Giovanni had drugged her.

I wasn’t sure with what, but I’d suspected as much as I’d watched my brother lead Natalie back through the main house and out the front door. The flush to her skin, her dilated eyes behind the purple mask, the way she’d clung to Giovanni’s arm as they’d strode through the entryway when only thirty minutes before she’d flinched at his touch… Those were all classic signs Giovanni Salvatici was up to his old shit.

I’d followed them out to the “playhouse” just to be sure. Had watched her watching Giovanni with those women downstairs. Suspected her inhibitions had been significantly lowered when she hadn’t seemed appalled by what Giovanni was doing right in front of her. But I knew it now by the way she thrust her tongue into my mouth and rubbed her sinful body against mine for all to see.

She didn’t know who I was. I’d seen no recognition in her glazed eyes before she’d lunged for my mouth. If I hadn’t grabbed her, I had no doubt she’d already be naked on her knees in that room with my brother.

Closing my arms around her lower back, I drew her into the hall with me while I let her kiss me, not wanting to give her any reason to rejoin my licentious brother. Her tongue slid over mine with long, languid strokes as I maneuvered her around the corner and away from the sights and sounds of the orgy. She answered by groaning into my mouth, sliding her fingers up into my hair, and kissing me harder.

A sizzle of heat rushed through my veins. She was warm and soft and curvy in my arms, and she tasted faintly of citrus and sin—a sin I knew better than to get lost in. But as her plump breasts grazed my chest and her sweet thighs brushed mine as we moved, resisting her advances became harder to do.

Sparks of electricity shot into my belly and slinked south, awakening my dick. My back hit the wall at the end of the corridor, and she fell hard against me, crushing her feminine curves and sultry heat to me from chest to knee. And when she groaned once more against my lips, tangled her tongue with mine and rocked her pelvis into my growing erection, all the blood in my body pounded straight into my groin, stiffening my cock to painful proportions.

My brain short-circuited. My eyes drifted closed as I relaxed into her kiss, letting myself enjoy the sultry taste of her on my tongue, the warm wetness of her mouth. Sliding my hands down her back, I cupped the soft, full globes of her ass before I could stop myself and pulled her into me.

Arousal thrummed in my blood, leaving my skin hot and sensitive. Visions of lifting her skirt, of twisting her around and pushing her back against the wall filled my mind. Visions of pinning her wrists above her in one hand and freeing my cock from my suddenly too-small slacks with the other so I could shove it hard and deep inside her until she screamed.

The images were so powerful, so consuming, they shook me out of the trance her wanton kiss and writhing body was sucking me into. Dragging my eyes open, I lifted my hands from her ass and looked down. Her brow was covered in a thin layer of perspiration, her face flushed with arousal. Against my chest, I felt her heartbeat racing, but I knew those effects weren’t from me. They were from the drug Giovanni had slipped her. The drug that was shattering her inhibitions and making her grind up against me like a slut in heat.

I grasped her at the upper arms and pushed her back, breaking the kiss that threatened to shatter my willpower. “Look at me. What did you drink?”

Her head swayed, and her unfocused gaze dropped right back to my lips. “You. I want to drink you…”

She leaned forward to kiss me again with those swollen, tempting lips, but I caught her before she could make contact.

“Merda.” She was completely gone. I needed to get her out of this house before someone saw she was an easy target and pulled her away from me.

I slid one arm under her legs and lifted her off the floor. She gasped but quickly wrapped her hands around my neck and leaned close, drawing my earlobe between her succulent lips. Tingles shot down my neck, doing zilch to kill my thundering erection. Gritting my teeth, I carried her back down the hall, past the orgy room, and around the corner into a bedroom suite, trying to ignore how soft she felt against me, how wet her tongue was on my skin, and how fucking good she smelled…like grapefruit and honey all rolled into one.

“Oh yes.” Her hand slid beneath my collar and down my upper back as she pressed her lips against my throat. “Lay me out on that bed and fuck me. Right now. I need it. I need to be filled.”

“Cazzo.” I nearly tripped over my own feet. Especially when she twisted into me, pressed her luscious breasts against my chest, and trailed her wicked tongue over the arch of my ear.

A warm, wet shiver rushed down my spine. Visions of doing exactly what she said filled my mind, except with her hands tied to the headboard so she couldn’t move.

I forced the images away and somehow made it to the French doors, where I pushed them open and carried her out onto the balcony. She didn’t seem to notice that we were outside, just continued to writhe against me, rubbing her nipples to hard points as she feasted on my earlobe, but the fresh air helped clear my head. Holding her tighter, hoping like hell I didn’t drop her, I carried her down the back stairs. Halfway down, my driver climbed out of the town car parked around back and looked up.

“Open the back door, Charles.” I turned at the bottom of the staircase and moved toward the car.

Charles’s salt-and-pepper hair picked up the lights from the stairs as he rushed in front of me and pulled the back door of the Mercedes open. He’d driven for my uncle Sal before my uncle’s heart attack. I knew he’d driven for my lecherous cousin Benito several times. Between the two depraved fuckers, I was sure there was nothing Charles hadn’t seen or been privy to at parties like this. My stealing a writhing, horny girl from the party wouldn’t even garner a raised eyebrow from the mid-fifties chauffeur.

I wasn’t sure what the girl would do if I set her on her feet, and I didn’t want to chance her pulling away and running back inside, so I lowered myself to the seat and slid into the back with her on my lap.

Bad idea. She ground her plump ass against my erection and moaned, which only fired me up even more.

Charles closed the door and climbed in the front without a word.

Clearing my throat, I shifted the girl off my lap to give my painful dick a break and said, “Did anyone see you?”

“No, sir.” Charles shut his door. “I did as you said. Made sure no one was looking before I pulled around.”

He’d been waiting for me on the backside of the property. I’d had a hunch I might need to make a swift exit, and I hated that I was right. “Good.”

Charles pulled the car through the trees to the back entrance of the property that few knew about. “Your place, sir?”

I ground my teeth as the girl at my side twisted toward me and reached for my arm. Odds were good she wasn’t going to remember much of this night. Giovanni liked his women horny and eager. I suspected he’d plied her with liquid X—or GHB—a drug that lowered body temperature and heart rate, lessened inhibitions, and caused euphoria and extreme arousal. It was Giovanni’s date rape drug of choice. If I took her to my place and she continued her seductive grinding, I’d never be able to hold out. If I took her back to her place, though, Giovanni would undoubtedly come looking for her once he realized she’d disappeared from his little orgy.

She slung her leg over mine as I debated what to do. I knew what Giovanni wanted from her. The same thing he wanted from all young, pretty, unsuspecting girls. But I didn’t want to see another one get sucked into our sick world. Not after Elena McCabe.

“No,” I said to Charles, still unsure but knowing my place was a bad idea. Especially with the dirty images of what I could do to her at my place swirling in my head. “Five-twenty East Eleventh Street. She needs to sleep this off.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Salvatici.”

A hand slid over my chest, and before I knew it, the buttons of my shirt popped free.

“Whoa.” I grasped the girl’s hands before she could get the third button undone. “You need to sit back and just relax.” Dislodging her leg from mine, I leaned across her, reached for the seat belt and pulled. But before I could latch it, she slid her arms around my neck and tugged my mouth down to hers for another blistering kiss that sent the blood screaming right back into my cock.

“Don’t want to relax,” she mumbled against my lips, pushing me back and sliding over my legs to straddle my hips. “Want you.”

Her tongue swept into my mouth, and the heat of her pussy pressed against my cock, rocking and rubbing over the bulge in my slacks until I groaned. My brain was short-circuiting again. She felt so fucking good against me. Better than she should. Better than I wanted her to, and I knew that had little to do with her and mostly to do with the fact I hadn’t had a woman since I’d come to New York. But I still couldn’t stop it. Her panties were thin and soaked with her arousal. It would be so easy to shred them with my hand, to free my aching cock and sink up inside her. To give us both the release we craved.

Heat raced down my spine and gathered in my balls. I grasped her hands from my neck and pinned them at her lower back. She pulled away from my mouth and gasped, but I saw the excitement flare in her sweet blue eyes. I saw how she responded to my show of control, and the fire that surged inside me as a result was too damn hot to contain.

I leaned toward her and claimed her mouth—kissing her hard and thrusting my tongue deep. She groaned and rocked her steamy pussy against my cock. And fuck… The way she melted under my touch made me absolutely crazy for more.

I tasted her deeper. Opened my eyes to watch her reaction. Wondered just how far I could push her. From the corner of my eye, I caught Charles’s gaze in the rearview mirror as I toyed with her. No surprise flickered in his brown eyes. No interest either. Just flat resignation before his eyes returned to the dark road. As if he’d watched this scene play out hundreds of times. As if he knew where this was leading. As if I was exactly like my uncle and cousin and degenerate brother.

The heat in my veins cooled, just enough so I could release her arms. She immediately grabbed on to me, but I pushed her back. Our lips parted. I drew in a deep breath to steady myself while she sighed in frustration and tried to reach for me again.

Yeah, I wanted this, but I wasn’t Giovanni. I couldn’t take her. Not when she was drugged. Especially when I knew there was no way in a million years this girl would want me if she was sober.

That realization dampened my arousal faster than Charles’s blank stare. Shifting my hands down her arms, I started to lift her off my lap, but before I could move her, her head lolled on her shoulder and her eyelids drooped. Seconds later, her body went limp, and she slumped against me, a heavy weight on my lap and chest, her breath hot and slowing against my throat.

Sonofabitch. Giovanni’s wonder drug had finally consumed her. Probably because my dickhead brother had plied her with alcohol first. He knew better than to mix the two. GHB could be deadly in combination. But it was a good sign that she was breathing, and I knew as long as she kept that up, she’d be okay.

Except…now that she’d passed out, she couldn’t be left alone. At least not until the drug wore off, which could take three to four hours. And motherfucker, my body hadn’t keyed in to the fact she’d passed out, because I was still hard as stone.

“Merda.” I hated that I only had one option now. Hated that because of my brother, my night was fucked…and not in any way I wanted.

---

Natalie was deadweight in my arms as I carried her up the stairs, used the key I’d found in her purse, and unlocked the door.

The apartment was dark and quiet as I moved her inside and kicked the door closed, but a tingle ran down my spine just the same. I’d been here before. I’d been through every drawer and closet in this fucking apartment. And I didn’t want to be back. The fact I was reminded me that Natalie James was playing a very dangerous game in a world she didn’t understand, and that tonight she could have become a casualty in that world if I hadn’t stepped in and stopped her.

My back tightened as I carried her through the small living room, down the short hall and into the bedroom. I wasn’t a hero. I was as far from a fucking hero as a person could get. But I was sick and tired of what Giovanni and the others were doing. Maybe I was trying to exert some kind of control in a world where any control I’d been given was nothing but a farce. Maybe I wanted to fuck up my brother’s plans because he was a douchebag. And maybe I felt sorry for the naïve girl. I wasn’t sure what I was really doing here, all I knew was that I’d gotten wrapped up in something I should have ignored, and now that I was here, I couldn’t look away.

Save the ones you can.

Generally, that only applied to me. But right now…

Fuck.

I laid her out on the bed. Her arm flopped to the side. Her mouth fell open as she continued to snore lightly, just as she’d done in the car against me. I knew there was no way she could breathe easily in that tight dress, and I didn’t want her to suffocate. Tugging the heels from her feet, I dropped them on the ground, then rolled her to her side and slid the zipper down her spine before easing her back and pulling the straps of her dress down her arms.

I managed to get the dress all the way down to her feet and slide it off. Then froze when I caught sight of her curvy body covered in nothing but a sheer black lace bra and matching low-rise panty.

I stared at her nipples and the curve at her waist that flared to her full hips. I hadn’t let myself imagine what was under her dress too much; hadn’t let myself visualize what she looked like beneath the unflattering suit she’d worn to her interview. Now that I’d seen it, though, now that I knew the soft curve of her belly button and the trim vee of her mound, I was going to be seeing it all for days to come.

“Dio dannato.” I forced my gaze away, moved to the closet, and hung the dress up. Her shoes I tossed onto a rack beneath her clothes. Without looking at her, I stepped around the bed, drew back the covers on one side, and reached for her.

Warm bare skin pressed against my chest and arms. Her scent surrounded me, the succulent perfumes of grapefruit and honey making me light-headed. I lifted her off the comforter and repositioned her on the side I’d drawn back. She licked her lips, exhaling a soft, mewling sound, and turned her head against my shoulder. And just that fast, the arousal I’d been fighting came screaming back, leaving me hot and tight and hard.

I quickly positioned her on her side, stuffed a pillow against her back so she couldn’t roll, and tugged the comforter up to her neck. Cool air washed over my overheated skin as I drew back, watched for several seconds to make sure she was still breathing, and turned out of the room.

I needed a drink. Clearly, my self-imposed celibacy these last few months was a major fucking problem. Just the scent of her was making my dick hard as marble. And every time she let loose those soft kitten sounds—

“Cazzo.” I tugged cupboards open in the kitchen one by one until I found the vodka. I was not thinking about her soft mewling sounds. Or how silky the trimmed hair near her pussy seemed beneath that lace. Or what she’d look like if I tied her to that bed, then tugged the sides of her panties down to—

Unscrewing the lid, I took a hard swig straight from the bottle. Gasped. Did it again. As soon as this girl was in the clear, I was heading to the nearest hotel bar, finding the first willing woman, and fucking her senseless until all thoughts of the innocent brunette in the other room were burned out of my brain.

I lowered the bottle, swiped a hand across my mouth, and stilled when I spotted the picture near the window hanging on the wall. My eyes narrowed as I crossed to it and studied the faces. It was a close-up of two young girls smiling in the summer sunshine. One was blonde with a missing front tooth. The other had curly dark locks and mesmerizing blue eyes, even at eight years of age.

The blond was Elena McCabe. I knew because I’d seen other pictures of her at various ages in the apartment when I’d been here before. The brunette no doubt was the woman currently passed out in the other room. Both girls wore matching shirts that read Sisters.

“Dio dannato,” I muttered again as I took another long swig of the vodka that did shit to ease the knot rising up my chest and lodging in my throat.

Natalie James wasn’t here for answers about what had happened to her friend, she wanted justice for a woman she considered her sister. I’d thought scaring her would be enough to get her to leave, but remembering the resolve in her eyes during our interview and the bruise on her forehead I’d noticed when I’d laid her on that bed a few minutes ago, I knew I was wrong. She wouldn’t leave until she found what she’d come for. And that meant she wasn’t just in danger by being here, she would soon be a target my family couldn’t ignore.

I turned away from the picture. I needed to go. I needed to get the fuck out of here and away from this woman. She wasn’t my responsibility or my problem. And yet…

I couldn’t make my legs move. Had I ever met a woman as loyal as Natalie James? In my old life in the tropics, building boats far away from the sick deviants of my family, I’d met plenty of women who were as smart and sweet and simple as Natalie. I’d fucked plenty of them too. But none had ever stood out to me. None had ever left me with this knot in the center of my chest. And as that knot twisted, I knew why. Because I’d never met one who only wanted to help someone else—especially someone who was already dead. Natalie’s agenda wasn’t selfish or twisted or motivated by money. It was honest, from the heart. It was pure.

She was the one saving those who could be saved. Or, at the very least, she was willing to do whatever she could to find justice for them.

I, on the other hand, was a sick fuck who cared only about myself.

My gaze slid down the hallway to her open bedroom door. The rhythmic sounds of her soft snores and deep breaths drifted toward my ears, causing my pulse to kick up.

There was nothing pure in my world. Everything was tainted. And I knew if I turned my back on Natalie now, she’d get sucked into the hell of my world until her purity was forever corrupted.

Or worse…until she wound up dead like Elena McCabe.

I swallowed hard as a solution formulated in my mind. To make it work, I’d have to be the biggest ass on the planet. But I knew I could do it. I wasn’t pure like Natalie James. After all, I was the son of the devil himself, just biding my time until I was forced to claim my throne.

Save the ones you can.

I was a fucking idiot for even considering trying. Especially after what had happened the last time.

Debating, I took another swig of vodka that did shit to wash the disgust and self-loathing away.

Fuck it. I didn’t care if it was a stupid plan. It was the only chance she had left. I just hoped like hell the girl went along with it, because if she didn’t…

Yeah, if she didn’t, I didn’t know what the fuck I’d do.