The Fall (House of Sin Book 2) Read online

  I carried her into the hotel and lowered her feet to the ground only so I could check us in. Ten minutes later, I had her pressed up against the wall of the elevator as I devoured her mouth.

  “Luc,” she gasped, lifting her leg over my hip and pressing all her hot wet heat against me while she clawed at my back. “I can’t wait.”

  I couldn’t either. I was past the point of reason. I slid my hands under her ass and lifted her off the floor. She immediately wrapped her legs around my waist and kissed me harder.

  The elevator came to a stop, and the doors opened. I didn’t look to see if anyone was waiting for the lift. Didn’t even care. Keeping my lips on hers, I carried her down the hall to our room and pressed her spine up against the door long enough to use the key. Once inside, I slammed the door, shifted her around, and trapped her between the hard wood and my even harder body.

  “Cazzo, Natalie. I need to feel how wet you are.” My blood pumped hard and fast, condensing in my cock as I wrapped one arm around her to hold her up and used the other to slide two fingers straight into her pussy.

  “Oh yes…” She tightened around me. “More.”

  She was absolutely dripping. My erection throbbed with the need to thrust hard and deep inside her. I growled and kissed her, unable to wait another second. Pulling my hand free of her slick center, I grappling with my belt.

  She groaned at the loss of my touch. But the instant I let her down, her hands shot right to my fly, tugging the button open and ripping the zipper down.

  I reached for a condom from my pocket. Her soft, hot, tantalizing fingers darted into my pants and found my cock. I grunted at her wicked-hot touch and leaned forward to kiss her.

  She wrapped her hand around my shaft and squeezed, sliding her fist up to cuff the head, then working it back down. Pleasure arced through me. There was no way I was going to last if she kept that up.

  “Santo Dio, stop. You’re making me fucking mad.”

  She giggled, and the sound was so light, so right, so perfect, I couldn’t help but smile as I sheathed myself.

  Reaching for her, I lifted her off the floor once more. Her legs immediately slid around my waist. I nipped at her lower lip. “That giggle is going to get you fucked, Ms. James.”

  “Yes, yes, yes.” She gripped my shoulders and kissed me. “Oh yes, Luc, now, now please now.”

  Her plea was gasoline to a spark. I thrust deep inside her.

  She gasped at the tight fit, at the way I filled her, and the sound heightened my lust and made me groan. Drawing partway out, I drove inside her again, wanting to get as deep as I possibly could when I exploded, which I knew wouldn’t take long after how worked up she’d made me.

  “Oh fuck.” Her head dropped back against the door, and her eyes slid closed in pure ecstasy. “You’re so fucking big. That feels like heaven. Don’t stop. Don’t you dare stop.”

  I couldn’t. I was too far gone. Ready to detonate.

  Grasping her dress at the bodice, I pulled hard. Fabric tore as I flexed my hips and plunged inside her again and again. Finding the front clasp on her bra, I flicked it free. Her gorgeous breasts spilled into my hand. I fingered the right nipple clamp. She moaned long and deep. Every time the small metal clasp moved, her pussy tightened around my cock to almost painful levels.

  “I’m gonna take this off,” I grunted, driving into her harder. “It’s going to hurt when the blood rushes back to your nipple, but it’ll make you come so hard, you won’t care. Are you ready?”

  She lifted her head, tightened her arms around my shoulders. Lust glazed her eyes when they held on mine. “Do it.”

  I pulled the clasp free. Her whole body jerked, and she cried out as her pussy pulsed around my aching cock with the force of her orgasm.

  I thrust harder. Faster. Couldn’t stop. Shoving aside the other half of her bra, I released the second clasp. Another orgasm hit her the instant it was free, this one even stronger than the last, making her scream so loud I knew anyone in the hall or elevator could hear her. And as it claimed her, it triggered my release.

  The orgasm streaked down my spine and exploded in my balls, erupting with so much force, I lost all ability to think or see or even hear. All I could do was feel. Feel her giving me everything I’d never known I’d wanted.

  Finally giving me a reason to truly live.

  5

  Luc

  It made zero sense, but after the amazing evening Natalie had given me, I felt…guilty.

  As I lay in bed later with her curled against me, her hand drawing lazy circles against my chest, her sexy legs entwined with mine beneath the sheet, I tried to shove aside the guilt but couldn’t.

  We’d shared a delicious dinner naked in our elegant suite, had pleasured each other until we were both weak, and now we were comfortably silent as the twinkling lights of Venice shone through the windows.

  Except… I wasn’t comfortable. This pressure in my chest told me I was a hypocrite.

  This woman knew almost everything about who I was inside, and yet I’d shared virtually nothing about where I’d come from or what had shaped me into the man I’d become. I knew all about her jackass father. I knew how her best friend’s death had changed her plans for the future. I even knew about that louse of a lover who hadn’t appreciated or pleasured her in the ways she deserved. She’d given me almost everything, and I’d shared nearly nothing. If I truly wanted her to belong to me, I had to make myself as vulnerable as she’d been with me on that dock.

  I skimmed my hand down her arm as I stared up at the coffered ceiling and gathered my courage. “I hate Italy.”

  Her fingers stopped their lazy circles against my chest. “You do?”

  “With a passion.”

  “You haven’t acted like you hate it.”

  “That’s because you’re here with me. If I hadn’t been desperate to get you away from my brother, I wouldn’t have come on this trip. I’d have sent someone else and stayed as far away as I could.”

  She pushed up on her elbow and smiled at me. The warmth in her eyes told me she liked that answer. The heat resurging in my veins told me I liked her liking that answer.

  “Speaking of your brother.” Her gaze dropped to my throat. “He texted me.”

  My stomach tightened because I didn’t like the sound of that. “When?”

  “At the Cipriani fashion show.”

  “What did he want?”

  Her gaze lifted back to mine. “To tell me his new assistant is terrible and that he wants me to join him in the Caribbean.”

  My jaw clenched reflexively. I’d known Giovanni wouldn’t leave her alone. When my brother set his sights on something, there was very little that could be done to distract him. If I hadn’t known before that bringing Natalie with me to Italy was the right decision, I did now. She wouldn’t have been safe in New York even with Giovanni thousands of miles away.

  “And what did you tell him?”

  “Well.” A sexy smirk tugged at her lush mouth as she glanced up toward the ceiling. “I have always wanted to lie on a white sand beach, soaking up the rays.”

  She was teasing me. Instead of growing jealous or angry, the pressure and guilt I’d felt before slowly slipped away. “Oh, is that tempting to you?”

  She grinned and looked down at me once more. “Only if you’re there with me.”

  Something warm and light filled my chest. I slid my fingers into her hair, knowing I didn’t deserve this woman who was both sweet and good, wanting her even more.

  “But no,” she went on. “Your brother is definitely not tempting to me. And I didn’t respond to his text. I ignored him.”

  A relief I hadn’t known I needed slid though me. “Don’t worry about Giovanni. I’ll make sure he leaves you alone.”

  She studied me for several seconds, and I was sure she was going to ask about my tenuous relationship with my degenerate brother. But instead, she said, “I thought you lived here in Italy before you took over at Covet.”

>   I sighed, happy for the change in subject, and ran my hand down her silky hair. “I haven’t lived here for years. Before I was summoned to Covet, I was building sailboats in the tropics.”

  “No.” An adorably pointed look filled her eyes as her smile faded, and she tipped her head and stared at me. “Please tell me you’re lying. You did not build boats.”

  I couldn’t help myself. I laughed. And damn, it felt good to laugh. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d had anything to laugh about.

  “I did.” I tugged her onto my chest and brushed the hair back from her face as she peered up at me. “I built gorgeous wooden sailboats. They’d scare the shit out of you. I’m getting hard just thinking about taking you out on one.”

  “That is not funny.”

  Smiling, I lifted my head and pressed a kiss to the corner of her mouth. “No, it’s not funny. The way you held on to me on our ride through the Grand Canal was hotter than hell.”

  She sighed and let me kiss her mouth. But before I could take the kiss deeper, she drew back and blinked at me. “So how long ago were you building these horrible sailboats?”

  “Two months ago.”

  A shocked look filling her eyes. “Only two months ago?”

  I nodded. Had she thought I’d been in New York longer? For the first time, I wondered if she’d believed I’d had anything to do with her friend’s death.

  I braced myself for that question. Braced myself to hear her ask whether or not I’d known Elena McCabe personally. But she surprised me when instead she asked, “Why were you building boats in the tropics when your family is independently wealthy and considered royalty in this country? Does it have something to do with that scary tattoo on your leg?”

  I’d hoped she hadn’t seen that tattoo. The ouroboros on my inner calf—the snake with wings swallowing its tail—wasn’t something I liked people to see. I thought I’d kept her eyes distracted from that part of my body when I was naked, but this woman clearly didn’t miss a thing. “No,” I lied. “Not because of that.”

  “Good, because it’s beautiful artwork. Does it have a special meaning to you?”

  My stomach twisted. Yes, but not one I wanted to tell her. “No,” I heard myself say. “Nothing more than stupidity in my youth.”

  She smiled. “I was just curious because I knew someone back in college who had the same birthmark in his iris as you. He called it a snake in the eye. Kinda like your tattoo.”

  That was a connection I did not need her making.

  “So tell me why you ran away to the tropics,” she said, relaxing against me.

  I exhaled, relieved she wasn’t pushing to know more about my birth defect or my tattoo. Even more relieved she wasn’t grilling me about Elena McCabe. “Because my father and I don’t get along.”

  “That sounds familiar.” She rolled her eyes.

  I fought back a burst of anger at the mention of her dick of a father. As far as I was concerned, it was a good thing he was dead.

  “It’s different,” I said, focusing on how soft her hair felt against my fingers as I twirled a strand near her face. “I’m the oldest. The fact I never wanted to be part of the family business has been a source of contention between us.”

  “How old were you when you left?”

  “Twenty.” I stared at her hair twined around my finger, remembering that day like it was yesterday. The moonlight. The circle. The screams that came after.

  I shook my head to rid myself of the images threatening to drag me under and refocused on her sweet and curious face. “My father wasn’t happy when he learned I’d left. My mother convinced him I needed to sow my oats before taking my rightful place with the family.”

  “But I thought you’d been here recently. Sofia’s mother said you were in their restaurant just a few years ago.”

  “I was.” I skimmed my thumb over a small circular scar near her temple. “What’s this from?”

  “Chicken pox. Focus, Luc. Sofia?”

  One corner of my lips tipped up. This woman would make a great investigator. When she wanted answers, she wasn’t easily distracted.

  I sighed. “I come back every couple of years to keep the peace with my parents. I never stay long. I stopped into Sofia’s family restaurant on my last trip.”

  She laid one hand on top of the other on my chest and rested her chin on her hands. “So why did you agree to the job at Covet now?”

  “I didn’t have much of a choice. After my uncle had his heart attack, my father decided I’d spent too much time trying to find myself and ordered me to New York. Trust me, acting CEO of a fashion magazine was never on my list of career choices.”

  “Yet you gave up your life in the tropics because your family needs you. That’s very admirable.”

  I nearly huffed. It wasn’t admirable. If she knew the real purpose of Covet, she’d run screaming out of this room and I’d never see her again.

  My chest tightened. I couldn’t let that happen. I needed her with me.

  I couldn’t explain why. I knew I was being selfish. I knew she’d be so much better off without me. But I didn’t want to let her go, because she was like a spark to my soul, giving me strength, giving me life. Somehow I’d find a way to keep her safe. And, hopefully, somehow I’d find a way to keep my family and our House and everything it represented secret from her.

  “I think I understand why you like control so much,” she said softly.

  I gazed down into her blue eyes, and my blood warmed as thoughts of making her submit to every one of my filthy desires filled my mind. I slid my fingers through her hair and around to cup the back of her head. “You do, huh?”

  “Mm-hm. You like to dominate because so much of your life is out of your control.”

  I was stunned at the way she could see right to the heart of me. This woman who’d only been with me a week had burrowed her way inside me and latched on to my soul, seeing parts of me no one else ever had.

  Any woman could bend to my will, but this woman—this gorgeous, strong, innocent woman—was embracing my darkness, forever owning a piece of me I could never take back. And that didn’t just make me hard, it made me desperate for more. Desperate for her.

  My heart raced, and every inch of my body came to life. With one hand at her hip, I rolled her to her back until she was pinned beneath me. My straining erection pressed against her leg, telling her exactly what I wanted. “I’m going to devour you, Natalie. You know that, don’t you? If you stay with me, I’m going to own you—body and soul—and draw you into my shadow until you are utterly and irretrievably lost in me.”

  Her soft blue gaze held mine. “I’m already lost in you, Luc. So lost I feel like I’ve finally been found.”

  Her words burned through the last of my walls. Her eyes engulfed my soul. I claimed her mouth in a hard, hot, burning kiss that unleashed every ounce of my passion.

  I’d said I would ruin her. I’d said I would devour her. With two simple sentences, she’d completely shredded me to the point where I was the one who was forever ruined by her.

  I was the one who’d just been devoured. Heart, mind, body, and soul.

  Natalie James owned me. And I had never felt so free.

  I had the best day I could remember having.

  After a late breakfast in bed, we walked all over the city like tourists.

  I showed her the Rialto Bridge, and we strolled through shops sharing a gelato—a treat I was quickly learning she loved. We toured the Gallerie dell’Accademia and studied the pre-nineteenth-century art. I bought her a painting from a street vendor who flirted shamelessly with her and told me I was a lucky man. I didn’t need to be told that. I already knew. As I held her hand, I purposely got us lost between the tall buildings in narrow passageways where I could kiss her until she was breathless. When I found a dark corner hidden from view, I slid my hand beneath her yellow dress and my fingers into her slick pussy until she groaned.

  I adored the way her body responded to my touch. I sav
ored the way she accepted even the dirtiest of my desires, only protesting when she thought someone might see. And I loved how she could make me breathless with a soft groan, with a brush of her seductive lips against mine, with a single raw look from across the room that told me she was mine.

  I’d never wanted any woman to belong to me like this. I’d never wanted the responsibility not just of pleasuring a woman for any length of time, but of cherishing and protecting her too. But with Natalie, I was ready for all of that. I was ready for everything.

  We ended our day in Piazza San Marco. We toured the Doge’s Palace and walked through St. Mark’s Basilica. As the sun set and the lights came on, we dined and sipped wine at an outdoor trattoria, listening to music from a small orchestra as it echoed through the square.

  I’d never felt so at peace. I’d never felt so free. I signed the bill for our dinner and reached for Natalie’s hand, bringing it to my lips to kiss and nip at her succulent skin, knowing I had her to thank for this feeling. I planned to show her the true meaning of desirable as soon as we got back to our suite.

  Luckily, our hotel wasn’t far from St. Mark’s Square. I threaded my fingers with hers as we walked back to the hotel and twisted our joined arms behind her back as I nipped at her earlobe and whispered all the things I was going to do to her as soon as we were alone.

  As we neared the hotel, I released her hand and let her step in front of me through both sets of double doors. The lobby was sparsely populated with guests checking in and others lounging on couches as they sipped wine or discussed their evening plans. I was anxious to get Natalie up to our room and naked. With my hands on her hips, ushering her ahead of me, I pressed a kiss to her temple and was just about to steer her toward the elevator when I spotted a fifty-something woman rising from a high-backed chair to my left.

  Everything inside me went cold, and my feet slowed to a stop as I let go of Natalie.