His lips are full and he slowly parts mine to taste more of me after enjoying my lips with a sweet, slow kiss that makes me feel alive in a way that I didn’t realize had been buried within me for years. I’ve been missing out and now that I have Peter’slips against mine and the rush that accompanies his kiss, control slips away.
I’m an alpha in the boardroom. An alpha everywhere else in my life. I wantthisalpha right now to take the reins and he’s more than willing. Peter’s hands roam all over my body as he kisses me. The heat between us rises enough that I feel his cock stiff in his pants.
“I didn’t mean to leave you to go through this alone,” Peter murmurs again. I feel seen. I almost hate it, because feeling seen like this makes me realize how much bullshit I accepted over the years. My heart stops for a moment, because I suddenly feel the weight of my decades and that I can’t make up for the time I’ve lost. Then Peter’s tongue slides into my mouth and I become alive again. And present.
And just a woman in her forties who is so fucking lucky that she has a chance to feel like this again. I lean into it and kiss him back. Harder. Our bodies stumble together against the wall in my hallway and that quiet voice in the back of my head telling me to resist Peter quiets a little.
Peter breaks from our kiss. I stifle the urge to panic. I didn’t realize how attached I was to just keeping his lips against mine. “I found out what happened the night we got together,” he says. His hands reach for my curls again and he explores the texture with his fingers.
I don’t feel nervous as he touches my hair, which is weird. I feel like I should be fighting him more as he touches me – not enjoying it.
“My family has enemies, Aricia,” he says. “But I will never put you in the line of fire. I promise.”
Enemies?
“Did one of those enemies do this to us?”
Peter nods. “It’s something like that. Whoever wanted this to happen used a proxy – some pipsqueak that I’ve taken care of.”
“Murdered?”
Peter sighs and shakes his head. “No. Although, I was tempted.”
I want to believe that he’s joking.
“What happened? Are we safe?”
“First, you never need to worry about your safety. Second, we are safe,” Peter says. But he hasn’t told mewhathappened yet. Neither of us can remember, which is at least an experience we both share.
“Third,” Peter continues. “This was a play by a member of the Pittsburgh Corsini family, but it’s unclear what they really want.”
Corsini. That’s Peter’s last name, although the man working with our law office has the last nameTaviani.I wonder if that last name identifies a mafia family, or if it’s something else. I didn’t even know Peter had a connection to Pittsburgh aside from this.
Understanding a criminal’s motive gives you more information about both the crime and human nature. Everyone has motives for what they do, even if those motives might seem crazy on the outside. Peter’s revelation that the night of our passed-out entanglement might be connected to his family narrows down possible motives.
He’s never outright admitted to being a mobster, but this sounds as close to a confession as I can expect from him. And he’s still so close to me that I can feel his dick pressing against my thigh, hard and impatient for me.
Crimes tend to follow the same trends. People want money, power, or sex… which is often about power. I can’t let this mystery go the same way Peter can.
“Do you stand to lose anything with a baby?” I ask, hoping to dive deeper into the mystery even if it brings me away from Peter’s rigid body, already awakened with desire. I just needanswers. Peter’s expression changes and I’ve never seen him get quite so immediately uncomfortable.
“I don’t know,” he says. “But it doesn’t matter what they want.”
“What if they want to kill me?”
His face flashes with immediate worry and fear.
“I would never allow anyone to harm the woman I love,” he says, almost bringing me to my knees with how complicated it is for me to hear those words. Hejustgot me pregnant. How can this be happening to me?
I thought the only way for love to burn at my age wasslow.
But I can’t stop myself from getting on Peter’s roller coaster. I remove the shirt tucked into his pants and slowly undo the buttons.The woman he loves.I don’t know the right words to fill the silence between us.
“Whatever they want, they won’t get,” he says. “Because you and my baby will be safe. Nowcome…take the rest of my clothes off.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Peter
