Renzo choked out a laugh. “I suppose we’ll see about that when I speak with your father. He’s been too busy with Constantine’s murder to realize you’re getting into bed withAmin, but I can fill him in when we return.”
Gio stiffened and snarled it. “What do you want?”
“Half.”
It was like Renzo had just spit in his face. “No.”
“Half, Giovanni. You’ll need my help to hide this from Vitale, and that’s worth half.”
12
OLIVIA
I stepped into the shower,enjoying the water pressure beating down on me, and ran through the list of what I wanted to accomplish pre-flight. I’d fly Gio back to Rome, and then I’d disappear.
But if I was going to be free of the Abramos, that meant his bodyguard would go, too.
Ethan.
My face heated hotter than the water as my thoughts drifted to last night. Holy mother of god, the sex had been amazing. It had shaken me, too. I wasn’t into cuddling, or tenderness, or intimacy, and yet I’d felt powerful disappointment when he’d had to leave.
He hadn’t wanted to go, either. Besides telling me that, the reluctance was clear on his face as he’d slipped from my bed. So much for finishing the business between us.
I abandoned the pre-flight checklist. He was all I could think about this morning.
What was Ethan doing right now? Probably preparing for the return to Rome. Had our night together silenced the distraction, or had it intensified the same way it had for me?
I had enough desire for him to fill an entire airplane hangar. Not just for sex. I wanted to know what he was hiding. Wanted to know who he really was. Just the name wasn’t enough.
God, what was wrong with me? No strings attached. That was how I survived. That crash on the mountainside hadn’t broken me, but it left me too damaged to offer anything real in return. How had last night reduced me to this?
I lingered under the shower for a while, not wanting to goback into the bedroom and see the bed, the reminder of what had happened there last night. I slipped into the thin, waffle-textured robe hanging by the shower, grabbed the blow dryer, and dried my hair.
When I was finished, I set it on the counter?—
It clattered to the ground.
An enormously tall man lingered in the doorway, and his eyes hinted at the struggle going on behind them. The struggle between Ethan and Nathan.
“I could’ve sworn I locked my door,” I said.
“You did.” He stepped inside the bathroom, pulling the door closed behind him.
The urge to kiss him was so strong, so abrupt, it roared through me like an engine on takeoff. But somehow I managed to contain myself and pretend he didn’t have that effect. Ethan picked the hairdryer up and set it back on the counter, his dark and fascinating eyes evaluating me.
“I did knock,” he said, steadily approaching until there was no space left between us, and we were chest to chest. Wait—not really. I was staring at the center of his chest, and he had to be looking down at the top of my head because he was so tall.
My gaze worked its way up to his face, and it came from me as an anxious whisper. “Did you need something?”
“Giovanni sent me to tell you we’re going back to Rome. I need to know that, as soon as we land, you’ll stop working for the Abramos.”
I had no job lined up, nowhere to go unless I wanted to go home, but... “Of course. I’m not stupid.”
“I didn’t mean to imply that.” The hard angle along his jaw sharpened as the muscle beneath it flexed. Like he was clenching his teeth. “We won’t see each other again.”
I swallowed hard, feeling like I was in a free-fall as I stood trapped inside his intense stare.
“I know,” I said quietly. A long moment passed, and hedidn’t move. “Was there something else you needed?”
