And he kept his word.
He made me stay just as I was and stood back, watching as my face burned when his seed slid out of me, dripping onto the leather, the submission inherent in the act seeming to please him immensely. He finally helped me up from my position and hugged me to him, pressing his lips to my forehead before resting his chin on to the top of my head. It was silent while he held me like this, and although there wasn’t anywhere in the world I would have felt more safe, there was something else too.
Julien was thinking. I could feel it.
And somehow, I knew not to ask what it was that he was thinking.
Chapter Seventeen
Julien
I was going to kill Jason St. Rose. I decided it that night. I was going to murder the son of a bitch and I was going to do it slowly.
I didn’t mention this to Mia and if she suspected, she didn’t say a word to me.
Mia spent the next two days at my grandmother’s café helping make sandwiches, but mostly keeping my grandmother company. Although it was mid-week and not busy, they both seemed to enjoy it and it gave me time to figure things out.
I’d been doing some research on the St. Rose family, Samuel St. Rose in particular. I’d have to find out if that missing ledger was truly in Mia’s possession. Mia’s sister’s death had been investigated and ruled an accident too quickly for my liking. That could only happen when money — the likes of which Samuel St. Rose certainly had — changed hands. But he’d been in love with her, according to Mia. Would he have killed her? And why, if she had stolen so valuable a book? Especially before getting it back? Even if Samuel wasn’t directly responsible for Mia’s sister’s death, I wasn’t convinced it was an accident.
So, did Jason or Allison have anything to do with it?
The thought of Allison nagged at me. She was too squeaky clean — and no one was that clean. Ryan hadn’t been able to dig up a thing about her, apart from the fact that Jason had been out to see her several times since his release from prison. Whenever I brought her up with Mia, she’d shut me down, so I’d given her an ultimatum.
She wasn’t allowed to have contact with Allison until I said so.
She’d agreed, but she’d had little choice — and I’d be checking her call history whether she liked it or not.
Finished with my coffee, I stood and grabbed my jacket. This was all giving me a headache.
Walking out the door, I headed to the café to collect Mia. I needed to get out of here for a while, and I wouldn’t leave her unprotected.
“Ciao, Julien.” My grandmother greeted me as soon as I walked into the café. “She fits in here,” she said as we both turned to look at Mia talking with one of the customers at the bar.
She did too.
I turned to Gianna. “Well, don’t get used to it.”
The hurt on her face was unmistakable, and though it took me a moment, I closed myself off from it, and walked away.
“Mia.”
Fuck.
Why had I done that?
“Julien, I’m just—”
“Let’s go.”
She glanced at Gianna, but I kept my gaze fixed on her.
“I said, let’s go.”
“Go, Mia. It is okay,” Gianna said, coming around and taking a cigarette out of the pack lying beneath the counter. Gianna’s gaze locked upon me. I could feel it, but I refused to acknowledge it.
“I’m sorry,” Mia began.
“Now, Mia.”
“I’m coming!” I took her arm and walked her out of the café. “What is your problem? You really hurt her feelings, you know that?”
“Yeah, well she hurt more than my feelings.”
I walked fast toward the car, not sure what the fuck I was doing, not sure why I was so angry at the old woman. It was past time to forgive, wasn’t it?
Mia stopped on the street and tugged her arm free. “You know, Julien, people make mistakes — and time changes people.”
“Let’s go, Mia. Walk.”
“No. Not until you listen.” She dug her heels in, crossing her arms and standing there in the middle of the street. A few people stopped to stare.
I took two steps back toward her. “Fine. I’m listening.”
“She loves you. I think you know that too.”
Fuck. I don’t need this.
“I think she’s really sorry about everything, Julien. I know it would mean a lot to her if you could forgive her.”
I looked at her, at Mia standing there in the sun, her dark hair up in a messy bun at the top of her head, her eyes full of compassion.
“It’s not that easy.”
“Why not?” she shrugged her shoulders. “You only have each other now, Julien. That’s all that’s left, right? It can be as easy, or as difficult as you choose to make it.”
Being back here hadn’t been a good idea after all. It brought up too much crap I did not want to deal with — and that crap weakened me. “I listened, okay? Can we go?”
She studied me, and for a moment, I knew she could see straight into my soul, straight into things I didn’t want her to see, things I didn’t want anyone to see.
But there was no escaping her gaze.
“I’ll think about it. Can we go?”
“Okay.” Mia slid her hand into mine and we walked slowly toward the car.
“Let your hair down.”
She pulled the tie out and worked her fingers through the waist length, thick veil of dark hair while I watched.
“It’s still wet.”
I stood captivated. She had no idea how pretty she was, beautiful even. She wore pink lip-gloss and mascara, but otherwise, nothing else. She didn’t need anything. Her skin was flawless, a smooth beige, with thick eyebrows along with long, dark lashes framing those clear, bright eyes.
“What? Is there something on my face?” She ran her hand over her mouth. “I was eating a piece of cake with some powdered sugar —okay, a lot of powdered sugar.”
I chuckled and opened the car door, but pulled her to me first. “No, I just like looking at you.” She smiled up at me, her face dimpling on the one side as she did, and I kissed those pretty, pouty lips of hers, tasting the cherry flavor of her gloss before tasting her. She opened to me easily, trust finally established between us. It was the strangest thing. This woman whom I’d intended to do harm to had become something so different in the last few days. We’d both told each other things neither of us had ever shared before. I couldn’t say what had moved me to do that. It hadn’t been a conscious thought, that was for sure.
And since the day she’d wept in my arms, I knew I couldn’t let her go again. Ever.
“You make me crazy,” I said, sliding her hand over my erection.
“Maybe we should just go back to the house,” she said through a kiss.
I forced myself to pull back and looked down at her. “No, let’s go. I want to show you something.”
I knew where I wanted to take her. There was a village at the top of a hill that was pretty much abandoned. It made Pitigliano look like a hopping metropolis.
“How long did you know I was watching?” Mia asked about forty-five minutes into the drive. “At the hotel, I mean.”
“From the first minute you opened the curtains.”
“Why did she… who was she? The woman you—”
I glanced at her before accelerating into the curve of the road. “She was not a good person. That’s all you need to know.”
Mia’s expression was so serious.
“And one more thing you should know. Not all my jobs come from where you’d think. You’d be surprised at who buys my services.”
She shook her head and looked out the window. “I don’t want to know, actually.”
“I wasn’t going to tell you, Mia. What do you know about a ledger your sister allegedly stole from Samuel?”
Her gaze suddenly snapped to mine. That first, quick reaction gave me pause. Was it guilt I saw in her eyes?
“
A ledger?” she asked, her voice faltering.
I nodded. “The real books for the St. Rose’s business, I’m guessing.”
“I don’t know anything about it.”
Her answer was hurried. Too hurried. “No?”
“No.” She looked out the window.
“I’ll ask again. Do you know anything about the ledger? Look at me when you answer.”
She looked… at a space just beyond my shoulder. “No, Julien. I don’t know anything.”
“Here we are,” I said, parking the car alongside one other just outside of the village walls. Mia wasn’t telling the truth, but for now, I had other plans. Taking her hand, I led her through the entrance of the village.
“Wow, this is amazing.”
I smiled, but it was forced. It hadn’t occurred to me that she knew anything about that book, but what if I was wrong? Her reaction to my question wasn’t what I’d expected.
“Wow, there’s really no one here.”
“It’s too far for most tourists, and the village itself only has the one café. Apart from the views, there’s not much here,” I said, tugging her toward a narrow alley. “No shopping for the masses.”
“Wait, I want to see—”
“First this.” I led her down and around the small road to the broken-down structure toward the end. There, we climbed over rubble and through a dusty, dark interior using the light from either end of the house as a guide.
“What is this?”
I stepped out into the field and pulled Mia along with me. The grass was almost waist high there and in just a few steps, we could see all of Tuscany spread out below us. It was breathtaking.
“Oh, wow.”
“I’m glad the tourists haven’t discovered this. This garden would be destroyed if they had.”
She tried to pull away but I turned her to me instead, my mind still working through this turn of events, this new idea that she perhaps knew more than she let on. I wanted to push, to know the truth, but I knew it was better to bide my time. For now.
“Pretty blouse.”
She looked down at it. “Thanks, it’s one of—”
“Open it.”
Her eyes widened but I could see from the way she licked her lips, she was aroused. Her gaze darted around me. “Here? What if someone sees?”
With a hand on the flat of her stomach, I pushed her backward against a tree and kissed her before whispering in her ear: “I don’t care.” And I didn’t. “Open it, Mia.”
She hesitated for a moment, but then her hands moved to undo the buttons and the blouse fell open to expose her pretty lace bra. My cock grew harder as I reached for the cups and tucked each one of them under her breasts. “Now, the skirt. Drop it — and your panties.”
Her nervous glance once more passed over my shoulder, but she reached for her skirt and slid it down her thighs, the panties following. Then she stood in an open blouse, her breasts exposed from over the cups of her bra, naked from the waist down but for a pair of shoes.
My gaze ran the length of her and she gasped when I covered her mound with the palm of one hand, two fingers working through the neat patch of hair.
“I want this shaved. I want you bare for me.”
She nodded shyly, her hands trying to cover her nakedness.
“No.” I pulled her hands away and opened her blouse fully before studying her breasts, the dark, hardened nipples. Just beside her stood the thick stump of a tree that at one point had obviously been used as a chopping block. “Put your foot on that. I want to see your pussy.”
“Julien, are you sure no one will come?”
“I already told you. I don’t care if they do. I want to see your pussy, Mia.”
Her throat worked as she swallowed and raised one leg up, glancing at me from beneath thick lashes. She was coquettish. Not as innocent as she led me to believe. There was a lust in her eyes that matched my own.
Squatting down before her, I pulled her pussy lips apart and blew a hot breath over the wet folds, making her grip my shoulders with a gasp.
“I want you to come on my face, Mia.” It was all I said before gripping her hips harder and closing my mouth over her pussy, licking the length of her once, twice, before sucking her clit. I sucked softly at first, then, as she began to thrust against me, I drew out the hard little nub, biting on it a little, just enough to make her dig her nails into my shoulders as I thrust two fingers into her dripping cunt. When I did, she gripped me harder, her breath coming in short gasps as she muttered my name and came on my tongue, her wetness dripping down my chin, over my face, my fingers, and my hand.
Unzipping my jeans with one hand, I pulled her down on top of me. I lay in the grass on my back, gripping her hips to impale her upon my cock with one hard thrust. She gasped, even though she was ready — more than ready — the passage stretching easily to accommodate me, her slickness coupled with the pre-cum glistening on the head of my cock making her slippery. Closing her eyes, she planted her hands on my chest as I fucked her, bouncing her on my cock, listening to the sounds of our fucking, to the sounds of Mia as the walls of her pussy clamped down around my cock. She came again then, groaning, pressing her clit against my belly as I ground her hips into my own.
I was on the verge of coming, on the very edge of orgasm when I heard the sound of footsteps too hurried to be a mere tourist.
Mia gasped, not yet comprehending as I reached for the weapon in my jacket, which I’d discarded nearby. As soon as I got a handle on the thing and pushed Mia to the ground, rolling on top of her and forcing her head down, a shot rang out, just missing us. Mia screamed and I fired in the direction of the noise. A man’s figure quickly disappeared back into the house and I shot again, this time hearing a grunt and knowing I’d hit my target.
“Stay!” I yelled as I stood, pulling my jeans up and following the shooter whose steps I could still hear. He got out fast and just as I turned onto the alley and aimed my weapon at his retreating form, a family of laughing tourists passing our secluded alley came to a halt as the running man nearly crashed into one of the women.
“Look at that, mama,” the little boy said, pointing at me.
I shoved my weapon into the back of my jeans and watched as the man ran off. The family picked up on the fact that something wasn’t right just as Mia came stumbling out from the house.
“Let’s go,” I said to her, gripping her arm as she handed me my jacket.
“Julien?”
“Are you hurt?” I looked her over as she shook her head.
“There was blood by the door, so you got him.”
“Not a good enough shot if he was still moving.”
The family remained watching us but we walked fast toward our car as the sound of tires screeching confirmed I’d be too late to catch up with the shooter.
“Who was it? How did they find us?”
I unlocked the car door and watched the dark vehicle speed away, leaving a screen of dust behind them as they took the curves too fast.
“Julien?”
It could have been anyone. Hell, it could have been for me. But as I looked at Mia, I knew they weren’t. They’d found her again.
“Give me your phone and get in the car, Mia.”
“What?”
I shoved her into the passenger seat and took her purse when she hesitated, rifling through it and finding her cell phone.
“Julien, what are you doing?”
Scrolling through her call history confirmed my suspicions and I gave her one dark look before slamming the door shut. She’d called Allison that morning and their conversation had lasted long enough that the call could have been traced. If that were the case, then they knew about the house in Pitigliano — and we were no longer safe there.
Chapter Eighteen
Mia
“Talk to me!”
Julien fumed, taking the curves at break-neck speed, scaring the crap out of me.
“I’m trying to think, Mia. Trying to figure out ho
w to keep us alive — and you making calls I’ve asked you specifically not to make isn’t helping!”
“I just called her to tell her I was okay and not to worry about me. That’s all!”
“And coincidentally, this very afternoon, we get shot at in a random village?”
“It’s not her. It can’t be, Julien. She’s like a sister to me.”
“A sister — not blood related I might add — whose brother you sent to prison, and who stands to gain a substantial amount of money if you A: don’t show up to claim your inheritance, or, B: turn up dead.”
I shook my head, but stopped trying to defend Allison. She wasn’t part of this, she couldn’t be, but he wasn’t ready to hear it.
“Maybe it’s your line of work that has you thinking this way?”
The look in Julien’s eyes when I said it made me wish I could reel those words right back in, turn back time and make them disappear.
“My line of work.” He drove off the main road so fast that I would have fallen over on top of him if I weren’t strapped in.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that.”
He drove toward an abandoned house, so many of which were scattered along the countryside here. “What are you doing? Where are we going?”
He glanced at me as he slowed the car. There was no one around for miles and only a few cars passed along the single lane main road we’d just been on.
“What am I doing? My line of work,” he said, his gaze cold, completely shut off from me.
My heart thundered in my chest when we came to a stop. He was going to punish me.
He got out first and went around to the trunk, taking out a black duffel bag. I watched in the side view mirror as he stalked toward me. He’d taken off his jacket leaving him in only a t-shirt and jeans, all rock-hard muscle covered in so many tattoos that more ink than skin remained. Tucked into the waistband of his jeans was the sleek black pistol he’d used so easily.
He opened my door and stood to the side. “Get out, Mia.”
I shook my head, unsure if I was unable or unwilling to move. My hands trembled as I stared up at him. Hell, every part of me trembled. “Julien—”
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