Dangerous

by Carrington, Tori

  As well as a deep desire for her.

  Oh, she saw it. More than that, she felt it. There’d always existed a chemistry between them that transcended anything said or done or wished. Put them in the same room with other people, and the temperature rose ten degrees.

  Put them in the same room alone and the air shimmered with the heat they gave off.

  She shivered from the thought, battling against a longing that had taken on a life of its own.

  Then again, she wasn’t really battling it at all. Instead, she was reveling in it. Enjoying the hunger that pulsed deep in her belly. The tickle of awareness over her skin every time she thought about him.

  She remembered their time together in the kitchen. Recalled the way she’d reacted when he’d withdrawn, spilling his seed over her thigh rather than inside her. It all seemed so long ago, yet could have happened mere moments before.

  There was a brief knock at her door. She glanced down at her simple silk nightgown, making sure she was covered, and then called for whoever it was to enter.

  She expected it to perhaps be one of Lorenzo’s nurses, asking if she wanted anything more for the night.

  Instead, she found herself staring at the man who had just been occupying her thoughts.

  Luca.

  * * *

  Gia looked like an angel standing in front of the window. The lamplight outlined her slender shape under the white silk gown she wore, the fabric nearly

  transparent so that he could make out each of her curves.

  Lucas wasn’t sure what he’d expected. Probably that she’d be fully clothed sitting at the desk in the corner going over numbers of some sort or mapping out some intricate strategy on how to keep the family from harm.

  Instead he found a woman ready for bed—or that had already been in bed, if the rumpled bedcovers were any indication—a sketch pad on the nightstand, as if she was waiting for her man to come home.

  He tilted his head to the side, wondering. Had she been waiting for him to come back to the house?

  He scanned her soft features and thought that she very well could have been.

  Welcome, relief and desire were all present in her face.

  He quietly closed the door, staying right where he was, if only because he didn’t trust himself to move closer. He needed to keep his wits about him.

  Remember what was going on around them.

  Try to ignore what was developing between them.

  “I just wanted to check in to see if everything was okay.”

  She smiled, stepping in his direction. “I’d ask where you went, but I’m not sure I’d like the answer.”

  Lucas avoided her gaze. She thought he might have been with another woman.

  And, in essence, he had, hadn’t he? His FBI contact was a person she wouldn’t like him to be seeing. And by seeing him, he’d betrayed her. In the worst of all possible ways.

  “Has anything happened while I’ve been gone?” he asked.

  “Nothing that can’t wait until morning,” she answered, moving ever closer.

  Every step she took made his pulse leap.

  Damn, but she was beautiful.

  “There are other things on my mind just now…”

  Chapter 12

  Looking at Luca after spending so much time thinking about him was like being given a gift that was even better than she imagined.

  Gia considered the way he stayed put near the door, as if he didn’t trust himself to move closer…so she moved closer instead.

  Perhaps it wasn’t so much himself he couldn’t trust, but her.

  The silk of her gown moved against her skin, clinging to her sex, rasping against her hardened nipples. She watched as Luca’s pupils grew wider at her seductive approach, the only part of him, it seemed, capable of moving at all.

  She watched him swallow thickly. “Oh? And what do you have in mind?”

  She laughed quietly, stopping directly in front of him, glad when she only smelled him and his subtle aftershave. No feminine perfume, no cigarette smoke.

  Just one hundred percent pure, fine Luca Paretti.

  “What I have in mind can’t be expressed in words,” she murmured, taking his hand and running her fingers over the back. “It’s better shown.”

  She pressed his palm down over her left breast, holding it there, willing him to feel the thundering of her heartbeat just beneath the surface.

  His expression grew fiercer.

  “Gia, I’m not so sure…”

  “Shh,” she said, pressing the finger of her free hand against his lips to prevent him from saying more. “No more words.”

  She took her hand back and used it to push the strap of her gown so that it slid over her shoulder, slipping the fabric down between his hand and her breast. A small, strangled sound escaped his throat.

  Gia trembled in response.

  She followed with the other strap so that the material whispered to the floor in a silken puddle. She was nude underneath. She watched Luca appreciate that little fact, taking her in with his heavy-lidded gaze.

  Then he did exactly as she expected, hoped he might: he groaned and swept her up into his arms, carrying her to the bed just steps away. Gia clutched his shoulders, feeling lighter than the feather he made of her. Once she was on top of the soft bedding, she released him and scooted farther up, keeping her legs enticingly together.

  “Gia, you’re going to be the death of me.”

  He yanked at his tie impatiently, and then his jacket, his jerky movements speaking of an urgency that reflected the same that filled her stomach. It was taking longer than she would have liked, so she drew up on her knees to help him, not expecting his sudden kiss.

  So hot…so demanding.

  The attention of his mouth took her breath away as he hauled her to him, his clothes still half on, the material of his suit jacket chafing her nipples even as he yanked it off, never breaking contact with her lips.

  Gia thrust her fingers into his thick hair, holding on for dear life as he kissed her like she was water and he had just traversed the Sahara. All too soon, he broke the contact and pressed her back against the mattress, his erection thick and hard between her legs, not breaching her portal, but rather cradled between her engorged flesh.

  She gasped and tried to force entry. He drew away, staring deep into her eyes, as if something had just occurred to him.

  “It’s because I withdrew, isn’t it?” he asked, surprising her with his sudden insight. “That’s the reason you went cold on me the last time.”

  Gia gazed at him, so hot she was afraid she was at risk of self-combusting.

  “Shh…”

  He shook his head. “No. I don’t want it to happen again, Gia. I won’t share something special with you and have you turn away from me again. I won’t.”

  She ran her hand down his abdomen and then wrapped her fingers around his long, thick erection, squeezing. He groaned and caught her wrist.

  He kissed her deeply, not speaking again until she panted with need. “I didn’t have protection then. I don’t have it now. Are you willing to take the risk of getting pregnant?”

  She stared up into his eyes, his skin burning her fingers, his hand tight on hers. “Are you?”

  He didn’t say anything for a long moment. Merely gazed at her intently. “I’d be honored if you’d have my child.”

  Gia released her grip on his manhood and curved her arms around his back, holding him tight, holding him close.

  The past crashed back like a thousand storm-tossed waves. She fought to keep it at bay, but she was helpless against the torrent of emotion.

  “What is it?” Luca whispered when she went still, forcing her to move from where her face was tucked into his shoulder. “Gia, what happened? What’s the matter?”

  She shook her head, helpless to stop the tears streaming down her cheeks, the emotions from wracking her body. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter now. What I needed to hear, you just told me.”

 
“It matters if it has the power to bring you to tears. Tell me, cara. Do you want to become pregnant? Is that what this is about?”

  Gia bit hard on her bottom lip and closed her eyes, unprepared for the Italian endearment or his sensitivity. How could she possibly tell him the reason why she’d been upset when he withdrew the other night? Share what had been a secret for so long she didn’t even know if she could utter the words?

  She recalled the morning she found out as if it had happened today, standing in the bathroom staring at the indicator stick. Pregnant.

  And Luca was gone.

  How did she now convey to him the depth of emotion she’d felt? How elated she’d been at the thought that their lovemaking had resulted in the creation of a baby? Their baby?

  How did she tell him how afraid she’d been when she was unable to contact him, find out where he was?

  How utterly alone she’d felt, alone with no mother to offer her advice?

  Oh, God.

  She hadn’t been able to tell her father or brothers for fear of what they might do to Luca.

  And Luca had never known because she’d never had a chance to tell him.

  He shifted on top of her, moving to sit on the side of the bed, his back to her.

  “Sweet Jesus…don’t tell me…”

  Was it her overwhelmed reaction to his saying he’d be honored if she bore his child? Or were they still plugged in on a level she didn’t think she would ever completely understand? She didn’t know how he’d guessed, but she suspected that he had.

  She’d had no choice but to terminate the pregnancy.

  “It doesn’t matter now,” she whispered fervently, wanting so much for her words to be true that she ached with it. “It happened a long time ago.”

  But it did matter. It would always matter. She would forever struggle with the morality of her actions. There wasn’t a day that went by when she didn’t remember what it was like to know she was pregnant with Luca’s baby. The joy.

  The happiness. The hope for the future.

  But everything changed during a procedure so routine to the doctor and the nurses who performed it that the entire experience emerged surreal.

  Luca looked at her over his shoulder. “But I’m just now learning about it, so it might as well be happening now.”

  Gia felt suddenly, inexplicably exposed. She drew the top sheet up over her breasts, covering herself.

  “Was it a boy or a girl?”

  She clamped her eyes closed, but they did nothing to stop the flow of tears. “I don’t know. They refused to tell me.”

  Again, nothing but the sound of his deep breathing and her stifled sniffles.

  “How old would he or she be now?”

  “Six…last month.”

  “Dear Lord in heaven.” Luca dropped his head into his hands, as if the information was too much for him to bear.

  It was then that Gia knew a fear she hadn’t considered before. A fear that he might hate her for aborting his child.

  She desperately searched for something to say to him. Some way to make him look at her again as he had just moments before. Before he’d learned the truth.

  “I didn’t know where you were. I didn’t know how to find you. I went to your parents and begged them to have you call me. I waited to hear something. Almost too long.” She swallowed back a sob. “I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t tell my father…I couldn’t tell anyone…

  “And you were just…gone…”

  Gia’s very bones seemed to disintegrate and she no longer possessed the power to sit up.

  But before her back hit the sheets, Luca was scooping her up into his arms, draping her across his lap and holding her so tightly she couldn’t breathe.

  “Oh, Gia, what have I done to you? Oh, sweet Gia…”

  His words were her complete undoing as she collapsed against him, wanting, needing to lose herself in his embrace.

  She’d feared his hatred. She’d received his love.

  Gia was sure of that. And in that one moment, knew that he had always loved her.

  He’d left not because of her, but because of reasons not connected to her. His brother’s death had left him searching for answers his wandering could only provide.

  Unfortunately that same wandering had left her alone and pregnant. And she’d made the only decision she could.

  There wasn’t a moment that went by that she didn’t remember that day. Didn’t lament it. Didn’t think about how old their child would be now and whether it would have been a boy or a girl.

  But now that she’d finally told him, it was as if he’d realized the almost unbearable burden weighing down her shoulders, and had lifted at least half of it to put on his.

  He threaded his fingers through her hair and drew her closer, gazing deep into her eyes, sadness in the depths of his. “I’m so, so sorry you had to go through that by yourself, Gia. So very sorry I wasn’t there for you. For our child.”

  And then he kissed her.

  * * *

  Lucas’s heart beat thickly in his chest. He was filled with love for this woman who had been forced to ignore her own heart in order to make a decision no one should have to make alone. He was filled with hatred that he had been so consumed by vengeance for his brother’s death that he’d lost his own child.

  He couldn’t seem to kiss Gia long enough, deeply enough, to assuage the need and guilt gnawing at him from the inside out. She tasted of heaven even though she’d been through a hell he feared he’d never completely understand. He’d known something was wrong with her that night in the kitchen. Had suspected she’d gone through changes he couldn’t begin to fathom, when he’d first seen her again after so many years.

  He’d had no idea how deep her pain had gone.

  And now he shared that pain.

  He caressed her bare shoulders, needing to pull her closer, yet keep her far enough away so that he might touch her. Her breasts were warm, her nipples rigid. He bent his head to take the right one into his mouth, laving it, wishing the experience could prove a salve to both their damaged souls. He’d betrayed her. He’d betrayed himself. And she had no idea the lengths to which he had betrayed her…was still betraying her.

  Guilt pulsed through him.

  Gia rested against the sheets, more beautiful than a sculpture of Venus come to life. Lucas reached down between them and gently probed her damp curls, burrowing through them to find her moist center. He sought and found the bit of flowering flesh at the apex of her womanhood and pinched it lightly, satisfied with her sharp gasp. Then he parted her thighs, spreading her legs wide with his knee. The new openness allowed him access to her sex and he took immediate advantage, stroking her and then fingering the edges of her before inserting his finger deep inside her slick flesh.

  She was tight and wet and oh so ready for him. She shifted restlessly against the bed, so near climax that he knew all he would have to do was stroke her G-spot and she’d melt into a puddle. Only he didn’t want her to go that way. He wanted to be with her when she came. He wanted…no, needed, to reach that plateau with her. They’d experienced too much already separately.

  He moved his other knee between her legs and grasped his erection, stroking her with the turgid length. Her juices covered him, lubricating his skin, preparing him for entrance. Gia reached up and anchored herself with her hands against his shoulders as he positioned the wide tip against her and entered her slightly before withdrawing. She protested with a thrust of her hips upward, forcing him deeper inside.

  Lucas sank in to the hilt, not stopping until his pubis met with hers.

  Gia shuddered around him, the contraction of her muscles as they adjusted to his thick girth nearly shoving him over the edge. He gritted his back teeth, his heartbeat moving from his chest to his swollen penis. His erection twitched inside her as he slowly withdrew, then surged again, stroking her as intimately as a man could a woman.

  Desperate to show her through actions, not words, how much he loved h
er.

  And he did love her, didn’t he? Had never stopped loving her. She was still the beautiful young woman who’d looked at him with stars in her eyes, despite the despair she’d suffered at his hands.

  And she, miracle of miracles, still loved him.

  He didn’t know what he’d done to deserve her love. Didn’t want to think too much on the topic lest he find himself undeserving of it. All he knew was a roaring urgency to connect with her on a level he’d never connected with another person in his life.

  He stroked her again…and again. Listening as her breathing grew more labored, her breasts heaving from the effort it took to draw air into her constricted lungs. Having trouble getting enough air himself.

  He skimmed his hand over her breasts, then down over her side, not stopping until he’d curved it under her softly rounded bottom, parting her wider from behind. His thrusts grew more demanding, melding his sex with hers, his soul reaching out for hers.

  And she offered it up to him in a burst of shimmering gold passion.

  Chapter 13

  The following morning Lucas stood staring out the French doors in the kitchen at the back grounds. The sun was just now rising, but he’d been up for hours. Had left Gia asleep in her bed at around four to come downstairs and try to make sense of what had happened in the past few weeks…what had happened seven years ago.

  It seemed as if within the blink of an eye his life had been altered. His entire existence transformed with a few whispered words from Gia’s mouth.

  She’d been pregnant with his child.

  He dry washed his face with his hands, regretting that he hadn’t tried to get some rest. But he knew he wouldn’t have been able to close his eyes. There was too much to think about. Too much to consider.

  And if the emotional matters weren’t enough, he had to reflect on the current legal storm cloud hanging over the Trainello house. It was only a matter of time before the authorities came back with a warrant for Vito’s—or worse, Gia’s—arrest for the death of Joey Guarino. How might she stand up then?

  In his training at Quantico, he’d not only learned how to use certain techniques to get suspects to talk. He’d been broken himself, when he’d been convinced no one would be able to torture anything from him. It was said he had taken longer than any other bureau trainee, but he’d learned an important lesson that day: that everyone broke, eventually. All the inquisitor had to do was find the right stimulus.