Giovanni couldn’t have told anyone why, but just the fact that she did that, waited for him to call in reinforcements without harassing him or asking questions when she had every right to, made him want to fall right at her feet. She was amazing to him. He almost couldn’t believe she existed—a woman who actually told the truth. She said what she meant. She looked him straight in the eye without guile. She didn’t get hysterical or cry to manipulate him—and her tears would work. She had every right to break down, but she didn’t.
“He’s put a bomb in the car. I only glanced at it, but I didn’t see the wires connected to anything. That doesn’t mean it’s safe. I’m okay with bombs, but Vittorio is an expert. He’s going to take a look and tell us if it’s legit or not. In the meantime, I’m going to have Demetrio and Drago drive you to the hotel where Stefano lives as soon as they get here; they’re on the way. They’ll take you up to Francesca.”
She was already protesting, shaking her head. “Absolutely not. I’m staying with you. This is my mess, and I’m not taking it to Francesca.”
“Francesca is safe at the top of the Ferraro Hotel, Sasha,” he said. His brothers were converging from every direction, moving out of the shadows, their pin-striped suits making it nearly impossible to see them until they stepped completely out of the dark. “That’s the safest place I know for you, right now,” Giovanni said. “If you’re there, I won’t have my attention divided, trying to keep my eye on you and deal with this mess.”
“You can’t deal with a bomb. They have professionals for that.”
“We were all taught to disarm various types of bombs, honey.” He brushed back her hair with gentle fingers. “It wasn’t like he had a lot of time to put this thing together. For all I know, it’s all show. If he wanted us dead, why didn’t he hide the damn thing? Or blow it when we walked up to the car? It’s probably not armed, but I’d feel better if you joined Francesca, got a little sleep and then we can figure things out when we’re all feeling fresh in the morning.”
Sasha looked startled as Stefano and then his other brothers strode up to them. “Where did you all come from? That was fast.”
Riding shadows was fast. Sometimes it felt as if his entire body was torn to pieces and parts of him were left behind. The faster the tube, the worse the sensation. Still, it was what he’d been born to do. Sasha and her brother, Sandlin, had also been born with the ability, but it was too late to adequately teach her to do anything but get from one place to another. Giovanni’s father had used the ability to carry on affairs. He wouldn’t want to think that his wife might do the same.
“Sasha, are you all right?” Stefano asked immediately.
“Yes, I’m fine. I’m actually more shaken up that this man managed to walk right into a closed and guarded facility and see my brother. That made me feel as if Sandlin was extremely vulnerable. He can’t take care of himself and I have no idea what this person wants with me, let alone with him.”
The little catch in her voice was nearly Giovanni’s undoing. He pulled her into his arms and nuzzled the top of her head with his chin. “I’m so sorry, baby. We’ll sort this out.”
“I hate that you’re having to get involved and I may have inadvertently put you in danger.” Her head came back against his chest and she briefly closed her eyes. “Tell me why you aren’t going to involve the police.”
“The fact that he broke into your house made him a stalker, Sasha,” Stefano said. “Police can help with that sort of thing, perhaps investigate where we can’t as fast. This puts him in an altogether different category. We can work this far faster than they can. You’ll have to trust us.”
Her gaze was fixed on Stefano’s face. “You’re saying that you believe he’s a real threat to my life, or my brother’s life, maybe even Giovanni’s. And your family plans to take care of him yourselves.”
Giovanni held his breath. His woman was intelligent and reading between the lines.
Stefano nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“I have a concealed weapons permit,” she volunteered. “I don’t carry, but I could if you think it’s necessary. My guns are locked up in the safe at the deli. Pietro was sweet. I inherited my grandparents’, parents’ and my brother’s. They’re all hunting weapons, and the handguns were for shooting ground squirrels and snakes. I’m a good shot. Well, actually a marksman, but that’s neither here nor there. Do you think I should be armed?”
“Right now, I think you need to be anywhere but here,” Giovanni answered.
“Don’t.” Her protest came out a whisper. She looked at each of his brothers’ faces, then his. “You intend to kill him if you find him, don’t you?” She stared Giovanni straight in the eye, just as Emme entered.
He couldn’t look away. This was a telling moment. Most people would give them a lecture about taking a life and say that it was up to the criminal justice system. She either accepted that some men were outside that law and got away with crimes all the time, or she wouldn’t. He didn’t look away. He had to know if she could accept who his family was and what they stood for. He nodded slowly. He’d learned not to speak aloud anything that might incriminate his family. Stefano had all but said the same thing to her.
“I would, too,” she said. “I think I’m getting one of the handguns out of the safe.”
“Taking a life is never easy, nor should it be done lightly,” Stefano warned.
“It’s called self-defense,” Sasha said. “I have the right to protect myself and my brother. Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m not capable of shooting someone coming at me.”
“I’m a woman,” Emme reminded gently. She reached for Sasha’s hand. “My brothers know a woman can be strong. Right now, Francesca, who we all love dearly, is being guarded by Mariko, a woman. She’s trusted to look after Stefano’s and our family’s most precious treasure. Nothing is going to happen to your brother. We won’t let it. You’re not alone in this.”
Sasha looked around at the tight circle and then the four men standing guard over them. She swallowed hard and nodded. “Thank you. All of you. I don’t know why you’re helping me like this, but I appreciate it.”
“Demetrio and Drago are going to drive you back, Sasha,” Giovanni reiterated. “Please go with them and stay in the hotel with Francesca and Mariko. I’ll be there as soon as I can. Go to bed and just forget all this.”
She glanced at her watch. “I do have to work tomorrow. Both jobs.” Before he could protest, she stopped him. “You know why. I can’t miss any hours on my paycheck. Sandlin deserves the best of care, and I’m going to give it to him.”
“Honey, it’s absurd for you to think that I wouldn’t help you,” Giovanni said.
“I’m accepting the clothes from Lucia’s Treasures, which isn’t easy for me,” Sasha pointed out. “But Sandlin is mine. I don’t know how else to put it. I have to be the one to take care of him. He’d do it for me.”
Giovanni wasn’t going to argue. He’d gotten the concession from her of accepting clothing and he’d had everything sent to his home, including a few extra things she didn’t know about. He’d assumed he would have a fight on his hands, she was that independent, but with her allowance, he was getting off the hook.
“We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Go to the hotel. Have chocolate, talk to Francesca and Mariko and then go to bed. The place is enormous and you won’t be disturbing anyone or putting my brother and sister-in-law out. We crash there all the time.”
“We’re all here, standing mostly in the dark, with these giant columns around us, why?”
Giovanni didn’t know whether to curse because she was so damned smart or shake her. “You notice Emme just joined us later than the others, right? She searched the garage for your stalker just in case he was standing by with a remote to detonate the bomb. Or if he was hiding, hoping the damn thing would go off and he could see us blown to smithereens.”
“I see. You kept his attention on you while she searched.”
>
“He was less likely to think a woman would be with us under the circumstances. Emme is very thorough.”
Sasha started to step away from him, but Giovanni caught her, turned her around and pulled her body up against his. He tipped her chin up and took possession of her mouth. There was just something about the way she responded every time. Her body melted into his without the least hesitation. Her mouth opened under his and when he swept inside, she gave him everything. Instant everything. She gave herself to him.
He loved the way she did that. The way she tasted. That exotic apple cinnamon that seemed to be always on his tongue where he could just barely taste it, setting up a craving for more. He definitely needed more. He kissed her like she belonged to him and they were completely alone, because when he was kissing her, the world faded away and there was only pure feeling.
Stefano made a sound, clearing his throat, and Giovanni snapped out of it, remembering what he was supposed to be doing. He handed her off to Demetrio and turned back to his brothers, the smile fading to be replaced by the very serious face of the Grim Reaper.
“Let’s get this done.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Pleasure burst through him. Giovanni opened his eyes, acclimating himself immediately in the way he’d been trained. It wasn’t easy with hot blood rushing through his veins, spreading flames throughout his body. Silk glided over the bare muscles of his thighs, adding to the roaring in his mind and the thunder in his ears. He dropped his hand onto her head, fingers tunneling into Sasha’s mass of curls.
He’d spent the better part of the night with his brothers and cousins, in the parking garage, dismantling the bomb, which hadn’t been hooked up. It had merely been sitting on the driver’s seat. Still, they took it apart and carefully had each piece sent for analyzing, to find everything they could get from it. He was in Stefano’s penthouse where he’d crawled into bed beside a sleeping Sasha.
The drapes were pulled, but he knew it was early, no more than five in the morning. Her mouth was busy, taking him straight to paradise, hot and wet and clamped tightly around him. She swallowed him down and then drew back, all the while her hands stroking and caressing the inside of his thighs, his balls and then the base of his shaft as he emerged slowly from the wet heat.
He recognized the feel of her mouth surrounding him. No one could ever feel so exquisite. A kind of ecstasy, blood pounding through him, his body hot, his heart beating through his cock right into her mouth. He couldn’t help himself, he began to thrust lightly with his hips, pushing deeper into paradise, feeling every streak of lightning flash through his body straight to his groin.
He groaned when she tightened her mouth around him, when her tongue danced and flicked, when she teased his crown or took him so deep he pressed into her throat so that she squeezed him like a vise. She had magic in her, a skill that was unbelievable. He caught her hair on either side of her head, bunching it inside his fists, holding her head still so he could control every movement, his body spinning out of control.
She was Sasha, and she gave him that, relaxing for him, letting him take his own pleasure for just a few minutes while his cock swelled, filling her so full she barely could breathe. He was forced to let her head up when he saw her eyes swimming with liquid, but there was laughter there, joy. She loved what she was doing. Her hand slid down between her legs, and that was his undoing.
Giovanni pulled her off him completely, his cock furious, desperate and ferociously hungry. He’d never been like that in his life. “Get on your hands and knees.” It was an order, nothing less, and he was already catching her around the waist and lifting her to the position he needed her in. One hand caught the nape of her neck and thrust her head toward the mattress while he knelt behind her, feeling her slickness, ensuring she was ready for him.
He took her hard. The moment he slammed his cock home, pushing ruthlessly through the tightest muscles he’d ever encountered, her sheath bit at him, clamping down like a vise. The friction nearly sent him over the edge. She cried out and pushed back into him. Her bottom was up in the air, that beautiful ass he watched sway every chance he got. He smacked it, watching his handprint appear on her pale skin, feeling the flood of liquid coating his cock.
“You’re so fucking beautiful, Sasha.” His voice was hoarse. He couldn’t stop moving. Surging deep, retreating, thrusting again and again. Between each deep thrust, he added more color to her pale cheeks, reveling in the way she surrounded him with scorching liquid each time.
Her breath came in ragged gasps, little soft cries and whispered pleas for more. He wasn’t certain what the more was, so he gave her both, his body a piston now, hammering into hers, while fire streaked up through his body, threatening to engulf him with flames. He didn’t care if he burned alive as long as he could feel this ecstasy again and again. He wanted it to go on forever.
One thing he knew, he loved fucking her. He loved her bare ass. The shape of her. The feel of her. The way she moved. The way she responded to his brand of sex. Rough. Hot. Demanding. She made her own demands. She wasn’t timid about what she wanted, she used her body to tell him. Slamming back into him, impaling herself while he surged forward. Her breasts swung with every jolt and he wished he could suck on her delicious nipples while he took her. He wanted his cock in her mouth. She was the hottest thing he’d ever known, and he knew no other woman would ever satisfy him after Sasha’s brand of lovemaking.
Without warning, her body clamped down hard on his, muscles gripping and milking. He felt his seed boiling. Hot. Rising like a volcano. Vaguely, in the back of his mind, he realized he hadn’t worn a condom, but it didn’t matter. If he got her pregnant, so be it. He was marrying her. She was going to give him children.
“Giovanni.” Her voice was breathless. “I can’t hang on. You have to pull out.”
“Not pulling out.” It was already too late. The orgasm took him like a freight train, roaring through his body until he couldn’t think, only feel. Spurt after spurt rocketed through him, blasted into her, his hands gripping her hips, holding her to him while a tsunami seemed to have taken over her. The waves crashed around him, her body squeezing his ruthlessly, over and over, a wild crescendo until she collapsed on the mattress and he went down over top of her.
His heart beat through her body while the aftershocks shook both of them. They lasted quite a while and he wanted to feel every single one of them with her. His weight had to be crushing her so that she was breathing shallowly, but she didn’t complain. He threaded his fingers through hers and held her down, his mouth on her shoulder, then her neck, tasting the cinnamon candy-apple flavor he loved, using his teeth to tease her and his lips to ease the sting.
“You good?” he asked, when he could finally talk.
She nodded. “Giovanni, you should have pulled out. You weren’t wearing a condom.”
“I’m sorry, baby. I know you wanted me to, but I was so far gone …” He should have felt terrible about it. Any decent man would. It was her body. She decided when, not him, but damn it, he wasn’t feeling one iota of remorse. He was a fucking dick, but that didn’t seem to matter. He wanted her to have to marry him. He wanted his child growing in her.
The revelation was shocking when every member of his family was so careful, had been taught practically since birth never to go ungloved. To be responsible. They were riders and they didn’t leave children scattered all over the country.
“I’m not trying to trap you.”
Her denial was so unexpected he almost didn’t understand what she said. He was expecting righteous condemnation, not her concern that he would think she was deliberately trying to trap him into marriage.
“This isn’t your responsibility, Sasha. You told me to pull out.” Reluctantly he let his body relax so he could slip away. He hated that loss of connection. He liked sharing her skin. Her body. He rolled over and reached to scoop her close.
Sasha lifted onto her elbows. Her sapphire eyes swept his face. “You don’t
understand. One of the girls at work, the night Darby ripped my uniform, told me horrible ways to trap a rich man. She said women did it all the time, and the best way was to get pregnant. I know that’s what that game was all about. All of you are so tired of having women try to trap you that you really have no respect for them anymore. I don’t want you to think I’m like that.”
He cupped her face, thumbs sliding over her soft skin. He loved the way she felt. “Baby, you’re going to hate me when I tell this to you, but I’m not going to let you feel guilty or allow you to think I believe you’re trying to trap me.” He took a breath, let it out and stared directly into her eyes so she could see the truth there. “I’m trying to trap you. I’m desperate for you to commit to me. I tell you my intentions and you never answer me back. I want you pregnant with my child. I want a ring on your finger. I want the privilege of having you for the rest of my life.”
He waited again for condemnation. She stared at him like he’d grown two heads, but she didn’t get angry. He didn’t see one flare of her temper, and he knew she had one.
“You barely know me. We just met.”
“You’ve said that before. Your shadow touches mine and I know all I need to about you. I know you have that same knowledge when they touch.”
She didn’t bother to deny it. “You’re difficult to read. You’re honest with me, yet deceptive with others. Never your family, but practically everyone else. You lead a kind of double life. You’re a playboy, but I also feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility. The two things don’t add up. I feel a great deal of power and danger mixed together. You love family and you’re all about your family. That affection applies to your neighborhood. Or territory. I can’t decide if you’re a criminal or not. I’m not trying to be negative because I’m not certain how I feel about any of it, just telling you the truth.”
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