Page 44 of Dagger in the Sea

I put my cell phone on the table in front of me. Shooting my hand out, I twisted it around Ciro’s neck and, using all my weight, shoved him back onto the table. Cuffing his neck, I raised up over him, grabbed his fist and slammed it on the hard surface, sending the gun flying. Gennaro popped up from his chair as the gun slid across the deck.

“Don’t touch me, and don’t threaten me again,” I said through gritted teeth.

“Let him go,” said Aliberti, his voice strained, staggering two steps on the suddenly bumpy boat. Luca watched, unperturbed, a grin playing on his lips.

I let go of Ciro, who cursed at me under his breath as he grabbed his gun and put it back in his holster, facing away from us. He retreated to the end of the deck. I’d humiliated him.

Gennaro cleared his throat. “It’s been a very long night. I’m off to bed.” He headed down the stairs.

“Maybe next time, eh?” Luca said, crossing his legs.

“There needs to be a next time,” I said.

Adriana returned.

“Adri, your bodyguard is in cabin five.” Luca rose from the small sofa taking his phone and packet of cigarettes with him.

“Okay,” she said.

Luca shot me a final look, and he and his acridity were gone. Adriana’s gaze returned to me. Intent, curious, guarded. The tension between us was palpable, and it wasn’t only the sexual kind anymore. Her cell phone vibrated on the table breaking the heated charge between us. She glanced at the screen, her face tightening. She hit a button and the phone stopped making noise.

I sat down on the small sofa. “Don’t want to answer that?”

“No, it’s much too late.” She gnawed at her lips as she sat down next to me.

“How was the painting?” I asked.

“Remarkable use of color, and definitely a triple X rating.” She grinned. Sly, raunchy, yet sweet and disarming all in a subtle sweep of those lips.

I let out a jagged breath as a wave of heat spilled over me. “Triple X, huh?”

“Depends on your taste, I suppose. And your mood.”

“Oh, baby, I’m always in the mood.”

She laughed, a rippling sensual laugh, and the tension leftover from Gennaro’s and Luca’s presence was finally broken, replaced with hot electrical sparks ricocheting between us. She didn’t seem to be in any rush to join her boyfriend in their cabin. And he hadn’t returned to claim her.

I slid closer to her on the sofa “Tell me, are you some sort of princess?”

She let out another laugh, softer this time. “No.”

“Movie star?”

“No.” She wiped the hair from her face.

“Singer? Model?”

“No. And not really.”

“Not really?”

“I have posed for photos in magazines, but nothing on a grand professional scale.”

“Fashion shows?”

“Many, but as a viewer.”

“Then, are your parents celebrities?” I asked.

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