Page 25 of Stolen Temptation

A voice in the back of my head keeps insisting this is too easy.

What’s so easy about it?I want to shout back. Sneaking into the auction without blowing our cover wasn’t easy. Mingling with a bunch of sleazy cocksuckers while in search of a breakthrough and contending with all that pressure isn’t easy. And then there’s her…

I flinch away from thoughts of the unconscious girl in the back who crashed into me like an offering from the gods.

Guilt gnaws at my gut. Anger follows.

Do I really need to remind myself that any woman who’s a close associate of Leonardo De Luca’s is trash? Kiara experiencing a change of heart doesn’t alter that truth. She claimed that she stole something valuable from him, which would explain her desperation to escape. That could be a lie, though. She could just as easily have betrayed him by sleeping with another man.

My molars grind together. The visual of Kiara with Leo or anyone else stokes red-hot fury in my veins.

Such bullshit. The only emotion I should associate with Kiara is disgust.

Darren appears, climbing into the passenger seat. Why does it take everything inside me not to ask him how she is?

“See anything?” I grit out instead.

“Nothing.” In my periphery, Darren shakes his head. “This must not be a property the De Lucas own. None of their usual security measures were in place.”

“No tree cameras?” Handling the wheel as the road bends to the right, I steal a glance at my friend, who looks about as shitty as I feel.

“Didn’t clock any.”

“Check again.” It’s my paranoia talking. I know that, and so does Darren, but he doesn’t argue with me. He gets up to go doanother sweep from one of the lookout window panels built into the back of this vehicle.

Kiara’s small, subtle smile comes back to me.

The light of hope that brightened her eyes when I agreed to help her hide from Leo…

I jerk my head. She may be young, but that aura of innocence she radiates is obviously an illusion. No woman who spends time with Leo De Luca could be anything close to innocent.

Still, her naivete seems real enough. The fact that she trusted me so readilypisses me off.

For someone who’s probably been involved with men like me for a long time, I’d expect her to possess better defenses. Not go along with me like she’d known me all her life.

Manipulating her was uncomfortably simple.

I want to punish her for acting like such a fool while also kissing her senseless again.

Fucking focus, Rory.I zero in on the road ahead. The combination of nightfall, no streetlights, and no traffic renders this back street dark as hell.

We’re only half an hour from the estate. I didn’t know it could evengetthis dark so close to the city.

The twilight just reminds me of her hair and how my fingers invaded the bun at the back of her neck, digging into the soft strands as I held her face to mine.

Why did she have to be sweet? The pointless, absurd question glows in the recesses of my mind.

Of all the shitty times for lust to strike like a sledgehammer. In my over three decades of life, I’ve yet to experience an attraction remotely as strong.

Maybe I just need to get laid. Like Darren alluded to, it’s been over a month since I last hit up Madden to pick up a bed partner for the evening. Our premier nightclubs are alwaysswimming with hot women, and I never struggle to find someone to scratch the itch when one arises.

A million years ago, I used to treat women right. Like a gentleman, the way my mother taught me. Back in those days, I would have met a woman like Kiara and asked her out on a date.

I already knew that man was long gone. I just never realized he became the kind of guy who drugged and abducted women.

My fists tighten around the steering wheel leather. I release one hand to pop my knuckles, reminding myself once again that Kiara is involved with the De Lucas.

That’s when I see the red under the moonlight.