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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

L ady Giusi is a large luxury yacht, moored in the middle of a pier in a quiet marina. Or, as Alessio, the Emperor, says,“Small, for a superyacht.”

He hands the keys to the other two and as they go forward to the wheelhouse, they squabble about who’s going to pilot the her.

He and I settle onto the wide cushioned couches in the main cabin. He doesn’t want me out on deck. “Not while we’re in sight of land, at least.”

I agree. “Nice boat.” I tell him, as Whose is it? Is it yours? Mine?”

“Bit of a gray area.”

“More distressed property that you’ve been fortunate enough to rescue?”

“You complaining?”

I shake my head. I tell him, “I need to get an understanding of the business, the kinds of ventures that we’re involved in together, but the first thing that strikes me is that they’re not the kinds of enterprises where a lot of questions would be welcome. Or appropriate.”

“Haven’t lost any of your smarts. That’s good.”

The Warrior eyes us both as he strides back to the mooring. I ask him, “Going to cast us off?”

He nods, stiff-lipped.

Alessio and I exchange a look. We stay quiet until and sit back until the boat glides off from the pier and out into the Sound.

After the Warrior returns to the bridge, Alessio says, “I’ve missed you.” And, with a sigh, “So much.”

“Have you?” Now that we’re away from the shore, surrounded by water, I feel that we’re safe. He understands it, too.

“When you said, ‘get us on a boat,’ I thought it was just a whim. Or even something crazy from the panic I’ve seen you’ve been going through. Now that we’re out here, I get it. We can’t be seen or heard. Nobody can sneak up on us or come near without our knowing. We really are completely safe.”

Finally, I smile. I say, “You do get me, don’t you, Alessio.”

“It’s so good to hear you say my name again. However long your recovery takes, it will be worth it. But I wish you would hurry back to us.” his eyes glisten. “It kills me to see you suffer and struggle like that.”

I tell him, “I’m not suffering now.” I mean it. Maybe for the first time, I feel safe and secure. I’m with men who are ready to protect me, and out here, we’re pretty much unreachable.

My memory is still out of reach, but I feel it coming nearer, almost hour by hour now.

At last, my body and mind are relaxed. Now I need a man like a woman in a desert needs water.

I need him. Most of all, I want him to take control. To take the initiative. What I need is a man who will be in command of everything, including me, under my authority. My rule.

All my men can be that. But will they?

This one stands. Tall, strong, powerful and wound up tight, ready to explode, he stands with his feet apart. Lady Giusi rises at the fore as we head for open water. He doesn’t shift or shake. He beckons, closing the fingers of both hands.

As he commands, I stand and shake my hair out as I move toward him.

He reaches up to take hold of the back of my neck. Cradles my head in his hand. Strokes my face and the top of my head with the other. Expressions light and roll across his face. Sadness and delight, loss and anticipation. What I see most clearly is a hunger. A need.

His lips trembles as it curls. I fling my arms up, around his neck. He pulls me to him and our lips meet.

The kiss is like fire. He ignites me and stirs me through to my core. I jam my fingers in his hair, breathing him in.

His hands move to hold and caress my back, my waist, and my ass. I press my palms over the hot, firm bulges of his chest, the ridges of his abs and the hard juts of his pelvis.

Pulsing and swelling through his pants, the thickening length of his cock makes me gasp. We coil and flow into one another. His breath and mine join and our heat curls into one body, moving in a sensual, liquid dance.

He bends to brush my neck with his lips. His hand rises to cup and squeeze my breast. Currents of chemical electricity light up inside me as he tells me, on his thick breath, “You’re magnificent. It’s so good to feel you and to hold you.”

He looks into my eye and says, “Being without you has been a dry hell for me.”

I wish I knew what all these relationships are, or were. But I know that this one sets me alight. Differently from the others, but just as much.

His thumb and fingers squeeze my nipple. As I gasp and even let out a little yelp, his mouth caresses the side of my neck. I press toward him, deeper into him while his other hand slides over the front of my dress.

“You’re a goddess,” he tells me, “So fabulous.”

His fingers find the top of my thigh and I almost buckle as he teases across the join. He firmly takes the curve of my mound, knowing exactly how to make me shake and sigh.

Circling and twirling mercilessly, he makes me clench and gasp at the sensations and the anticipation of where his fingertips are leading me.

My breath is hard, fast and shallow. I’m panting for him. His breath fans my throat, over my collarbone and on the tops of my breasts.

His hand snakes up my thigh, inside the skirt of the dress. Up the trembling inside of my thigh to the crease at the top. Traces my flesh by the edge of my soaked panties.

Then he takes hold of me. His middle finger pushes and runs along the parting of my lips. Through the sodden fabric, he flattens my wings and spreads them. His fingertips move to circle and tantalize my clit.

I tangle my fingers in his hair, grabbing and pulling. I shove his head, pushing him nearer. He plants warm kisses on my skin, at the base of my throat and down, between my breasts.

“I need to make you feel how much you mean to me.” He says, “I’ll protect and defend you from anything. Everything. Nobody can do you any harm. Not ever. Not while you have me to take care of you.”

He kisses and sucks on my breast. First through the bra, but then, scooping me out, nipping and nibbling on my hardening bud. My back arcs and tiny rivers of tingling sparkles trail and burst through me.

He sucks and bites, pulling me into his mouth. Tweaking and twirling with twists of his strong, mobile tongue. My body arcs and lifts me toward him.

Holding my back, he moves his mouth down, over my hips and down to my mound. My legs shake.

“I love you so much,” he breathes into my hot delta, “I need to make you feel it, like I need to keep you safe. Give you whatever you need.”

I let out a moan as his fingers slide along my folds, probing. Pressing, pushing upward.

He spreads my feet wide apart and reaches up to unbutton the dress. When it slips open and falls apart, his lips descend on me.

“I love the taste of you,” his tongue slides under me, along the wetness, and presses, hot. Wet. Mobile. Shoving the wet fabric into me. Then he licks the sides, at the tops of my legs, from my soft mound, back to the cheeks of my ass.

His tongue slides inside and he really gets to work. Seeing and feeling this powerful man concentrate and dedicate the whole of his seriously impressive body to licking and suckling little spasms of ecstasy from inside and around my hungry pussy catapults me to another plateu.

He licks my juices, scraping through the wet softness at the center of my folds. He teases and plays around my hood, up and under my trembling bean, before he plunges into my opening. Long and thick, he pushes and trills into my fluttering walls. Up. Up, higher.

I grab his head with both hands and hold him there as I tremble and convulse as I grind and saw my pussy into his mouth, dripping my juice all over his face. He pulls my panties aside and makes me shudder as he flicks his tongue around me, from the front to the back, finding every little sensitive crevice and spot.

He reams and scrapes me, high inside my dripping velvet grip. I’m going nuts as he probes and licks, stopping to gently tease and suck on my clit, before he makes long, flat sweeps, and then plunges back up.

His hands hold my ass and I’m almost collapsing when he lifts me down to the couch, raises my hips and slips of my wet panties.

“It’s been kind of a while,” he says. “And you had a rough day. You want more of that first? Or,” he holds his pants where his cock is bulging, “Do you need this, right away?”