Page 30 of Isle of Seduction

“Okay, okay. From what we know of Addams, he’s too fucking clean to actually be clean. Tell me what you got on Xan’s murder. Maybe Addams isn’t even involved.”

“Strangulation. Killed around two am in an unknown location the day of the fundraiser and dumped and found behind a shop on Mulberry Street in the financial district.”

“That’s strange. It’s where I went shopping with Nico that first day.”

My nostrils flare, and my pulse kicks up, adrenaline and rage rushing through my bloodstream. Not only is someone trying to pin a murder on me, but they’re involving my wife. Nothing else matters but making sure she’s fucking safe.

I get up and stride to her, taking her face in my hands and pressing my forehead to hers. The connection shakes me to my core. I have to close my eyes because if I look at her, I’ll lock her up in my basement like a neanderthal, and for a free spirit like her, it’d be worse than death.

“Anyone can threaten me. But when they threaten what’s mine, they’ll get a reckoning they won’t come out of alive. Doesn’t matter who. Do you understand?”

Silence greets me, and I open my eyes and straighten up to look at her.

“Do you understand?” I repeat.

“Yes.”

My eyes dip to her lips. We’re a breath away and my heart pumps faster at the perspective of my lips on hers again. I already pushed her enough last night. I want to have her again, but I want her willing. She’ll have to come to me.

I let her go and leave the room without looking back.

THIRTEEN

ORGASMS MEAN NOTHING, HE IS STILL THE DEVIL

After the almost kiss, I run to my room to hide from the turmoil that threatens to shatter me. I don’t even bother closing my room with the lock anymore. I’m too tired to try to keep Andrea out. Physically at least.

Emotionally? No way I’ll let him in.

I understood from a very young age that anyone trying to get close to me wants something from me and will pull at any heartstrings I have to get it so it’s better if I pretend I have none.

I’m so tired of fighting for everything I have and building something with Andrea would be a constant battle.

When he touched me at the fundraiser, I wanted to give in. To stop pretending I hate him and I’m not falling for him. He’s magnetic, and it would be a lie to say I’m not attracted to him, to the smell of him, the feel of his body, his ruthlessness and even his cockiness. He fucking cooks, for Christ’s sake. He’s a fucking red flag, clearly disrespecting the rules I’ve put in place to protect myself, and I’m not sure I don’t want to let him. It’s like I could almost believe I’d be able to tame him, but that’s not fucking happening. I might have let him pleasure me, but the walls between us remain.

Every morning when I wake up, the throw pillow on the club chair still bears the imprint of his strong body, and I can smell the faintness of bitter oranges in the air. I groan and fall back into the plushness of the mattress most mornings.

If only he’d just stopped at making me come, but the asshole had to put his full lips on mine and give me a taste. I shake my head. That kiss was just a glitch, a consequence of the bloodlust we both fell into.

The almost kiss in his office was a consequence of his protectiveness, his primal brain taking the driver’s seat.

I do the only sane thing. I call my person.

“Hey G, everything…”

I don’t let her finish and just jump right into it.

“We kissed! Okay, okay, we more than kissed, but that’s irrelevant because he’s the devil.”

“Cugina, calm down. You’re gonna give yourself an aneurysm,” Lana laughs on the other side of the line, her words already soothing my frantic mind. “Come back to the beginning. You kissed and more than kissed?”

“It’s a disaster, babe. We were at a fundraiser last week and he touched my leg, and I got all hot and bothered. I needed to escape, you know? So I went to the bathroom, but he followed me and then he finger-fucked me right there, and it was glorious. I came in seconds. Gosh, his fingers are so thick.”

“You know what they say,” she scoffs.

“Yeah, babe, I do know, and I don’t want to know.”

“Okay, okay. No sex. I remember your rule. What happened after the super orgasm?”

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