Page 24 of Taboo Flames

I’m suddenly glad I had taken the time to shower after class and slip on something better than my yoga pants and T-shirt.

I approach him slowly, wishing I could see the expression in his eyes as he watches me.

“Hey,” I greet and smile at him. “Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes?”

“We had a deal, and I’m a man of my word.”

I wrestle back my annoyed frown. For a second there, I thought Giovanni was here because he missed me and my delightful company. He’s a champ in making a girl feel like shit.

“But the day’s half gone already,” I point out. “Twenty-four hours was the deal.”

He holds the passenger door open for me and grunts, “I know.”

“Does that mean we’re going to have a sleepover to complete the twenty-four hours?” I ask hopefully. “I don’t know how I feel about sharing the same bed with you, though, but I trust you’ll be a gentleman.”

Closing the passenger door, he moves around the car and slides into the driver’s seat before saying, “I don’t do sleepovers. Women never spend the night, so you can get that idea out of your head.”

I frown at him. “I wasn’t serious about the sleepover thing anyway. You’re a little too old for sleepovers.”

“Hmm,” he replies.

I roll my eyes at him. “Is that your lucky charm or something?”

“What?”

I drag my eyes pointedly to the chaplet wrapped around his wrist. I noticed it previously, but I never thought to ask about it until now.

“Your chaplet. Is it a lucky charm or just a fashion statement?”

His eyes drop down to the white beaded chaplet as if he hasn’t seen it before. When he looks at me again, his eyes are cold. “It’s none of your business,” he grouches.

“I’m beginning to have a problem with you treating me like I’m one of your men. I thought we were getting to know each other?”

“What gave you that impression?”

I grit my teeth in annoyance. “Whatever happened to my panties that you pilfered?”

At my words, amusement sparkles in his brown eyes. “So you think we’re buddies now just because you spread your legs for me like a cock-hungry whore?”

His words should make me angry, but instead, the cruel words go straight to my center and make my pussy pulse.

“I hope you’re not silly enough to think that what happened yesterday makes you special,” he says. “Now, are we going to sit in front of your studio all day, or is there somewhere in particular we’re supposed to be at?”

I huff. Giovanni can be a dick if he wants, but I have plans that’ll have him eating out of my palms. It is already clear that Gio’s body is in sync with my plans for him. I just have to find a way to get the rest of him in.

“Drive toward the A18. I’ll direct you.”

He doesn’t give me a reply, but he obediently turns on the car and pulls away from the parking lot, navigating through the quiet streets and into the busier roads with rush hour traffic.

As soon as we’re on the autostrade, I instruct him to keep on driving.

The drive takes about fifty minutes, and it is full of fraught silence, only broken by my occasional directions. Finally, the car comes to a stop on a large, unoccupied piece of land. Off to one side is a group of trees forming a kind of fence around the real treasure out here.

“What’s this place?” he asks as we get out of the car.

“It’s a surprise.”

“I don’t like surprises,” he grunts stonily.

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