Heat curled in Riley’s stomach, decadent and unyielding, as Giovanni took her beneath his arm and guided her down the marble staircase at the heart of Royal Caravan Casino. It dipped into her core and rippled until it claimed her in full.

What she’d seen of Giovanni tonight painted him in a different light from the crass, loudmouthed man she knew from the shop. He’d worked the poker table with finesse and cunning, never wavering in his confidence and never misstepping despite the high-pressure situation and the hefty money on the line. Riley had honestly believed he didn’t have it in him. So many other men as outspoken as Giovanni was were all talk, no substance. She’d seen them crumble when put under pressure, only to lash out unpredictably.

Giovanni had not only survived under pressure, he’d thrived.

They left Royal Caravan Casino several thousand dollars richer than when they’d arrived and with key cards to an exclusive room in hand. Riley could hardly believe she wasn’t dreaming. Things like this only happened to people in movies.

Tonight was Giovanni’s starring role, and she was his leading lady.

The thought traveled like a low roll of thunder down her spine to strike between her thighs, and Riley shifted her hips as they walked to try to stop the tingling sensation from consuming her. It wasn’t until then that she realized she was slick, and her cheeks flushed deeper. This wasn’t like her at all.

But neither was going out on the town with a man as jaw-dropping as Giovanni DeRose was.

He guided her through the casino and back into the hotel, keeping her tucked safe and warm beneath his arm. His pace was just right, and she followed him easily, as though she’d been made to be at his side. The click of her heels matched the resonant clack of his polished dress shoes on the polished marble floor. As fine as they were, Riley could still see the faint outline of the blue ink he’d accidentally spilled on them earlier that day and wiped away. It was a reminder that as polished as he was on the outside, on the inside, Giovanni was a man of his own wants and needs.

Right now, he wanted her.

They waited in front of gleaming chrome elevator doors. The cabin opened, empty, and by the time the doors slid closed, three other passengers joined them. In the awkward silence, Riley cuddled against his chest and let her hand boldly slip against his hip. The tight skin and muscles beneath his clothes thrilled her, and when she heard him make a small, breathy gasp at the touch, inaudible to those who surrounded them, and almost too quiet for her own ears to detect, that thrill doubled.

God, did he want her. The signs were subtle, but Riley read them.

In that moment, she wanted him as well.

Passengers left the elevator at different floors, but Riley and Giovanni’s trip didn’t end until they made it all the way to the top. Once there, Giovanni took Riley’s hand and guided her down the hall. They stopped in front of an engraved wooden door secured with a key card reader. Riley took her time to examine the filigree of the design and the elegant carvings. If the hotel were going through such expense for a single door, what would the rest of the hotel room look like?

It wasn’t long until she found out.

Giovanni opened the door, and Riley found herself in paradise.

“Welcome home,” Giovanni declared. He gestured into the room, and Riley entered cautiously, as though she were intruding. Luxury wasn’t new to her. She’d attended an Ivy League university, and although she’d skated by on scholarships and grants, she’d met friends whose families were wealthy enough to afford education of that caliber out of pocket. She’d been in cars that cost more than she could ever imagine making, and she’d been invited to parties on yachts and indulged in expensive champagne.

The hotel room surpassed them all.

Everything in the room was white, from the paint on the walls to the gorgeous marble floors. The elegance and fantasy of the single crisp color tore her from her thoughts of Giovanni, and for a second, Riley forgot where she was and who she was with. It wasn’t until Giovanni stepped in and laid his hand possessively on the small of her back that Riley’s thoughts unscrambled.

A tremor ran up her spine from the touch, and she leaned in the direction of his body. Her skin was eager for contact, and his warmth and strength were drugs she was already hooked on. There was something else to Giovanni beyond the stubborn bad boy that she wanted to explore.

Tonight was all about exploration.

“This?” Giovanni whispered in her ear. His breath was hot, and it curved over the ridge of her ear and settled in her hair. Riley’s lips parted just slightly in ecstasy. “This is Las Vegas.”

They overlooked a living room with a massive television mounted on the wall. To the left was a full kitchen with full sized appliances, pots and pans hanging over a breakfast island. Riley’s gaze swept from the left to the right, noticing the alcove containing the bedroom. The bed was huge and had to be a custom design.

A bed.

Her shoulders tensed, and she hesitated. Her body had wanted Giovanni since the second she’d laid eyes on him, but her mind warned her that letting things get sexual between them would only lead to trouble. She worked with him. She—

Giovanni cupped her cheek and turned her head to look at him, and all of Riley’s thoughts stopped. The intensity in his eyes captivated her, and she couldn’t bring herself to look away.

These last few weeks she’d been dodging his gaze and doing her best to keep her attention focused on her work because she knew Giovanni was a temptation. One look was all it took for her body to betray her and beg him to submit. How many nights had she spent on her own, imagining the rippling muscle beneath his clothes and how thick and filling his cock would be between her thighs? Giovanni was hot. Staggeringly, indisputably hot.

Now the man she wanted, wanted her in return.

“Stop thinking,” Giovanni commanded. Riley didn’t have to try—he stole her resistance away the second his skin touched hers. Looking into his eyes was the kiss of death. The way the air grew heavy between them, oppressive, smoldering and inescapable, bound her in place. In that moment, Giovanni’s gaze was the only thing she could focus on.

No more thoughts. No more doubts.

“Good girl,” Giovanni whispered. The words raced through Riley’s body and pulsed in her clit. She gasped, the sound almost too delicate for her own ears to hear. Their noses were so close they almost brushed. Every coarse hair on Giovanni’s jawline was defined, and his skin, rugged and inked, was flawless. “I want you to hear me, Riley, and I don’t want you to speak until I’m finished. Do you understand?”

“Yes.” Her mouth had to be speaking on autopilot because Riley wasn’t sure how else the word could have toppled from her tongue. She held her head still as his thumb traced over her cheek, enjoying how rough his hand felt.

How would those thick, capable fingers feel elsewhere?

Riley’s sex throbbed.

“I want you.” Giovanni spoke simply and slowly so she could follow along. Riley was grateful. The things he made her feel twisted her mind, and her thoughts processed slowly, like they were running through molasses. “I fucking want you, Riley, and tonight, I need to have you.”

Riley’s lips parted even though she didn’t know what to say. Giovanni’s hand shifted from her cheek to her chin, covering her lips before she had a chance to say anything. The sensation of lost control rocked through Riley’s stomach and tightened in her gut, and she let out a shaking breath that dispelled against his hand.

“I don’t want you to give me excuses, or fight me on this, or try to say that it’s wrong, because nothing in my life has been more right. And after the way you kissed me, you can’t tell me you don’t feel the same way.” Giovanni’s expression challenged her, and Riley fell to it. Her whole life she’d tried to be fiercely independent, and now one man was undoing her stitch by stitch until she fell apart at the seams.

She wanted to let Giovanni do whatever he wanted to her, no matter how wrong it was. Her heart pounded in anticipation of it, and the heated space between her legs craved his touch. The fantasies she’d explored in the privacy of her apartment were about to become reality.

Giving in had never felt so good.

Giovanni’s hand smoothed back along her jaw until his thumb stroked her cheek again. “So tonight, I want you to give in to what you really want. I want you. It’s that simple. I need to know that you want me, too.”

“I do.” Her heart slammed an erratic beat in her ribcage, and it felt like she was choking on her own excitement, but Riley couldn’t help herself. The chemistry between them was intense, and it had been since the beginning. Every act of defiance, every rule broken, and every time he’d shut her down had led to this point.

After a long battle, Riley was admitting defeat. Her body was Giovanni’s spoil.

His hand fell away from her face and he tugged her against his side, holding her tight. Before Riley had a chance to process what was happening, he stooped down and swept her into his arms with a grunt, bridal style. Riley gasped and locked her arms around his neck, shocked at his strength. Beneath her back, Giovanni’s muscles worked fluidly, skin stretched tight above them.

Riley knew that tonight would be her first chance to see them in full.

Giovanni carried her across the room and tossed her on the bed. The mattress absorbed her weight easily and didn’t so much as bounce. When Giovanni fell to his knees and straddled her hips, however, she felt the impact. He was tall and thick and solid in all the right places—it was what had drawn her eye to him in the first place, after all, but it was everything else about him that made her gaze linger. When his lips crushed against hers again, claiming what he wanted, she gave him everything he wanted.

Lips against lips. Tongue against tongue. To Riley, it was tastes and sounds and sensations. The way his lips were full enough to tempt her without being too soft paired with the scratch of his stubble against her chin. Each gasp of breath, or clack of teeth, or parting of their lips bled into the next. Riley rubbed her thighs together and shifted her hips as the heat between them rose.

When was the last time she’d let herself enjoy something? Every good thing in her life had been stolen from her. It was time she let herself be selfish again.

Riley arched her back and pushed up against his body as he kissed her. His thighs straddled either side of her hips, but the second she showed interest, he moved so that his bent knee pressed into the bed between her legs. Riley’s cheeks flushed, but she couldn’t help herself. As the kiss deepened and their tongues caressed, she ground down against Giovanni’s thigh and teased her swollen lips. The skirt of her dress rode up, exposing her bare thighs. She knew that she had to be making a mess of his pants, but she didn’t care.

In that moment, Riley’s world was made up of pleasure and nothing else. Decorum didn’t matter anymore.

Giovanni growled against her lips and pressed his thigh more firmly against her body. The pressure was bliss. Riley gasped and broke out of the kiss, grinding harder. The excitement racing through her wouldn’t subside, and she needed him. The weight of his thigh drove her crazy, and she clamped her own thighs around his and rode it for everything she was worth.

It didn’t matter what he thought of her anymore. Riley was crazy about him, and she couldn’t bring herself to stop now that she had her chance.

“Good girl,” Giovanni growled against her lips. Heat flooded between Riley’s thighs, aching with need. She cried against his lips and ground herself harder, teasing her clit through the thin material of her thong, knowing that she was soaking both of their clothes.

Giovanni was going to make her come without even fingering her.

“Gio,” she gasped against his lips, tears gathering in her eyes from the intensity of it. Riley had been with men before, but not one held a match to the fire that Giovanni lit inside of her. Need flooded her brain and shut it down, and all Riley could do was lock her arms tightly around his neck and grind against him as her pleasure clenched deep inside. “Gio. Gio. Gio!”

The spasms started before she could hold herself back. Riley’s walls fluttered, and she gasped and tore away from their savage kiss as it hit her in full. Eyes closing, head thrown back against the mattress, she rode Giovanni’s thigh until the uncontrollable clench and release stopped.

Giovanni gave her several seconds to catch her breath, and then his lips were back on hers again, his growl the only approval she needed.

Starved for his touch, already rebounding from her release, Riley felt new desire stir inside of her. Tonight wasn’t over; it was only beginning.

When she started to grind again, a slave to the sensation of his firm body manipulating her clit, Giovanni broke the kiss and pulled away. Like a fish plucked from the water, Riley gasped for air and tried to draw him back to her. Giovanni refused. He took position on the mattress beside her, back straight, then lifted his arms and shrugged his suit jacket off his shoulders. It hit the floor seconds later, crumpled and forgotten.

Button by button, Giovanni undid his shirt. Riley watched with rapt attention, sex swollen and aching, as his chest was slowly revealed to her. A collage of artwork across his chest and abs was fitted in such a way that skin was left visible, but not enough that he could dream of squeezing in any more art. The colors and styles were varied, but each tattoo fit harmoniously against the next.

Riley reached up to touch, but he caught her by the wrist and sank down over her to pin her arms above her head. The white dress shirt he wore hung open and dangled down between them. He looked into her eyes, and Riley could do nothing but look back as her heart raced.

“Not until I say so,” he warned. “I won’t repeat myself again.”

Chest heaving, enchanted by the moment, Riley remained still and pliant as she watched Giovanni return to his original position. He tugged each sleeve of his shirt off his shoulders and let it fall onto the mattress. Every inch of flesh from his shoulders to his arms was inked, the color packed in tight.

“Roll over,” he demanded. There was no room for argument in his tone, and Riley obeyed. She kept her hands over her head, eager to please him. The stubborn man Giovanni was in the shop translated to a dominant man between the sheets, and she was eager to let it all go. For tonight, and only tonight, she wanted to be his toy.

“Such a good girl.” The unexpected praise ghosted against the back of her neck, and Riley shivered in surprise. The words disturbed the fine hairs of her nape, and when Giovanni nosed her delicate skin there, she moaned and buried her head into the mattress. “Love to see you obey.”

His hand found the zipper of her dress, and he tugged it down carefully to expose the strap of her bra and her bare back. The cold air chilled her skin, but Giovanni’s touch was all the heat she needed. The contrast was otherworldly, and when Giovanni’s fingers traced their way along her spine, Riley breathed out a sigh and imagined what he looked like in that moment.

“This needs to go,” Giovanni whispered against her neck as his fingers met her bra strap. With a flick of his fingers, he parted the tiny clasps that held it together, and then smoothed the straps down her shoulders, bringing the dress along with it. Riley lifted herself just enough that he could slip the dress and bra down her arms and chest, then lifted her arms out of the straps one by one. When her bare chest returned to the bed, Giovanni worked the dress down her waist and over the curve of her ass.

Then it was gone, and Riley was left in nothing but her wet thong.

Giovanni’s hand gripped her shoulder and rolled her onto her back, and Riley’s eyes fluttered open to look at him. The hunger in his eyes devoured her whole.