Page 21 of Isle of Seduction

Without another word, he directs me to the car and drives me back to the cottage in absolute silence. The card burns a hole in my bag. The only people I’ve met are Nico, Mike and Amber, all on Andrea’s team. I don’t exclude them from my list of suspects altogether and promise myself to gather a file on them too. It seems unlikely they’d alert me on “the company I keep.” The only other person that comes to mind is Addams, but I met him for a total of two minutes.

When we arrive back at the cottage, I don’t look too closely as to why I’d choose to settle in Andrea’s office to plug in my USB key and start my programs, foregoing my own computer. I tell myself it’s because the black wallpaper and thick white plush carpet on the floor soothes my anxiety.

I bypass his password and scour all my resources for information on Parker Addams. No credit card charge for flowers shows up, but that doesn’t mean much.

I wonder why Andrea would need me when he already compiled a huge database of information on Addams as well as on the many people he’s been interacting with. He has dirt on everyone, but Addams is squeaky clean and we can both agree on one thing.

That’s impossible.

I know when he arrives before I even see him, his aura preceding him and his scent of bitter oranges suffocating the air around me. The breath I take fills up my lungs with him. I close my eyes behind the computer screen that hides me from him, in an effort to control my reaction to him. I fail.

“Making yourself at home, sweetheart?”

I barely raise my eyes to him, focusing on the screen in front of me to avoid his intense amber eyes. I sit on his throne and expect him to chase me off it, but he doesn’t move from where he leans on the doorframe, arms crossed and taunt with muscles.

“The decor is left to be desired and your security is abysmal. For someone with your background, it’s laughable, but I make due.”

I raise my eyes then, giving him the sweetest smile that isn’t fooling anyone. He doesn’t take the bait and simply smiles back. It takes my breath away. He’s free with his emotions, unlike most leaders I’ve met before, and now he just looks content to have me sitting here like a Queen.

He looks so casual, so different from the image I had of a politician campaigning for elections. Jeans hug his muscular legs, a simple white shirt stained with grease stretches across his muscles, a medallion gleaming on top of his chest. He gives me a slow sexy smirk that tells me he didn’t miss the way I just ogled him openly, and I want to punch it off his face.

“I’m guessing you got into the file I have on Addams.” He comes to stand behind me and crowds my body with his. Though we’re not touching anywhere, he could be having his hands all over me for the heat that licks my skin and pools low in my belly.

Andrea’s breath skims my neck and cheek before his velvet voice envelops my senses when he whispers softly, “A man could get used to this welcoming sight, guerrieritta.”

I swallow hard and ignore him.

“Even if I get through my own information network, I’m sure I won’t find anything. He’s working a little too hard to keep all the records clean. Most of his properties are registered under his wife’s name and they have a marriage contract, so he owns jack shit.”

“How do you know that? It’s not even on my files.” I detect surprise and a hint of admiration and can’t help but preen that the cyber genius would find my skills something worth noticing.

“I have my ways.”

“You sure do, guerrieritta,” he whispers in my ear. His lips brush my shoulder in the lightest touch. It’s so quick I convince myself it didn’t happen.

“Don’t be crass, Capaldi. And go take a shower, you stink of oil.”

My voice doesn’t have an ounce of heat.

“I love it when you boss me around.”

“Get ready to be bossed around a lot, Capaldi.”

“I look forward to it, guerrieritta,” he growls in my ears before taking a deep inhale like he’s inhaling the very essence of me.

It shouldn’t be as hot as it is and I shouldn’t want him to do it again. I knew when I set the rules for our marriage that if I ever had sex with Andrea, I’d be fucked and not in a good way. Men in my life have been nothing but problems, demanding everything and giving nothing in return. I won’t let his good humour and handsome face change the trajectory of my life.

The truth is that I love nothing more than to seduce and gather attention because then, I set the narrative. I’m in control. The only time I wasn’t, a man manipulated me. I cannot count on my hands the number of times my first boyfriend, Sebastian, said he’d kill himself if I ever left him, or simply not give him what he wanted, be it a job within the family or sex. I was seventeen, and though I was raised in the mafia, born to become ruthless, I didn’t understand that wasn’t love, that wasn’t normal. Maybe if my father hadn’t neglected me, I’d have known better.

I’ve never had a long term relationship beside him, and I don’t count the two months I spent with Louis three years ago. Louis worked for Pierce, though I didn’t know him as my cousin’s husband at the time, and was a great lover. That’s why I tolerated his persistence and clinginess, but he was just a distraction.

“Remember the rules, Capaldi. Now, let me work.”

The tight set of his jaw should not be annoying. The absence of taunt should not be annoying. And yet it is. I might be getting addicted to my husband’s brand of annoyance. He saunters out of the room and I breathe normally again, happy to be relieved of his presence.

That night, it takes me longer than usual to get ready for bed and when I’m in, I toss and turn and can’t seem to calm my racing heart and dirty thoughts.

Even though I know Andrea might come in any minute, I remove my sleep shorts and let my hand fall in between my legs, caressing the skin of my inner thighs before dipping my fingers toward my needy clit.

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