Page 50 of The Roman's Woman (A Singular Obsession)

It turned out those words were prophetic…

The gathering had been going fine until his cousin Lucca showed up with Aunt Perla. Gio had been furious, but his aunt insisted that her son was sorry and had come to tell him so.

The grudging apology he received from a sullen Lucca was woefully inadequate. Fortunately, Lucca had taken off almost immediately afterward so there hadn’t been a scene. But his cousin’s appearance had put a damper on the rest of the evening for him, and Gio was glad when everyone departed.

After his family left the rest of the night took a decided turn for the better—right after he showed Sophia the master bedroom. Neither of them got much sleep. He was looking forward to an equally sleepless Saturday night when the vice president of one his subsidiaries called early in the morning.

Negotiations over some real estate in Germany had taken a turn for the worse. It was partly his fault. He hadn’t been able to finalize the purchase himself because he’d been in England courting Sophia.

Feeling responsible, he reluctantly broke the news to her and made plans to spend the rest of the weekend in Berlin. He consoled himself by organizing a special treat to make it up to his siren.

“Stop apologizing,” Sophia laughed as he packed. “I’ll head back home early, and we can try again in a few weeks. You’re always so understanding when I have to work on the weekends, surprising me with dinner in the lab and hanging around working on your computer while you wait. It’s only fair that I be as understanding when you need to do it. In fact, there’s a few experiments I’d like to try on my newest samples since I have the time.”

“No! I promised you a break and I'm going to give you one,” he insisted, throwing a few pairs of socks into his bag. “I have it all arranged. You have a full spa day planned at this place my cousins swear by. After that, I have arranged a few tours at some of the museums we didn’t hit the last time we were in town. And if there is someplace you want to see a second time, ask Carlo, my driver, and he’ll organize it for you.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” she said, trying to convince him to let her go home.

He was determined, however, and in the end he left when she did. He headed to the airport and she went to the spa for her first appointment, a massage in the preferred style of her choice.

She chose deep tissue, as well as a seaweed wrap and the spa’s signature fourteen karat gold facial. And he didn’t even have to bribe the spa personnel to keep him informed, as he originally intended. Instead, he had asked Sophia to keep him updated and she did with a series of texts.

Marveling at the simplicity of dating a reasonable woman, he attacked his work in Germany with ruthless efficiency, cutting down the negotiation time to a third of his original estimate. By evening, he was already on his way back, eager to surprise Sophia with his early return.

Unfortunately, an airport strike delayed his arrival until well after midnight. When he got inside the penthouse’s master bedroom, Sophia was already asleep. He put down his suitcase next to the bed and stopped to kiss her soft lower lip.

She cracked an eyelid and smiled at him with a sleepy little purring sound.

“Go back to sleep,” he whispered. “I’m going to take a quick shower before coming to bed.”

Humming a little sound of acquiescence, she snuggled deeper in the covers. The sheets shifted enough for him to see that she was wearing one of the new nightgowns Gavin had picked out for her.

Yes, Gavin definitely needs a raise.

He picked up his suitcase, deciding to take it into the office, before coming back to take the fastest shower in history.

Chapter 17

A banging sound jarred Sophia out of the light sleep she’d been in since Gio had come in. Still drowsy, she struggled to open her eyes, wondering what he’d dropped to make such a racket. But she was too relaxed to do it quickly. It had been a full day of pampering, and all the massage and specialty treatments had left her body pleasantly drained and lethargic.

“Hmm,” she hummed when the covers pulled back and Gio climbed into bed with her.

He must have changed his mind about the shower, because he was still dressed in pants and a shirt. She threw a languid hand over his shoulder, embracing him as he crawled over her.

Gio must have missed her a lot because he was pawing at her more aggressively than usual. His hand squeezed her thigh painfully before moving up to pinch her breast—too hard.

Upset at the rough treatment, she made a protesting sound and put a hand up to push him away. But he was rubbing against her so closely, she couldn’t budge him.

It wasn’t until he kissed her that she realized something was wrong.

His lips were unpleasantly wet, and he reeked of alcohol. And then she felt him down there—the long thin manhood pressing against her.

It wasn’t Gio. Someone else had climbed into bed with her.

Sophia craned her head away from the mouth trying to cover hers and screamed. The noise didn’t seem to bother her attacker. Instead of running away, he tried to remove her panties with bruising force. Panic flooded her and she screamed again, but it was muffled this time.

Heart pounding uncontrollably, she fought with everything she had.

For a second, it didn’t make any difference. The person on top of her was tall and strong, but a lucky elbow in the throat caused her attacker to rear back.

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