Page 34 of Hot-Blooded Killer

We don’t fall asleep until sometime after dawn.

CHAPTER14

LORENZO

When I wake the next morning, it takes me a moment to figure out where I am.

Right. The hotel room the morning after the wedding. I roll over and stare at Gia asleep beside me, her sandy lashes casting shadows against her cheek.

Even without makeup, she’s beautiful. Maybe even more so.

Shit. I can’t stay here.

Quietly, I slide out of bed and scribble a quick note to leave on the bedside table.

I make my way to the A-B Clubs, still thinking about the night before with Gia.

“Hey, boss. What are you doing here?” Benny asks. “Aren't you supposed to be on your honeymoon or something?”

“Just checking on a few things.” I have to fight to keep my face from twisting into a frown. After all, he’s right—not about the honeymoon itself. We decided there was no need for one. But because coming to work the morning after my wedding night was an odd choice.

Now I’m wishing I had scheduled a honeymoon. It would give me a chance to get Gia away from all her family and friends. The better to cement my control over her.

After all, this marriage is one of convenience for her. I’m going to need to use every means at my disposal to bind her to me.

Sex is one of those means, of course. I had expected to seduce her into caring about me.

What I hadn’t expected was how much I would still want her after our first time together.

I’d thought I would spend my lust in one night, to fuck her and be done, as had happened so many times before with other women.

I’m considered the Beneventi playboy, and there’s a good reason for it. My reputation comes in part from my tendency to pursue new conquests, and then walk away once I’d had them.

Anna Maria Calvi had been one of those conquests.

I had worked tirelessly to get her into my bed, and as soon as I had, I was done with her.

With Gia, though, things are different.

Somehow, despite how easily she responded to me when I had tasted her on the bathroom sink at the country club, it never occurred to me that she would be so amazingly responsive in bed.

Nor that I would feel such a deep-seated urge to make her scream my name—not just once, but over and over again.

For the first time ever, I understand my brother Max’s desires to tie a woman down and force her to come again and again.

Not that Max has any idea I know anything at all about his sexual proclivities. But it’s impossible not to hear Valentina’s cries of ecstasy echoing through the house, combined with the sound of leather smacking against her skin.

Besides, I found whips, ropes, chains, and more tucked away in the guest bedroom where Max held Valentina prisoner before they married.

Not that I think Gia would ever acquiesce to those kinds of games.

She’s far too independent.

And yet somehow, that makes me want to force her to submit to me even more.

With a wave at Benny, I make my way to the back office, where I drop into the chair at my desk. I don’t really have anything to do here. I simply needed to get away from my overwhelming emotions.

“Lorenzo.” Diamond’s sultry voice comes from the door of my office, and I glance up from the nonexistent paperwork on my laptop.

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