Page 27 of Temptation
“Carlo is the oldest. He’s the head of the family.” A shadow falls over his expression, and he rubs the stubble on his chin. “Carlo…believes in the old ways.”
“Which are?”
The way he says it makes me think ‘the old ways’ can’t be anything good, but I have to know more. I need to know what I’m getting myself into. I can’t believe I’m even contemplating this. But my heart aches for Lorenzo, for the troubled man before me.
“Carlo is brutal. Like our father.” A hardness comes into his voice. “Carlo’s way is to use violence to solve everything. I don’t always agree. We don’t talk much.”
So my dark mafia prince does have a heart.
“But you’ve done bad things. You had those men beaten. You would have killed them.”
“Yes, Greta. I’ve done bad things.” His gaze never wavers from mine.
“Can you stop?” I whisper, because my heart wants a life with Lorenzo. What kind of a man have I fallen for?
“For you, I will try.”
It’s the best answer I’m going to get, and it settles my conscious a little.
“But I tell you this, Greta. If anyone hurts you, I cannot be held to that promise. You are mine, and no one hurts what’s mine.”
The words send a shiver through my bones. The intensity, the passion--I want that trained on me, always.
“My younger brother Valentine works closely with Carlo, but even he is not happy with the way my brother runs things.”
Lorenzo looks away, lost in thought.
“I’m not walking into some mafia war, am I?”
“No, coniglietto.” He shakes his head. “I have some of my own legit business dealings, and I do the minimum for my family. I am the black sheep. I started this place in the woods half to annoy my brother.” He chuckles. “It is not wise to make Carlo angry, but it is so easy.”
Which brings me to my next question. I take a deep breath.
“And the sex club? Will you still…watch?”
Lorenzo snaps my eyes to mine. “No, coniglietto. The night you walked into my home was the night I shut the doors. The rooms have been dismantled. They are ready to be redecorated whenever you say the word.”
That makes me sit up. “You’re giving up the club?”
He leans forward, and his gaze is full of heat.
“Greta, you are the only woman I will watch. There is no one else for me.”
I sit back on my chair, because there’s the rub. My heart longs for Lorenzo, but a life spent without touch is not one I can endure.
“Why won’t you touch me?” I say quietly.
He shakes his head slowly. “Coniglietto, don’t ask me that.”
Damn him. Ever since I set eyes on this dark stranger, my skin’s been burning for his touch. I want him to rub his hands over me, I want him to touch my breasts and my throat and my thighs. I want to feel his hands on me and his cock inside me. Am I to be denied all that?
I stand up and peel off the blue sweater, exposing my breasts pushed up against a while lace bra.
I walk slowly until I’m standing in front of Lorenzo. He sits back, breathing hard with his nostrils flaring. I lean toward him until my breath tickles his ear. “I need you to touch me, Lorenzo.”
My hair cascades over my shoulder and caresses his thigh.
He jerks back as if stung.
