His lashes lower and his expression is all stark lines and shadows. His reaction hurts me. “I won’t go,” I promise.
His lashes lift and the sea of relief I find in his blue eyes undoes me. He undoes me. Just as he completes me. And I do not regret my promise at all. At least not now, but some part of me fears I will, sooner rather than later.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
I fall asleep with Kace holding me and wake to him kissing my neck. “Aria, baby.”
My lips curve and I decide I want to wake up every day of the rest of my life with this man calling me baby. I roll over, cozy in a warm, dim room with the fire crackling in the corner to find him deliciously shirtless and lying next to me. “What time is it?”
“Seven. We need to get up and try to adjust to Rome time. Kayden and Ella want us to go to dinner with them.”
I swear my stomach growls with the idea and I raise up on an elbow. “Pasta?”
He laughs. “Yes. Pasta.”
