“Have you called the police?

“No,” Jay muttered, pouring coffee from a silver pot room service had just dropped off.

I’d woken from the most delicious deep sleep in the crispest smooth white sheets entwined around a man I adored. No denying it. He was beside me, as close as he could be without being literally inside me. I was on his bare chest, his flexing pectoral my pillow, his iron arm encasing me.

He’d removed his shirt at some point but his trousers were still on. I discovered as I trailed a light fingertip over the ridges of carved muscle. Amusing that he kept his pants on, so gentlemanly after all the intimate areas he’d probed.

“Why not? They might get away,” I said, sitting up in bed against the mound of down pillows.

Jay delivered me a strong black coffee and a kiss on my forehead.

“The police won’t do anything.”

“But he was going to slice me up. God knows what he was going to do to me.”

“God doesn't want to know about Gianni.”

“But Marc was there, and Josh.”

“I know.”

“You know?” I bleated. “Were you in on this?”

“No.” Jay barked, angry for a moment, then calming again. He brought me a plate of delicious eggs with salmon, Italian bread which I adored.

I was ravenous. And I could see there was a pile of sweet pastries to follow I could hardly wait to get my lips around.

“Then why can’t we make a report? The police have to do something.”

“They never have.”

“Okay you better tell me what’s happening because this is freaking me out.”

“Calm down Andie. Enjoy your breakfast, relax in the bath I’m running you. It’s going to take a while to explain this.”

“When do we have to check out?” I saw the old clock on the bedside read past ten.

“Whenever we’re ready. But not today and maybe not tomorrow – you need to rest.”

My heart glowed and warmth filled my breasts. I was going to be holed up in the most stunning room I’d ever been in with the man I’d hungered for. I’d go through that terror again if it meant I could make this last forever.

“Well, I think I might need to move in here permanently,” I said. “This room is gorgeous.”

“You’re gorgeous – you fit this space perfectly. You want to stay here, you can. Whatever you want.”

“Only if you come with the package deal,” I quipped, telling him for certain that he was what I wanted. We were joking around here, right? So why did Jay look so serious?

“Oh I do, baby. You’ve got me for life now. Except you may not want to be in the same room with me when you hear what I’m going to tell you.”

He picked me up, completely naked out of the bed and carried me into the bathroom. So big, he didn’t even have to turn sideways to maneuver me through the door.

“I doubt that,” I said. “You aren’t some sociopath killer are you?”

I couldn’t resist railing my fingers across his stubbled jaw. With his arms full of me he couldn’t swipe my hand away.

“I’ve often wondered about that,” he said, his voice cracked like sandpaper in his throat.

He grimaced as he lowered me into a huge old freestanding tub filled with silken bubbles. I luxuriated while he brought the coffee cups. Then he pulled up the dainty chair and settled his large frame, putting his feet up on the edge of the tub.

This was looking serious.

“Jay, you’re scaring me.”

“Probably a good thing.”

“At least you’re nothing like Gianni, or Josh,” I said, sipping the delicious dark brew.

“Nature or nurture?” he said, mostly into his cup, like he was reading the grouts.

“What does that mean?”

“Gianni is my father,” he said stonily.

I drew a sharp breath. We sat in silence for a long time as I took that in. All of it.

“But, but you sent me to have dinner with him. He could have...”

“Did you notice the size of the helicopter pilot? Ex-SEAL. One move from that asshole and you’d have been out of there.”

“But why send me in the first place?”

“You were driving me insane. You have done since the moment I set eyes on you. I had to have you. And whatever I have they want. To destroy.”

“Who is they? All those billionaires on the yacht?”

I was picturing some ring of rich men keeping women as their pets. Competing for who was the most virile, or exhibitionist, or whatever. It didn’t make much sense. And why was Josh there in Gianni’s palace, or Marc Chapelle?

“We’re a very competitive family,” Jay said, his voice low and husky so I knew he’d never spoken any of this to anyone else. “We grew up in a world of domination from a young age. I left at fourteen and went to the States to get away. But I had to keep my eye on them. In case they got out of control again.”

“What do you mean again? I still don’t understand why Josh was in Gianni’s house.”

“He’s Gianni’s youngest son.”

“He’s,” I spluttered out – your brother?” Oh my god.

“Half brother,” Jay said, his eyes never leaving my face, watching my reactions. “As is Marc.”

Oh my freaking god, I’d hooked up with all three brothers and kinda sorta with their father. What the hell did that make me? The lengths I went to, to bring Jay Valentine around.

“But-”

I couldn’t say any more. But, but, but were the only words flying around in my head.

“I brought Josh over here, to the US I mean, to study but mostly to get him away from our father. He’d taught us the art of bondage from a very early age. But he went too far into the realm of -”

He couldn’t complete the word either.

“Sadism.”

“Josh can’t help it. As the youngest he grew up with three men all intent on control and domination and – other stuff. After we attended the Pritzker gala together, After I saw you there, I casually asked him what he knew about you and how I could initiate the design competition.”

“And when you realized he’d taken me for himself, you ordered me out to the winery.”

“I’m sorry if I was over the top, with the games. I needed to know if you were in love with him.”

“What would you have done if I was?”

“I don’t know. Something. I couldn’t have let you stay with him for your sake. But I might have had to get control of my possessive jealousy before I killed him.”

My heart expanded with emotion, close to bursting through my ribs. Jay had done so much to win me, to protect me, including saving me from god knows what in Gianni’s palace.

“And Marc?”

“I don’t know exactly how Marc got to you before me. He said he was coming out to California on a private charter. I’d never have allowed you to travel alone with him.”

“You knew he’d take me?”

Jay’s jaw flexed with tense rage.

“Sorry,” I whispered.

“He was coming out to retrieve his wife. She’s been staying with me, in hiding really for quite a long time. She escaped from the palace as well.”

I hadn’t seen another woman staying at Valentine winery. Then, oh my god: “Delilah?”

That domme bitch?

“She’s changed from who she used to be. Marc too. You can’t live through what we saw, the abuse of women, the murders and not be changed.”

“Murder?” I squeaked.

“My father's a killer, a sociopath, but he wields too much power and money to ever be caught.”

“I’m so sorry, Jay.”

“You don’t deserve to be involved in a family like this.”

“I think it’s exactly what I deserve. You’ve given me so much more than I ever wanted from a man. Will they leave me alone though? Will we be able to build a life together?”

“I’ll make sure of it, if you’ll have me. If you’ll live at Valentine as my bride.”

“Is that your proposal?” I joked. Tears welled up too fast to contain. I could hardly believe it.

“It’s my initial offer,” he said, the smile spreading hard across his gorgeous face. “I came here in a bit of a rush and forgot to pack my diamonds.”

“Oh my god,” I squealed and leapt up from the bath, causing a tidal wave of water to splash all over the floor.

I dragged him into my arms, crushing my bubble-covered tits into his bare chest. His mouth slammed down on mine as he hauled me up out of the bath and carried me back to the bed.