Twisted Desire

by Laura Dunaway

  I sighed and sat back against my pillow. “Do you remember the lady from the other night?”

  He scrunched his face in thought; it was adorable. “Which one?”

  “The blonde.”

  He tilted his head to the side. “Yeah, what about her?”

  I started to twist my hair around my finger again. “She was here.”

  That made him sit up straight. “What?”

  “Yeah, she came by right after you left.”

  He swore and rubbed the back of his neck. He stood up and started pacing across the small room. “What did she say?”

  I watched him go back and forth, trying to read him. “Well that’s the thing,” I said. “She really didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, except for one thing.”

  He stopped mid-step and looked at me. “What was it?”

  “She told me Roman took me for his own benefit, in more ways than one.”

  He cursed again. “What the hell? I have no idea who she is, didn’t know she was still on the yacht. She could get in serious trouble for doing what she did.”

  That alarmed me. “You’re not going to tell Roman, are you?”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  Sighing in relief, I sunk back on the bed. “Thank you. Tag?”

  He stood still and looked at me. “What, querida?”

  That name. I had hated it first, but now it meant the world to me. “I need to ask you a question.”

  He sighed and sat down on the bed by me. His beautiful hazel eyes were looking straight at me, into my soul. This man was my world, and if he told me no, it would break me.

  “What is it, sweet girl?”

  “I need you to help me escape, to get back home.”

  He didn’t say anything, just continued looking at me. My heart was racing, freaking out at what he could be thinking. If he said no, everything would change between us.

  “Okay.”

  My eyes shot to his, shocked. “Okay?”

  He cupped the back of my neck with his large hand and pulled me to his chest. My heart was still racing, but now in relief. “Yes, querida, okay. It’s the only way I know how to keep you safe.”

  I wrapped my arms around his waist, still so surprised he agreed. “Does that mean you’ve already been considering this?”

  I felt him nod against the top of my head. “Yeah.”

  Looking up at him, I ran my fingertips across his unshaven face. “Since when?”

  He sighed again, pulling me closer. “A little while actually. Things aren’t adding up with this job, and it’s making me nervous more and more. Roman isn’t acting himself, and I can’t shake the feeling there’s a lot more to him taking you than just the retaliation.”

  “That’s what Fiona said.”

  “Yeah, hearing that solidified it for me. I need to get you off this boat.”

  Tears of joy fell down my face. I grasped him harder against me. “Thank you,” I whispered. “I didn’t know what I’d do if you said no.”

  He tilted my chin with his finger to look up at him. “Do you really not know how I feel about you, Penny?”

  My heart slammed in my chest, not expecting that. “What do you mean?”

  He bent down and kissed the tip of my nose. “Let me fill you in,” he teased. “From the first moment I saw you in that horrible room you were put in, I felt it. Seeing you shaking and crying, it got to me. That had never happened to me before, querida. I pushed it all aside and just did my job. But guess what?”

  I couldn’t stop staring at him, completely entranced by his words. “What?”

  He smiled as he looked down at me. “I couldn’t ignore it. You charmed me with your naivety and your attitude, not to mention you’re incredibly hot.” He smiled bigger when I swatted his arm. “I felt a fierce protectiveness toward you, and I couldn’t explain it. When Rico…”

  He paused then, anger flashing in his eyes. I never wanted to talk about Rico and what he did , but I had to know what he was going to say. “What, baby?”

  “When Rico attacked you…” His fist clenched as he spoke. “When I ran in and saw him there on top of you and heard your cries,” he paused again, his anger taking over.

  He melted my heart. No one had ever felt this way about me before, ever. I loved him so much.

  He shook his head as if to clear it. “When I saw what he’d done to you, I knew without a doubt how I feel about you, querida.”

  The tears were still running down my cheeks, and I started trembling again, this time in anticipation.

  He framed my face with his hands and pressed his forehead to mine. “I’m in love with you, Penelope Santoro. Full blown in love with you.”

  His eyes were blazing into mine, and I saw his Adam’s apple constrict as he swallowed. He was nervous after telling me that, but he had no reason to be. I slammed my lips to his and kissed him with all of the love and passion I felt for him. His hands squeezed my face as my tongue delved in his mouth, tasting the sweet taste of mint.

  I broke the kiss and copied his hands and framed his face with my own. “Oh baby, I love you too, so much.”

  His eyes took on relief and a passion I’d never seen before. He dipped his head to look straight at me. “Say it again.”

  “I love you, Tag.”

  This time his mouth crushed mine, his hand moving to the back of my neck and fisting my hair. He gently pulled my head back so he could deepen the kiss, his own tongue tracing the seam of my lips. I opened them and he dove in, his tongue started to dance with mine. When I felt his lips start to suck on my tongue, jolts of pure pleasure spread through me like wildfire, making me utter a loud moan.

  He pushed me down on the bed, his body covering mine. His kiss was slow and sexy, not rushed. He moaned against my mouth, telling me everything he loved about my body. Each word he said turned me on more, to the point where I was panting and pushing on his shoulders.

  He tore his mouth from mine. “What do you need, sweet girl?”

  I grabbed his crotch, making him hiss. “This, now.”

  He sat up and ripped his shirt off with a grin. “Your wish is my command.”

  I had a lot of wishes he delivered on that night. Over and over. And over.

  Chapter 22

  “The plan is being set in motion.”

  I pressed END on my phone and looked out over the light blue ocean. The plan to get Penny off the boat was being hashed out, and it wouldn’t be easy. Betraying Roman Vitale was a move I knew was coming, just not in this way.

  But it was the right way.

  My contact had given his okay to start it after my most recent report back. It was time, and doing it with getting Penny off was the perfect opportunity. We were killing two birds with one stone.

  It was perfect.

  My thoughts went back to the night before. She loved me. Penelope Santoro loved me. I didn’t try to hold back the huge grin that came over me as I situated my sunglasses over my nose.

  “What are you doing out here?”

  I turned around to see Theo standing behind me, gun in his hand. I nodded my head toward it. “What’s up?”

  “I’ve been looking all over for you. Roman’s going ballistic. Fiona’s dead.”

  I jerked at that. Dead. She’d gone to our room last night to warn Penny about something, and now she was dead. Convenient.

  I stayed calm. “What happened?”

  “Appears she took a bottle of pills. He just found her a few minutes ago.”

  I folded my arms across my chest. “What does he want me to do?”

  “The usual, dude. He wants you to help me get rid of the body, to make it look like she was never here.”

  I let out a huff. “Of course.”

  “What’s your problem, man? We’ve done this a million times before; it’s not a big deal. C’mon.”

  Pretending that this shit was normal to me was getting harder and harder. Soon enough, I’d finally be off this yacht and getting Penny to safety.
Once again, I reminded myself to be patient.

  I followed Theo into the yacht and down the hall. We walked into Roman’s quarters and saw him on the couch. He put his phone down next to him when he saw us coming.

  “There you are, Tag. I don’t appreciate you not being accessible to me. Your help is needed, as I’m sure Theo told you.”

  I stood in front of him and nodded, playing the part. “Yes, my condolences. Where is she?”

  Roman stood and indicated for us to follow him. We walked into his bedroom and saw her on the bed. She was dressed in only a long black T-shirt, a prescription bottle next to her open hand. When I got closer to her, I saw that one of her eyes was bruised and she had two large welts on her thighs. Anger boiled inside me when I realized he’d beaten her, but I kept it hidden, only showing indifference to the two men in the room with me.

  “If she wasn’t already dead, I’d kill her,” Roman seethed.

  “Where do you want us to take her, sir?” Theo asked, ignoring his outburst.

  Roman turned to him, a vein in his forehead throbbing. “Throw her overboard, for all I care. The bitch has caused me more trouble than she’s worth the past few days.”

  This was a new answer from him. “Overboard?” I asked.

  He ran a hand down his face. “No, no.” He walked closer to the bed and peered down at her. “Oh, Fiona, why? WHY?” he yelled, slamming his fist against the wall.

  Theo and I didn’t say anything, just stood there and watched. We knew not to question Roman, to let him do whatever he wanted. We waited patiently to be told what to really do.

  He finally turned to look at us. “Take her downstairs to the storage area. We’ll dock in a few hours, then you can remove her and dump her at the local morgue, unidentified. They’ll take care of her…or not, I don’t care.”

  He walked past us out of the room, not saying another word. Theo and I looked at each other, then he went to the bed and hoisted Fiona over his shoulder. I followed him out of the room and into Roman’s private elevator.

  “Good thing he has this, or it’d be pretty awkward walking her down the hall like this,” Theo commented.

  I didn’t say anything, just rolled my eyes. We reached the lowest level and walked to the storage area. Nothing about this was normal, yet it was their normal. A dead body was nothing to the cartel.

  I opened the door and turned on the lights. The room smelled stale and was cold. I moved a few boxes around and looked around for something to lay her on, then realized it didn’t matter.

  “Over here,” I directed Theo. He walked over to where I was, Fiona still slumped over his shoulder, and set her down on the floor.

  He backed up a few steps, and we both just stood there, looking down at her. Roman said it was a bottle of pills, but who really knew. He could have killed her and we’d never know.

  Just another day with the cartel.

  “Let’s go, man,” Theo said. “We’ll be back here soon enough to get rid of her.”

  I shook my head as we walked out the door, locking it. If Penny had any idea what had just happened, she’d go crazy. My sweet girl was still so innocent; she could never know about all the shit I’d done.

  “I gotta go take a piss, man,” Theo informed me as he rounded the corner. “I’ll text you when it’s time to get her.”

  I nodded as I walked up the stairs to my floor. Getting a text to say it’s time to get rid of the body. Fantastic.

  “So how long before we can get off the yacht?”

  Penny and I were sitting cross-legged on the bed, facing each other as I told her the plan was forming. She looked so hot in her white lace cami and purple boy shorts; it was all I could do to concentrate on her questions.

  “I don’t have the answer for that yet,” I replied. My hands were itching to touch her skin, to run up and down her body, to make her pant. “My contact is working on the details from land. He’ll be in touch soon.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “You won’t tell me who this contact is, will you?”

  I finally gave in and touched her, running my finger along her calf. I smiled at the intake of breath it caused from her. “Not yet, sweet girl. It’s still too early. This is extremely dangerous; we need to make it perfect. I’ll let you know things as you need to, okay?”

  My hand went higher, lightly touching her thigh. Her eyes were mesmerized, following my every move. She just nodded and murmured, “Okay.”

  I chuckled. “You cannot breathe a word of this, querida,” I told her, suddenly serious. While I knew it was the right thing to do to get her out, it was still so dangerous, so risky. Just the thought of losing her had me literally freaking out inside. “If Roman or anyone heard anything, it’d be over.”

  She raised her eyes to look at me. “I know that, Tag. I won’t say a word. I promise.”

  I put my hand to her cheek. “That’s my girl. I love you.”

  Her eyes warmed as she pressed her face into my hand. “I love you too. Being taken gave me one good thing, Tag…you.”

  I pulled her to me and pressed my lips against hers. I didn’t deserve her or her love whatsoever, but now that I had them, I refused to let them go. She was mine, and I would get her out of danger, no matter the cost. I had to give her her freedom and safety back.

  As her tongue touched my lips, there was a loud knock at the door. Freezing, thinking it would be Theo letting me know it was time, I cursed. Breaking our kiss, I walked over to the door and saw that it was Roman instead when I looked through the peephole.

  I turned to look at Penny. “It’s Roman, querida. Go into the bathroom, put some more clothes on, and try and relax.”

  Her face paled slightly, but she recovered and nodded, dashing into the bathroom. I smiled as she shut the door, then opened the door to our cabin. Roman stood there with his arms folded.

  “Tag,” he greeted.

  “Hello, Roman,” I responded. “What can I do for you?”

  “We’re about ready to dock again ,so I’ll need you and Theo to take care of that job we discussed earlier.” He said this as he looked over my shoulder, obviously trying to see if Penny was there listening. I didn’t let him know she was in the bathroom. He could squirm.

  I just nodded. “Okay, we’ll do that.”

  He eyed me suspiciously but didn’t say anything. “I also came by to tell you I’d like you and Penny to join me on shore tonight at a little nightclub I purchased last year. I need to go see how it’s doing, and I’d like nothing more than to show Ms. Santoro a night away from the yacht, with conditions, of course.”

  Shock bolted through me like lightning. Take her off the yacht, to a club? Was he insane?

  “I see your reaction, and I know it’s unusual, but I trust you’ll keep her by your side and safe. If I thought for a moment she would try to bolt, I wouldn’t do this, but she won’t. It’s time she gets off the yacht for a few hours, and this is the opportunity to do it. SanRisa will also be joining us. Penny met her the other night, so it will not be an awkward situation.”