Allan stared at her from across the table as she ate greedily. They had worked up an appetite, but his stomach hunger was nothing compared to the other hunger coursing through him. After three hours of the best sex he’d ever had—though each one short with very little exploring—he was still semi-erect. They’d had fast, frantic sex six times until his dick got too weak to stand fully and she was sore. Her thighs were already red and bruising. She was so sore he had to carry her out of the room to have their warmed dinner. Gina was nice enough to heat it up when he called.
Allan stared at Riana, sitting across from him with nothing on but his pale blue shirt. She looked completely ravished and happy to be in that state. She was even humming and rocking to the tune in her head as she ate.
She was beautiful, with her hair in complete disarray, her lips puffy red, the sleeves of his Armani shirt rolled up to her elbows and hot damn, the front buttons
Italy. I’m actually out of the States and in another country! Riana stepped off the plane and took a deep breath. The air was warm and relaxing and so foreign!There wasn’t much to see at the airport but the little she did see excited her. She spread her arms out and leaned her head back. “I’m in Venice!” She kissed her fingers and blew kisses. “Ti amo Venice, ti amo!”Allan laughed behind her but she didn’t care. She was too happy to care and, in fact, she didn’t mind sharing the love. She wrapped her arms around his neck and hung on to him so she could lift her legs off the ground and force him to support her weight.“Wow!” He quickly wrapped his free arm around her waist and held her up against him.“Thank you, Allan. No one has ever done anything as wonderful as this for me.” She planted a short kiss on his lips. “So are we g
Allan wanted to sigh in relief, but he held back. He wasn’t sure she would agree to it. Hell, Loraine hadn’t given him any hope that she would when she stressed how sweet and innocent she is, nothing like the type of women he had occupy his bed. And when ‘two months’ slipped out, he was sure she was going to say no, but he kept his own startled reaction under wraps.One couldn’t survive in his line of work if they didn’t possess an excellent poker face.He’d done another thing he hadn’t planned—promised to flack off work to show her all of Italy. Allan didn’t like not being present during large takeovers like he knew Casa Italiano was going to be but, for once in his life, he was going to put himself ahead of everyone else, including Melody.Taking care of Melody had been his only interest since their father’s death three years ago. Their mother had died four years before that, leav
Riana stepped into the Imperial suite. She’d never seen a hotel as beautiful as this. The moment she stepped into the lobby, it took her breath away. The crystal chandeliers wowed her, the diamond-like structure sparkling when the crystals hit the light, and the exquisite, old-fashion furniture and traditional decorations spoke of their cultural history. “Is this where we are staying?” she whispered to Allan, in complete awe. Allan nodded, his lips turned down in a frown. “Yes. It does look old fashioned, nothing like The Ritz.” “Oh no, it’s just perfect.” She turned full circle, trying to take the entire room in. “Don’t you see what they are trying to do? The best centuries were the eighteenth and nineteenth when royalty meant something more than Prince William and Puff Daddy having equal celebrity status.” She stopped before him. “Anyone into art, photography, painting, design…whatever the genre, this is art heaven. It’s like stepping back in time, I just love it.” Allan looked
Allan’s fork halted at his mouth when he heard her groan. He looked up. Her eyes were closed as she pulled the fork out of her mouth with a sweet sigh. She’d done that with every dish she’d sampled that day, and it was getting damn difficult not to drag her back to the hotel. They almost didn’t make it out when he saw her in that short white dress—thank you Wilma—her damp curly hair free around her shoulders.He noticed she didn’t wear makeup except for lip gloss and he liked that about her. It made him realize the only reason he’d liked his women dressed to perfection from the hair on their heads to the nails on their toes was because he’d liked having a trophy on his arm.But Riana was no trophy. She was something else. Something much better. He just didn’t know what exactly. He hadn’t put his finger on it yet.She picked up a meatball with her tiny fingers and lifted it to her mouth. Her
Riana watched Allan sit silently a few feet away from her, clearly deep in thought. She feared he was worrying about work and how much he’d neglected just to entertain her.Maybe they should just go back to the hotel?“Gratzie,” she said to the vendors and held up one finger as she pointed back to Allan with her thumb. “Could you give me just a minute. I just want to make sure he’s all right.”They responded with holding up a finger and pointing at Allan, too. Riana laughed, realizing too late that she should have brought an English-Italian dictionary with her.She moved toward Allan and stood next to him. She smiled. He hadn’t noticed her yet. She pushed her fingers into his raven hair and tugged his head back. “Earth to Allan?”His lips twitched in what looked like a forced smile. “Get what you like?”“What’s wrong? Are you worried about work because we
Allan rolled his stiff neck. The owners of Casa Italiano, the Torino family, had found out that the other shareholders had sold to him and were now putting up roadblocks to keep him from completely taking over. They held forty percent and after that afternoon’s sale, he held sixty. That was great if he intended on keeping them on, but he didn’t. He wanted all of it.A week of their ignorance, that’s all he had needed to buy their debt from the bank. But someone had alerted them and they now—somehow—had gotten two months’ extension on their loan. That meant accumulating additional interest at a higher interest rate and more money for him to shell out if they faulted.Mr. Torino wanted to meet in Venice in two days’ time. Allan didn’t respond because he had no intention to. He had less intention to change his plans because Mr. Torino was desperately trying to hold on. He’d give him two months to sweat before
Riana felt her body tremble at Allan’s anger. She fought the urge to stand up and run after him as he stomped away. She’d never seen such anger in his eyes before and the fear of rejection kept her where she was. She didn’t even turn around to watch him leave.She just sat there, with her head bent and her shaking hands in fists on her lap. She hadn’t meant to offend him, she just found his line of work and what it did to people inexcusable and had hoped what Loraine said wasn’t entirely true.But when she’d practically called him a vulture feeding a pack of hyenas and he’d responded with ‘it’s nothing personal just business’ something inside her just snapped. She had been one of those families that were left stranded when the textile factory her mother worked at was taken apart. Allan may not have had anything to do with it, but from the cold way he’d said ‘it’s nothing personal just busines
Allan sat in the cabin, his work papers spread out in front of him. He’d purposefully began working the moment he settled on the train so when she came in, she wouldn’t bother him. He was still angry with her and he wanted her to know it. But it was useless considering he’d been unable to concentrate on anything but Riana since he abandoned her at the restaurant.The woman was a sickness and it annoyed him how she filled his every thought when she wasn’t close by; when he couldn’t touch her, kiss her, running his hands over her soft skin as he prepared her body for his possession. The need for her was only worse now that they were angry at each other. He wanted to make love to her and punish her while doing so.Hold up! Have sex, not make love! Where the hell did that come from?You only make love to someone you love and he didn’t love her. Did he? The vendor’s words came back to haunt him. What had he seen that Allan ha
“Are you okay?” Allan asked for the hundredth time that night as she crawled into bed next to him. She nodded, placing her hand on Aurora’s back as she slept on her father’s chest. God, she came so close to not having this… Riana took a deep breath to ward off another bout of crying. She had cried for what felt like hours, seeing Aurora and Allan go through her memory album. Allan laid his hand over hers on Aurora’s back. “I don’t think I’ll be able to thank you enough for what you did. Aurora would have known me if I had—” “Don’t say it,” she interrupted. “Let’s just treasure this moment with our daughter.” She placed her head on his shoulder, close to Aurora’s. “She looks so beautiful and innocent when she’s asleep you wouldn’t believe she is as destructive as a bulldozer!” Riana chuckled. “Well, I’m still not convinced,” Allan commented defensively. Riana smiled. He was going to defend Aurora no matter what. She loved him for that. Loraine had brought her laptop with ‘the
Allan felt the familiar lump in his throat at her emotional whisper. Melody’s smile wobbled, tears running unrestricted down her cheeks.Allan wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him. She pressed her face into his shoulder, her hand fisted in his shirt as she sobbed quietly.“I’m so sorry I put you through hell, Melody. I didn’t mean to. I just…life just didn’t seem worth living without Riana and Aurora and I know that’s selfish to you because it used to be you and me…but…God, Melody I don’t know how to explain it!”She pulled her head back, exposing her face. She smiled at him as she wiped her cheeks dry. “I understand. Remember dad?”Allan let out a shaky sigh. “Yeah. I finally understand.”Riana placed her hand over Melody’s on his chest. “Still. We are really sorry to have put you through…all of it. You too, Loraine.”Loraine waved the apology away and sat down on the carpeted floor across from them. “Hey, as long as my best friend isn’t depressed anymore, I’m co
The word fear wasn’t enough to describe the flood of terror that filled him when he saw her.He looked into the big brown eyes that stared up at him and listened to her shrilly giggles that filled him, pushing the fear out as she jumped up and down.“She’s beautiful,” he whispered as he watched her chant ‘daddy’ in a singsong voice as she danced around, her unruly, curly, black bob of hair moving with her.She seemed fascinated by how her hair moved around her head, covering her face when she paused, her head turned to the side. It reminded him of how Riana used to dance around, her hair flying all over her face until it completely blinded her. She would trip over her feet and Allan always had to stay alert to catch her before her ass touched the ground.She looked so much like Riana—happy and carefree.He was amazed by the instant love he felt for his daughter. Since the moment he’d known about her he’d loved her, but it stunned him how hard the emotion hit him when he saw her and he
Riana couldn’t stop laughing.“Will you quit it?”Riana knew he was getting irate with her but she just couldn’t stop laughing. Getting his hair cut and shaving his beard were understandable. In fact, they were a necessity. But what she didn’t get was his insistence to wear a suit and get all fashioned up like he was going to a business meeting and not to meet his daughter.It took a lot of convincing, but she got him to dress in jeans and a black T-shirt. After she warned him of Aurora messing up his suit with sticky fingers and food, he thought it best not to wear white.She borrowed some of Melody’s clothes, hoping that she really wouldn’t mind—as Allan had promised—and also stayed away from the whites.He looked even more anxious and pale standing at her door than on their trip to her apartment.The moment the sun was up they had left the hotel and went to his apartment. The first thi
“She’s the one who told me you were dead. She said it was my fault and I should be the one who died.”Allan felt his temper flare. “You mean to tell me that Theresa knew you were alive and said nothing about it!”Riana stopped crying. “Why would she think I was dead?”“Because before Dante corrected the media, the report was that there were two casualties in the yacht. You and me,” he bit out through clenched teeth.The moment he saw Theresa he was going to ring her neck!All this time, she could have ended his suffering. True, he’d asked Dante not to tell the media he was still alive until he felt he was ready to face the world—which was supposed to be never—but Matthew and Melody knew he was alive. And somehow Theresa had found out, too. She had tried to go to Italy to be with him just a month after the explosion and that’s when he bought a new yacht and sailed as far a
Allan hugged Riana closer to him. They had spent most of the night and into the early hours of the morning making love. Now they just laid together in companionable silence, each of them lost in their thoughts. But Allan could bet they were thinking of the same thing—each other and how lucky they were to have this second chance. Many people begged and prayed for a chance like this and never got it. He was never going to take her for granted ever again. Allan moved to hold Riana more comfortably against him as he battled sleep. He smiled at Riana’s declaration to never ever go to sleep again in fear he might disappear. Silly, yes, but he understood her perfectly. He loved the feel of her warm skin against his, her fingers trailing lazily on his chest as she made small content sighs and mumbled incoherent words under her breathe. Two and a half years he’d gone without this. He was learning to appreciate the saying ‘you don’t know what you have until you lose it’. He wasn’t going to l
She never got a chance to finish. Allan pressed his lips against hers in a hungry kiss, his hands moving the rest of the dress up to her torso.Riana arched up on instinct trying to get closer. He pulled away, yanked the dress over her head before he descended on her again, his hands everywhere, touching, groping, teasing hungrily like a man starved. Her body responded to his touch in a way she never thought possible again.Tired of feeling cloth against her skin, she quickly undid the buttons to his shirt. Having an active twenty month old required her to work fast, especially when dressing and undressing her.Once all the buttons were undone, Allan helped pull the shirt off, while Riana moved to his pants. That only took two seconds to undo and one more second to push it and his boxers down to his ankles so that he could kick them off.Allan pulled away and looked at her, stunned. “That was fast. Where did you—”“Aha
Allan laid Riana’s limp body on the bed, his eyes riveted on her face. She looked too peaceful, in fact. He had to press her chest against his on their way up to the suite just to feel her breathe and make sure she was unconscious and not dead.He took off her shoes, and then proceeded to take off his own including his jacket and tie before he joined her on the bed.He touched her face lightly, tracing its structure with his fingers. He wanted to make sure it really was her. Not a clone, or a look-alike, or a figment of his imagination. That Riana was really alive, here, lying in his arms, unconscious from the shock.Where had she been for the last two and a half years? What had she been up to? He knew why she thought he was dead but…how was it she was still alive?He pushed up on his elbow, supporting his head in his hand as he leaned down over Riana, moving so close he could make a perfect shade for her body.How did she escape A
Why this hotel?Riana ran her hands nervously down her dress as she did her labor breathing. It didn’t work any better than when she was having Aurora.Loraine grabbed her hand and squeezed it. “Just relax, Riana. You’ll just speak to Melody and then we’ll leave.”Riana turned to her friend. The last time they were here they were in uniform, and now they were dressed like they belonged. Riana was dressed in the exact same way the first night she went to dinner with Allan, right down to how she styled her hair.Loraine borrowed the green, figure hugging, knee high dress Riana had worn to the restaurant at the beach when they were in Bari. They’d walked in the water that night, and it was the first time she’d convinced Allan to do something he would not normally do.He had taken off his shoes, jacket and tie, rolled up his pant legs, and wadded in the water with her. She couldn’t remember what