Page 40 of King of Obsession

I realized with a jolt that the relief in my body came from having someone else beside me.

It’d been so long since I’d shared my space and life with anyone.

Too long since I’d experienced the paradoxical mix of irritation and intrigue that another human being in my domain provoked.

Years since I’d allowed myself to feel anything but self-imposed isolation.

Too fuckin’ long.

Despite my annoyance at his intrusion, Alessio’s presence permitted me to surrender—to allow someone other than myself to provide me with a measure of security, to let some other soul share my unseen load.

I breathed in his musk, my heart settling, my mind resting, and my spirit falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Chapter 8

ALESSIO

Iwoke.

Gasping for breath, I jolted, my heart pounding with the remnants of a dream so potent it clung to me like a second skin.

The sheets twisted around my waist, knotted by the nocturnal tempest that had just torn through my consciousness.

With a start, I realized I was in a bed—not my own.

Blinking to dispel the fog clouding my vision, I darted my eyes around the room.

Sparse shadows played across the walls, thrown by the intermittent light of a waning moon peeking through the window.

A sudden realization pierced the hazy afterglow of sleep.

The weight of another presence pressed close, an undeniable warmth that was not my own. Swallowing hard againstthe dryness in my throat, I dared a glance to my side.

A body lay in quiet repose, cocooned by the same quilt draped over my waist.

Her breaths were even and deep, the rhythm a silent testament to her slumber. She was real—flesh, blood, and bone.

Cleo.

Fuck, I liked this woman in particular. At least my cock did.

From her jade eyes to her sensual mouth, her graceful hips, hell, all of it.

But she had no clue that her proximity was messing with my head.

Those haunted eyes that had seared themselves into my soul and psyche were now again ratcheting up an obsession in me.

Fotto, her essence was ensnaring me.

Just as it had all those years ago.

Then, she’d been off-limits to me, under my father’s and our family’s protection.

I’d tried to bury her memory below countless others, beneath the lure of beautiful bodies and meaningless sex, but failed.

Yet I hadn’t managed to burn her essence out of me, to extricate the fuckin’ cock jolt I’d felt for her when I’d first laid eyes on her.

Not a soul knew of my lingering obsession with her, not even my brothers – for we Calibreses excelled in the art of silence unto death.

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