ANMELDENHis fingers curled, his thumb pressed, and Eve shattered.
The orgasm hit her like a tidal wave, pleasure so intense it was almost painful. She screamed his name like he'd commanded, her body convulsing, her nails digging into his shoulders through his expensive shirt.
He worked her through it, prolonging it, until she collapsed against his chest, gasping and boneless.
"Beautiful," he murmured, pressing a kiss to her temple. "So fucking beautiful when you let go."
She couldn't respond. Could barely think. Her entire world had narrowed to the feeling of his arms around her and the aftershocks still rolling through her body.
"That," he said quietly, "was just the beginning."
She lifted her head, confused. "Beginning?"
"You asked me to show you what you've been missing." His smile was dark. "We've barely started."
Before she could process that, he was standing, lifting her with him like she weighed nothing. Her legs instinctively wrapped around his waist.
"Where are we going?"
"I have a bedroom attached to this lounge." He carried her through a door she hadn't noticed. "And we're going to use it."
The room was all dark wood and masculine luxury. And in the center, a massive bed.
He set her on her feet beside it, and she swayed, still drunk on alcohol and orgasm.
"Strip," he commanded.
"What?"
"Take off your dress. I want to see all of you."
Her hands shook as she reached for the zipper, but she did it. The dress pooled at her feet, leaving her in just her black lace bra and matching panties.
Dimitri's eyes raked over her like a physical touch, and she resisted the urge to cover herself.
"Fuck, you're perfect."
"I'm not...."
"Yes. You are." He stepped closer, his hands spanning her waist. "Say it."
"I'm perfect?"
"Again."
"I'm perfect."
"Whose perfect girl are you?"
Oh. Oh.
"Yours," she whispered. "I'm your perfect girl."
"Yes, you are." His hands slid up her back, unclasping her bra. "And I'm going to ruin you for anyone else."
The bra fell away. Then he was guiding her backward, laying her on the bed, following her down.
His mouth found her breast, tongue swirling around her nipple, and she arched into him with a moan.
"So responsive," he murmured against her skin. "I'm going to enjoy teaching you exactly how good it can be."
"Teach me," she breathed.
''Oh trust me piccola, i will''
And he did.
His mouth mapped every inch of her body, finding places she didn't know were sensitive. Behind her knee. The inside of her wrist. The spot where her neck met her shoulder.
By the time he hooked his fingers in her panties and dragged them down her legs, she was already trembling again.
"Spread your legs for me, piccola."
She did, shameless in her need.
He settled between her thighs, and the first touch of his tongue made her cry out.
This was nothing like the quick, awkward oral sex Simon had occasionally attempted. This was worship. Devotion. A man who knew exactly what to do and took his time doing it.
Dimitri licked and sucked and nibbled, alternating between gentle and rough, learning her body's responses. When he added his fingers again, she came apart for the second time, this one somehow even more intense than the first.
"Please," she gasped when she could speak again. "I need... I need you inside me."
He lifted his head, his lips glistening with her arousal. "Not yet."
"Why not?"
"Because you're drunk, and when I fuck you for the first time, I want you sober enough to remember every second."
"But..."
"No." He kissed his way up her body. "Tonight, I make you come on my tongue and my fingers. Tomorrow, when you're sober, you can have my cock."
"That's not fair."
"Life's not fair, cara." He rolled onto his back, pulling her with him so she was sprawled across his chest. "But I'll tell you what. Tomorrow, you come to me sober, and I'll fuck you until you can't remember your own name. Deal?"
She should say no. Should tell him this was a one-time thing, a mistake fueled by alcohol and heartbreak.
But looking into his eyes, feeling the solid warmth of him beneath her, she couldn't.
"Deal," she whispered.
"Good girl." He stroked her hair. "Now sleep. You're safe here."
"What about you?"
"What about me?"
"You're still..." She gestured vaguely at his very obvious erection.
"I'll survive. This is about you, not me."
She wanted to argue, but exhaustion was pulling at her, the combination of alcohol and orgasms making her eyelids heavy.
"Dimitri?"
"Mm?"
"Thank you."
"For what?"
"For making me feel wanted."
His arms tightened around her. "You are wanted, Eve. More than you know."
She fell asleep like that, wrapped in his arms, feeling safer than she had in years.
She didn't see him pull out his phone.
Didn't hear him make a call.
Didn't know he was arranging for legal documents to be prepared and brought to the lounge within the hour.
Because Dimitri Valentino was many things...ruthless, possessive, morally gray....but he was also a strategist.
And he'd just been handed the opportunity of a lifetime.
Eve Thorne, drunk and vulnerable and desperate to belong to someone.
He'd give her exactly what she asked for.
And in the morning, she'd realize she'd signed away far more than she ever intended.
Antonio's face went still."She was five days without it," Dimitri said. "Her body gave out. She stopped breathing properly for nearly two minutes. If the man she was with had been a little slower, a little less careful, she would be dead.""I wasn't told that.""No.""The seizure was short?""Short enough." Dimitri's jaw tightened. "She is eight years into a dependence you built, and she nearly died of it because someone stopped the supply. Not you. Not Lorenzo. The man she ran to kept her alive.""The man she ran to," Antonio said."He is the one who found out what was wrong with her."Antonio was silent. He picked up the pen and turned it once between his fingers, then set it down again."The one thing I did not account for," he said at last, "was a man who would take her out of reach.""You didn't account for a lot of things.""I accounted for you.""Did you?""I expected you to do exactly what you are doing now. Walk in here with your face set and demand an explanation." Antonio'
"They were already coming for me." Dimitri looked at the dark window. "This only gives me more to work with."Marco shifted. "He said something about Isabella, didn't he? About who made the pills.""He said he'll find out." Dimitri's voice was even. "And when he does, she'll hear it from him.""Boss...""I know.""He'll find out eventually. Luca is not stupid.""No. He isn't." Dimitri was silent for a moment. He thought of Dante on the other end of the line, steady and certain, telling him what he owed. A man with nothing hidden, speaking to a man who had hidden everything. "He gave me everything he had, Marco. And I gave him a doctor and a bottle of pills.""It's what you could give.""It's what I chose to."Marco didn't answer. There was nothing to say.Dimitri stood and crossed to the window. The city lay spread out below him, lit and quiet. Somewhere out there, past the hills, a man was breaking his last tie to the organization that had made him. And on the other side of the same
"How do you know?""Because I've seen his name on a transfer I was told to ignore."Another silence. Then, very quietly, "Good."Dante opened his eyes. The sea was dark below the terrace, the horizon a thin line of lighter dark. "That's the test?""That's the test." There was no warmth in Dimitri's voice, but it wasn't hostile either. "You answered both truthfully.""You already knew them.""Yes.""Then why ask?""So I could see whether you'd lie." A pause. "You didn't. Now give me something I don't know."Dante let out a slow breath. He had planned this part. He had gone over it for two days, sitting in the dark beside Isabella's bed, deciding how much to give and how little to keep."Brooklyn," he said."What about it?""When I took your territory there, I thought I was winning. The Covenant told me to hold it. They said they had a purpose for those corners, and I didn't ask what it was." Dante's voice was steady. "I never saw any of the money.""Explain.""Every dealer I turned, ev
POV: DANTELuca found the seam at two in the afternoon.He came out onto the terrace with a laptop under one arm and the look of a man who had been waiting all day to say something. Dante was sitting in the shade with a cup of coffee he hadn't touched. Through the glass door behind him, he could see the bedroom, the bed, the shape of Isabella asleep under the blanket. Her breathing was slow. The doctor had called twice that morning and said the same thing both times: holding."I've got something," Luca said."Sit."Luca sat and opened the laptop on the table. "The trail I've been following. The Malta import firm, the Naples supplier, the courier. I thought it was a dead end, but I kept going." He turned the screen toward Dante. "Look at the closing date."Dante looked. It was a corporate filing, a page of numbers and stamps. "What am I looking at?""The Malta company dissolved on the nineteenth of August. The registry in Naples says the nineteenth. But the freight authority has it clo
"No.""Are you going to tell him?""Not yet."Eve was quiet for a long moment. When she spoke, her voice was very soft."Why did he do it?""I don't know. I'm going to ask him.""When?""When she's stable. Not before." He rubbed his face with one hand. "If I go to him now, he'll tell me whatever he needs me to hear. I want to go in with the facts."Eve nodded slowly. She looked at his hand where it rested on the railing, at the white edges of his knuckles. He was holding on very tightly."Does anyone else know?" she asked. "That it's him?""Marco. Armani. Now you.""And Mike?""Mike knows I'm helping Dante. He built a false trail for me this morning, so that Dante's man would stop looking." Dimitri's mouth twisted. "He asked if you knew. I told him I'd tell you tonight.""So Mike knew before I did.""Yes.""Everyone knew before I did.""Eve....""I'm not angry about the secret," Eve said. She turned to face him fully. "I understand why you didn't tell me at dawn. I understand that you
"Yes, Signore."He set the phone down and stood for a long time with his hand on the receiver.Someone had got to Armani. Not Dante, because Dante would have gone for the doctor himself, and Dante did not know where the doctor was. Someone quieter. Someone who had known where to look and what to take and how to leave very little behind.It was a short list. He did not care for the name at the top of it....The aide came back at nine that night.Antonio was at his desk with the lamp finally lit. He had not eaten."It's done," the aide said. "The courier is closed. Every registration was withdrawn by six. Armani's file has been removed from three registries, and the fourth is in progress. The Naples depot has been emptied. The stock is in the cold room at Frascati.""Good.""The safe log, Signore." He laid a second sheet on the desk. "There have been no unusual openings in the past year. The only entry outside the first of the month is this morning's. The code used was Armani's own.""







