Page 20

CHAPTER 20

Alessandro

S omeone hurt her.

Someone hurt my Sienna.

I wish I hadn’t made her relive the painful experience, but I had to know. My chest aches with the knowledge of what she went through. I can only imagine teenage Sienna lying at the foot of the hill with the realization that she was still alive, but something inside her had changed.

In my line of work, I associate with many kinds of bastards, but men who touch children in any way are a line I can never cross.

Children are off-limits, and this pathetic uncle crossed that line.

“Kiss me,” she raises her head to whisper. “Make me feel like I’m whole.”

More than anything, I hate the doubt that’s suddenly clouding her eyes, as if she’s not sure if I will still want her. As if anything can make me less than obsessively drawn to her.

“You are perfect to me, Sienna.” I cup her jaw. “And not because what your uncle did to you doesn’t matter, but because you lived through it, you survived, and you found a way to thrive in spite of it. You’re perfect to me because all your broken pieces have come together to create something beautiful and just so uniquely you.”

She makes a choking sound that claws at something in my chest, and then her mouth is on mine, desperate and clumsy.

I tear my mouth away to kiss across her cheeks, kissing the wetness of her tears off her face.

She shouldn’t waste a single tear over that child molester.

“Ale,” she sighs. The name doesn’t feel like a knife flaying me wide open anymore. Instead, there’s a warmth that builds in my chest.

“Let me have you, Sienna.”

My mouth covers hers again, and there’s nothing rushed about this kiss. It’s the sort of kiss I imagine people who have years of history between them share in the early hours of the morning when the world outside their window is still muted.

As I lick my way into her mouth, it’s both an apology and an assurance.

The familiar rush of heat rises to the surface, but I ignore it. This time around, I don’t just want to hear her cry my name and beg for me. I want to break her apart and toss away those ruined pieces, then mend her up back into something stronger and more durable.

I kiss down her jaw, down her neck, and across her shoulder blades, then drag the straps of the dress down her shoulders and arms. The dress pools to her waist, revealing the perfect mounds of her breasts.

Reaching behind her, I find the small zipper and pull it down. The silk dress finally falls to the ground, and she steps out of it, naked except for the collar around her neck and those strappy heels that make her legs look divine.

“Have you been bare under that dress all night?” I ask. “Fuck, baby. If I had known, we never would have made it to dinner.” I take a moment to admire her. Her face is flushed, and her eyes are half-lidded with desire. I want to spend hours kissing every perfect inch of her. “I want you so much, Sienna,” I confess.

Very few things are capable of surprising me, but Sienna succeeds when she lowers herself to the ground and purrs, “Then take me.”

“Not here.”

“Here,” she insists.

In this room full of expensive artwork from around the world, she’s by far my favorite.

Giving in, I undo my tie and toss it aside, my jacket following. I strip the rest of my clothes slowly, the room silent except for the sound of our ragged breathing. Dropping down to my knees between her legs, I cover her mouth with mine again, my tongue sliding leisurely against hers.

She sighs into my mouth, her arms coming up to wrap around my neck. Her skin feels even softer and smoother under my hands, and I run my hands over her silky skin, petting her.

“Mine,” I whisper into her mouth.

Her reply is so soft that I almost don’t catch it. “Yes.”

The tension that has been sitting just under the surface of my skin for a while now fizzles away, leaving me feeling loose. I’m a trapped animal who has finally been let out into the world.

I cover one breast with my mouth and suck her deep.

“Oh God,” she cries, her legs going around my hip.

She rocks into me, pushing her wet heat against me over and over again. I touch and kiss and nip and suck, worshipping her with my mouth and hands. Then, I bury my face in her pussy and breathe in the addictive smell of her desire.

She arches her back, pushing my face even deeper. “Please,” she begs.

I give one tentative swipe of my tongue, and we both shudder. If I could bottle this taste, it would be more sought after than the best grade of cocaine. My fingers tighten on the insides of her thighs at the thought of her taste on another man’s tongue.

“You taste like the sweetest ambrosia,” I murmur. “I could never tire of your smell and your taste and the feel of you around me.”

“Hnggh.”

She lets out a grunt as I swipe my tongue over her again, lapping up her juices.

“Nothing has ever felt this good, baby.” Not all the money in the world. Not even my vengeance. I push my tongue into her, and she flies off the floor with a scream. I take my time devouring her, dragging out those mindless sounds from her mouth and winding her body higher and higher until tears leak from her eyes.

I’m supposed to be her destruction, but instead, I let my guard down and let her slip past my defenses. As if that isn’t bad enough, I’ve given her the key to my kingdom, all too willing to watch her do as she sees fit with it.

Those hazel eyes that had once seemed so doe-like and innocent had been the unlikely weapon that finally took me down.

“I want you,” she cries out. “Please. Oh God, I want you.”

I ignore her, pulling my tongue out of her to swipe it over the tight bud of her clit.

“Argh!”

I flick her with my tongue over and over again, and with one last cry, she lets go, her body convulsing with her orgasm, her mouth gaping open, and her eyes rolling back into her head.

If I were an artist, I would paint this exact moment and immortalize it forever.

“Ale.” Her tongue swipes over her bottom lip.

I can’t wait a second later. I position the flushed head of my pulsing erection against her wet entrance, and she spreads her legs wider, tightening them around my hip, the heels of her sandals digging into my lower back.

Gritting my teeth, I push into her inch by inch until I’m buried so deep inside her that I can’t tell where I end and where she begins.

“Oh God.”

“So perfect. So hot and tight and wet for me. So damn perfect,” I mutter, sucking hickeys into her skin. I want to mark her up and engrave my name so deep into her that she can never get me out. I want her to stare in the mirror years from now and feel the ghost of my hands and mouth across her flesh.

I want to live inside her.

This unassuming, curly-haired woman has managed to bring me down to my knees before her.

My fingers press down into the flesh of her hip, and I begin to rock into her, slow and controlled, watching the lines of pleasure in her expression.

“Don’t stop. Don’t stop. Right there. Yes!”

My mouth meets her again, and I drink in all her cries and moans, too greedy to let the room have it.

“Sienna,” I breathe her name.

The world seems to slow down around us, and for a moment, I imagine I can hear the thud of our hearts beating in unison. It’s a ridiculous thought, but there’s something different about this moment.

This isn’t sex. This is lovemaking, and it’s something I’ve never done before.

And from the shocked look in her eyes, neither has she.

“I’m not supposed to want you,” she sobs. “I’m not supposed to want you this much. It was only supposed to be physical. What have you done to me?”

I kiss her, telling her without words that whatever is happening at this moment, I can feel it too.

Her body tenses under mine, and she rips her mouth away from mine to throw it back, her neck straining. “Alessandro!” she cries.

The orgasm races down my spine, and we shatter together, breaking and rearranging into something new and terrifying. Something that shouldn’t exist at all.

Sienna’s head falls back to the ground, her hair spread beneath her. Her eyes begin to droop with exhaustion, and there’s a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

I take a moment to catch my breath and then another to burn the image of her into my psyche.

“Let’s get you to bed,” I say, my voice sounding overly loud in the room.

“I don’t wanna move,” she slurs. “Leave me alone.”

I smile at how adorable she is. “You’ll be sorry when you wake up tomorrow morning with your back hurting.”

Her bottom lip pokes out in a pout. “Go away.”

Shaking my head, I chuckle and untangle myself from her, ignoring her annoyed whine. I drag my briefs and pants on, then bend to gather her into my arms before wrapping my shirt around her naked body.

“You smell so good,” she mutters as she buries her face in my throat with a sigh.

“I’ll have to come back later for your dress and shoes.”

“Okay,” she replies. “And I think I’ve lost some hairpins too.”

I carry her to the elevator and have to do a bit of juggling to be able to press the button for the penthouse apartment.

“I hope we get to do this again. Every single day. Forever and ever and ever—” she trails off. Even though I know she’s just sleep-talking, it doesn’t stop the way my heart begins to pound with something that feels oddly like hope.

No.

I clench my jaw. There is no forever for both of us. She doesn’t mean it. I don’t want forever with her either. I can’t want it.

Dropping her onto the bed, I make my way to the bathroom, where I wet a washcloth and take it back to the room. Then, I wipe her down and tuck the duvet over her.

“Stay,” she murmurs. “I wish you’d stay.”

“I wish I could,” I whisper. “But I’ve already crossed so many lines, Sienna. Going to bed with you in my arms is a luxury I can’t bring myself to ever have.”

“Stop bothering me, Kat,” she mumbles.

With a fond smile, I press a kiss to her forehead, and her small hands clutch at my shoulders. It takes a lot of willpower for me to remove her hands from my body, stand up, and step away from the bed.

“I’m going to kill him for you,” I say, my voice hard. “I’m going to stand over him and watch him tremble the same way he must have watched you tremble all those years ago. I’m going to make him regret ever touching you.”

I watch her for a while longer, hesitant to be separated from her. But my fury toward her asshole uncle is greater than my desire to linger, so with one last glance, I walk out of the room.

This time, I leave the door wide open to show that she’s free to leave the confines of her room.

It’s a small step, but I know it’ll make her happy, and I like making her happy. The thought makes me panic a little bit, but I’ll freak out about it later.

Right now, I have a score to settle.