Page 49 of City Of Thieves
I hesitate.
“Don’t test my patience, Tatiana,” he snarls. “I’m not in the best of moods.”
“My twin brother, Seb,” I whisper.
He loosens his hold on me immediately. “What thefuck? How can you tell?”
“Because I know him, and I know his work.” I shiver as the maelstrom I felt gathering in the auction house finally hits. “It started as a joke between us when we were sixteen. But his talent…” I shake my head in quiet awe. “By eighteen he was the best forger in the world, but I begged him to stop before I left home. I was afraid he’d get caught.”
“You’re telling me that some rich kid in Manhattan has the goods to con millions of bucks out of other rich assholes with copycat canvases?” He runs his hand across his jaw in disgust. “And you call me the fucking criminal?”
“You’re just annoyed that you and your brother didn’t think of it first.”
“Don’tevermention my brother again.” He backs me up against the wall once more.
“The copy is too accurate, Renzo,” I say, pushing him away. “The artistry… The arc of the brushstrokes. Seb must have lifted it straight from the original—”
“Then get him on the phone, right now. Ask him how he got his hands on it. You have exactly ten minutes before I send a group ofsoldatito Manhattan to rip his throat out.”
“But I—”
“Don’t,” he thunders. “I know you still speak to him, albeit reluctantly on your part. Turns out, I read your fucking portfolio, after all.”
I hesitate again.
“Has the Russian in there figured it out, too?”
“Ivan?” I shake my head. I need to keep him out of this for as long as I can. In Renzo’s present mood, he’d end up with a bullet in his skull before the auction even started.I’ll deal with him when I speak to Seb.
Leaning back against the wall, I try to center my spinning thoughts. Renzo and I have reached another impasse. He told me yesterday that only a fool trusts, but he needs to give mesomethingif we’re to figure this out together...
I glance at him and freeze. His loaded expression tells me our frustration is mutual, and it’s about to break down into something neither of us seems to be able to control.
“Goddamnit,dolcezza!”
A beat later,he’s coming for me, letting his mouth do a different kind of talking. His kiss is a hot mess of anger and irritation—demanding and unforgiving—but I open up and let him in anyway because it’s mirroring my own emotions.
“This day is too fucking unpredictable already.” He spins me around, roughly palming my pussy through my black silk jumpsuit. “And you’re turning into a distraction I don’t need.”
“Then make me a distraction that you do.” Tipping my head back against his chest, he starts to circle my clit. At the same time, I slam my hands against the brick wall in front of me to brace myself. I can already tell my orgasm will be violent and intense. He doesn’t know how to give any other kind.
“You want this, Tatiana?” he says huskily, plastering his body against me, never letting up his ruthless touch for a moment. “You want me to make you come so fucking hard your juices stain your clothes? So everyone in that auction house sees what a pretty little whore you are for me?”
“Yes,” I gasp out, not caring who sees us, his dirty words unleashing all my inhibitions.
“Wise girl for not wearing a dress. I’d fuck you now if I could.” With his other hand, he curls his fingers around my hair and yanks it backward, locking my head against his shoulder, making my eyes sting with the pain. “I’d fill you up with as much as you can take…until your smart mouth forgets her own name.”
“I can take it all.”
His fingers increase in pressure and speed. “I’ll split you in half. I’m nine inches, Tatiana, and I like to play rough.”
“Then put me back together afterwards.”
He groans as I push back on his erection. “Don’t count on it.”
Curling my hands into fists, I slide closer and closer to heaven. There’s nothing but the feel of him, the heat of him… And then he’s yanking my head back even tighter until I can’t move a muscle.
“Come,” he orders. “Fucking come on my command.”
