Too Devious to Tame (The Giovanni Clan) (19 page)

He had to smile at Jemima's annoyed huff.

"Great, and pull the other one, Giorgio. We left in the dead of night, under armed fucking guard, and for all I know Alfonso and his men are still lurking in the bushes somewhere, yet you're trying to convince me that they, whoever they are, are not looking for me anymore? Yet, I'm not allowed to leave the house, meet with Elise on my own, or go anywhere near Beauchamp." She glared at him. "You can't have it both ways, Giorgio. If it's safe, why am I not allowed to be seen? And how is it safe? What did the Don do?"

Cazzo,
she was not going to like his answer, but he had to tell her. It would be all over the news tomorrow anyway.

"You're safe, because tomorrow they will announce your father's death."

She couldn't have heard him right?  Her father couldn't be dead. They only just found each other, and Elise hadn't even met him yet. Giorgio was saying something else, his tone of voice low and urgent. She could see his lips move, but she couldn't make any sense of it all.

Daddy is dead. Daddy is dead. Daddy is dead.
The refrain bounced around her brain, obliterating all else. Blood rushed in her ears, and a heavy weight sat on her chest, squeezing the air out of it. She couldn't breathe, couldn't move, couldn't even cry. Was it only yesterday she'd seen him? Her father had drawn her in for a hug, and she'd clung to him. He'd said he'd sort it, and she would see him soon. Daddy couldn't be dead. She must not have heard him right. Giorgio had got it wrong. How would he know, anyway?  He hadn't taken any phone calls. Only the one, that had been over in seconds, and had left him grim faced. Wrong number, he'd said.

The room spun, and her hands groped blindly, to be caught in a strong, powerful grip, until she was surrounded by warmth and heat and held securely. A steady thump under her ear eventually broke through the terror. The rushing noise subsided. She struggled to sit up, but she was held immobile, surrounded by Giorgio.  Her head cushioned on his broad chest, one large hand massaged the back of her neck, holding her in place at the same time. The other arm had a firm hold around her waist, his fingers curling into her ass and pinning her into his side, as effectively as the long leg thrown over hers. Pinned and unable to move, his soothing murmurs in her ear, brought her back from the edge, until what his words finally registered.

"He's not dead,
cara.
Do you hear me? He is
not
dead. The world will just think he is.
"
He must have sensed her understanding, because he released his iron grip on her enough for her to raise her head. She lost herself for a moment in his intense stare, and the grip on her nape tightened.

"Did you hear me?" he asked again, and his tight features relaxed when she whispered her confirmation. "He is re-inventing himself. He's done it before, and he's going to pull it off this time, too. The body they'll have found by now will be an exact match right down to the dental records, they'd leaked last week, together with the false DNA results that will prove he wasn't your father. It will take some time to filter through, but with him out of the picture there is no need for anyone to come after you, or Elise."

She choked back a sob and buried her head in his shoulder, grateful beyond relief for Giorgio's quiet strength. He continued to simply hold her, to offer reassurance just by his presence, as she processed the full impact of his words. It meant she was free. No more looking over her shoulder, no threat to her life, just the guilt and the memories she would have to carry with her forever.

"Why would he do that?" She mumbled the words into his shoulder, and his hand drawing lines up and down her back stopped. "Is it really over, just like that?"

"
Si, cara mia. E' finita."
His deep voice rumbled through her and made her acutely aware of their entwined limbs. Her fingers were curled in his chest hair, the seam of his jeans dug into the tender flesh of her inner thigh, where he'd trapped it between his legs, and his splayed hand on her ass lay precariously close to her sex. So close that he would notice the moisture slowly soaking her underwear, as her body reacted to his nearness. One look from him had always been all she needed to want to jump his bones. Every cell in her body urged her to do so now, but how could she? This would change things. How did he really feel about her? She raised herself up on her elbow better to see him, and found him watching her. His expression was unreadable, and her stomach hollowed out.

"Does that mean I'm free to go? I mean … we don't have to pretend anymore?"

He frowned, and she held her breath at the myriad of emotions flitting across his face.

"When were we pretending? We're married. That's not about to change. You're a Giovanni now, and we don't divorce." His tone was harsh, and his eyes had turned into icy flints. The barely controlled aggression behind those growled words should have frightened her, but it had the opposite effect. Excitement pooled low in her belly. He wouldn't be this angry, if he didn't care, surely?

"Marco divorced." Why she felt the need to goad him, she couldn't say.

"Marco is the exception. I have no intention to put the family through another divorce. You're mine, Jemima. It's the least you can—" He swore and ran a hand through his hair.

"The least I can … what? Say it, Giorgio, please."

He shook his head and wouldn't look at her. A flush spread across his chiseled cheekbones, and he went so still he might as well have been a statue. Her heart bled, seeing him this distant. She had done this to him. Her passionate, living, sexy as sin husband couldn't even look at her. A small part of her rebelled, and screamed at the injustice of it all. She hadn't cheated on him back then, not really, but he still didn't believe her, and no doubt he never would. She blinked the tears away, and ruthlessly squashed the pain of that knowledge away into a box. She was good at creating boxes. She'd lived all her life like this; she could do this, because if she was pregnant, there was no choice to make.

Their baby deserved both parents in their life, and she had taken too much away from Giorgio already. She couldn't take this baby away from him, too, but she couldn't tell him either. Not until she was certain. Not until they'd established some sort of a relationship. Not one forced on them by circumstances, but because they both wanted to make it work.

She kissed his chest, and he jumped. In one fluid move he twisted their bodies until she was lying pinned underneath him. She closed her eyes and reveled in the feel of his big, solid body on top of her, anchoring her in the here and now. With the unmistakable evidence of his arousal a hard ridge against her mound, she wriggled to bring him closer, and his eyes darkened.

He kissed her, not the harsh, angry kiss she was expecting, but a mere flutter of lips on lips that had her bury her hands in his hair, to pull him closer, to deepen the contact.

"Forgive me,
cara mia."
He whispered the words in between butterfly kisses along her jaw, and she melted. "I never should have said that. I don't know why I did. You bring out the caveman in me, and the thought of anyone touching you drives me insane.”

The possessiveness behind those words soothed her troubled soul, and she scored her fingernails along his biceps. They flexed under her hands as he lifted himself off her slightly to allow her to open her legs and let him settle home between them.

"I'm sorry, I never wanted them to. I—"

"Shh." He interrupted her halting apology, and when he lifted his head briefly, the sincerity in his heated gaze made her gasp. "I know, you didn't. It doesn't matter. No one is ever going to hurt you again. Just let me love you."

He licked a fiery path along her neck and nibbled her earlobe. She could feel his smile when she moaned in response and wriggled her hips in an effort for him to get closer.

"Still like that then,
cara?
How about this?" He bit her nipple through her clothes, and she arched her spine to bring him closer. He chuckled against her heated flesh and undid the buttons of her dress with infinite slowness. Every new bit of skin another freed button revealed was greeted with a tender kiss, until she was begging him to hurry up.

He stopped and gave her that sinful smile she remembered so well.

"We have all night. What's the hurry? Stop trying to rush me or I will have to tie those pretty wrists to the bed after all." She froze at those words, and he caught her wrists in his hands, and kissed the rapidly beating pulse points in turn, until she unclenched her fists. He put one hand to his face and kissed her palm, licking a path up her inner arm until her muscles turned to liquid and that brief flash of fear dissipated and left just the sweet tingle of arousal in its wake.

He reached above her and showed her the padded wrist cuff. She swallowed and nodded at the unspoken question in his eyes.

"Just one wrist,
cara mia.
To see how you cope, shall we?" He smiled at her tentative nod, and she took a deep breath when he secured her wrist high above her head. "Hold onto the strap with your free hand. Yes, just like that. You can undo this anytime, okay?"

Tears clouded her vision at the concern in his voice, and he swore and moved to untie her.

"No, I'm fine, really. Leave it. Show me how it should be, please. Help me to forget."

He stared at her for the longest time, one large hand, hot and heavy on her belly, his gaze so intense it took her breath away.  When he finally smiled, it lit up his harsh features. She didn't catch the murmured Italian words he mumbled under his breath, but the kiss that followed had her curl her toes into the bed with the effort to not release herself from her bonds and bury her hands in his hair to make him hurry up and fuck her.

He was breathing as heavily as she by the time he released her, and she bit back a moan when he simply ripped the rest of her dress off her. Her bra and knickers followed the fate of her dress, until she lay in front of him naked, wet, and wanting. He ran his knuckles slowly up and down her tummy in ever widening circles, and then reached across to the ice bucket with a slow grin.

"Shut your eyes for me,
cara."
His voice had dropped an octave, and her stomach dropped right with it, seeing him hold a couple of ice cubes in his fingers. She shook her head and bucked off the bed, when he flicked his hand over her breasts. Ice cold drops of water fell on her skin and trickled between the valley of her breasts. He licked the drops away, his warm tongue taking away the coldness left by the water.

"Shut your eyes, trust me. This will be so much better for you when you can't see what I'm doing." He kissed a path down her quivering tummy, and she blinked back tears at the tender way he caressed her abdomen. He paused to drop a long kiss just above her pubic bone, and his hot breath teased her wet folds. Her clit tingled, and she shut her eyes, as he renewed his request for her to do so. She couldn't see what he was doing, but the bed dipped as he adjusted his weight again. His hot mouth closed over one of her nipples at the same time as the other was subjected to an ice cube being circled around it.

She gasped at the intense sensation, and Giorgio swapped sides. The difference between his warm mouth and tongue and the ice cube sent her body into spasms of need. She writhed under him, and he laughed. Again and again he repeated the process all along her body. A path of ice, followed by the warmth of his tongue as he licked the icy trails away, leaving fiery awareness in its wake. By the time he finally reached her pussy, she was hovering on the brink of orgasm. She whimpered her need when he pushed an ice cube high into her channel and then proceeded to lick around her clit, careful to never touch her when she needed him most. The melting ice cube mixed in with her own juices and trickled slowly out her hole. Her pussy clenched, and she didn't recognize the needy voice pleading with him to please do something.

He blew against her slit and shouldered her legs wider.

"
Così bello, e tutto mio."
He followed the words with a kiss, and she screamed when he pulled her clit into his mouth and swirled his tongue around it, at the same time as he pushed another ice cube into her empty channel. Her walls closed around the slippery object, and spasmed wildly as the first quivers of her orgasm hit. Giorgio groaned into her core and stepped up his sweet torture on her clit. When he pushed two fingers into her core, and massaged her sweet spot, the intensity of her orgasm hit her with the full force of freight train.

"That's it,
tesoro,
fly for me." He caught her scream of release in his mouth, and she could taste herself in the passionate kiss he gave her, dimly aware of him withdrawing his fingers and replacing them with his cock. Thick, hard, and so very long he filled her completely as he pushed into her swollen core, until he was seated to the hilt. She wrapped her legs around him and dug her feet into his calves to give him better access and to take him as deep as she could. He started thrusting, every move driving him deeper into her, and tumbling her right over the edge again, as her inner muscles contracted around his thick member. Faster and faster he pumped, his harsh breathing in her ear the most erotic sound ever, his hands and lips seemingly everywhere, arousing every little bit of skin he touched until her whole body was a mass of sensation. Again her body climbed toward that peak of sheer joy, and this time Giorgio was with her every step of the ecstatic journey they took together. Her eyes flew open, and she drowned in the rolling depths of emotion she saw reflected in his, as they came together in their explosive release.