Matteo was relieved to change the subject to something less personal to himself. “At the offices of Gregori Markovic,” he confirmed.
“The other families around the world are impressed with your new alliance with Markovic.”
It was noticeable that, unlike previous conversation on the subject, Leon didn’t include his own approval in that statement.
As noticeable as the fact Natalia hadn’t come straight to London with her father.
By Leon’s design?
The unsettled feeling inside Matteo told him that he needed to remain wary of the man who was shortly to become his father-in-law.
How the hell was he supposed to marry Natalia Brunelli, be a proper husband to her, provide the Zalotti and Brunelli families with heirs, when it was Grace he loved, and even the thought of bedding another woman made his cock shrink in on itself and want to hide?
How?
“Grace.”
“What the—!” Grace lifted a hand and pressed it against her chest as she spun round in the darkness of the lane behind the bookshop. She had just finished locking up the shop at the end of a long week. Even so, she didn’t need the soft glow of the street light to know it was Matteo waiting for her in the darkness.
Aptly?
Because Matteo’s life was one of darkness and danger that could cause pain and harm to innocent bystanders, including her?
Was she so innocent?
Or was she guilty by association?
Grace had thought about this a lot since she last saw Matteo, and much as she might have walked away from that life five years ago, and everyone in it, she was still her father’s daughter. That could never be changed, no matter how much she tried to ignore it. One day, if she ever wanted to have a family of her own, she would have to tell the man in her life that truth too. Anything else would be unfair to him.
Unless he was part of that same dangerous world?
“You frightened the hell out of me,” she accused angrily. “Matteo?” she questioned sharply when he stepped farther into the light and she could see how pale his face was, and the dark circles—from lack of sleep?—beneath his eyes. His hands were clenched into fists at his sides. He wore a tailored jacket over a white shirt teamed with faded denims. It was the first time Grace had seen him so informally dressed.
“I can’t do this!” he ground out harshly. “I cannot fucking do this!”
She gave a slow shake of her head. “I don’t under—” The air was knocked from her lungs as Matteo lunged for her, the momentum of his body crashing into hers knocking her back against the wall.
“Wanting you is driving me insane.” His lips moved feverishly against her throat, his hands caressing Grace restlessly as he pressed his body against hers. “I need to be inside you again. I need it, Grace!” he repeated before his mouth claimed hers in a hot and demanding kiss.
Grace responded as heatedly, her fingers entangling in the dark thickness of his hair as she returned the hunger of that kiss. It had only been thirty-six hours since she last saw him, but she was as desperate to kiss and touch him as he was her.
And when caresses and kisses were no longer enough, their hands pulled at each other’s clothing in an effort to get closer still.
Grace unfastened the button on the waist of Matteo’s jeans.
Sliding down the zip.
Allowing Grace to push her hand beneath the waistband of his boxers and encircle the throbbing fullness of his cock.
“Yes!” Matteo groaned against her throat. “Fuck, yes.” He pulled down the front of his boxers so that her hand could stroke his silky cock from base to tip, steel encased in velvet, lingering to caress the bulbous top and gather up the pre-cum to ease the slide of her palm up and down that turgid length.
Grace trembled as Matteo’s hand moved beneath her skirt to stroke the silky flesh of her inner thigh.
She gasped when she felt Matteo’s fingers twisting the lace of her panties before he ripped them from her body.
Groaned when Matteo, after deftly undoing and rolling a condom in place, then lifted her until her legs were wrapped about his waist, and the long length of his cock was pressed against the moist lips of her pussy, leaving his hands free to touch her.
“Tell me you want me,” Matteo urged roughly, very aware he was on the edge of no return but having enough control still to stop this if it wasn’t what Grace wanted. “Tell me, Grace!” he rasped.
“I want you,” she repeated obediently.
“Say it again.”
“I want you, Matteo,” she cried out. “I need you inside me. Filling me up. Claiming me.”
Matteo lost the last remnants of his control, his fingers gathering up the moisture on her pussy lips before he thrust two of them inside her. He added a third finger, stretching and readying her for the width and length of his cock. He sought out and stroked that knot of nerves inside her until he felt the gush of her juices and she cried out her release.
Matteo allowed her no respite as he thrust his cock inside her, holding on so tightly to her hips he was going to leave bruises as he thrust into her again and again.
He groaned his own pleasure minutes later as the walls of Grace’s channel tightened like a vise about his cock, juices flowing copiously inside her as she hit a second climax.
“Yes!” Matteo was thrusting so hard and deep into her now, he pushed her farther up the wall with each savage stroke.
Harder.
Faster.
Until he couldn’t contain his release a moment longer, pleasure gathering at the base of his spine before surging along the length of his cock. He felt Grace’s release as his hot cum erupted into the condom for long and agonizing minutes until only the ragged and uneven sound of their
