A Deal for the Di Sione Ring

by Jennifer Hayward

  His wicked fingers played over her, slid inside her. She arched against them, urged him on. Nate’s breath was hot at her ear, telling her how much he loved how she responded to him, how sexy she was. As wicked as his hands were, his raspy voice was sexier, unearthing a heated flush all over her body. Hot, she was far too hot to breathe.

  “Nate,” she gasped.

  His ebony gaze scorched hers. “Baby, the way you say my name...it makes me crazy.”

  His hands slid away from her. She started to protest, her body screaming for relief. He lifted her off him and set her on the sofa, dropping to his knees in front of her.

  “Nate—”

  “Relax,” he murmured. “I’m not finished.”

  She gaped at him. “What are you—Nate, you can’t do that.”

  He nudged her legs apart and moved between them. “You’ll like it, I promise.”

  “Yes, but—”

  He slid the hem of her dress unerringly up her thighs. “But what?”

  “It’s shocking.”

  “Shocking,” he agreed, sliding his hands under her buttocks to pull her to the edge of the sofa.

  Oh, mio Dio. Her head fell back against the cushions as his hands swept the lacy underwear off her and tossed them to the side. Her eyes closed, her heart slamming in her chest as his palms pushed her thighs apart and his fingers parted her most intimate flesh. A long, slow lap of his tongue brought her hips off the sofa. “Nate—” she breathed. He set a hand to her stomach to ground her, held her in place while he consumed her, every stroke against her hot, moist flesh taking her past her initial sensitivity into a deeper, headier pleasure.

  Again and again he stroked her until she was begging, saying his name in a broken tone. Voicing his husky approval, he brought his fingers back into play, easing them inside of her. The penetration along with his hot, amazing mouth on her drove her higher, past where she’d been last night. Until she could take it no more.

  “Per favore. Please—”

  He closed his mouth over her clitoris and sent her tumbling into another universe.

  She was still coming down from her orgasm when Nate scooped her up and carried her into the dark, silent bedroom. She stood, knees shaking, legs ready to give way, as he flicked on a light and cast the room in a soft glow.

  The lust on his face as he wrapped a hand around her waist and drew her back to him made her even weaker. “Okay?”

  She nodded.

  A smile tipped his lips. “That wasn’t too improper?”

  “Sì, it was. But I liked it.”

  The fire in his eyes made her insides dissolve into a throbbing pool of heat. He tipped her chin up with his finger and pressed a lingering kiss against her mouth. She stood on tiptoe, wound her arms around his neck and kissed him back. Pressed against him in search of closer contact. Froze as she felt his rock-hard erection throb against her belly.

  Goodness, but he was big. Was that normal? How would she handle him?

  She stepped back. Pulled in a deep breath. Nate frowned, looking more than a little hot and bothered. “What?”

  “That.” Her gaze dropped to the bulge in his pants. “I—should I be doing something about that for you now? The girls in school said—”

  “Said what?”

  “That a woman could—you know—take the edge off for a man.”

  His mouth twitched. She had the awful feeling he was laughing at her. “It’s true,” he said solemnly. “Men do enjoy that. I’d prefer to take the edge off with you, however.”

  Her insides did a slow twist. “Sì. That’s fine, then.”

  Nate turned her around. Set his lips to her nape. “It will be more than fine.”

  She quivered under his kiss as he slid the zipper of her dress down to her waist. He pushed it off her shoulders and let it slide to the floor. Air wafted across her shoulders in a delicate caress. He pressed a kiss to her shoulder blades, sank to his knees and continued his kisses, lingering at the indentation at the small of her back. Then his mouth was on the curve of her bottom.

  She pulled in a breath. “Nate. What are you doing?”

  “Indulging myself,” he said huskily, his mouth against her skin. “I’ve had fantasies about this particular part of your anatomy.”

  Oh. Hands on her hips, he turned her around. His dark gaze was hot on her body. Far too intense to take. “Stunning,” he said quietly. “You are every man’s dream.”

  She stared at him, unable to look away. She didn’t care if she was anyone else’s dream. She only wanted to be his.

  His hands tightened around her hips, drawing her to him. Mina watched as his eyes zeroed in on the dark curls between her legs. “No,” she said, grabbing a handful of his hair. “Nate—no—”

  He put his mouth to her. Stirred her back to life with every reverent kiss. Her body tightened. Thought ceased. By the time he rose to his feet, lifted her into his arms and deposited her on the bed, she was panting for him.

  He stripped off his shirt, then the rest of his clothing. Mina’s eyes grew wide. How was this going to work? It couldn’t work.

  He came down on the bed beside her. Brought his mouth to hers. “You were made to take me,” he murmured against her lips. “I promise you, Mina. Trust me.”

  She did. Her mouth softened beneath his, her body slackening under his caresses. His hands left her to roll a condom on, his jerky, quick movements telling her how much he wanted her. Then he was between her legs, sliding her knees further apart and moving his hand beneath her bottom to cup her buttock. Palming himself, he lifted her and brought his huge shaft to her core. Mina closed her eyes and waited for the pain. Nate played with her instead, getting her used to the feel and pressure of him.

  When she could take it no longer, she arched her hips. “Nate. Per favore.”

  His ebony eyes flashed in the dim light. “You want me, baby?”

  “Sì.”

  He sank into her just enough to stretch her body. Waited while she accommodated him. When she raised her hips for more, he gave it to her, watching her face the entire time, making it such an intensely erotic experience she forgot her fear.

  She arched her hips again, took more of him in until she felt a pressure, a resistance. “A little bit of pain and then lots of pleasure,” he promised huskily. She nodded and grabbed a handful of sheet as he surged forward and broke through the barrier. A searing pain lanced through her. She breathed through it, Nate holding himself completely still. Then the pain was fading and she felt only full, stretched by his virility. Possessed.

  “Okay?” His dark eyes were glazed with the effort it was taking him to hold back.

  She nodded. Forced her limbs to relax as he started to move, ever so slowly as her body softened around him. Discomfort turned to pleasure as he stroked every nerve ending inside of her, filling her, then withdrawing. Her hips started to move, demanding more. Nate’s gaze burned into hers. “Good?”

  “Sì. So good, Nate. I had no idea it could be so...good.”

  “I told you,” he said, taking both her buttocks in his hands now as he brought his mouth down on hers, “your beautiful body was made for me.”

  His words did something to her insides. Dissolved her into a pool of lust as he stroked deeper. But it was more than that. He might not see the connection between them but she did. It was special. Powerful.

  She arched her hips and took him deeper. Begged for more against his mouth. He made her say his name as she begged, filling her deeper, harder. Again and again until she was burning up. His hand at her buttock angled her, then as he moved even deeper, touched a place inside of her that promised pleasure like none before. She bit into his lip to urge him on. Nate growled and surged harder inside of her. “I need you with me, baby. Can you feel that?”

  “Sì. Oh, Nate.”


  He drove into her then, the animalistic, desperate pace he set stirring her blood to a fever pitch. She matched him stroke for stroke until he hit that spot inside of her and tore her apart, her orgasm so intense she buried her fingernails in his thighs.

  His big body tensed, then shuddered against her, his hands clamping hard around her buttocks. When he was finally still, he rolled over on his back and brought her down on his chest. Slowly her world righted itself.

  She kept her eyes shut. Wanted to memorize every detail, every minute of what had just happened, it had been so perfect.

  * * *

  Too restless to sleep after that mind-bending experience taking his wife’s innocence, Nate left Mina sleeping and ordered them a light meal in case she woke up hungry. Then he took his laptop back out to the terrace to work.

  Resting his head against the back of the sofa, he watched the play of the light on the water. It flickered like flames lapping the blue-black canvas that surrounded him. If he’d anticipated bedding Mina would be more about him ensuring her first time was good for her, he had clearly underestimated his wife’s effect on him. How every inch of her inflamed his senses. How every innocent, passionate response to his lovemaking had pulled him deeper and deeper into the web she’d so effortlessly spun around him. Into the incandescent spirit that was Mina.

  To go through what she had and emerge with such strength, such belief in the world around her, was remarkable to him. The survivor in her was just as sexy to him as the delectable packaging.

  The distant roar of a jet taking off brought his head up. Pierced the almost eerie stillness around him, forcing his brain to admit the truth along with it. He couldn’t call what they’d just done sex. Even a man hell-bent on deluding himself would be a fool to make that claim.

  He felt something for Mina, something he’d never felt for a woman before. It went beyond the protectiveness he’d initially felt for her to a place deep inside his chest. A place he’d long ago marked forbidden for him.

  He knew what it was like to allow yourself to feel, to want things you couldn’t have. Because contrary to what his grandfather thought, what Mina had accused him of, he had made an effort to connect with his brother Alex. He had sought him out, made tentative overtures when he’d begun his tenure at Di Sione Shipping, thinking they had been similar animals—wounded beasts who had made themselves into warriors. Perhaps to attempt to put his and his brother’s dark past to rest. Only to have Alex shut him down cold. As if he wasn’t good enough to breathe the same air as him.

  His fingers tightened around the steel casing of his laptop—the tool he used to command an empire built brick by brick by his need to prove none of it mattered to him. That he could shine the brightest.

  Some days he managed to convince himself it was true. On others, his past ate away at his insides, slowly but surely corroding his soul. The price he paid for choosing the life he had.

  The smoky trail of the departing jet dissolved into the sky, a wisp of gray against black. Mina’s dark, dark eyes as he’d taken her filled his head. The wonder in them at what they created together. He was playing a dangerous game with her. He knew it. As inevitable as it seemed, the rules he’d insisted on seemed more important than ever.

  He had nothing to offer Mina except what his tutelage and position could provide in the way of a successful transition into a business career when their year was up. Some other man would give Mina the happily-ever-after she craved, the unconditional love.

  Confining himself to the mutual satisfaction they’d promised each other was the only way forward. Or he would break her heart. Not an option when his wife’s heart had already been shattered one too many times.

  CHAPTER TEN

  EVERYTHING FELT DIFFERENT after Mina’s earth-shattering night with Nate. The world seemed to come into a bright, intense focus as they toured the island with the resort manager and viewed the enhancements that had been recently made, all of it so much more vividly real to her than it had been before. As if Nate had awoken part of her sensory being she’d never tapped into before. Hadn’t even known existed.

  The extent to which she hadn’t been living was thrown into stark relief. Anger at herself for allowing it to happen, for allowing her mother to rule her life, became a thankfulness that she had finally taken control of her destiny. It made her determined to seize every moment and relish it.

  Another disconcerting reality came to light during those heady two days in the Maldives. She was falling for Nate. Hard. Something she’d said she wouldn’t do. She tried to tell herself it must be part of the knight in shining armor fantasy she’d built around him. For what he’d given her—the precious freedom to pursue her life on her own initiative. But she worried it was much, much more than that.

  And how unwise was that? she thought as they flew across the world to New York—her new home. To allow herself to fall for a man who had no interest in a permanent relationship with anyone. Who would run in the opposite direction if he knew her feelings.

  She stole a glance at her husband as he frowned over a report in the seat beside her. She wasn’t even sure how it had happened. Perhaps it had been when he’d claimed her innocence with such achingly tender care. When she’d seen in his dark eyes an equally emotional response to what she’d been feeling. As if what they shared was as rare and monumental as it seemed.

  And perhaps that was just in her imagination.

  She gave her head a shake and picked up her steaming mug of what you could barely call coffee. To try and convince herself Nate had feelings for her would be making an even bigger mistake than she’d already made. Better to bury whatever infatuation she’d developed deep and use her mental energy to fortify herself for her introduction to New York.

  Already the tabloids had caught wind of her and Nate’s nuptials. It seemed one of the employees at the Grand Hong Kong had given a reporter a scoop on the real-estate magnate’s new marital status. The reporter had dug a bit into Mina’s aborted vows in Palermo and had dubbed her “Nate’s stunning runaway Sicilian bride.”

  Her stomach rolled. She had the social skills to assume the role of Nate’s high-society wife, but she had a feeling her level of sophistication would prove woefully inadequate when it came to the circles he traveled in. And then there was the coming challenge of proving herself in her new marketing role...

  She gave an inward shiver. She’d never been to America. Had never visited the intimidating city of New York she knew only from movies. It seemed full of slickly dressed businesspeople who talked fast and had extremely dry senses of humor.

  What would they make of her?

  “Stop fretting,” Nate murmured. “Or I will be forced to find a way to divert you.”

  The glitter in his heavy-lidded gaze brought every cell in her body to instant attention. “I’m not fretting.” His brow lifted. “Ebbene, I am,” she conceded. “What if my coworkers don’t like me? What if your friends, the press, don’t like me?”

  His gaze softened. “They will love you because you have an innate charm that will win everyone over, Mina. And you are talented. Be yourself and you’ll be fine.”

  She held that close to her heart as they landed at a small private airfield in New Jersey and climbed into the car that was waiting for them. Nate made a phone call to his grandfather to see if they could drop by and show him the ring before the workweek started. When he ended the call, his face was dark.

  “He hasn’t been well this week.”

  Her heart squeezed. “Should we go another time?”

  “A short visit is fine. He’s anxious to see the ring.”

  Traffic was thick on the highway, slowing to almost a crawl. Mina took the ring out of her purse and studied the beautiful, priceless sapphire.

  “You said the Fountain Ring was once Giovanni’s? Why did he have to sell it?”
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  “He came to America from Italy following the Second World War with only the clothes on his back. He needed to sell it to make his start here.”

  She turned the ring over. “It has an inscription on the inside. I saw it in Pasquale’s office. ‘Mistress of my heart—BA.’”

  He frowned and took it from her. “Those aren’t Giovanni’s initials.”

  She thought about it. “Perhaps they aren’t initials. Perhaps it’s some sort of a message to a lover?”

  * * *

  Nate thought about that as they made the rest of the slow trip to Long Island. Had Giovanni had a lover he’d left behind in Italy? It fit to some extent with the items his siblings had recovered, all of them precious mementos you might give to a lover.

  Or perhaps they had nothing to do with an old love affair and were all distinct, separate memories his grandfather had for different times and places of his life?

  Giovanni had been married to his wife, Maria, for almost twenty-five years, happy enough from what he’d discerned. But his grandfather was a mystery. Had always been. He had a feeling there was a lot more to know about the legendary shipping tycoon than what he’d revealed.

  The clue to his grandfather’s past rattled around his brain until they arrived at the Di Sione villa. The doctor was just leaving.

  “Keep it brief,” he said. “He needs the rest.”

  A tightness seized Nate’s chest. “Is there a revised timeline?”

  The doctor shook his head. “He has good weeks and bad. This one was tough. The drugs are helping with the pain but they’re also sedating him.”

  Nate led Mina up the ornate, finely carved staircase to Giovanni’s suite of rooms. He held up a hand for her to wait at the door, then ventured inside. His grandfather was lying in the massive mahogany bed, looking heart-droppingly small. Propped up by a mound of pillows, his eyes were half-closed. “Nathaniel,” he said, his voice low and raspy. “Did you bring your new wife?”