Luc was silent in the car on the way back to the hotel. Silent and oddly calm for a man who’d looked rattled and on the edge of control ever since that right-wing fanatic had grabbed me earlier in the day.

I wasn’t sure how to interpret that. I’d hoped kissing him would force him to face this thing between us, but it hadn’t. Oh, that kiss had been hotter than hell on my end—so hot I could still feel it smoldering in my toes hours later—but for him, all it had seemed to do was make him dig his heels in even further. Slipping off my panties at the party and tucking them in his pocket had been a last-ditch effort to coax some kind of reaction from him, but even that had failed. Failed miserably by the look of his cool demeanor as he sat beside me in the car.

Maybe I’d been reading him wrong all this time. I stared out the window as we neared the lights of Vatican City. Maybe he wasn’t attracted to me the way I was attracted to him. And maybe what I was seeing now was relief that I’d finally agreed to go home without a fight so he could get me out of his life for good.

That thought left a pit in the bottom of my stomach, one I didn’t like. As we pulled away from the Vatican and wound up the hill toward our hotel, I knew I’d made a mistake by not leaving earlier in the day when he’d asked me to go. By staying, by taking these crazy chances, I’d pretty much humiliated myself. But still… If I hadn’t tried, I would always have wondered. At least now I knew for sure, right?

The car pulled to a stop in front of the hotel. Vincenzo climbed out and opened my door. Next to me, Luc lifted my clutch from the seat where I’d set it between us and handed it to me.

“Thank you.” My fingers grazed his as I took the clutch, and tingles immediately shot up my arm at the contact. I looked to him to see if he’d felt them, but his expression was as unreadable as ever, and when his eyes met mine before quickly darting away, I saw nothing—no reaction, no emotion, not even a spark of what I felt. That pit in my belly opened even wider.

Okay, so… I drew a deep breath as I climbed out. I needed to think about something else. Finding Laney’s killer. That was what I should have been thinking about all this time anyway. I had to figure out how I was going to track Gio down now that he was my lead suspect. But I couldn’t make my brain focus on that yet. It was too daunting. So instead, I thought about packing.

I didn’t have that much to pack—I’d only been here a few days—but I needed to package this dress up and send it back to Bianca. Clearly, even accentuating my assets hadn’t worked on the stone-cold Luciano Salvatici.

An ache spread out from that void in my belly, one that made me feel even worse. My shoes clicked across the marble floor as we moved into the hotel and down the long hallway toward our elevator. Beside me, Luc tugged his bow tie free and loosened the collar of his expensive dress shirt as he kept pace with me, but he still didn’t speak. And every moment of silence amplified that ache inside me and chipped away at my pride.

By the time the elevator doors opened to the suite, all I wanted to do was get out of this stupid dress, pull the covers over my head, and forget this night—this trip—had ever happened. The twinkling lights of the city spilled into the dark room as I stepped off the elevator. I didn’t bother to flip on a lamp, just moved through the living room, heading right for my door.

“Ms. James,” Luc said at my back. “Hold on a moment.”

Shit. I was going to get another lecture. I was absolutely sure it had to do with the panties I’d left him and the fact I’d broken another of his sacred rules. I sucked in a breath for strength and turned to face him, no longer willing to let him see how he affected me. “Yes?”

As I expected, he drew my black thong from his pocket and held it up with one finger, letting the lacy scrap dangle in front of him. “We need to discuss this.”

My already rattled pride took a serious hit, enflaming my face. I was only glad there were no lights on in the room so he couldn’t see. “I don’t think there’s anything to discuss.”

“I disagree. Whose is this?”

Fucker. He was actually going to make me say the word. Heat burned my cheeks, but I lifted my chin just to spite him. I might get off a little on his control issues, but humiliation didn’t do it for me. “Mine.”

“I’m not sure I believe you.” His face was cast in shadows in the entryway, but even across the space, I saw the way his gaze narrowed, holding my eyes hostage the same way he’d held my body hostage these last few days. “Take off your dress so I can be sure.”

For a heartbeat, I didn’t move. Was sure I hadn’t heard him right. Then I registered his footsteps moving toward me, and I caught sight of his eyes. Not blank and emotionless as I’d thought. These stormy pools simmered with the flickering flames of a carefully restrained inferno.

My heartbeat turned to a whir in my ears, and every inch of my skin went molten.

He stopped two feet from me and tipped his head, intoxicating me with those eyes and the heat of his body seeping into mine. “I gave you an order, Ms. James. Take off the dress, or I’ll be forced to punish you.”

My knees went absolutely weak, and my sex grew wet. He wasn’t talking about sending me home. I could see that in his fiery gaze. My question to him in the car—about whether he’d spank me for disobeying—flashed in my mind, making me even wetter.

I’d never been into the whole dominance-submission thing. I was a fiercely independent woman who had never wanted or needed a man to tell me what to do. But with him, here now, I was like candle wax dripping from just his assertive words.

My breaths sped up. Choices and consequences swam in my mind. When he reached for the clutch in my hand, I let him have it, still unable to do much more than stand still and quiver. He set my clutch and thong on the table, then stepped back to me, his eyes expectant, commanding, and sizzling with a heat I felt all the way in my core. My stomach caved in as I stared at him, trying to figure out what I should say, what I should do, what he want—

“Don’t think, Natalie.” His voice was low, seductive, so damn spellbinding it gave me a high like nothing I’d ever known. “Just do as I say. Take off your dress.”

My hands drifted to my back as if his hypnotic words had willed them to move. I unhooked the clasp between my shoulder blades and slid the zipper down my spine. My heart raced, and my body trembled as the expensive fabric fell forward, sliding down my breasts. Since the dress had a built-in bra, and because I’d already removed my panties, I was completely naked beneath. Holding his gaze, I caught the dress at my chest, still fighting what he wanted me to do. But the ravenous firestorm swirling in his eyes shattered the last of my willpower. I let the garment slip from my fingers and held my breath as the fabric dropped down my skin and pooled at my feet.

His gaze was like ice and fire as it drifted over my naked flesh, prickling my skin, then leaving a trail of heat in its wake. My nipples tightened to stiff peaks, and my stomach caved in as his eyes devoured me one slow inch at a time. Heat roared through my veins, condensing in my breasts and between my legs. The only thing I heard was my whirring pulse and ragged breaths. The only thing I saw was him, owning me with his fervent, mismatched eyes. The only thing I wanted was his touch on my bare skin, stoking the flames within me until I exploded.

“Sei bellissima,” he whispered, moving around behind me.

I knew that word, bellissima. It meant beautiful. Gio had said it to me several times back in New York. But then it hadn’t triggered a tidal wave of desire inside me. Now, as it fell from Luc’s sensual lips, I trembled with a primitive need that was both overwhelming and all-consuming.

He didn’t touch me, but as he stopped directly behind me, I felt his eyes on me, boring into my flesh, and I felt his hot breath, slithering over my neck and down my spine. Reflexively, I shivered.

“Step out of the dress.”

My face warmed, but I did as he said. Fabric rustled as he pushed my dress across the floor with his foot, then rose behind me.

“How is the cut on your side?”

Honestly, I’d forgotten all about it. “It’s fine. It doesn’t even hurt.”

“Are you certain?”

My excitement grew because I had no idea what he was planning. “Yes.”

“That’s good. That’s very good.” His heat surrounded me, and I sensed his gaze sliding down my spine and over my backside. “You’ve been taunting me with this body, Natalie.”

I swallowed hard at the husky timbre of his voice. “I have?”

“You know you have. It is molto distraente.”

My stomach tightened at those sexy Italian words. “I don’t know what that means.”

“It means,” he whispered in my ear, his hot breath so close it made my whole body tremble, “this body is very distracting.”

Oh… My eyes slid closed, and I wobbled, my excitement growing to insatiable levels. I leaned back, searching for him—for his chest, for his heat, for his every touch. “Luc…”

“Stand still, gattina.”

I had no idea what that word meant, but, damn, it sounded hot coming from his lips. I tightened my stomach muscles to hold myself upright.

“Tell me,” he whispered in my ear. “How many lovers have you had?”

Nerves bounced around in my belly, and my eyes fluttered open. My first instinct was to lie so he’d think I was more experienced than I was, but for some reason, I didn’t want to lie to him. “O-one.”

“Only one?” Delight deepened his voice. I didn’t miss it. And that desire inside me swirled faster.

“Y-yes. My college boyfriend.”

“Did he satisfy you?”

“Yes.” He was seducing me with just the sound of his voice. My sex absolutely ached. “I think.”

“You think?”

I didn’t miss the amusement in his words, and it made my face heat. “Yes, he did,” I clarified. “At least some of the time.”

“And why did you stop sleeping with this lover who only managed to make you come some of the time,” he asked with a smile in his voice.

“Because we broke up.” Holy hell, I could barely think when he used the word come like that. “After graduation. I-it wasn’t serious.”

“No, I doubt it could have been, not if he didn’t pleasure you the way you deserve to be pleasured. And how long ago did you break up?”

The way I deserved to be pleasured? Oh my… “T-two years.”

“You’ve been with no one else in two long years?”

I shook my head.

“Why not?”

I sucked in a deep breath to settle my roaring pulse. He was making me crazy just standing behind me, close but not close enough. “Because I haven’t… I haven’t been excited by anyone…until now.”

“Good answer, gattina.”

He leaned close to me, and I felt the strength of his chest press against my back. My breath caught, and heat rushed through my whole body, making my nipples even stiffer, making my sex clench with the need to be filled.

“Know this,” he whispered. “I’m not like your last lover. He wanted to fuck you. I plan to own you. I’ll push your body to the edge and leave you there until you can’t take any more. Until you’re begging me to let you surrender. Because that’s what I want. I want to taste your complete and utter submission on my tongue. I want to feel it pulsing around my cock. I don’t make love, Natalie. I don’t fuck. I dominate. If you let me inside you, I’ll drag you into my darkness and ruin you for anyone else, and when I’m done, you’ll feel filthy and used, and I won’t even care. So be sure this is what you want, because once I touch you, I won’t be able to stop even if you scream.”

Those words—your complete and utter submission—sent a whisper of fear down my spine, but my brain quickly pushed the fear aside, rationalizing he meant my sexual submission to him here, not any kind of submission outside this moment. My sex wept with anticipation, and my body shook against him with the only answer I could give. “I want that,” I whispered. “I want you.”

His arms slid around my waist—finally—pulling me back against the hard length of his arousal, and his heat and strength surrounded me, making me gasp with the power of his hold. “Lean back into me. I need to feel how wet you are.”

Oh yes… I relaxed against him. He was still wearing his tux jacket, which seemed incredibly erotic when I was wearing nothing but heels. His strong arms held me tight, careful to avoid my wound, and his hand drifted up to palm my breast. His other hand slid down my belly until his fingers brushed the small thatch of hair at my mound, then slipped between my swollen flesh and grazed my clit.

Electricity arced outward from the spot, making my whole body tremble.

“Oh, gattina,” he growled in my ear. “You are drenched already.”

My eyelids dropped at both the heat in his voice and the wicked sensations he was building inside me. I gripped his elbow at my chest to hold myself up.

“Spread your legs, Natalie.” His fingers drifted lower. “Let me inside you.”

I whimpered at that request but pushed my foot to the side, granting him more access to my body. His fingers slid lower, over my opening. I groaned at the wicked, hot touch, then he thrust two up inside me, and I gasped, digging my fingertips into his elbow to keep from collapsing.

“Madre di Dio. You are so tight, gattina.” He drew his fingers back, then pushed in deeper. “I can’t wait to slam my cock inside you and fuck you till you scream.”

Heat gathered in my core, and his thumb flicked across my clit in time with his thrusts, driving me closer to the edge. Sweat broke out across my spine. The hand at my breast squeezed, and his fingers trailed to my nipple and pinched. A sharp shot of pain echoed outward from the spot, and I cried out, but the pain quickly morphed to pleasure, making my core contract around his fingers and grow even wetter. I gasped again and rocked into his hand, desperate for more. Desperate for the orgasm that was barreling toward me at light spee—

“Ah, gattina. You want to come, don’t you?”

“Yes,” I whispered. My whole body tightened as I felt it building. “Right there. Oh yes, right there. I’m going to come.”

Just before the wave hit, he pulled his hand free of my body. I groaned in utter frustration. His hand at my breast shifted to my hip. The fingers of his other hand—wet with my arousal—drifted across my lips, tickling the sensitive flesh. “Open your mouth, Natalie. Taste yourself on my fingers. Taste how wet and dirty you are for me.”

My chest rose and fell with my shallow breaths, but I opened my mouth as he wanted. His slick fingers immediately pushed past my lips and slid over my tongue. The tangy taste of my own arousal filled my senses. He thrust both fingers in and out of my mouth, fucking me there as he’d done to my sex.

“Suck,” he ordered.

I was high with lust—higher than I ever remembered being. Grasping his hand at the wrist, I closed my lips around his fingers and drew them deep in my mouth.

“Mm…taste how much you want me,” he whispered against my ear. “Your mouth was made to serve me.” He pulled free of my lips and let go of my hip. “Turn around. Put your hands behind your back and drop to your knees.”

My whole body blushed at his command, but I was so drugged with desire, with the need to please him, I couldn’t stop myself from doing exactly what he ordered.

A wicked smile tugged at his lips as he looked down at me and reached for the buckle on his belt. “Keep your hands behind your back, gattina, or I’ll bind them.”

My sex clenched at that command, and a wicked thrill rushed through me. Would he really bind me so I couldn’t move? The thought both frightened and electrified me in ways I didn’t expect.

He pulled his belt free, then unhooked the button at his waist and slid the zipper down. I heard the rasp in my ears but felt it flame in my blood.

“I like you like this,” he whispered. “On your knees, surrendering yourself to me.” He reached inside his pants and drew his cock free. “Now open your mouth and show me just what you can do with those lips.”

My rebellious mind fought against his words, his commands, but my body was no longer listening. The musky scent of his arousal filled my senses, making my mouth water. And when I saw his cock, the shaft long and hard and thick—thicker than any other I’d seen—the head an angry shade of purple and weeping with his excitement as he slowly stroked himself, the last of my resistance disappeared.

I swayed with the lust I felt for him. It was an insatiable hunger inside me. Licking my lips, I leaned toward him and opened my mouth. He groaned as the head passed my lips and my tongue brushed the flared underside. Tightening my lips around his shaft, I drew him deep, until he brushed the back of my throat, then released him, letting his length slide almost all the way free before sucking hard once more.

“Ah cazzo, che si sente bene,” he groaned. “Sì, gattina. Just like that. Your mouth was made to suck my cock. Take me deeper.”

From any other man, I would have balked. I’d never much liked giving oral sex. It had always felt degrading in some way. And right now—on my knees, with my hands pressed behind my back, listening to his dirty commands as he thrust in and out of my mouth, fucking my face as if he were fucking my sex—I should have felt disgraced and humiliated. But I didn’t. I felt powerful. The flush to his features, the veins straining in his neck, the way he stared down at me in absolute adoration… It all made me feel as if I were the one in control. As if I were the one dominating him. And it suffused me with so much heat and hunger, all I wanted to do was suck him so hard, he exploded across my tongue.

I tightened my lips around his shaft, stroked harder with my tongue and swirled it around the head. He groaned and raked a hand through my hair, pulling me toward him as he thrust against my throat. I tried to swallow him but gagged. He immediately drew back, letting me breathe. When he saw I was okay, he thrust deep once more and moaned.

The sounds of his pleasure made my body tremble. I didn’t think it was possible, but being used like this only made me wetter. Spreading my knees, I pressed my hips forward as I sucked him, desperate for something to ease my ache, frantic to be touched. Unable to handle it anymore, I pulled one hand from my lower back and pushed it between my legs, sliding my fingers through my wetness and over my clit. Electricity arced through me. I flicked faster and groaned as I sucked him even harder.

“Oh, you naughty little girl.” He pulled his cock from my lips and grasped me at the shoulders, hauling me to my feet. “I didn’t tell you to touch yourself like that.”

I gasped. My hand fell from my sex. Breathless, I reached for him, wanting to feel his lips on mine, wanting his tongue in my mouth as he thrust his cock deep inside my body. But before I could reach him, he twisted me in his arms, pushed me toward the couch, and bent me forward over the arm of the sofa.

His hand landed against my upper back to hold me down. “Spread your legs, Natalie. Show me that greedy little pussy.”

Oh sweet heavens… His words were like liquid fire igniting an inferno in my blood. I dropped my forehead against the couch cushion, feeling completely filthy as he’d told me I would, loving every single second of it. Groaning, I spread my legs, letting him see all of me. Desperate for him to use me as he’d promised.

With one hand still pushing me down, he slid the fingers of his other hand along the length of my spine, between my cheeks, and over the crinkled mass of nerves. I jumped. He did it again, chuckling at my reaction. “Have you ever been fucked here, naughty girl?”

I whimpered at both the forbidden sensation and the dirty act. He didn’t want to do that to me right now, did he? Fear and an excitement I did not want to like warred inside me. “No,” I gasped.

He teased me there one more time, making my body jerk. “Mm, you’re so responsive. I can’t wait to show you how it feels.” He slid his fingers lower, through my wetness. “But I’ll have to show you later. Right now, I need to make this pussy beg.”

He slid two fingers deep inside me. I instantly groaned because it was exactly what I wanted. Sensations overwhelmed me as he drew out and thrust back in again. My hips pressed back against him. My climax rushed forward once more, charging toward me. My whole body tensed.

He withdrew his hand and slapped his slick fingers and wide palm across my backside. “You really are a greedy little thing. Do you want to come?”

“Yes.” My whole body shook, and I whimpered because I was so fucking close.

“How bad?” His hand slid through my wetness again, teasing my clit. “Tell me how bad you want to come, Natalie.”

“So bad.” I squeezed my eyes tight and pushed back against him, rocking into his hand, desperate for the release that was just out of my grasp. “Oh yes…”

“Beg me.” He flicked faster. “Beg me to let you come.”

That command… I squeezed my eyes tighter and dug my fingernails into the couch cushions, resisting the urge to follow that one command.

“Do it, Natalie.” He thrust his fingers inside me again, flicking his thumb over my hypersensitized clit at the same time. “Beg me, and I’ll give you your release. I’ll give you everything you want.”

I don’t know why I held back. I knew if I did what he wanted, he’d give my climax, just as he promised. But submitting that way—begging him like that—I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I could give him almost anything else, but the independent woman inside me…the one he liked, dammit…knew if I surrendered in that way, I’d lose a little piece of myself I wasn’t willing to let go.

Perspiration dotted my forehead and dripped down my temple. I bit my lip and groaned as I pushed back against him. He muttered, “Cazzo,” and a thunk echoed behind me as if something hard had hit the ground. His hand at my shoulders released the pressure holding me down, and I felt his fingers digging into my thighs, pulling my legs wider apart. Gasping, unsure what he was about to do, I pressed my weight into my palms and tried to push up. And then I felt the flat of his tongue dragging through my wetness, circling my clit, and thrusting into my core.

“Oh, fuuuuuck…” The image of him behind me on his knees, lapping at my sex, sent fire swirling inside me. I pressed back against his mouth, riding his tongue, spiraling like lightning toward a climax I knew would destroy me. “Yes, yes, don’t stop, oh yes, faster…”

Just before the orgasm claimed me, his wicked tongue pulled free of my body. I screamed in frustration. Foil crinkled at my back, then I felt his hands on my hips, pushing me forward so my ass tipped higher over the arm of the sofa. The expensive material of his slacks brushed the backs of my sensitive thighs, and then the head of his cock slid over my clit, making every inch of my body shudder and shake.

“I’ll make you beg,” he growled.

I didn’t hear anything else he said. He’d teased me so long, I couldn’t hold back. The moment he thrust inside me, I shattered, climaxing around his steely length with a scream that echoed in my ears. He gripped my hips and pounded into me, driving himself hard toward his own climax, but I barely noticed. I was lost in an orgasmic bliss that seemed to have no end. Lost in overwhelming ecstasy. Lost, I knew, in the very darkness he’d tried so hard to keep me from.

So lost, some part of me realized, with a whisper of fear, that I might never been found again.