Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
~CARMINE~
“ Y ou really should come in with me,” Nadia says as she treads water in the crystal-blue pool. We’ve been at the resort in Cannes, on the French Riviera, for five days. We went from sightseeing and walking all over Paris to lazy days by the pool and eating all of the food in sight.
It’s all about balance.
“I’m happy to sit here and watch,” I reply. Nadia just shakes her head and starts swimming back and forth. We’re not alone here at the pool since it’s open to all resort visitors. But because it’s the middle of the week, it’s not overly crowded, either.
I’m sitting on a lounge chair, similar to the one that Nadia was sitting in that day that I found her in Miami all those months ago.
But so much has changed since then.
Finished with swimming, she moves over to the infinity wall and stares out at the water beyond.
The view here is stunning. We’ve spent quite a bit of time on the balcony of our penthouse suite, enjoying the sunsets.
It won’t be long before we’re back home, immersed in all of the responsibility that comes with our lives.
But for now, we’re simply enjoying our vacation. Together.
I take a sip of the fruity drink that Nadia ordered for me and watch as the woman turns from her view and gives me a smile as she swims through the water.
Her eyes widen in surprise, and I lean forward, wondering if she needs my help.
“Oh, crap,” she mutters, and as she walks up the steps and out of the pool, her bikini top is in her hands.
And her breasts are bare and on display.
“You’d best cover yourself.”
“The damn clasp broke,” she says. “And I liked this suit. Oh, well, I brought another one.”
“Put something on, Nadia.”
She looks up and frowns. “We’re in France. Trust me, no one cares that I’m topless.”
“I care.”
She tips her head to the side. “Seriously, it’s no big deal, Carmine.”
“Put something on, or we’ll go to the room.”
She simply sits on the chair, leans back, and tips her face up to the sun, her small breasts out for everyone to see.
“No.”
I press my lips together in frustration. “Nadia.”
“Carmine,” she says lazily and reaches for her drink. “I’m a grown woman. It’s not illegal to be topless poolside in France. So, I’m going to sit here. Topless.”
“For fuck’s sake.” I grab her black cover-up, toss it over her, and lift her into my arms. I don’t miss the man across the pool, watching us.
He’ll be dealt with later.
“What in the hell are you doing?”
I don’t answer. I simply carry her to the elevator, and when we reach the top floor, I stride into our room.
She’s glaring at me now.
I couldn’t care less.
“You’re such a fucking caveman,” she growls. “I didn’t do anything wrong, Carmine.”
“Stop talking.” I set her on the floor and then pin her against the wall. I take her hands in mine and lift them over her head with one of mine. With the other, I worry a nipple between my fingers. “If you think I’ll sit back and let you sit out there on display, for everyone to see, you’re sorely mistaken.”
“ Let me?—”
“I said, stop talking.” I drag my nose over the shell of her ear, breathing her in. My fingers pinch the nipple, just a little harder. “This, right here, is mine. Only for me to see.”
She whimpers when I move over to the other side and pay that nipple the same attention.
“No one gets the pleasure of seeing this but me.”
“Caveman,” she whispers, but I can tell the anger has left her, replaced by pure, unadulterated lust.
I make quick work of her bikini bottoms and my shorts, and with her hands still pinned over her head, I boost her up and slip right inside of her.
“This is what happens when you defy me, Nadia. You piss me off and make me want to claim what’s mine.”
“Oh, my God.”
“Look at me.”
With her blue eyes on fire and pinned to mine, I work her hard, making her come fast. With the second orgasm, I follow her over and lean my forehead against her shoulder as I release her hands, and she wraps her arms around my neck.
I can’t breathe.
And I can’t let her go.
“Jesus, you do shit to me,” I mutter.
“Same.” She swallows hard and looks at me as I pull my face back. “It really bothered you, I guess.”
“I wasn’t playing.”
Her mouth quirks into a grin. “I can see that. Fine, I’ll wear the suit. But I could say the same.”
“I’d look awful in a bikini top.”
She smirks. “Do you think I didn’t see the waitress flirting with you when she delivered your drinks? Or how the other women watch you when you walk across the pool area, wearing nothing but your shorts?”
“And how do they look at me?”
“Like they want to eat you alive. And I can’t blame them.” Her hands glide down my chest. “You’re a sexy man, Carmine. You have muscles for days. Combine that with this smooth olive skin and that sexy face of yours, and well, you turn heads.”
“Thanks for feeding my ego.”
“I’m not. It’s just how it is. But I don’t wrap you in a towel and pull you out of there.”
“I didn’t like it,” I repeat. “And I won’t apologize for it. If you want me to wear a T-shirt at the pool, I’ll do that.”
“Well, that makes me just sound dumb.”
“No.” I grin and kiss her chin, then set her on her feet. “It makes you sound possessive, and that doesn’t bother me so much.”
“I’m going back down.” She pads over to the dresser and pulls out a clean swimsuit. When she’s dressed, she turns back to me. “Are you going to join me?”
“Yes. Would a tank top be too revealing?”
She laughs now and shakes her head. “You don’t have to wear anything.”
I slip the tank over my head and shrug. “If it makes you more comfortable, it doesn’t bother me.”
“We’re sappy. You know that, right?”
“Darling, what a sweet thing to say.”
The casino is loud and bustling around me. I’m seated at a high-roller blackjack table, sipping whiskey and watching Nadia from several yards away.
She’s at a poker table, pouting because she just lost five thousand dollars.
“Well, poo,” she huffs and gives the man beside her a forlorn look. “I’m really bad at this, aren’t I?”
I ask the dealer to hit me and hold at nineteen.
“I’ve seen worse,” her companion says. “Let’s try this, shall we?”
His hand is on the small of her back and drifts down to her ass as he leans in to help her with her next hand.
My stomach twists.
He’s going to lose that hand. And I’m not talking about the cards.
I win at nineteen and rake in twenty grand in chips as the asshole laughs and nuzzles Nadia’s nose.
I sip my whiskey and act disinterested.
She loses again.
“That wasn’t quite as bad,” he tells her and moves in closer. “Now, for this hand, we’ll do things a little differently.”
I’m dealt a four of clubs and a queen of hearts. I tell the dealer to hit me and draw the six of diamonds.
I hold, and the dealer goes down the line of other players.
Nadia wins her hand and claps her hands joyfully, then kisses the man on the cheek.
That earns her ass a nice squeeze.
Fucking hell, how long do I have to watch this shit?
Finally, she whispers in his ear, and he rewards her with a wide smile and a nod of acceptance.
They leave the poker table.
I fold my cards, take my chips, and follow them.
“Are you on a good floor?” she asks, loud enough for me to hear her.
“The twelfth is nice and quiet,” he assures her as they get into an elevator.
I take a different one and count my lucky stars when I get off just after them and follow them down the hall. He opens their door, and I hurry up, then push my way inside before he can shut it behind them.
“Hey, what’s the big deal?”
“We could ask you the same thing,” Nadia says, not smiling and flirting now.
He tries to act as if he doesn’t know what she’s talking about, but the longer we just stare at him, our weapons drawn, he loses the fight. He finally blows out a breath and holds up his hands in surrender.
“I guess you caught me.”
“You’ve been following us for days,” I reply. “And you’re not very good at it. Just like your associate in Paris. Who’s dead, by the way.”
He narrows his eyes and then shrugs a shoulder. “He was a shitty operative.”
“So are you.”
This gets his temper up. “No. I’m not.”
“We saw you,” I repeat. “And what was that show downstairs? Did you think you could just flirt with her, and she’d jump right into bed with you?”
“And why not?” he asks, his voice bold. “We’ve all heard the stories about Nadia Tarenkov, fucking anyone who offers.”
Without hesitation, I hit him across the face with the butt of my sidearm, drawing blood.
“Wait. Are you in love with her?” He laughs and doesn’t bother to wipe at the blood on his face. “That’s not even funny. It’s sad. Pathetic, really. She’ll just double-cross you, man. That’s what she does.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Nadia kicks over the desk chair and forces him down into it, and I pull the twine out of my pocket and secure his hands behind his back.
“Why are you following us?” Nadia asks him.
“I don’t have to tell you shit. Go ahead and kill me. You’re going to anyway.”
He’s not wrong.
“Rich has been dead for weeks. Why are you still doing his bidding?” I ask.
He scoffs. “You think this came from Richard ? Come on, Carmine, you weren’t born last night. Pull your dick out of your brain and think about it. This comes from way higher up than Richard. That dude was a piece of shit. A total pussy.”
“You know, I don’t disagree with you,” Nadia says as she walks around him. “But I never understood why men like to compare weakness to female genitalia.”
She reaches down and grips his dick in a firm fist, making him yell in rage.
“When it’s your dick that’s so weak. So, the truth is, Richard was a dick.”
Then she looks up at me and laughs. “Dick is short for Richard.”
“Makes perfect sense, then,” I agree.
She lets him go and walks over to me, urging me to the side so she can speak to me privately.
“Could it be true that Richard was working for someone else?”
“It could be, but Shane dug around on him and didn’t find anything. He was going to keep delving into it in his free time. I’ll have to call him and see if he found anything new.”
“Yeah, let’s do that. Ah!”
The asshole has Nadia pinned to the wall, his hands around her neck in a flash. I have no idea how he got out of the restraints.
“Let her go.” I press the business end of my sidearm against the side of his head, but he doesn’t let up on his grip. Nadia’s face is already turning purple. “I said, fucking let her go.”
No response.
I glance at Nadia and see that she won’t last much longer.
So I squeeze the trigger and kill the son of a bitch.
“Jesus,” she wheezes as he slumps to the floor, and she can breathe again. “Fuck.”
“Hey, look at me.”
She does as I ask. Her eyes are red. Her throat will be bruised.
I aim and shoot him once again.
“He’s dead, Carmine.”
“I thought he’d let go when I had the gun to his head.”
“He was cocky and arrogant,” she says when she finally catches her breath. She pulls an unopened bottle of water out of the fridge, but I shake my head no.
“Don’t drink that. We don’t know that he didn’t poison everything in here.”
“You’re right. Christ.” She drops the bottle to the carpet. “Who’s going to clean up this mess?”
My smile is humorless as I pull my phone out of my pocket and tap a series of numbers, then send the text through.
“It’ll be handled.”
She just stares at me. “In France ?”
“Anywhere.” My answer is simple. “Your family would do the same.”
She nods and pushes her hand through her hair. “You’re right. I’m just rattled. I’m not used to being choked out like that. I guess it’s safe to say that breathplay isn’t my jam.”
“No.” I lean in and press a kiss to her neck where the bruises are already starting to form. “We won’t be exploring that. There are too many other ways to bring pleasure. Let’s go.”
I don’t spare the goon on the floor a glance as I open the door and lead her out, keeping an eye on our surroundings in case there’s someone else lying in wait.
But as we leave the casino, we’re alone. Once in the car on the way to the hotel, she leans her head on my shoulder.
“We need to go home,” she murmurs.
“Agreed.” I kiss the top of her head. “Vacation is over. We’ll fly out tonight.”
“Good. Are we going to Seattle?”
“Yes. Unless there was somewhere else you wanted to go?”
“No, Seattle works. I’ll need to call my father when we land. I need to fill him in on what’s going on.”
“I think we should have a meeting with both of our fathers. Do you think yours would come to Seattle?”
She thinks it over. “If your father sends the invitation, I’m sure he will.”
“I’ll get that ball rolling. We thought what was happening in Denver died with Richard.”
“We were wrong.” She yawns. “We were very wrong.”
And I’m furious.
No one will ever touch her like that again.
“I shouldn’t have paused in shooting him,” I say when we’re in the elevator headed up to our room. “I hate myself for it.”
“He might have stopped,” she says. “Hey. I’m here, and I’m fine. We’re going to figure out who’s behind this, and we’re going to kill them. No hesitation. No second chances.”
“No. No hesitation.” I pull her to me when we close the door to our suite and hold her close. We’re rocking back and forth, clinging to each other, when my phone rings.
I don’t let her go as I bring it to my ear. “Yes.”
“The plane will be ready within the hour.”
“Excellent.”
I click off and tip her chin up with my finger.
“Let’s go home, babe.”