22. Athena
TWENTY-TWO
ATHENA
M y phone buzzed with a flurry of messages, and Manuel’s name flashed across the screen.
Manuel: I’m still thinking about you.
Manuel: Miss you, amorina.
I rubbed my eyes while grinning like a fool. I hadn’t seen him in four days, since our little rendezvous in his penthouse, but random messages like this continued pouring in.
I couldn’t help the giddiness that came over me. The man was a charmer.
Me: Don’t go all sweet on me. I’ll miss my dirty talker.
Manuel: Next time I see you, be prepared to come while I’m licking your ??.
Me: And here I thought I’d have to resort to begging and let you teabag me in order to get my dirty talker back.
Manuel: I’d rather have your pleasure. So I’m going to fuck you nice and slow until you beg me for release.
My lips parted and arousal shot through me. The man sure had a filthy mouth on him.
“Someone turn on the television,” Raven shouted through the small apartment. I startled, quickly turning my phone off before dropping it into my lap. I couldn’t have my girlfriends seeing these texts.
“Is the TV on yet?” Raven screamed.
Of course, neither Reina nor I moved from our spot on the couch with how accustomed we were to Raven’s bizarre outbursts. Phoenix was out on a date, so there were only three of us in the apartment. Reina was flipping through a fashion magazine, I was deep in the revision stage of my latest draft, and Raven was painting in her bedroom while a show played on her phone. She was big on multitasking.
Raven’s footsteps thundered as she ran across the apartment, frantically searching for the remote.
“It’s under the pillow,” Reina deadpanned, not bothering to lift her eyes. “Same place you always leave it.”
Raven and I exchanged a glance but let it be. Her engagement party was coming up, and with each passing day, she grew more tense.
“Athena’s on television.”
My brows dipped and I waved a hand around in the air. “Hello…? I’m sitting right here.”
She scoffed.
“Ha-ha, smartass. Your books are on television.” She kept pressing buttons, flipping through the channels once the television turned on.
“Get out, our plan actually worked?” Reina lifted her head.
“ My plan worked,” Raven stated proudly. “You guys just helped with the execution.”
“There is no I in team,” Reina pointed out, smiling softly.
I jumped off the couch, barely catching my laptop before it hit the hardwood.
“Can you two discuss whose idea it was later?” I said, trying to grab the remote from Raven. “What channel? Quick!”
Once we found it, we all stared in amazement while my heart raced in my chest. The broadcaster was an enthusiastic woman with flushed cheeks and a wide smile on her face as she raved about the book.
Manhunting by A.K. Mystique has made chart-topping sales…
Hitting France Today ’s bestselling list…
A thrilling page-turner with a generous helping of spice…
“Oh my gosh,” I whispered. “It’s my book. They sold every single copy we smuggled in there.”
“And they made quite a profit considering they got them for free,” Reina remarked.
Raven snorted. “Who cares? This is the push Athena needed.”
The bookstores expect a waiting list of orders…
Set to arrive within the next two days…
Watch out, France, the women of Paris are manhunting…
The girls wrapped their arms around me as happy tears spilled over. We laughed and jumped around giddily.
“We have to celebrate,” Raven announced. “We’re long overdue for some good news. Let’s get drunk.”
We poured ourselves wine, clinked our glasses, and toasted. “Here’s to smut, murder, and?—”
Reina stopped and searched for the right word, so I chimed in, “And love.”
Reina’s engagement party was not a happy event, what with tension boiling among all the scowling men in attendance.
My little secret fling with Manuel and all the unknowns surrounding the Triads had me on edge. I hated keeping secrets from my friends, but they had full plates as it was. They didn’t need my shit on top of their own.
I needed Manuel’s protection. I’d be a fool, or incredibly aloof, to think that the recent attack was a one-off, but it was more than just that. His charm was impossible to resist, and I couldn’t deny the burning chemistry. It pulled me further into its flames, and I was all too willing.
Rationally, I knew I didn’t know him well enough to be thinking about the L word. Irrationally… I wanted to believe him when he promised me forever.
It made no fucking sense.
I’d never felt more at home or like myself with anyone else. The layers I’d kept tight around my heart were slowly melting away, leaving me stripped bare around him. The feeling ignited something dangerous and delicious inside of me.
Manuel had warned me when I left him the other day that I might have to go into hiding if his search for information kept coming up inconclusive. I’d resisted the idea but knew there was no way around it. After all, Mom and I had to do the same thing when the Triads attacked us before, nearly burning me alive.
I tapped my chest to release some of the pressure weighing on it.
One thing was certain—I was beginning to trust Manuel. Really trust him. He continuously went out of his way to keep me safe, and somehow it felt like he understood me better than anyone.
I promised him that if the threat was still looming, I’d go into hiding after this party. I’d already made concessions when I accepted his insistence to have round-the-clock surveillance, and even though I was reluctant at first, I knew it was necessary.
Once we arrived at the venue for Reina’s farce of an engagement party looking like circus freaks in our multicolored dresses, I finally relaxed. I took in the gleaming marble floors and the soaring ceilings adorned with sparkling chandeliers. The venue was very impressive, and unsurprisingly, it belonged to the Marchetti empire.
“It’s an amazing space,” I murmured to Raven, who looked bored to no end.
She shrugged, her gaze roaming. “I’m just ready for this shit show to be over with.” She pointed to the bar. “Let’s get a drink.”
I felt a gaze burning a hole in my back and there was no question as to whose it was. I slowly turned around and met Manuel’s dark stare, zeroed in on me.
My mouth went dry.
He looked gorgeous in his designer three-piece suit. His handsome face had a five-o’clock shadow and the edges of his mouth were curved slightly.
“You go ahead,” I muttered to Raven who was already on her way to the bar. “I’ll be there in a second.”
Manuel closed the distance between us in less than five strides. His fingers wrapping around my wrist, he dragged me into an alcove and spun me around, pressing my back against the wall and bracing his hands on either side of my shoulders.
My breath hitched, the sounds from the party drowning against the drumming of my own heart.
He ghosted his lips up and down my neck as though he were drinking me in.
“You’re coming home with me tonight,” he murmured against my ear. His low, raspy voice sent a thrill through me before he nipped at the sensitive spot beneath, running his tongue over it to ease the sting. “I’m going to fuck you into next week. You won’t be able to walk straight.”
I moaned, burying my fingers in his hair, as he pressed a kiss to my skin. I was ready to let him fuck me right here in this hallway, risking exposure. My heart thrashed in my chest, my nipples pressing hard and tight against the thin material of my ridiculous dress.
This reaction to him really was unhealthy.
Throwing caution to the wind, I tilted my head back and looked him straight in the eye.
“How about you give me a glimpse of that threat, paparino ?” I asked, tilting my chin in challenge.
His scent surrounded me and I wanted so badly to lean into him. To kiss him and touch him. To let him own me.
As if he could read my thoughts, his lips crashed against mine, the flash of fire consuming me and flaming this craving. I arched into him as one of his hands left the wall and smoothed from my back to my ass, cupping it and jerking me toward him. I was pressed against the long, hard ridge in his pants, shamelessly rubbing against it.
A deep groan vibrated in his throat and he inched his hand down and gathered up my dress. Dragging it up my legs and bunching it in his hand, he slid his fingers underneath my lacy thong.
He pulled back, watching my face as his fingers brushed over my swollen, pulsing clit. I gasped and shuddered as he rolled his thumb over it. His pupils were dilated, hunger lurking in them. One long finger thrust into me and I cried out, but thankfully he covered my mouth with his own, muffling the desperate sound.
His fingers and thumb moved in tandem, and my hips rolled as I raced to find my release. Sparks shimmered behind my closed lids and I was panting, arching into him, my breasts brushing against his suit.
My movements were frantic and desperate as I shamelessly ground against his hand. I’d seen him less than a week ago, but it was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I missed him.
“Jesus, are all the corners taken in this joint?” I froze, hearing a male voice tainted with humor. “First Dante, now you. Maybe I should just stand in the middle of the reception hall.”
I blinked up at Manuel while agitation rolled off him in icy waves. His hand slowed, but he didn’t stop. The wall sconce to my left illuminated us slightly, but still he angled his body so it was folded over mine, keeping me out of sight from curious onlookers.
“Get lost, Cesar,” he growled, “or I swear to God, I will shoot you.”
It took but a few seconds for my mind to piece together that the man interrupting us was Cesar, Dante Leone’s bodyguard. Embarrassment washed over me.
“Really original,” Cesar retorted, chuckling as he sauntered away.
But the moment was lost and Manuel growled, pulling his fingers from me. He reached up and brushed them over my lips before taking my mouth in another fierce kiss.
“I always make good on my threats,” he muttered into my ear. “Delicious.” He hummed in approval, licking my arousal from his fingers before he leaned toward me, his lips hovering over mine. “Nothing and no one will keep me from you anymore, amorina .”
My stomach swooped. And as he took my hand, leading me back to the main room, I knew I was in trouble.