Page 10 of His Beautiful Revenge
Norah was crying now as he pinned her to the bed. “Lucian,stop, stop …”
But he didn’t stop, thrusting his half-erect cock into her and thrusting his hips as she cried and struggled to get away from him, sobbing her rage and hurt. He kissed her roughly and she bit down on his tongue, hard.
“Fucking bitch!” And he hit her across the face, hard.
The shock of the assault was icy cold and Norah’s whole body shut down. Lucian continued his rape, thrusting and grunting until he came. “See, baby? See how much I love you? God,” he buried his face in her neck. “Don’t ever leave me, Norah. You ever leave me and I’ll kill you ...I’llkillyou …”
Frozen, Norah lay under him, and after a few minutes, Lucian was snoring. She shoved him off her. He didn’t wake as she slid from the bed. She got dressed, pulling her hold-all from the closet and dumping her clothes and toiletries into it. Downstairs, she attached Ziggy’s lead, grabbed her laptop and phone, and got into her car. Without looking back, she drove into the city and straight to Zulika’s apartment.
When Zulika opened the door, she was shocked to see Norah’s face, wan and pale. Dry-eyed but obviously devastated, Norah let Zulika lead her into the apartment, then said, very calmly, “I need you to take me to the nearest police station, Zul. I have to report a rape.”
Giacomo smiled at his friends as they sat around the outside dinner table. Ferma was perched on Giacomo’s knee, showing him how to draw the perfect spacecraft, and Carmel was leaning against a reasonably drunk Orlando. Lando raised his glass. “To my family, my beautiful wife and daughter, and my brother, Giacomo.”
Giacomo buried a grin and Carmel rolled her eyes. “Fourth time tonight, hun.”
They had enjoyed sizzling hot fajitas and two or three bottles of red wine, and now it was getting late.
“Come on, fruit bat.” Carmel lifted her daughter up. “Time for bed. Give Jack a kiss.”
Ferma threw her arms around her godfather’s neck and kissed his cheek. Giacomo chuckled. “Night,mio caro.”
While they were alone, Lando studied his friend. “You look different. Upbeat.”
Giacomo smiled and ran his hand through his dark curls. “And if I told you why …”
Lando laughed. “Please, make my day and tell me it’s a woman.”
“It is,” Giacomo admitted wryly. “And not the one it’s supposed to be.”
“I figured. Who is she?”
“Her name is Norah Reddy she’s a brilliant graphic designer, and she has a boyfriend. That would beokay—after all, I couldn’t date someone who worked for me—except for one thing.”
“What’s that?”
Giacomo hesitated for a long moment. “I think Norah’s boyfriend is the one screwing Tara.”
Lando was sober then. “Oh god, Jack …”
“I know. What a fucking mess.” He gave a humorless laugh. “I’ve been saying that a lot lately.”
Lando sighed. “Man …does she know? I mean, this Norah girl? Does she know?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Hell.”
“Yup.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes, then Lando leaned forward. “You like her?”
Giacomo nodded. “Very much. She’s …the opposite of Tara.”
“Man, I think it’s time you ended things with Tara. You haven’t been happy with her for years.”
“She asked me the other night why I had never proposed to her. I gave her some guff about not wanting to settle down and hurt her career.”
“Did she buy it?”
