Shaking his head, his arms tighten around me. “Not yet. Let me reach out to my uncle. Kelsey was planning to wait until your sister thinks it’s all behind her. There is no immediate threat. This might all be resolved without Bethany needing to know what’s going on.”
Pressing up from him, I meet his eyes. “I might not need to call Bethany now to let her know, but she will know the complete shitstorm what she did caused and how other people covered her ass. She needs to know so hopefully she never does something so stupid again the rest of her life.”
A chuckle rumbles out of his chest. “Damn, you’re scary when you’re pissed. How did she think you got the money in the first place?”
“Before I made the payment, because I knew she wouldn’t take the money any other way I told her not to worry about it. Once the money was paid, I told her the truth. It was a crazy, stupid thing to do that could have ruined everything. It was a chance I was willing to take because I thought it was worth it. However, if she screws up again or doesn’t make the most of this chance, then it was all for nothing.”
“You knew I was going to let you get away with it.” A thumb strokes the bottom lip I’m biting.
“I hoped, but it wasn’t right and it wasn’t fair. I’m not sure I could say one hundred percent I wouldn’t have done it if I had to do it all over again, but I do know I regret the hell out of it. I hate the way I took advantage of what was happening between us. It also makes me feel like shit that I’m just another woman who took money from you, and I’m using my body to pay you back for it.”
His hand is in my hair, pulling my head back. When I still hide from his eyes, scared of what I’ll see there, he tugs hard. Ouch, I give in. It’s there in his eyes. I couldn’t look away if I wanted to. “I don’t regret it. I don’t want you to either. You offered yourself to me long before money was an issue. My need for control wouldn’t allow me to accept what you offered. I hated the idea of you knowing I was willing to give in to my need for you over my previous promises to myself and Dante. Seeing how it upsets you, I’m sorry I put my pride before you. You deserve better than that. You didn’t take money from me. You borrowed it and you put it back. There was no harm done.
“I would like to think even if I hadn’t spent the last six weeks hard for you, I would have understood enough to let the matter drop and done no more than move you to a position where you didn’t have access to funds. I don’t know either. What I do know is I’m glad you did it. I’m glad you gave me a second chance to accept what you offered weeks ago. That’s all I did, that’s all you did. I don’t care how we got here—all I care about is that we are.”
Blinking fast, I don’t trust myself not to say the wrong thing, so I do the only thing I can and pull him to me to kiss him. I might have started it, but in only seconds Cesare is in full control. He demands everything. I don’t dare deny him, don’t want to deny him. With a moan I try to get his shirt off. His hand goes over mine. “Not yet, greedy girl. We have somewhere to be.”
Thinking is hard. “What?”
Cesare is up, carrying me to our bedroom. “We have plans for the day.” In my closet he slides me slowly down his body. God, I want to climb him like a damn tree. “Get dressed. Something nice.” Then he’s walking away. What?
Ugh, I thought men were supposed to be oversexed. Hugging the memory tight of what Cesare said and meant, I sigh as I try to find something nice. As soon as I see it, I smile.
***
Cesare
Leaving Alicia to get dressed isn’t easy. I want nothing more than to take her back to bed and stay there for the rest of the day. Only after the bullshit thoughts she shared about guilt and paying me back with her body, I know it’s even more imperative I show her I want more from her than sex. Rolling my neck, I fight the tension running through me. What do I want from her? Everything. Fuck. My stomach knots, this isn’t—is it? Damn it. My fingers fumble with tying my tie. No, I can’t think about this now, not yet. Fuck it. I toss the stupid tie away, I look fine without one.
As I walk out of the closet, I find Alicia leaning against the bed in the black dress she wore the night she offered herself to me. She’s even wearing the silk stockings. The brat. “Tonight will be a long one, know that now.”
I love the way her eyes light up at the promise. I’m a lucky son of a bitch for all the ways Alicia revels in her hunger for my body. There is no hesitation in asking for what she wants from me. Yes, tonight I think we’ll be taking her education deeper.
It’s not until we’re in the limo Alicia asks where we are going. “To the Art Institute to see the exhibit you mentioned to Decker Holt. This is the last weekend. I hope it isn’t too crowded.” I don’t like crowds.
Her smile is the reward I had no idea I wanted. “You remembered?”
“Of course, you appeared to genuinely want to go.”
“I did, I kind of forgot it was going on. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. After we get done here we have reservations for dinner.”
Her small hand wraps around mine. “No work, an exhibit, and dinner. Tonight is going to be very long indeed.”
“Yes it will.”
***
Alicia
I swear I’m floating all night long. My feet never touch the hard concrete or the creaking wooden floor of the Art Institute, or the plush carpet of the decadently expensive restaurant where I taste caviar for the first time. I’m not a fan, although the champagne is right because tonight is a night for celebration. Cesare doesn’t resent I took the money and put it back. All he cared about was that it brought us together. Everything he does for the rest of the night proves his words all over again.
We spend hours roaming the Art Institute as he peppers me with questions about not just the art I like, but everything from my childhood to what my favorite color is, the kind of things I thought were too little for him to care about. I demand a tit for tat, and I love when he admits the raven tattoo on his bicep was because of reading the poem by Poe and having a nightmare when he was twelve, so it was a way of facing his fear. Cesare admitting his fears, even those from the past, is a way of letting me in I never thought he would.
In the car on the way home, I can’t take my eyes off Cesare. Pressing his lips against the back of my hand, he says, “Talk to me.”
“This day, I don’t want it to end,” I admit. “It’s silly, I know. Thank you for today.”