“And?” he growled as she paused.
“This was my first time using one, you see and—”
In the blink of a breath, he folded his body against hers, one firm hand pulling her arms above her. His breath feathered over her cheeks, his nose rubbing against the tender skin on the inside of one bicep. “You play dirty, cara.” He whispered the words against the soft flesh of her arm, just above the elbow. His other hand landed unerringly on the narrow strip of skin her outfit bared. Heat from his fingers seared her. “Am I allowed to? Am I allowed to use all the…weapons at my disposal?”
She leaned into his chest, the sides of her breasts pressed against his hard chest. “You already play dirty, V. You use everything you do with me for your PR. Nothing is real anymore.”
“What—?”
She meant to back off and miscalculated, their legs tangling instead. Her hip hit the rock-hard slab of his abdomen, her thigh rubbing against his groin. His reaction was instant.
“Oh…” Alex whispered, incapable of rational thought. Her mouth was dry. Punch-drunk on need as she settled her body—chest to thighs, against him.
His fingers dug into her hips as he held her like that, his erection rocking into the notch of her sex. “You think I don’t miss you in my bed? You think I was not driven to mindless lust when I saw the magazine spread? You think I didn’t take myself in my hand while thinking of you like some rabid fan even though you already belong to me?”
Awareness was a cage around them, the slip and slide of their bodies, the settling of his hard muscles and her softer ones into a familiar groove, begging for that instinctive rhythm to begin…
Hands tight around her, he rocked his hips into her. Their combined moans rent the quiet evening air.
Alex shivered, her skin too tight to contain her. “Please, V…”
“Please what, bella?” He licked the sensitive skin at the crook of her neck. And she rubbed her thighs together, desperate for friction there. “Shall I make you climax here, against the car in full view of the villa? Do I win this round then?”
Her own fingers pulling at his hair, Alex buried her face in his throat. “Sometimes, I wish I had never met you on that island. I wish…”
His fingers gentled on her back, as if she hadn’t just damned their entire relationship. “I would love to give you what you want. What both of us want. But whom shall you hate more tomorrow morning? Me or yourself?”
Alex drew air in as if her lungs were starved. He was right. This was a dangerous game she was playing. One she might very well lose. “Let me go,” she whispered, because it wasn’t in her to walk away from him.
He released her slowly, a perfect gentleman. Not betraying by the flicker of an eyelid that he had indeed won this round.
* * *
The car pulled away from the villa. For long, silent minutes, Alex lost herself in the spectacular views of the high alpine peaks and the shimmering lake.
His long fingers drew her attention to the steering wheel. The simple but expensive gold band she’d purchased at an exclusive jewelry shop in Bali glinted in the darkness of the interior.
She felt his assessing gaze on her and looked away.
“Do you want to start over and tell me what has you in such a mood?”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. As usual, I lost my head when I saw you. Looking like a morsel I wanted to inhale. You were already angry about something.”
His perceptiveness didn’t surprise her. “This was my only free evening in two weeks. I don’t appreciate your personal assistant adding events to my calendar without consulting me first,” she said when she finally had a measure of composure. “I need more than—‘Important Dinner with Mr. Cavalli—Casual Dress’ a few hours before I’m supposed to show up.”
“It’s easier for Anna to coordinate our mad schedules than constantly talking to your assistant.”
Alex didn’t miss his obvious affection for the paragon Anna.
The quaint village of Bellagio welcomed them with its narrow, cobblestoned streets and charming alleyways, the Aventador roaring through. “Who’s this VIP we’re meeting anyway? Another backstabbing board member of BFI who wants more of its profits? Another man who has some kind of vendetta against Leo and Massimo?”
“We’re meeting an old friend of mine. Antonio is…he’s very dear to me. And despite my many warnings, he and some other friends have arranged a surprise party for us in his house, to celebrate our marriage. I would appreciate it if you can put aside our differences for a few hours and treat him with the respect he deserves.”
His gruff request took Alex by surprise. “I’ll act as if you were my sun and moon. As if you were the answer to my every romantic fantasy.”
“Alessandra, this is important to me.” His sigh rattled in the silence. “I wanted to give both Antonio and you a chance to meet outside of what will definitely become a media circus once I take over BFI. I don’t want us talking about how you abandoned our marriage on our honeymoon or how you only returned to make a deal with me for your brother’s sake. Antonio’s a very traditional man.”
“Shall we also not talk about how you kept your biggest ambition a secret from me? And how—”
“Antonio knows my background. My goal all these years. All the things I’ve done.”
All the things he’d done…
Suddenly, Alex felt as if she was being given a key to unlock this man. To understand him better. To find some way to stop him. To figure out if her first instinct about their marriage had been right, that there was something to salvage from this mess.
Vincenzo stopped the car near the lakefront. A row of pretty,
