Merda. This was happening. Davvero? “Did you just invite me to your apartment? Like without fighting me over my offer for the millionth time or me having to seduce or blackmail you again?”
“What can I do? You have so much leverage on me now with that video. My reputation in Grimaceland will be tarnished forever if anyone sees I’m capable of something horrendously obscene such as laughing. You have me by the ovaries. I have no choice but to submit to your sick twisted demands.”
A laugh exploded out of me, and I held the elevator before it shut in my face. I couldn’t let that happen.
“Besides, I don’t think there’s anything else left you can do to seduce me, Mr. Zappa,” she added.
“Here’s where you’re wrong. I could have given you a naked lap dance right here in the stairwell.”
“Thank you very much, but I don’t wish to attract cops to my building or end thiswonderfulnight in jail.”
I stepped in, chuckling. “Good to know. I was starting to think once you got me naked in your apartment, you were gonna call the cops on me yourself to get back at me.”
“As much I’d love to have my revenge, I’d never hurt anyone like that. That sounds like a huge dick move. Something Fletcher would do.” She peered at me, concern in her eyes. “That’s why you shouldn’t have called him an ass. Tw—” A finger lifted to hear forehead, rubbing it. “Twat, prick or anything like that. He could hurt you.”
“You think I’m a small fish compared to him, and you’re probably right. He’s a filthy rich businessman, and I’m just a stripper. But I’m not weak, Gabriella. I can protect myself and the people I care about, especially when it comes to asses like your nemesis.”
She nodded. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
There was something in her voice that struck deep where it shouldn’t, hitting on a lock I’d long kept intact. It must have shown on my face because she looked away, rubbing her forehead again.
“I…I mean, I don’t want you to get hurt because of me. Because you’re a human being. I don’t want humans to get hurt in general. Or animals. I mean, God, that would be so—”
My lips silenced her ramblings, and for a second, our breaths, too. Until those eager breaths crashed against each other as did our bodies. The tremors in hers ran through me while I pressed her against the elevator wall, my weight crushing her, my mouth nothing less aggressive.
This was nothing like our first kiss. Nothing calm or soothing or elegant or classy or anything Gabriella Brighton was. Nothing professional either. It was a man kissing a woman roughly, seductively, ferally to make her so fucking wet because he couldn’t wait to sink his cock that had been hard all day for her into her slick pussy.
She moaned a gasp and had to pull away for breath. I cupped her jaw, unwilling to give her even a split-second of relief, afraid if I let her out of my hold for even a breath she might change her mind.
Suddenly, though, my brain was speaking over my cock. I didn’t want her to feel rushed so she wouldn’t regret it later. There was already a great chance she would even if she was absolutely sure about giving me the night. It was clear she wasn’t over her husband and was torturing herself for a reason I had yet to find out.
The idea that I could only have one night with her and then she’d wake up wanting nothing to do with me ever again frustrated me to the point I was ready to cockblock myself so I might have a chance at seeing her again.
What man in his right mind—well, cock—would do that? If Jared and the boys knew anything about how I was thinking right now, they’d bust my balls. Not the good way.
“Is everything all right?” she whispered in her raspy voice that alone was enough to give me an agonizing boner.
The elevator opened, saving my ass from answering with something stupid that would ruin the whole night.
With a gulp, I let go of her jaw and took one difficult step away. “Everything is awesome.”
CHAPTER17
Gabrielle
“Your apartment is very nice,” Fabio said after I gave him a tour of the lounge and kitchen yet skipped the bedrooms. No man had entered my bedroom since Jack. I didn’t know how I was supposed to just show it to a stranger, let alone… We should have stayed at a hotel or something.
We shouldn’t be together at all.
“How many bedrooms?” he asked, taking his bowtie off.
“Ahem…two.”
“Must cost a fortune.”
“It’s… My husband bought the building on a whim. He saw it, fell in love with it and decided to buy it just like that. The huge mortgage didn’t matter. If I knew he’d leave me to pay for it and the debt Brighton is already swimming in, I’d have convinced him to get a sports car instead.”
He chuckled. “Doesn’t the rent from the other apartments cover the mortgage?”
