Giovanni lay with his body curled around Sasha, listening to her breathing. She was very quiet, almost as if she wasn’t in the bed at all. He liked the feel of her against him, her silky soft, bare skin moving against his. He cupped one breast in his hand, while he stroked caresses along her hip and let his mind drift a little as he waited for the all-clear, his signal to go.
It was almost impossible to believe that she had committed to him. That she’d said yes. He’d never really believed he would find his woman—that any of them would. He nuzzled her hair, the braid she wore when she wore nothing else. She’d been—magnificent. She was wild in bed. A demanding little tigress and yet willing to do anything he asked. He knew he would be willing to try anything she wanted as well. It went both ways, but he loved the fact that his woman was adventurous in bed.
He stroked a possessive finger down the curve of her hip and let his fingers close around her breast so that her nipple pushed into his palm. There were things that he needed to consider. Aaron Anderson, for one. The man had been a friend—or at least he thought so. He didn’t have many outside his family because he couldn’t let people get too close. Aaron had been different, and he liked the man. He didn’t like to admit his betrayal had struck deep, but it had. Usually when something hurt, he reacted with anger. He couldn’t even summon up that negative emotion this time.
He closed his eyes and inhaled Sasha’s scent. She had a fragrance that teased his senses and stayed with him even when she wasn’t near. He knew she needed to sleep, but he wished he could talk about Aaron with her. She was thoughtful. She weighed her answers. He sighed again. Her breast moved. The smallest push against his palm. He tipped his chin so he could find the nape of her neck with his teeth. He couldn’t help biting her gently.
“What’s wrong?”
Her voice was drowsy. Sexy. It got to him. He had already nestled his cock between her cheeks and he felt the hot jolt right through it at the sound of her voice.
“Nothing. Go back to sleep.” He wanted her awake, but he needed her asleep. Stefano would be calling him any minute.
“Don’t say ‘nothing.’ I hate that, and you can’t lie worth crap to me.” She pushed her face deeper into the pillow and her bottom tighter against him. “Tell me.”
He sighed. He would expect her to answer. He couldn’t do less. “The things Aaron said to you really bother me, Sasha. I thought he was my friend.”
“I’m sorry, honey. I think, for him, it was a competition. He saw me that night in the club and made his play in front of his friends. I said no. It didn’t matter that all those other women were throwing themselves at him, he probably bragged, and then I was with you. That hurt his ego. His friends definitely had a lot to say on the matter.”
He stiffened. “What the fuck, Sasha? His friends talked to you about this and you didn’t think it was important enough to tell me?” He bit her shoulder. Not hard, but not gentle, either. Enough to make her yelp.
She didn’t turn over, but she did lift her head to glare at him. “I don’t respond well to your word choice, Giovanni.”
She sounded so snippy in spite of how grave the situation might be, he felt laughter bubbling up. He tugged hard on her braid. “I don’t like the fact that you have the stalker from hell and some asshole sold your picture to the tabloids. That asshole has to be Aaron, or one of his friends. It’s possible, although I don’t want to think it, that Aaron or one of his friends could be your stalker. So, yeah, I’m a little pissed that my woman held something back from me. Whether you were in danger or not, some asshole says crap to you, I want to know about it.”
“Are you going to beat them up?” There was a little snicker in her voice.
She was laughing. He felt her body shake, causing her breast to press more tightly in his hand. Her warm bare cheeks tightened around his cock, massaging it. The action took his breath away. He was sated after so much sex. He’d been brutal the first time. She’d blown him, her mouth the best he’d ever known, and then later, he’d taken her slowly and gently before she’d drifted off to sleep. He couldn’t imagine that his cock would grow hungry so soon. He was just plain addicted to her.
“Because, seriously, Giovanni, if that’s okay, I’ll just punch them myself when they’re being an asshole. And they were. It was the one called Tom and the other one, James.”
“That would be Tom Mariland and James Corlege. They run with Aaron a lot. Both are up-and-coming fighters in Aaron’s weight division. They’re good, but nowhere near as good as Aaron because they lack his discipline. And, just so you know, sweetheart, the only one punching and drawing blood in our family is going to be me. You can serve drinks in the club if you insist, but you can’t beat up the customers. You point them out to me.”
“You go ahead and think that. I’m going to punch them if they ever talk to me like that again. James first accused me of paying someone to rip my blouse so you would be gullible and play the white knight. Tom asked me if I gave you a blow job. He said girls like me snag men like you all the time with that ploy.”
Giovanni was silent. He wanted to rip Tom and James in half. Instead he forced a small laugh. “If you had given me that blow job before my marriage proposal, believe me, baby, I’d have asked immediately. I’m all for being on the receiving end for the rest of my life.” He nuzzled her neck to keep from swearing. “What else was said?”
“James asked me if I liked giving blow jobs, and I told him yes, with you, but didn’t his woman like to give him one? Perhaps it was his hygiene.” She sighed. “The thing was, he got a little too excited over the blow job issue. Both of them did. Just saying the word got the two of them aroused. It wasn’t that difficult to see. It was kind of sick.”
“Where were the security guards?”
“There wasn’t anything really to be construed as an attack so I didn’t signal for them. It just looked like that’s what he was doing, being friendly and looking. I don’t think Alan liked them so close, but again, they weren’t doing anything, just seemingly talking to me and no one else could hear, not with the music blaring so loud. I can take their crap. It’s meaningless.”
“It’s harassment and you shouldn’t have to take it.” He wanted to punch the two men and shake her. He was going to have a word with security. More, he was assigning a bodyguard to her while she worked whether she liked it or not. “You should have told me immediately.”
“I’m sorry about Aaron, Giovanni. I know he meant something to you. He’s jealous of you. He doesn’t want to be, but he is. Truthfully, he has reason to be. You’re so good-looking it hurts, and then there’s all the rest of it. You have everything he wants. Money. Family. A life. I step in and out of shadows all night. You aren’t reading him because you don’t want to.”
That was probably true. Once they’d established a friendship, Giovanni didn’t want to pry. He felt it was wrong to read emotions. If Aaron wanted him to know something, he’d tell him.
His phone, sitting on the nightstand, vibrated. A color strobed for a moment, a soft green lighting the ceiling and then it was gone. He pressed a kiss to the nape of her neck again. “I’ve got something I have to do, Sasha. You go back to sleep.”
She rolled over and looked at him from under her lashes. She looked sleepy. Sexy. All his. He forced himself to let her go and sat up on the edge of the bed. She watched him dress without saying a word. He had set out his clothes. Not his suit this time. Old jeans. An old T-shirt. A sweatshirt to pull over the tee. Disposable clothes. Gloves. He had another set of clothes and shoes packed to go with him.
She looked him over carefully, her eyes seeing too much. He wanted to kiss her for that. He loved that she was so intelligent and quick, even when she was sleepy.