CHAPTER1
Carmine
FIVE MONTHS AGO.
“Sir, the door.”
My head pops up from reading through an email from a client I haven’t heard from in a few years.
“Who is it?”I ask.
Dylan glares at me as he turns on his heel.The man has been a pain in my side since my daughter Odette hired him after she and her husband Malice moved out.Dylan runs this house like he owns it, with the attitude to match.
Getting up from my desk, I make my way to the front of the house, pelting rain against the windows, the only other sound.It’s too fucking quiet these days.Approaching the foyer, the heels of my leather loafers clack against the white marble floors, announcing my arrival, and I’m stopped short when I spot her.
Noa Carmichael.
The only woman to make me feel anything since my Juliette died.Noa stirs something in me I can’t ever remember feeling, even with my deceased wife.
“Noa.”My barkish tone has nothing to do with her and everything to do with losing control of myself when in her presence.“What are you doing here?”
Her ordinarily bright auburn hair looks dull from the rain, while her soaked coat drags her shoulders down.Her makeup, what little she wears, drips down her face, and she looks like a drowned rat, but still, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.
“Noa?”My tone is sterner this time.
“Oh…uhm…well.”She strides closer while stumbling her way through an answer.I untie her coat and slide it off her body.That damn dress is soaked through, too.
“What the fuck are you out in this storm for?”I ask and crouch down, sliding off each of her pumps.
She inhales deeply, so I look up to see that her eyes are closed and her mouth is moving, but no sound comes out.Standing straight, I notice Dylan spying on us and gesture for him to gather her things.No way she’s going back out until she’s dried off.
My eyes decide to adventure along her body, taking in her wide hips—fuck, what I wouldn’t give to get my hands on them from behind.Her voluptuous chest—tits big enough to spill out of my hands as I fuck her from behind.And the longer my gaze lingers, the harder my dick grows, imagining her body beneath mine as I fuck her until she passes out.It’s been a long fucking time since I’ve been with a woman.Maybe I’d be less cranky.
“It’s been too long.”Finally, I catch on to what she’s been mouthing.“I thought…” she stutters, “I thought, after that kiss…”The one seared into my brain that I can’t fucking forget.“Well, you never did anything after.”
I growl, “Don’t you think that was for a reason?”So I didn’t lose my fucking mind.
One time between her thighs would never be enough.Not when I’m so fucking feral for the woman.I’d claim her, and she’d become a target for every one of my enemies.
Her wide eyes, now sad and filled with tears, glance up at me with remorse.“It meant nothing to you?”
She bites her lip to stop the trembling, and I feel like an asshole.Because itdidn’tmean nothing.It was soul-searing and made me feel alive for the first time in fucking years.I still feel her innocent touch, the tentative way she licked my lips and sucked on my tongue.Hear her tiny sigh when I pulled away.
That stolen moment in my office almost two years ago is the best thing that’s happened to me in too fucking long.Indulging further isn’t an option, however; Noa is not from my world.She doesn’t understand what being mine would mean and the danger she’d be in.
I lift a hand, cup her cheek, and step into her body so she can feel all of me.“Does it feel like it meant nothing?”
Her breathing stutters as she feels exactly what she does to me.Dainty hands, with their French manicure, rise to press against my perfectly tailored dark-blue dress shirt.The tie was dismissed earlier in the day, with the sleeves rolled up and buttons undone to mid-chest.
As she touches me, a groan rattles my body; she jumps slightly but doesn’t back off.The damn woman has no fucking clue.
“Whatever you’re afraid of, Carmine, I can handle it.”How I fucking wish that were true.“Please, Carmine, just one night.Pleeeaase.”
It’s the begging and her liquid honey eyes that do me in.My restraint snaps.I yank her into my arms, smashing my mouth onto hers, and swallowing her startled yelp as I fuck her mouth with my tongue.Plundering until she whines for more or begs for mercy.I don’t know which, nor do I fucking care any longer.
I grip the back of each thigh and haul her up until her legs wrap around my waist.Still pillaging her mouth, I make my way upstairs, intent on fucking her good and proper in my bed for as long as possible before I send her home.Because as much as I might think it could happen, there’s no future for us.Someone will always try to attack me, try to hurt me.I lost one wife to this life, I will not lose another.
“I need you to understand, Noa, it’s only tonight.There is no future for us.”She swallows roughly but ultimately nods as I place her on her feet before kicking the door shut behind me.“Say the words.”
