by A Caprice
“Not yet, but I’m sure it will turn up. There are a lot of nooks and crannies down below in which artifacts can get lost.” Ray’s faded denim eyes twinkled.
“Artifacts don’t get lost, Ray. People lose them.” Chirac glared at Amanda.
She bit the inside of her cheek to stop her own scowl but had to admit he was right. Things didn’t just get lost on their own.
“Or people steal them,” she said.
Chirac snorted. “You think you can escape responsibility so easily? You—”
Ray stepped around the desk. “Now, now, Diesel, that’s enough.”
Amanda raised an eyebrow. Diesel? That butch nickname didn’t fit the middle-aged man with a comb over and the beginnings of a pot belly.
Ray turned to Amanda. “We will, of course, be looking into all possibilities. But you must admit that it would be very difficult to break into this building with all the precautions we take. We have the most up-to-date security measures that exist in the industry.” He winked at her. “Along with many of our own personal precautions that the security industry will never know about.”
“Maybe it would take a paranormal to do it.” She sucked on her bottom lip. Could Gio have a special ability, a talent at theft? Or was he just that naturally gifted?
Or experienced. How much did Gio steal? If his mansion was anything to go by, he was a repeat offender.
She looked up and caught Chirac’s unblinking stare. His wide, protuberant eyes reminded her of an insect, and a chill raced down her spine. For some reason that man had disliked her on sight and the feeling was most definitely mutual.
Ray chuckled. “We’re a family here, Amanda. If you can’t trust family, who can you trust?”
She smiled, her lips drawn tight against clenched teeth. Family. Sure. Somehow, she’d never felt the familial love. If ARC was a family, she was the red-headed stepchild. “Not all paranormals are members of ARC.”
Ray pursed his lips. “As I said, we’ll look into all possibilities.”
Her heart pounded. She should tell him about Gio. She needed to tell him. “Well, I’m going to go down to the archives and look around some more.” She needed to find her backbone, is what she needed to do. But she wanted to hold onto her job just a little bit longer.
She smiled brightly. “See if I find anything.” She nodded goodbye and made her way to the elevators. But instead of looking for the decoder, Amanda spent the afternoon examining the security measures at ARC. Talking with the guards.
It would be extremely difficult for a non-paranormal to break into ARC but not impossible. Amanda bet that if any normie could do it, Gio could.
She took a quick break to grab a sandwich in the cafeteria, muttering a distracted hello to Georg from accounting. When she returned to her desk, she started an internet investigation of Giovanni d’Onofrio. For the next couple of hours she ignored her phone and dug into Gio’s public life.
There wasn’t much. He liked his privacy, apparently. Several society pictures of him escorting beautiful women to charitable events in Rome. Tall, slender women, with all the curves of a wall. Amanda sniffed in disdain. She was not his type on many levels, it seemed.
There was an abbreviated bio on a professional networking site stating a Giovanni d’Onofrio did indeed work as a retrieval expert for three major insurance companies. Bit like the fox guarding the henhouse. And from years ago, a front-page article in the Corriere della Sera detailing a car crash that killed the parents of a fifteen-year-old Gio.
Amanda tapped her fingers on her desk, then stood abruptly and went down into the archives. She wandered to the Egyptology section and read through the hieroglyphics, an exercise she had always found soothing.
So, she and Gio were both orphaned at a young age. She refused to let their similar situations soften her attitude toward him. Personal tragedy didn’t give someone the right to turn to a life of crime.
The musty smell of the papyri was overtaken by familiar spices. Amanda whipped around and bumped into a solid wall of muscle covered in cashmere. “Damn, you move quietly.”
He gripped her shoulders. “Cara, are you all right?”
She pushed against his chest trying to escape from his hold, but he pulled her even closer. “I’m fine, you jerk. Now let me go.”
His eyes flashed. “I arrived home to find my rooms searched and you missing. I thought someone had taken you.”
Amanda hadn’t considered that possibility and her eyes widened. “Oh…”
“Then a friend tells me you are here, working, yet you do not answer any of my calls. Please explain yourself.” A muscle spasmed in his clenched jaw.
Explain herself? Amanda stomped on his foot then jerked away from him. Only a small grimace marred his patrician features.
“I’m here working on getting the decoder back. What are you doing here? How did you get in?”
He leaned his shoulder against a bookcase and crossed his arms over his wide chest. “I told you, I have a friend who works here. He let me in.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Did he let you in last time too?”
“What last time?”
“I know you stole the decoder.” Amanda waited for a heated denial, but he remained quiet and expressionless. She clenched her fists. “I found your journal, your attempts at decryption. And I remembered things. Little things, but they added up. The lie about your French proficiency. Your sudden appearance before the insurance company was even notified. Your clumsy attempts at seduction.”
Gio flattened his lips.
Amanda leaned in and made a show of breathing deeply. Against her will, her core clenched as she drank in his masculine scent. “And I smelled you in the archives that night. You really should wash off the cologne before you go on a heist.”
“Not exactly an ironclad case,” he said in a low voice. He stepped forward, and Amanda stepped back. “But your thief and I, I think we have much in common. I think that your thief had a very good reason for taking the decoder, that it was necessary to him. I think that your thief would hate that he had hurt you, that he would do all that was in his power to make sure that his actions didn’t hurt your career.” He reached out and ran a hand through her loose hair. “And I think that your thief, once done with the decoder, will happily return it.”
Her mouth gaped, and she snapped it shut. Did he actually expect her to believe that load of crap? And she didn’t, Amanda told herself. She wouldn’t. She couldn’t trust him.
A noise at the doorway had her peering around Gio’s shoulder. Agent McGovern strolled into the library with another man. Amanda recognized Jack Slade as the other agent. Heart thumping, she grabbed Gio’s sweater and tried to pull him out of the agents’ sight line.
Too late.
Of all the excuses she could have given the agents, all the pretexts she could have come up with to explain Gio’s presence, her mind zeroed in on only one ruse. Amanda threw herself into Gio and wrapped her arms around his neck. She threaded her fingers through his silky hair and dragged his mouth down to meet hers. His mouth opened in surprise beneath hers, and her tongue took natural advantage.
After a second’s hesitation, he wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back.
She lost herself in the taste of him, forgetting the reason for the kiss until someone cleared his throat, loudly, behind Gio’s back. She sprang from his arms and stared at Agent McGovern, her cheeks growing hot.
He smirked down at her. Agent Slade stood next to him, arms crossed over his chest, a small smile dancing around his lips.
“I never knew so much fun could be had in a library, did you, Jack?” Agent McGovern asked, his eyes darting between Amanda and Gio.
“Agent McGovern,” Amanda said. “I was just giving a, uh, friend of mine a tour.”
“A tour?” The blond giant quirked his head. “I never received such a tour when I started here. Did you, Jack? Maybe you can sign us up for the next one?”
<
br /> Gio stepped between Amanda and McGovern, standing toe to toe with him even though the hulking agent, at six-six, had four inches on him. “Watch your tone.”
Amanda grabbed Gio’s arm and tried to pull him back. “Gio,” she said in a low voice. “Let it go.”
McGovern merely smiled in delight and rocked to the balls of his feet. The man delighted in a good fight.
“Chase,” Jack said. “I don’t think Serena would appreciate it if I went on that particular tour. Besides, wasn’t there a book you were going to show me?” Jack winked at Amanda and drew the large man back.
She dropped her eyes from Agent Slade’s. She had met Jack several times before and always liked the gruff man, but his talent allowed him to know when anyone was lying, and she had just told one, small though it might be. Her mind searched for a new topic of conversation. “How is Serena?”
“She’s back in the States right now, frantically trying to plan the wedding. I’m still trying to convince her Vegas is the way to go.” Jack and his fiancée, a fellow agent at ARC, had become engaged only the month before.
“Well that’s what you get for settling down, my man,” McGovern said. “Marriage comes with all of the hassles and none of the fun.”
“Says the confirmed bachelor. How would you know?” Jack said.
A shadow crossed the large man’s face. Ignoring the question, McGovern turned back to Amanda and Gio. “Look, I was just messing with you, Amanda. Jack and I will be out of here shortly and then you can continue the, uh, tour.”
She nodded and watched them leave. When their voices had faded to nothing, she heaved a large sigh of relief. “That was close.”
Gio eyed her intently. “Why didn’t you turn me in? Tell the men of your suspicions.”
She rubbed her forehead. “I have more suspicions than I know what to do with. Agent McGovern was here that night when I thought someone was stalking me in the dark. I’m worried he might be responsible for the explosion. If it was him, and I tell him you’re involved in this mess, too, well, I don’t think being a thief deserves the death penalty.”
“You don’t suspect me of the explosion? After all, I had access to your kitchen. I could have turned your gas on.”
She looked him up and down. “Well, you’ve had plenty of opportunities since then if you wanted to kill me. We’ve been in close quarters since last night.”
His eyes turned to melted chocolate. “Not close enough.” He clasped her hand and dragged her from the room.
Chapter Six
Amanda’s warm hand hadn’t left his except when he had put her in his car and when he had to shift. They hadn’t spoken since leaving ARC. Gio had no idea what to say to the woman beside him. She knew he was a thief, yet she’d protected him all the same.
He couldn’t understand it. Why hadn’t she given him up? Did it just come naturally to her as an archivist to try to preserve things, even people?
Or did she see something in Gio worth defending?
The tires of his Audi spat gravel when he accelerated down the long drive. He ignored his garage and spun to a stop in front of the front door. He pulled Amanda inside his house, his heart thudding heavily in his chest. The lights automatically snapped on, and Amanda was illuminated, leaning back against the door, her breasts heaving.
Dio, she was gorgeous.
He couldn’t help but touch her. He trailed his fingers down her smooth cheek, felt the thrumming of her pulse down her neck then the delightful friction of skin on skin when he slowly plunged his finger in and out of her cleavage.
Her eyes fluttered closed and she sighed deeply.
Groin tight, he tore at her blouse, baring her peach lace bra. He pulled the cups of the bra down. The stiff fabric was captured beneath her breasts, presenting them to Gio like an offering. He accepted.
He braced his hands on the door behind her, leaning into her. He licked one pink nipple then flicked across her skin to circle the other.
She clutched his hair, holding him tight to her. As if she thought he’d leave.
He almost laughed at the absurdity. He finally had Amanda in his hands, on his tongue. There was no way he was leaving until the need pulsing through them both was sated. Until he and Amanda lay panting, unable to come one more time.
He teased and tormented one breast with his lips, used his hand on the other. When he pinched the tip of her nipple, a low moan was dragged from Amanda’s throat and he smiled.
He stood, locking eyes with Amanda, one hand continuing to caress her breasts, his thumb gently circling her peaked nipple.
“Gio…” She bit her lip, not saying anything else. What was there to say? What he felt went beyond words. He only wanted their bodies to do the talking.
She drew his head down. This kiss was urgent, demanding, and he felt his finesse slip. Lips ground against each other, teeth knocked together. He couldn’t get enough of her. Her taste. Her passion. It was perfect. With past lovers, sex was a choreographed dance, every move planned to further the seduction. With Amanda, Gio was mindless.
He ran his hands down her skirt then back up her thighs, dragging the fabric up. He gripped her ass then lifted Amanda.
She wrapped her legs around his waist.
He felt the heat of her pussy through his pants, through her underwear. Eyes closed, he made his way to the living room and paused at the threshold. He pressed a button by the light switches and the gas fireplace crackled to life.
She broke the kiss and blinked in surprise. The porcelain skin of her neck glowed from the warm light. Gio had to see the rest of her skin bathed by the fire.
He sank down on the couch, Amanda straddling him, and made quick work of her shirt and bra. He stood her on her feet and her skirt and panties soon followed. She stood naked in front of him, clenching and unclenching her fists.
An ache squeezed his heart. She was nervous. If it was her nudity that was putting her on edge, she should know better. She was gorgeous, every inch of her skin made to be loved by him.
If she was scared about the intensity flaring between them…well, maybe they should both be scared. He understood attraction. He and lust were good friends. He swallowed, trying to bring moisture back to his mouth. But this feeling clawing at his skin, this jumble of emotions that twisted his gut and stole his breath when he looked at her…well, those he didn’t understand at all.
So he brought the moment back to what he did understand.
Sex.
He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a moist kiss to her palm.
“You are so beautiful. Inside and out.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t do this. You’re a thief and I’m…I’m not what you think. I don’t belong here with you.” Amanda hung her head, a swath of black hair falling from her shoulder and hiding part of her face.
He tugged on her hand and she stumbled forward, placing her hand on his shoulder to brace herself. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he brought her back to his lap, each of her knees snug against his hips.
“I have never felt like I’ve belonged with anyone more.” He kissed her again, this time slow and deep. Gio felt the moment when her hesitation disappeared, when she surrendered herself to the kiss and her body melted into his.
It was a great fucking moment.
She fumbled with his buttons for only a second before tearing at his shirt, pulling it roughly from his body. She dragged her nails down his smooth chest, scoring his abdomen, before attacking his belt buckle.
He grabbed her wrists and held them behind her back with one hand. “Easy.” He nipped along her jawline. “You have a habit of breaking things, and there are some things I must protect.”
With his free hand, he eased the belt from his waistband and, with a wicked smile, wrapped it around her wrists. “In fact, I think the less you touch, the safer I’ll be.”
“But Gio, I want to touch…oh, God that feels good.” Amanda rocked her hips into his hand.
He pulled free, ignoring her frustrated moan. Pinning her with his gaze, he stuck his fingers in his mouth, tasting her honey.
Her chest heaved. “Oh, Jesus.”
He wanted to smile, to revel in his control over her, but it was an illusion. His dick throbbed, desperate to pound into her heat. He’d never felt less in control with a woman.
But he dug deep. Restraint, discipline, they only made sex that much better. “Patience.” His voice was low, steady, and he couldn’t help but be impressed with himself. “I want you so desperate that when I finally sink into your warmth here,” he sank his index finger into her channel and rubbed against her inner wall, “you will be begging me for release.”
Amanda stared straight into his eyes, her blue ones looking almost black in the shadows. “If you don’t fuck me right now, I won’t be the only one begging.” Her internal muscles clutched at his finger hard, and his self-control snapped.
There was nothing sexier than a sweet girl talking dirty.
Gio unzipped his pants and pushed them down his hips. His cock popped out from under the band of his boxer briefs and came to rest between their stomachs.
She wriggled in excitement and rose up on her knees, her breasts pressing against his broad chest.
“Merda!” He dropped his head to her shoulder.
“What?” The need in her voice almost killed him, and he sank his teeth into her flesh and bit down gently.
“Condoms. Upstairs. Must go there. Now.” Full sentences were beyond his ability.
She nibbled his earlobe then licked inside. His hips lifted off the couch on their own accord. “I’m protected. I get the injection. As long as you’re clean, please stop talking and fuck me.”