Tommaso grinned at his brother. “Raff, stop trying to steal my girlfriend.”
Inca winked at Raff. “It’s working, though. Raffaelo, keep it up.”
Raffaelo smiled, but looked a little uncomfortable, and Inca regretted the joke. She coughed to cover her embarrassment. “There’s a lot of touristy things we can do in the city—and some great places to eat.”
Raffaelo nodded. “Sounds good to me.”
***
Later, when they went to bed, Inca asked Tommaso if he minded her spending time with Raffaelo.
“Of course not … you are family.”
He was a little distracted, given that he was pulling the straps of her dress down her shoulders and deftly unclasping her bra. His mouth found her exposed breast, his teeth grazing her nipple and sending waves of desire through her. Inca closed her eyes and sighed happily. Tommaso’s hand was under her dress, sliding into her underwear.
“You are so wet,” he murmured, his lips against her belly. And in one swift motion, he had her on the bed, his cock thrusting into her. Inca gasped at the violence of his movements. She moaned as he fucked her hard, his smile triumphant, his hands pinning hers to the bed.
“You are mine, now, Inca; you know that?”
“Yes … God, yes …”
“Tell me.”
“I’m yours, Tommaso.”
He smiled down at her, obviously enjoying the command he had over her body. “Il mio prezioso, do you remember when we talked about what we could try when we were together?”
Inca, driven half-crazy by his cock drilling her to the bed, nodded, gasping and panting for air. Tommaso smiled, his eyes drinking in the way her body trembled and quivered under him, her breasts rising and falling with her breath, her belly undulating against his stomach. “God, you are beautiful … well, I took the liberty of purchasing a few items we might have some fun with … Are you willing to try them with me, Principessa?”
He began to thrust hard, with all his strength, wanting to sink into her entirely, and Inca cried out. His lips were on her throat when he heard her say yes, and he grinned as she came, moaning and crying his name. His own climax followed swiftly and, as he felt his cum shoot deep inside her, he knew he wanted to try anything with this woman.
When they had recovered, he lifted her from the bed and sat her in a chair before going to the closet and bring out a beautifully carved wooden box. He smiled at her as he set it down.
“Before we begin … we need to set some ground rules. You need to feel safe.”
Inca smiled a little nervously. ’Just what do you intend to do to me?”
He obviously heard the doubt in her voice and took her face in his hands, his green eyes fixed on hers. “Nothing you will not permit. Everything you will allow …”
He covered her mouth with his, kissing her tenderly until her head swam.
“Anything,” she whispered to him, “I’ll do anything…”
Tommaso chuckled, then drew out a long piece of supple brown leather. “You know what this is?”
She shook her head and he grinned. “Let me show you.”
Gently, he wound the leather around her body, crisscrossing her breasts and her belly with the buttery soft strip. He bound her hands behind her and stood back to admire his work. Inca felt wildly turned on. She was helpless in front of him, but the way he was looking at her made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.
Tommaso stalked around her, not touching her until he stopped and knelt, pushing her legs apart as far as they would go. He gazed up at her as he pushed further and she moaned a little, her hips burning. Inca felt the pain and the pleasure as he smiled at her before dipping his head and burying his face in her belly, dipping his tongue into the deep hollow of her navel.
Tommaso teased her clit with his thumb as he began to slide two fingers into her cunt and Inca bucked against her restraints as he found her g-spot. His tongue stabbed at her navel as if fucking it. His teeth grazed the soft mound of her belly; his free hand gripped her thigh, fingers digging painfully into the soft flesh. He drove her into a frenzy, unable to move properly, utterly at his mercy until she came, nearly screaming her ecstasy.
Tommaso stood, his cock diamond hard, and Inca, panting, told him she wanted to taste him. She took him into her mouth, trailing the tip of her tongue up the long shaft before lashing around the wide, sensitive crest of him. She heard Tommaso groan as she worked on him and she wanted to touch him, but couldn’t. As he neared climax and he made to draw away, she shook her head and instead swallowed him down as he came.
Tommaso freed one of her hands. “Touch yourself, my darling. I want to watch you …”
Inca slid her hand into her sex and began to rub, never taking her eyes from him. Tommaso fisted the root of his cock as he watched her. “I want to come on your skin.”
When he came, he spilled his seed onto her belly and Inca threw her head back and let out a shuddering moan as she reached climax. Tommaso freed her from the binds and pulled her down on top of him. “That was only the beginning, Inca, mio caro.”
He reached into the wooden casket, and drew out a paddle. Inca’s breath quickened as she saw it and she nodded, yelping as he brought it down on her buttocks. “You like?”
“God, yes.” Inca didn’t know who she was at that moment, but all she knew was that she wanted this man to do anything to her he wanted. She wriggled impatiently and Tommaso laughed.
“Bad girl.”
The paddle slammed into her skin and Inca could feel herself getting wetter and wetter. Tommaso slid his hand into her damp pussy and stroked her as he flipped her onto her back. “Just a teaser tonight … when I get back from Paris, I’m going to punish you hard, mio caro, so hard you’ll beg me to stop.”
He drove his cock into her then, and they fucked with abandon for the rest of the night.
The first nightmare came that night.
She was walking through the mansion, the rooms dark, lit only by the moonlight through the vast windows. Inca padded slowly, dressed only in Tommaso’s expensive white shirt, searching for something. She opened the front door to see a world painted white by snow. She walked out into the deep powder covering the garden, into a maze of lethal-looking icicles.
He was waiting for her in the center of the maze. He being … who? She couldn’t see his face; it was shrouded by a black hood. All she knew was … she loved him. He took her hand and led her to a mausoleum made of ice, laying her down on a long bed of ice. He raised his weapon above his head.
Inca smiled as the long shard of glass in his hand was driven into her again and again …
Inca woke shivering, cold, wet, and terrified. She was outside. How the hell was she outside? She was naked, curled up in the snow of the Winter mansion garden, utterly frozen.
“Inca!”
Raffaelo’s voice was shocked, astonished, and scared. She looked up to see him running toward her. She covered her breasts and her sex, humiliated, but Raffaelo tugged his shirt off and wrapped it around her, lifting her out of the snow and carrying her into the house to the kitchen where a fire still burned in the grate.
Inca felt completely out of it as Raffaelo disappeared. She saw the table next to the chair, along with an open book and a glass of scotch, and realized he had been awake all night. She blinked, hearing voices, then Tommaso and Raffaelo were back, Tommaso looking half-asleep but concerned. Raffaelo, carrying a heavy wool blanket, wrapped it around her, then moved to heat a kettle.
Tommaso knelt down in front of her. “Mio caro … what were you doing outside?”
She shook her head, feeling that if she opened her mouth, nothing would come out.
“I only saw her when I went to have a smoke.” Raffaelo’s voice was soft. “And only then because I thought I saw someone in the woods. I went to look and found her in the snow, completely curled up.
Inca had started to shiver now as the warmth of the fire got to her. She looked between the brothers. �
��I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened. I was dreaming. God, no, a nightmare … I must have sleepwalked.”
“Maybe we should call a doctor.” Tommaso, his green eyes full of worry stroked her face. He picked her up then and sat, cradling her in his arms. Inca leaned against his strong frame.
“What were you dreaming of?” Raffaelo’s voice sounded even more accented tonight, sexy, she thought, then pushed that thought away. She felt as if her brain were spinning; she could remember pain and love and ice and …
“Have you ever sleepwalked before?” Tommaso, this time, and she shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
His arms tightened around her and his lips pressed against her temple. ’Are you warming up?”
She nodded, but then, to her surprise, she felt Raffaelo gently take her feet.
“They are blue, piccolo.” He smiled at her and, to her surprise, lifted them and put them under his arms. He winced a little at the cold. “Our mother taught us this is the best way—human body warmth.”
“He is right,” Tommaso said.
Inca leaned into him and felt a rush of love for both of the brothers.
“You never talk about your mother,” she said softly. “I would have liked to know her.”
Raffaelo smiled. “She would have liked you, I think. She was soft and sweet, like you.”
Inca felt Tommaso nod. “I agree. She passed a few months ago. I know we both miss her terribly.”
“Mama’s boys?”
They both laughed.
“Unashamedly,” Raffaelo said.
Her feet were getting warmer now, less painful, but he made no move to release them. They must have looked strange, the three of them, but Inca didn’t care—weirdly, this was the closest she had felt to them both.
Eventually though, Raffaelo let her go and Tommaso led her back to bed as she felt exhaustion take over. She fell into a dreamless sleep then, wrapped in the safety of Tommaso’s arms.
Raffaelo went to his own room, but this time it was he who was haunted by dreams—dreams of Inca’s body, her full breasts and soft belly, her dusky skin and warm smile. In the dream, he found her in the snow again, but this time she held out her arms to him and he went into them as she wrapped her long legs around his waist, and his cock plunged deep into her hot, sweet cunt …
In the morning, Raffaelo got up, showered, dressed, and left the house before Tommaso and Inca woke. He honestly did not know what he would do if he saw her.
“Merda,” he thought as he steered his car towards the city. He really did not want to fall for his brother’s girlfriend. Anything but that.
Anything …
Scarlett left Nancy in charge of the Sakura and walked down to the ferry terminal. She’d decided earlier that day just to go, get off the peninsula, go to the city, and have fun. Things at home were too heavy right now; she was worried about Inca and the murders.
As she walked, she noticed Raffaelo in his car, driving towards the city road. She waved, but he seemed to look straight through her as he drove past. She shrugged and continued on. She liked Tommaso. He was charming; he was fun; and he was obviously crazy about Inca. But his brother was a mystery.
A sexy, sexy, mystery, Scarlett smirked to herself, and wondered if he was as enchanted with Inca as his brother. She suspected he might be. Her best friend had no idea of the effect she had on men.
None, she thought, utterly clueless. Scarlett was still grinning when she got to the ticket booth. Harve, the ticket master, took her money.
“How you doing, young ’un? Still single?”
Scarlett winked at him “Saving myself for you, Harve.” Harve’s son, Sal, a slinky-hipped blond sitting with his father in the booth, his long legs stretched out, feet on Harve’s desk, called out,
“Hey, what about me?”
Scarlett cocked her head to look past Harve and raised her eyebrows at the young man. “When I grow a penis, I’ll let you know.”
Harve choked on his coffee and guffawed. Sal grinned and shook his head.
“Don’t know what you’re missing, girl!” he called as she said goodbye to Harve. She turned and saluted him.
“I’ve seen Unhung Hero, Sal; I do know,” she shot back, which made Harve laugh even harder and clap his crestfallen son on the back. Scarlett waved at them both and walked up the gangway to the ferry. She headed straight for the front deck and leaned over the side. As it pulled away, she felt her spirits lift. An afternoon in the city’s best fashion shops—Nordstrom’s, she thought with a happy sigh—and an evening of music.
“God, I try and escape you for one day.”
She turned to see Knox walking towards her and smiled in delighted surprise. “Hey, you.” He was dressed in a dark green T-shirt, blue jeans and sneakers, casual, but she noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the slightly strained smile. Impulsively, she hugged him. He tensed for a moment, then returned the hug. Releasing him, she studied him.
“You look like you needed that. Rough few days, huh?”
He nodded and gestured towards the mainland. “That’s why I’m here. Going to camp out in bookshops, have some coffee, maybe catch a band later. You?”
She smiled. “The same. Hey, there’s a great covers band at the Paramount on Ninth and Pine.” Suddenly, she felt shy. “I mean, I’m going, and I don’t know if you’re sick of the sight of me, but…”
Knox laughed. “Would never happen, Scarlett Rose. I’d like to come. I’ve heard good things about that place. Maybe we can grab some dinner before?”
She grinned. “You bet.” The way he said her name made her stomach flip excitedly.
They sat on the deck and talked for the rest of the journey, about music, books, art, carefully avoiding any mention of the murders or what had been going on. It was late morning by the time they got to Seattle, and as they walked off the gangway onto Alaskan Way, Knox took her hand.
Inca told Nancy about the night she’d had—well, the sleepwalking part, not the good part that had come before. She grinned to herself. Her thighs ached and her vagina throbbed with the pounding it had taken. Tommaso’s teeth marks were still on her belly.
God, what a night.
On her break, she surreptitiously took her laptop into the backroom and looked up some BDSM websites. She had never indulged before, but last night had awoken something inside her. She wanted to know more, try more …
“What’s that?”
Inca started and slammed the laptop shut. Luna Rosenbaum grinned at her. “Too late,” she said, and flopped down onto the couch next to Inca.
Inca, bright red, grinned.
“You are a pain in the ass. And where the hell have you been? I’ve barely seen you since you got back.”
“I know. I’m sorry, honey.”
“The English boyfriend?”
Luna grinned. Inca studied her. “So, you over whatever I did to piss you off?”
“What do you mean?”
Inca sighed. “When you came back, it seemed like you were angry at me.”
Luna looked guilty. “I wasn’t. I promise. Not really. It was just that, I thought I would have to keep my distance because of you and Olly splitting, and it broke my heart. I love you like a sister, Inks, and it killed me that you weren’t together anymore.”
“I didn’t do the dumping,” Inca reminded her gently, and Luna nodded.
“I know, and I am sorry. But seeing how you and Olly are still good friends—I came around. I hate that you’re not together, but as long as we can all get along, I’m good. He doesn’t like your boyfriend though.”
Inca was stung. “I knew he wasn’t sure about him, but I didn’t think he actively disliked Tommaso.”
Luna looked askance at her. “No? Because why would he hate his ex-girlfriend’s drop-dead-gorgeous billionaire boyfriend?”
Inca conceded that, laughing. “That does sound good when you say it. But, I couldn’t give two hoots about Tommaso’s money, you know.”
“I know that. The brother’s gorgeous too.” Luna grinned wickedly. “That’s a threesome I could get on board with.”
“Luna!” Inca gave a shout of shocked laughter.
“Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about it. And they’re Italian too—I bet you all the money in their bank accounts, they’ve shared a woman before.”
“Not me, they won’t.” Inca was feeling very uncomfortable now and was glad when Luna changed the subject.
It was later, when Inca was alone in the Sakura—Nancy having ducked out for a moment—that the thought came back to her, and she couldn’t shake it. Raffaelo … she closed her eyes and imagined him being the one fucking her, tying her up, his quiet, brooding nature at odds with the sensations he was engendering inside her …
“Hello, Inca.”
Ice flooded through her veins. She knew that voice. She opened her eyes and felt the blood drain from her face.
Kevin. He blocked the doorway of the teahouse.
Oh God … no …
Kevin smiled nastily and reached behind him to lock the door.
Tommaso stopped at a florist’s in Willowbrook to order some flowers for Inca. He hated that he was going to have to leave her to go to Paris, but at the same time, he knew Raff would make sure she was safe. There was something he liked in the thought of his brother and his girlfriend being alone together … a twisted part of him wondered if his brother would make a move on her. He had seen it in Raff’s eyes last night and knew that look of old. Desire. And who could blame him, confronted by Inca’s lush, naked body like that?
Of course, Raff would never take advantage— not like Tommaso. God, would he ever stop feeling guilty about Perdita? Maybe he would feel better if Raff did fuck Inca …
What the hell are you thinking? This is the woman you love …
He shook himself. Still, it would be a thought that would fester. He thanked the florist for the blooms—hibiscus, peonies, gerberas in the brilliant jewel tones that Inca loved—and got back in his car.
As he drove to the Sakura, he saw Nancy pounding at the door of the teahouse screaming and crying. People were running towards it as he brought the car to a halt with a screech and leaped out.
Winter Page 10