Gun in hand, I rise from my seat. Then relax when Alessia appears in the doorway.
I flick a glance at the old man. “I have to go.” She’s pale, swaying on her feet, one hand clenching the other. “Save some cigars for tomorrow, will you?”
“Ask Alessia to make me some biscotti, and I will.”
I nod, and disconnect, just as she murmurs my name. “Bastian.”
Then, like a rag doll, she faints and hits the floor.
Shouting like a madman, I haul ass toward her. “Call a motherfucking ambulance.”
Footsteps thud as my men race to do my bidding.
I drop to my knees.
It’s then I see blood.
CHAPTER38
ALESSIA
Iblink twice as I wake. Once to lift the fog, and a second time to process what I’m seeing—which is Bastian seated in his chair and sucking my finger.
Because I cut it with a vegetable knife.
Because I panicked at the sight of blood.
Because I burst into his office in search of his help, then promptly fainted.
And now he has my finger in his mouth and is soothing my wound with his saliva.
Holy hell. It’s close to being the most erotic experience of my life—though we’ve had a few.
I’m sprawled across his desk. Papers scattered everywhere, like he brushed them aside.
Lord, what must he be thinking?
Slowly, he pulls his lips off my finger. Then does the unthinkable—and bites the tip.
I’m instantly wide awake.
Blood coats his bottom lip—my blood.
My attention shifts to the wound on my finger, the small cut caused by the vegetable knife.
“It’s a surface wound,” he says. “No need for stitches.”
I’m completely, utterly mortified. I could have run my finger under water and achieved the same effect. A Band-Aid and an aspirin and I would’ve been good. Instead, I ran to him like a woman on the verge of dying.
I sit up, then dangle my legs off the desk as I face him. “Sorry I interrupted your call. It’s just that…”
“You faint at the sight of blood.”
“Yes.”
“You always this way?”
He drags his tongue across his lower lip and licks the blood away. If I was asleep before, I’m hyperaware now. Lord, he’s tasted my blood. And I love the idea he’s had part of me no one else has had.