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Alto and Boian nod, then leave Emiliano and me alone. When the silence stretches to uncomfortable lengths, I decide it’s time for my escape. “I’ll leave youto work.”
“Stay.” Any other time, the command would have me bristling. Only the hint of desperation in his tone has me stopping and turning back to him.
I swallow at the look of hunger in his eyes, the thick vein of his neck pulsing heavily, and the clenching and unclenching of his hands. “Did you need something else?”
With one long stride, he’s in front of me, pulling the air from my lungs and replacing it with his scent of cedar, leather, and something spicy. His hand lifts to my cheek, and my eyes flutter shut when his rough fingers stroke a fiery path across my cheek to my chin, where he tips my head back to bring my lips to brush against his. “So much,mia perla. I want so much right now, but you aren’t ready.” His lips land feather soft on mine, and I sigh at the barely-there caress. “Your body remembers me, but only when your mind and heart remember me will I take you to my bed and worship you like the goddess you are.” Heat pools at my core, and my lips tingle at the barely there touch of his caress. I want more, but he pulls away, and I’m instantly cold from the absence ofhis body.
A sudden flash of memory bolts to the forefront of my mind. “What’s wrong, mia perla? You can’t handle a little cold water?” Emiliano’s naked body sprints to the icy waters of the Tyrrhenian Sea.
“Challenge accepted, Calvano.”I return and chase after him … naked. I dive into the sea’s icy depths, then pop out and jump into his arms to warm myself. We laugh as he holds me with tenderness.
“Greta,” Emiliano’s hands grip both sides of my jaw, his warm touch stealing me from the memory. With a flutter of my lashes, I bring him back into focus and plant a palm against my temple as the thumping begins.
“I’m okay,” I say through atight jaw.
“What the hell just happened?” I open my eyes to find his handsome face dousedin worry.
My chest warms at his concern, and lifting my fingers to his forehead, I smooth out the worry lines between his eyebrows. “I just remembered our swim in the sea. Our verynakedswim.”
The look of concern morphs into a mischievous grin, and he takes my hand in his, gently kissing my palm before nipping the pad. And like my own personal pain killer, the thumping in my head dissipates to a low ache at his touch.
“And do you rememberwhywe were naked,mia perla?”
My cheeks heat. “I can only imagine. After all, you’re a fiend,SignoreCalvano.”
Emiliano throws his head back in laughter, and something inside me lights up and buzzes like a neon light at the sound. My gut tells me that he doesn’t laugh often. “Very true,SignorinaWhite. But I do not remember you protesting.” He brings me into his rock-hard chest. “In fact, I believe your exact words were ‘Fottimi con la lingua.’”Fuck me with your tongue.
My eyes widen, and I bury my head in his chest in embarrassment. “IfI said such a thing, it had to be because you hypnotized me or…”
He lifts my head from his chest with a Cheshire cat smile playing on his lips. “Or?”
I shake my head and smile back at him. “I haveno idea.”
“I do. You let the darkness inside you out for the first time in your life. From the moment I saw you at the charity event, I knew you were made for me. You had the aura of a queen. Charming, controlled, lethally beautiful, and,” he kisses the tip of my nose,“vicious.”
My back comes up at the latter. “I am notvicious!”
He chuckles and sweeps a lock of my hair from my face. “There’s a dead man with a crushed hand that woulddisagree.”
Again, my eyes widen, and a cold sweat breaks out along my skin. “I… I killedsomeone?”
His fingertips latch onto my chin, and he shakes my head lightly, his handsome face now stern. “He deserved what he got, Greta. He sexually assaulted you. In return, you ensured that even if I were to grant him mercy, he’d never touch another woman like that again. But no, you didn’t kill him. I’m the one that gave the order.”
I remember him mentioning the assault in the hospital, but there is one question I didn’t dare to ask at the time. “Did he ra––”
“No,” Emiliano cuts me off and wipes away the tear that escapes my eye. “He didn’t, but he did enough to warrant his death. Don’t lose sleep over thatcazzo.” He wipes away another tear, and the knot in my stomach loosens, and something I refuse to acknowledge springs to life in my chest at the thought of Emiliano exacting justice for what was done to me.
19
Emiliano
With Greta’s help, we have a clearer path to finding Vasile, but I would be lying if I said that is my main concern.
Resurrecting Greta’s memories is beginning to consume my every waking hour. I spoke with the physician, who informed us he doesn’t feel the drugs that Vasile pumped into Greta’s system will cause permanent memory loss. However, he recommended a full day of IV fluids packed with electrolytes and vitamins to help flush out the toxins. I was ready to tell him to get his ass over to the villa and set Greta up. It took a Herculean effort to suppress my need to control and command and allow Greta to decide for herself. Thank God she agreed, and the doctor was summoned immediately.
So here we are back in the library, where I scour through documents taken from Vasile’s home in Germany. At the same time, Greta sits in the overstuffed armchair, bare feet sitting on the matching ottoman, reading through the manuscript she started writing before she ran, an IV piercing the soft flesh of her hand, the bag now half empty.
I’ve seen my men poked, sliced open with scalpels, and bleeding out as the doc worked on them, but it isn’t until the doctor began placing the IV, causing Greta’s beautiful face to screw up in pain, that my instincts to rage against the doctor nearly get the best of me. Only Greta’s vulnerable request, “Will you hold my hand?” that soothes the beast. She seems so childlike at that moment, and the image of a dark-haired little girl with her eyes and ballsy attitude has me nearly breathless.
