Mouth buzzing, head swimming, and hard as a rock, Gray finally, regretfully, pushed Michaela away from him. She looked up at him with a sexy pout and he laughed as he swiped his thumb over the corner of her mouth. Her eyes burned into his as he brushed the pad over her swollen lower lip and fought the urge to kiss her again. She nipped the end of his thumb, and he jerked his hand back with a growl.
“As much as I want to stand here kissing you all afternoon, I need to get back to solving your uncle and cousin’s Sudoku puzzle, so I can take you somewhere and do what I really, really want to do to you right now.”
Her pout eased into a soft smile. Taking a step into him, she tiptoed to kiss him one quick and sweet, final time. She put her hand over his pounding heart as she eased back on her heels.
“I haven’t told you, but thank you for all you’re doing. I can never thank you enough. You are my hero, tesoro,” she said, her voice vibrating with emotion. “I don’t know where I’d be if I hadn’t accidentally met you.”
Dead is most likely what you’d be. The muffled pop, the sound of shattering glass, her scream, replayed in his mind, then splintered through his skull to scatter shards of fear throughout his body. He jerked her to him for a tight hug then rocked her and kissed the top of her hair, which now smelled like sunshine-warmed fruit from the cheap shampoo in the bathroom.
“I haven’t done anything yet, but I will.” With one final squeeze, he forced himself to push her away, but his eyes fell to her mouth. “If I can stop wanting to taste that sexy mouth of yours.”
“Please don’t ever stop,” she whispered, her eyes intent on his. The gold flecks mesmerized him, his head drifted down, but he snapped it back up.
“You need to stop that,” he growled, taking her shoulders and pointing her toward the house. He dropped his arm around her and pulled her into his side as he marched toward the front door.
“Stop what?” she asked, batting those too-long black lashes at him before her eyes fixed on his mouth again.
“Stop begging me to kiss you with those eyes. Those looks you give me are killing me, and I can’t focus,” he grated.
He hadn’t been able to focus since he’d met this woman. His body was in control and his brain was along for the ride where she was concerned. That was a dangerous thing, considering where they were, and who she was.
“What if I can’t stop, because that’s exactly what I want you to do?” she asked, and his body went rigid again. His legs tried to turn right to take her to the shed behind the house, but he kept them on the straight and narrow until they were at the front door. He stopped there to take her shoulders and drop a final kiss on her mouth because he couldn’t resist.
“You have to focus too, baby. That’s how you can help me, so I can help you.”
She sighed, her chin dropped and she nodded. “All work and no play makes Guido a very dull boy, though.”
Gray laughed, because he couldn’t stop that, either. “Guido will have plenty of time to play with Giselle once this is over.” As long as Giselle isn’t lying to you.
That thought was like ice water to his libido as he reached behind him to open the door. He turned and strode inside to get to work to prove his demons wrong. Stopping at the table, he sat down then frowned when his eyes snagged on a red thumb drive lying beside his laptop.
It hadn’t been there before he went outside, so Dante had to have left it. His hand shook as he quickly inserted it into the USB port on the side of the laptop chassis.
“What’s that?” Mickie asked, staring at the screen as he scrolled through the file directory.
“Looks like your brother somehow obtained a copy of the files from your uncle’s computers. These spreadsheets could be the key to unlocking this mystery.”
Somehow obtained, because Mr. Dante Girabaldi wasn’t a mobster. He was some sort of fed, and one with high-level, special access clearance to have gotten this information. The data on this thumb drive would allow Gray to pair the money transfers in the bank records to internal invoices and transactions, so he could sort them.
A sudden thought occurred to Gray, and it felt like a load of bricks dumped on his chest. “If you didn’t have access to Girabaldi’s business dealings, how did you know how much money was missing, Michaela? And how did you know the money was owed to the mob?”
Why in the hell hadn’t he thought of that before?
“I said I wasn’t included in the business dealings, not that I didn’t know about them. I have very good hearing, and my uncle was paid a visit by a Capo from the Lazzaro family the day before he was murdered. Their conversation wasn’t quiet. My cousin, who was healthy enough to bitch me out for being late that morning, suddenly left because she didn’t feel well, and honestly, she did look kind of green. I put two and two together when my uncle came out yelling her name after the meeting. The next morning, she was even later than me to the office, so I knew something was off. When I found my unc—uncle—” She squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath.
Yet, more information she hadn’t given him.
With a sigh, he looked up at her. “Why didn’t you tell me this before now, Michaela?” Gray asked, unable to hide his frustration or suspicion.
“A lot of it is a blur because I was running for my life,” she replied, sounding defensive. She shrugged and crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s coming back to me in pieces.”
Convenient pieces.
“So you stepped over the body of your cold, dead uncle and ran from the office without reporting his murder?” Not the actions of an innocent woman.
“I—I—knew they’d ask questions I couldn’t answer. I was the one who found him, so they’d probably think I killed him, especially when they discovered the money missing. Someone, likely the murderer, was in the closet in his office trying to break into the safe. I knew if they saw me, I’d be dead too.”
Gray’s tension notched down just a tad. “So you revisited the office later, your uncle’s body is still there, and you went through your cousin’s office?”
“Yes, and I found those emails she’d deleted in the trash bin on her computer. The mob broke into my apartment, I knew they were looking for that money and she was the only one who knew where it was.” She shrugged again. “What would you have done?”
He would’ve tried to find Teresa. Another layer of his doubt peeled back, he looked deeply into her beautiful eyes, which were more green than hazel at the moment. She didn’t look away and she didn’t blink. Was he being a fool for believing her?
“Is the inquisition over?” she asked, sounding vulnerable and hurt. His heart squeezed hard when her lower lip trembled and she dragged her eyes away.
“I’m sorry if my questions came off that way,” he replied, and she looked back at him.
“They were delivered that way,” she hissed. “If you don’t believe me, why in the hell are you helping me?”
That question again.
Gray sighed and ran a hand through his hair, as he decided to answer it honestly this time.
“What if I told you a woman that I was involved with led me down this same merry path? I believed her without asking questions and barely lived to regret it. My reputation was basically ruined, and I almost went to jail because I blindly trusted her. Being suspicious is now part of my make-up, Jersey, because I never want to be in that position again.”
Her eyes softened as she took a step forward. “I would never put you in that position, Grayson, because I am not that woman, so don’t confuse me with her.”
No, she certainly wasn’t Mona, but that didn’t make him less cautious.
“No you’re not, but your situation is the same. Why are you different, Jersey?” Gray asked, his insides tightening. Convince me baby. Make those demons in my head shut the fuck up.
She put her hand on his shoulder, their eyes met and hers filled. “I’m different because I realize you are mio angelo sent down from heaven to help me.” She looked shocked, then a powerful smile slowly curved her lips. “I love you, and she didn’t if she could do that to you.”
The words rang in his head as Gray studied that smile for deception, looked deep into her eyes for deceit, but he found only intensity, honesty, and sincerity.
Her delivery was spot on, giving her words meaning and impact, which drove them into his heart. A strange, euphoric sensation blossomed inside him and spread. In that moment, Gray came to the conclusion that Michaela Girabaldi was either the best actress on earth, much better than Mona, or she was innocent.
He chose the latter and grabbed her hips to pull her onto his lap. “I’m no angel, Jersey, and you’re about to find that out.” Shoving his hand into her thick hair, he gripped her skull and slammed his mouth down over hers.
Her surprised gasp gave him the perfect opportunity to kiss her deeper, to grind his mouth against hers and suck all that was Michaela Girabaldi into his soul. He wanted her there, needed her there to light those dark, jaded places.
Her hands moved to the side of his face and she held him, kissed him harder and her flavor electrified his taste buds. He wondered if she’d be spicy sweet between those plush thighs of hers. That thought sent a lightning bolt of excitement through him to sizzle his insides.
Mickie squirmed on his lap, her heat settled over his engorged cock and Gray moaned as need swept through him like a wildfire. Fuck working, and fuck whoever was in the house, he had to be inside of her now.
“If you two think you can stop sucking face long enough to eat, here’s your damned breakfast,” Levi growled as he slammed two plates down on the table.
Mickie gasped and scrambled off of Gray’s lap, leaving him with a raging hard-on. Levi’s eyes fell to his crotch and he smirked. Gray shifted his legs under the table and glared at him.
“I thought we were on a mission here, but it looks like your only mission is to get into her pants. That’s fine, but take it to the bedroom because some of us don’t want to see it.”
Angry words sprang to Gray’s lips, but with a headshake, Levi turned and strode back to the kitchen before he could voice them. Taking this to the bedroom sounded like a brilliant idea, Gray thought, standing to adjust himself.
“I’m not hungry for anything but you,” he growled, jerking Mickie against his body to glare down at her. “So grab your massage oil and meet me in the bedroom—now.”
“I sincerely think your mother missed the Italian limb on your family tree—it has to be there.” She shivered, gave him a wobbly smile, and turned to sprint to the kitchen.