Her mouth gaped. ‘Oh, my God. That’s vile!’
‘That’s Giacomo,’ he said simply.
‘So, what is he doing with her in New York now?’
His jaw clenched. ‘I don’t know. The reason I opened the file in the first place was to tell my investigator to toss the case.’
‘But now you think he’s plotting something?’
‘She’s broke. Which means she’s the perfect pawn for Giacomo.’
Ruby wanted to ask him how he knew that, but the forbidding look in his face, coupled with the anguish lurking in his eyes, changed her mind.
With the evidence of the two people who’d betrayed him before him, he’d have to have been a saint to remain unaffected. Hell, the thought of the double blow of betrayal made her heart twist in pain for him.
‘I’m sorry I condemned you. I didn’t know.’
Mingled fury and anguish battled in his eyes. ‘What about this, Ruby mio? Do you know this?’ he muttered roughly.
He parted her dress and his fingers were drifting down the bare skin of her belly, headed straight for her panty line, before she could exhale. Warm, sure fingers slid between her thighs before Ruby knew what had hit her.
Her cry of astonishment quickly morphed into a moan of need as his thumb flicked against her clitoris.
‘Narciso!’
‘Dio, how can I crave you this badly when I didn’t know you a week ago?’
Need rammed through her and she clung to him. ‘I don’t know. You forget that I should hate this, too. I should hate you.’
He leaned in close, until his hot mouth teased her ear lobe. ‘But then that would mean you were conforming to some lofty image you have in your head of your ideal man. You’d be denying that our little tiffs make you so wet you can barely stand it. I turn you on. I heat up your blood and make you feel more alive than you’ve ever felt. I make you crave all the things you’ve denied yourself. I know this because it’s what you make me feel too. Close your eyes, Ruby.’
‘No.’ But already her eyelashes were fluttering down, heavy with the drugging desire stealing over her.
The next moment, his breath whispered along her jaw. ‘Do you want me to stop?’
She groaned. ‘Narciso...’
‘Say no and I’ll end this.’
She whimpered. ‘You’re not being fair.’
He laughed again. ‘No, I’m not, but I never claimed I was a fair man. And when I feel as if my world is unravelling, halos don’t sit well on my head.’
His fingers worked faster, firing up sparks of delight in her that quickly flared into flames.
‘Oh! Oh, God.’
He kissed her hard and deep, then nibbled the corner of her mouth as she shattered completely. He ran his free hand down her back in a roughly soothing gesture as she floated back down. The mouth at her ear lobe feathered kisses down her jaw to her throat, then back up again.
‘I’m sorry that I hurt you, Ruby. But I’m not sorry that I make you feel like this.’
* * *
The New York she’d left just days ago to travel to Macau was the same. Ruby knew that, and yet it was as though she were seeing it for the first time.
As they travelled through midtown towards Narciso’s penthouse on the Upper East Side, the sights and sounds appeared more vibrant, soulful.
Part of her knew it was because she was seeing it through different eyes. The eyes of a woman who’d been introduced to passion and intense emotion.
She wanted to push that woman far away, deny all knowledge that she existed. But self-delusion had never been her flaw.
She’d slept for most of the four-hour flight from Belize City, a fact for which she was thankful. Awake and in close proximity to Narciso, she didn’t think she could’ve avoided letting him see her confusion.
Their intense encounter in the kitchen on his yacht had been highly illuminating. Very quickly after granting her most delicious release, he’d walked away, leaving her replete and alarmingly teary.
She’d stood in the kitchen long after he’d left, clutching the sink and fighting a need to run after him and offer him comfort.
But how could she have when his words echoed in her ears.
I hurt you...I’m sorry...I crave you...
With each word, her heart had cracked open wider, until she’d been as raw as his voice had been.
As raw as she was now...
The need to run from her thoughts was very tempting. Giving in, she activated her returned phone. Several voice and text messages flooded into her inbox.
Three were from the same number. One she didn’t recognise but suspected its origin.
She answered Annie’s query as to when she would be returning and declined her invitation to a girls’ night out when she was back from the West Coast. She wasn’t ready to face anyone yet, least of all her perceptive roommate, when her emotions felt as if they’d been through a shredder.