My head spun afresh. ‘I… don’t even know where to start with that.’ I shook my head. ‘Actually, I do. How the hell do you know whether I’m clean or not?’
His speaking glance ridiculed my statement. When I kept my eyebrow raised, he chuckled, although the amusement didn’t reach his eyes. Sharp grey eyes had returned to predatory alertness. His fingers tightened subtly in my hair.
‘The same way I know Matteo has been battling angina for five years, and your uncle Stefano has been making it not so subtly known that he’d love to step into his brother’s shoes.’
My breath caught, giving me away before I could hide my astonishment. My father’s heart condition had been kept within a very tight circle on pain of death to anyone who dared breathe a word of it. He’d hoped it would all go away via a super-secret operation performed in Sicily two years ago, but the outcome had been less than optimal.
It’d put an even greater strain between the half-brothers, necessitating the need to put a little distance between them. It was also why Bonafacio had put Stefano on overwatch duty within the racing team. It kept him out of New York for the better part of nine months of the year and the friction within the family to a minimum.
‘If you know, why…’Shut up, Maddie. You might not like his answer.
‘Why haven’t I used that juicy information?’
My head bobbed before I could throttle my curiosity.
He kissed me again. ‘Who says I won’t? Everything is about timing, baby.’
‘Is it? Because I’m 1,000 per cent sure there will never be the right timing for this if your grandfather… and mine… find out what we did tonight. What you intend to keep doing.’
His face hardened with soul-shaking savagery for a single moment. Before he actively cleared it and shrugged. ‘Ifbeing the operative word. I don’t intend it to be front page news. Do you?’ His gaze probed mine.Hard.
It was the right answer. The sensible one. And yet, a bite of hurt pierced my ribcage. Still, I managed to shake my head.
He smacked me lightly on the ass. ‘Good. Now get up.’ He rose to dispose of the second condom and returned in a silk bathrobe.
‘And what if I don’t want my blood drawn?’
He paused at the end of the bed, and dear God, his deliciousness was almost unnervingly potent.
He shrugged. ‘We keep going as we’ve started.’ He leaned forward, propped his fists on either side of my feet. ‘But go on, lie to my face right now and tell me you wouldn’t love for me to fuck you raw?’
Damn him.
I couldn’t.
So I didn’t.
17
CESARE
The Singapore night race was the most taxing of the whole season. Maybe that was why it was also my favourite. There was something about pushing yourself to the very brink of exhaustion and dehydration in one-hundred-and-four-degree heat that made me feel alive.
Tonight’s race was especially sweet. A different kind of exhaustion trailed through my muscles, reminding me of the hours I’d spent fucking Maddelena. My only regret was the hours had sped by far too quickly.
And yeah, the fact that I was starting from pole position, where I rightly belonged, didn’t hurt either.
Under the bright floodlights that turned the track from night to day, I scanned the crowd as Brazzo regurgitated information and scenarios we’d gone over a dozen times already. I nodded and absently absorbed it, reminding myself that keeping him calm would help me in the long run.
Now that I knew where the threat was coming from, I was doing my best to make it up to my team for the hell I’d put them through. Up to a point, anyway. They’d turned themselves inside out this weekend to ensure that while Singapore wasalways going to favour our humidity-loving engine, every piece of information was kept under lock and key and relayed to our most trusted crew at the very last minute.
It’d made for longer hours in the garage than we’d wanted, but the penalty for working outside parc fermé hours had been worth?—
My thoughts screeched to a halt when I saw her.
Unlike the majority of her team, Maddelena didn’t wear the team gear.
The gleaming chestnut hair I’d delighted in roping around my fist as I’d banged her from behind last night was layered around her face in stylish waves. I hated that her eyes were covered by designer sunglasses but perhaps it was just as well.
