Page 113 of Cruelest Contract
He comes to bed wearing only a pair of dark blue briefs. I’ve never lived with a man before and I wonder when it fades, this thrill of feeling his powerful body slide into the sheets beside me.
I’m quick to send my book to the nightstand and coil closer to him. His skin is so warm and I gladly inhale his scent of soap and aftershave while trying to erase the worries in my own mind. There are so many gaps in my knowledge about what goes on between the Tempesta men behind closed doors.
“Is everything all right?” I ask him.
A beat of silence passes.
Then Julian says, “Yes.”
I lift my head to see his face. “You’d tell me if there was something wrong, wouldn’t you?”
“There’s nothing for you to worry about,” he says. He slides a hand under my nightie and clucks his tongue when he discovers I’m wearing panties.
Julian hasn’t really answered my question. But I’m already forgetting about that question and any other questions because he’s tugging my panties down.
It doesn’t matter that we’ve had already had sex multiple times today.
I want him again. I can’t stop wanting him.
Julian brings my discarded panties to his mouth. He sucks them briefly, then balls up the fabric and tosses it away.
“You won’t be needing those,” he declares and nudges my thighs apart.
Impatient to oblige, I slide his briefs down. “And you won’t be needing these.”
With a gruff chuckle, he flips my nightie up past my belly and settles between my legs. I pull my knees up and lock them around his hips.
“I really did miss you,” I whisper.
He kisses my lips and guides his cock. “I’m here now, Cecilia.”
With one slow, deliberate thrust, he’s inside me again.
And nothing else seems as important as the way he makes me feel.
24
JULIAN
The sun is inching toward the horizon when the plane touches down at the regional airpark about twenty miles from the Grimaldis’ vineyard.
Cecilia has been quiet on the flight. At first I wondered if she was preoccupied by memories of the last time she was on our family jet. She rubs at her bad knee often and leans to the right every few minutes to peer out the window. More than once she toys with the Gemini charm around her neck.
When I touch her hand, she jumps. It’s like she was so lost in her thoughts that she forgot I’m sitting next to her. But then her fingers relax and I bring her palm to my lips for a comforting kiss.
Cecilia seemed pleased when I suggested the trip after returning from Sicily last week. She’s desperate to see her twin brother. Still, a return to the family estate and the scene of her parents’ murder is bound to stir up some conflicting emotions.
As for Gabriel, I’ve kept my thoughts about him to myself. In my book, he’s still a gutless sack of shit. He was even too much of a wimp to stand up to his grandfather and travel to his sister’s wedding. But of all the Grimaldis, he’s the least threatening. IfI can put up with spending a week in the seething company of Matthias Grimaldi, dealing with Gabriel for a day or two should be a piece of cake.
Both Gabriel and Angelo are waiting for us at the terminal when we land. Angelo, unrepentant fucker that he is, barely says hello to his sister.
Gabe, on the other hand, hugs his twin with enthusiasm as they are reunited. The smile he gives Cecilia appears to be genuine. But when his focus shifts to me he’s not quick enough to mask a glare of resentment with a polite nod.
No wonder he’s feeling a little testy. It must suck to live with the fact that his cowardly failures are responsible for sending his sister into my arms.
Tough shit. That’s his fucking cross to bear. Cecilia is my wife now and she’s much better off with me than she would have been as a prop in old man Grimaldi’s plans.
Unless Gabe gives me a reason to react, I’ll hold my tongue. Cecilia is clearly happy. To keep that smile on her face, I can tolerate some side eye and attitude from the Grimaldi boys for twenty-four hours.
