9. duca
Ifollowed closely after the girl, hoping to hell she knew what she was doing. She’d gone through the door and into the garden like she had a plan, which was better than I had. I wasn’t even sure what the fucking problem was, honestly. She’d grabbed me out of the room with the spotlight like I’d seen some top-secret machine or something and had then freaked out in the hall like we were about to get caught by someone for...
For what? The glow in that room? Okay, that had been weird. And if it meant the Angelis were involved in human trafficking, which seemed likely, they would probably be displeased if someone else found out about it.
But how did this girl think she was going to protect me from that?
Who was this girl? She’d looked at the spotlight thing like it was no big deal and hadn’t even reacted to the woman-slash-angel-thing I’d seen materializing there. Hell, she’d barely even glanced at it. Just grabbed me and shoved me out of the room, then started talking about how much trouble we were going to be in if ‘they’ found out I’d seen.
I hated mysteries. They made me edgy.
When the door behind us opened again, I acted on instinct, grabbing the girl and spinning through the opening I’d already spotted to our left. The gazebo hadn’t been her target, but I was so jumpy at this point that I wasn’t taking any chances. If someone else was coming out here in the dead of night, there had to be a reason.
And I was guessing that reason was us.
I slammed her back against the wall, pinning her there with my body, and then leaned slowly toward the opening in the wall, my eyes grazing across the garden. Who had come through the door? One of those enormous men from the party? Someone even bigger?
Hard as I looked, though, I didn’t see anyone. Just the glowing white of the snow crawling across the lawn, edged by the shadows of the trees and a wall. The house rose up in front of us, but the angle of the moon didn’t leave any hiding places there. Unless someone had come out of the door and run for the trees to hide...
I glanced down at the snow outside the door, squinting, but could only see two sets of footprints. Two sets that led right to us.
Shit. The fucking snow.
I wrapped the girl in my arms and whirled again, spinning away from the door and into the darkness inside the gazebo. But this place was wide open. Holes in the walls and lattice where there should have been something solid. Nothing to protect us if things went wrong.
Nowhere to hide.
I spun again, and then one more time, until we were out the other side. Fine. That was fine. We didn’t have any cover in there anyhow. Glancing across the garden, I spotted a shed that at least had solid walls, and made quickly for it. The girl didn’t argue, but ran along with me like she’d had the same idea.
Good. She was as smart as she was beautiful.
We slammed through the door and shut it quietly behind us, our breath throwing up clouds in the dimness inside. And then we grew still, our eyes on the wall in front of us. If anyone had come through the door they would have seen us run from the gazebo. They’d know exactly where we’d ended up.
And if they had guns, we’d be shot standing here right behind the door.
God, they threw one beautiful girl at me and I’d gotten sloppy.
I grabbed her and pulled her down, then scooted to the side of the door. But I couldn’t hear anyone out there, and no one was shooting at us. Could the door have opened without letting anyone out into the garden?
It made sense, I guess. I mean who the fuck would want to come out into the cold for a midnight stroll through the snow?
Which reminded me.
I grabbed the girl, stood up, and backed her against the wall. I wanted to know exactly what was going on, here. What was that glow in the house, and who were those people? What did she know about it? And why had she yanked me out of the house like my life was in danger when I saw it?
When I looked down at her, though, I found her green eyes staring up at me, still holding that slight glow. Moonlight shone through a crack in the roof and somehow highlighted every inch of her face. The smooth white skin. Sharp cheekbones. Jaw narrowing to an equally sharp chin. Her eyes were too large for her face, her skin too clear to be human. And she was....
Glowing. She was glowing.
And burning up.
She was intoxicating. The most beautiful thing I’d ever seen, with those eyes and that skin. Lips that were begging to be kissed, her mouth slightly open as if she was about to say something.
When her eyes dipped to my own lips, all of my control disappeared. I bent and claimed her mouth, the mindless need from the dance floor consuming me again, and the world around us exploded. She wasn’t just hot, she was molten lava, and the moment I kissed her it was running through me, flooding my mouth and flying through my veins like some sort of drug. I’d thought she was running warm before but suddenly we were both on fire, and what I new of reality disappeared. All I could see was her. All I could feel was her.
My brain turned off, leaving room for nothing but instinct and touch. I tore my mouth away from hers and ran my lips along her jawline, reveling in the feel of her. The scent. She smelled like home, only better. Baking or sugar or candy... but better. Her skin was scalding beneath my lips, her fingers burning me as they threaded through my hair.
God in Heaven, what was going on here? It was freezing in this shed but I was sweating from being so close to her, and my brain had gone foggy with need. I didn’t know this girl. I’d barely even heard her speak. And yet my cock was hard as a rock in my trousers, my instincts fixed on only one thing: getting inside of her.
I wanted her worse than I’d ever wanted anything in my life. Felt like I couldn’t live without her. Like I would die if I didn’t hike her dress up, wrap her legs around my waist, and take her here and now.
Some voice inside my head told me I shouldn’t do it. That I was here on Rossi family business and couldn’t afford to be distracted by some girl, no matter how beautiful. The voice was screaming that I needed to get off this property before something went truly wrong. Get back to Brooklyn, where I could get my feet under me.
Instead, I freed one hand and used it to unbuckle my belt. A shimmy of my hips and my pants slid down over them, exposing my cock. The girl was wearing the shortest dress ever created and it took almost nothing to hike it up to her waist.
I didn’t have to pull her legs around me. She lifted herself up and wound them around my waist. I was humming with energy when I looked up and met her eyes. Positioning her carefully over my cock, I held her gaze as I pulled her down.
Her eyes went even bigger, their glow exploding over me as I sheathed myself in her, and I thought I might actually be dying. What the fuck was going on here? Had they spiked my drink? Drugged me? It was the only thing that made sense. When she started moving on my cock, I nearly cried at the sensation. She was smooth and hot, tight and so wet, and I’d never experienced anything like it.
She was tearing my heart out, the feel of her around me so good that I wasn’t going to be able to stand it.
And my brain wasn’t working right. Something was definitely slowing me down. I had to be hallucinating. Or drugged. That was the only way that glowing room would make sense. But why? What did they want with me? Had she drugged me so she could bring me out here and make love to me?
That made zero sense. I would have said yes without the drugs. I’d wanted her since I first spotted her.
Fuck, I was missing something here, and my body was so busy fucking this girl, sliding out and slamming back in, that I couldn’t get my brain to kick in. Something was wrong. The room with the light. Her panicked statements that someone was going to come after me. The guy who had grabbed me on the dance floor, and the one who’d grabbed her.
The fact that her entire body was now glowing, her throat pulsing with light as she threw her head back in ecstasy.
She was definitely enjoying herself, and I was guessing she didn’t want me dead. But what did everything mean? Who were the Angelis, and what did this girl know of them? What sort of secrets were they hiding in that house of theirs?
Did Joseph know about any of this when he sent me here?
A shout ripped through the night outside and the girl jumped off me in a move that shouldn’t have been possible and shoved me down and to the side. I fought to get my pants back up, and when I looked up again she wasn’t glowing anymore.
But her hands were.
And there was a ball of flame between them.
She turned and backed up against the wall, holding the flames in front of her like some sort of weapon—or shield—and looking like she was ready to go to war. But I would be well and truly damned if I let a woman do my fighting for me. She’d said I would get in trouble for what I’d seen, so I was guessing that whoever was out there, they were after me, not her.
And I fought my own battles.
I also protected the people I counted as important.
I jumped to my feet, pushed her out of the way, and drew my gun. I didn’t know who we were fighting, but if they were coming for me, they were going to have a war on their hands.
I’d killed a lot of men and was a damn good shot.
Whoever was out there didn’t have a prayer.
I turned and, with a shout, shoved the door open.