Page 34 of The Mastermind
For the second time in three hours, I screeched as the living daylights were scared right out of me. But this time I didn’t freeze. I dove towards my nightstand to retrieve my gun… and found empty space.
‘Looking for this?’
I pivoted towards the voice, my breathing choppy and loud in the silence as I surged onto my knees, primed for flight.
In the light coming from the French doors and curtains I hadn’t pulled completely because I didn’t like sleeping in pitch darkness, I caught the dull glint of my Beretta resting on his knee.
‘What the fuck are you doing here?’ I croaked.
‘I’ll get to that in a minute. First, I should say I love the fact that you sleep in the nude,’ he said, his voice deep and dangerously sensual.
Heat surged, rough and immediate, through my body. Then I gasped when I realised said body was partly on display, the covers having dropped off in my rush to grab the gun now in Cesare Salvatore’s possession.
I double-fisted the duvet and yanked it back over my body. But it was too late. The sensation of his eyes on my skin coupled with the lurid dream of him he’d just so rudely interrupted, and the fact that he was here at all, in my hotel room, blended into a soup of lust heavily laced with peppery danger – which seemed to be just what my treacherous body craved – and turned my nipples hard, my pussy damp and slippery.
Casually, he set the gun down on the coffee table beside him and flicked on the floor lamp. Having Cesare bathed in light instead of lurking in the dark should’ve been a marginally good thing. I could see my enemy a lot clearer. Read his intentions better.
But all my stupid brain could compute was how indecently gorgeous he looked in another all-dark getup with a camel-coloured holster strapped over his shoulders. The butt of his gun peeking beneath his left torso and the glimpse of tattoos at his throat, chest and arms ratcheted up the danger levels, and my fists tightened on the covers.
He looked utterly delicious, and my fingers yearned to trace the ink and the rough texture of his five o’clock shadow, beg for it to graze my inner thighs on his way to eating me out and sending me to heaven. But then hell would inevitably follow, because while he might send me to heaven, discovery by my family would definitely send me to hell if I kept up with this insanity.
My breath shuddered out as I tried, and failed, to drag my gaze from his. ‘What do you want?’
‘I told you I’d get to the bottom of this.’
Fear overtook lust. I fought to regulate my breathing.
Cesare was right in his assessment last night. Lying didn’t come easy to me and I almost wished my instincts weren’t blaring with the strong warning that there was something shady going on in my team. That even the engineers were a little surprised with how well we were doing.
His gaze pierced mine from across the room. ‘It’s time to come clean, Maddelena. Last chance.’
I shook my head. ‘My answer hasn’t changed. I don’t know what’s going on.’
He sighed. I dragged my eyes off him, just to give my brain cells time to rejuvenate, and glanced at the door. I wasn’t going to bother asking him how he’d gotten in here. No doubt Fist had wreaked havoc again on his behalf.
But I was definitely having serious words with my men.
Sofiya was one thing. Cesare getting through a second time was unacceptable.
‘Yeah, you should really do something about that. Because I’m going to be supremely pissed off if it happens again a third time,’ he said, accurately reading the direction of my thoughts.
My eyes widened. ‘You want my people to take you out the next time you try to gain access to me?’
His lip twitch was chock full of conceit. ‘I’d like someone to at least try. It took Fist less than three minutes to lay them all out. I didn’t even need to get involved.’ His head tilted. ‘Maybe I should take care of that for you,’ he mused.
‘What? Hell no.’
After a moment, he shrugged. ‘Sure, I’ll leave it for now. We’ve agreed you’ll give me whatever access I need anyway.’
‘I didn’t agree to anything remotely close to?—’
He held up his hand like a king ordering a subject. My teeth set hard. ‘I’m not rehashing old ground with you.’ His leg dropped and he leaned forward, elbows on knees.
The force of his aura pushed me back onto my knees, the heels digging into my ass reminding me that a two-inch quilt was the only thing between my naked body and Cesare.
‘Your sister’s turned up,’ he said, almost conversationally.
My spine stiffened. ‘So? She’s here to support her family on what’s going to be another one-two win for the team.’ I crossed my fingers beneath the duvet, praying I hadn’t just jinxed us.
