Page 37 of Nauti Kisses (Nauti 6)

Pushing the wild blue-back ringlets back from her face, John saw the indecision, the fears.

“What did I do to you that night, Sierra?” he asked gently. “Did I hurt you?”

“Physically?” Her lips thinned. “No, John, you didn’t hurt me. ”

But he didn’t remember, and she wondered if he would even believe she had been a virgin.

She didn’t want to talk to him right now. There was too much inside her, too many emotions she didn’t want to deal with tonight.

“Why are you keeping all the curtains closed?” She changed the subject, stared around the room then back at John as she fought the questions in his eyes.

“Perhaps I’d prefer no one sees or hears the pleasure I give you. ” His lips curled in amusement.

Shaking her head, she stared around again. “We don’t have sex twenty-four-seven, John. ”

She wanted the truth. She sensed it, she could feel it, just as she sensed the fact that he had disappeared with his friends that afternoon for a reason.

He watched her thoughtfully for several long moments as Sierra wondered if he would continue to try to lie to her.

“I think the boat is being watched. I want to keep you hidden for a few more days until we figure out exactly who is watching and why. ”

The knowledge, though she expected it, was still a shock to her. She stared back at him, fighting the sense of impending panic trying to rise inside her.

Someone was watching the boat, and had been only since her arrival.

“It wasn’t just a random crime, was it?”

The attack had been planned. That meant someone specifically wanted to hurt her.

“This is my fault, Sierra,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry. ”

“Your fault. ” She shook her head in confusion. “How can this be your fault?”

“I think you were targeted because of me. Someone wanted to get back at me. ”

She blinked at him. Get back at him?

“Who would want to get back at you?” She shook her head in confusion. “And why use me? John, do you realize how little sense that makes?”

She couldn’t imagine any reason why anyone would think she could be used to strike back at John.

For a moment, she watched the banked fury in John’s gaze and realized he wasn’t joking. He meant what he was saying.

“John, that’s insane. ” She shook her head at the thought of it. “There’s no reason anyone would believe I could be used against you. ”

“Except Marlena. ”

Marlena? “But a man attacked me. ”

“A man I suspect she hired or was associated with,” he stated. “Your attack has been investigated by a former agent of the Department of Homeland Security as well as Father. What was learned is that Marlena is connected to an organized crime family, Sierra. A very distant relation, but one all the same. Her marriage to me would have allowed her the chance to move up in that family. A renowned attorney, the Walker money, the backing of a highly respectable law firm. She was banking on that marriage for more than one reason. ”

There had always been rumors that the Genoa family was related to organized crime, but it had never been proven.

“Her father never seemed like a criminal,” she whispered.

John’s lips twisted with an edge of rueful amusement. “James Genoa is as honest as the day can be long, Sierra. That doesn’t mean the rest of the family is, and it doesn’t mean that Marlena isn’t determined to recover the status she had before her father’s losses several years before. ”

What the hell was going on?

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