Marco's Redemption (20 page)

He gritted his teeth and ran his fingers through his hair. "I don't think you're stupid. I'm sorry I underestimated you--"

"Yeah, I bet you're sorry, all right. Now you don't get to keep tabs on me twenty-four hours a day. And that just hurts, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, it does," he had the gall to say.

"How dare you? How freakin' dare you track my movements? How could you? What were you trying to accomplish?"

His look became sullen. "I was attempting to keep you safe."

She slashed her hand through the air in frustrated anger. "Don't bullshit me, Marco. You were trying to protect your twenty-thousand dollar investment--"

His muscles tightened and he took a step toward her. "Bullshit. I've never given a fuck about the money. You know that by now. It's been about you the whole goddamn time."

"That's even worse! If it's been about me that means you don't trust me. You think I'm going to what? Steal your silver? Make off with your American Express card?"

He let out a long low sigh as if he wanted to be anywhere else but having this conversation. "No."

"Then what? What for God's sake?" she demanded to know.

His shoulders stiffened and his eyes glared and when he spoke, Natalie knew he was telling her his exact thoughts. "I thought you might--cheat on me."

Her brow wrinkled in confusion as her mind ran over the recent past. "Cheat on you? I wasn't even yours when you gave me that phone."

His eyes ran over her, top to bottom and landed back on her eyes. He studied her unwaveringly, his feet planted in a solid stance. "You've been mine since the day you slammed into me from behind, Natalie. You just didn't know it."

Natalie sucked in a breath and studied him from her vantage point a few feet away. There was a flame in his eyes as he watched her in return and a subtle tension in his limbs that he couldn't hide.

Her mind raced. He obviously had issues--cheating issues--
sharing
issues. She knew at once that she didn't want to lose him, but she couldn't be too easy on him. She couldn't let him get away with what he'd done without him knowing damn good and well he couldn't do it again.

When she continued to watch him in mute silence, his nostrils flared and he said, "What do you want?"

Natalie knew he was asking her what she wanted from him to make this all go away, but she had another issue that needed to be resolved as well. "Did you tamper with my laptop?"

"Hell, no." He stared at her without flinching and she knew he was telling the truth. He waited two heartbeats before continuing, "Again, what do you want?" he asked.

"You could start by apologizing, but then, you don't ever apologize, do you?"

The look he gave her was flinty. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry you got caught," she retaliated at once.

"Yes," he had the nerve to admit.

"Damn you, Marco! You don't even know how to fight the right way."

A hint of a smile crossed his lips but just as quickly disappeared. "I'm sorry I didn't trust you. I'm sorry I tracked you." All humor left him as his expression became unyielding, unmerciful, obdurate. "Promise you're mine, Natalie. Give me that promise and let's put this behind us."

She let out a shaky breath. "I've promised before."

"No. I've demanded and you've given in."

"How's that different from now?" she questioned.

His muscles loosened beneath his suit and Natalie sensed it was because he was so close to his goal. His voice came firmly, his cadence steady as he laid out his points. "It's different because now I'm asking you to stay. To stay for the sole reason of being with me. You and me. Nobody else. I'm promising fidelity to you. That's something I've never promised before in my life and I want the same promise from you."

She didn't hesitate or think twice. "You have it. But you need to do better, Marco. You need to prove you trust me."

A frown came between his brows. "How?"

"I don't know. I'll leave that up to your analytical brain to figure out."

He crossed over to her, lifted her chin in his hand and kissed her on the forehead before encircling her tightly in his arms. "Thank you."

****

Marco walked in from work the next day and didn't say a word. He strode into the kitchen where Natalie was working, picked up her hand, and began pulling her in the direction of the elevators.

"What are you doing?" she asked as she stumbled and almost fell.

"Proving that I trust you," he answered quickly, as he pulled her into the elevator with him.

He released her hand and crossed his arms over his chest, and watched her intently with an expression she couldn't read. Leaning casually back against the wall, his eyes ran over her, from the top of her hair to her feet, stopping briefly to study her breasts. After the indolent appraisal, his gaze lifted to hers again and he spoke, dark humor and sarcasm lacing his voice. "Did you have a good day, dear?"

Natalie had no idea what he was up to; his manner and actions nothing she'd ever seen in him before. She answered hesitantly, "Yes."

He stared at her, his face impassive. "Would you like to fuck your lover in the elevator, darling?"

A quick coil of heat and shock gripped her and she flushed. "N-no."

"No to the elevator or no to the fucking?"

"No to the elevator."

"But your
boyfriend
hasn't ever been fucked in an elevator before, sweetheart," he continued in third person, "and he'd really like it now." He pushed the button to stop the private lift on its decent and gripped her by the waist.

He turned her and pushed her against the wall. "How--how is this going to prove you trust me?" she managed to ask as her heart began to hammer and her legs began to tremble.

"Oh, it won't. That will come a bit later. First, you get to prove something to me." He pushed his torso against hers and adjusted his pants and freed his erection. Natalie swallowed. It was large and hard and jutted against her.

She licked her lips and breathed deeply as she watched him in semi-shock as he rolled on a condom. "What do I need to prove?" she asked shakily.

He pushed her cotton shorts and panties down her legs and wrapped his hands around the soft flesh of her butt, lifting her and spreading her open to him. She could feel the head of his penis pushing against her, getting ready to push inside of her and she flooded with heat. His fingers bit into her flesh, just short of pain as he held himself at the precipice. He answered her through gritted teeth, "You get to prove that you'll let me fuck you whenever I want, however I want, as much as I want. You admit that you want this, you want me, just the way I am." He pushed an inch inside and his voice became even more gravelly. "You prove that you can handle me, the way I am, and that you're not scared of me. I don't want you scared of me, Natalie. But I can't change how I am. I don't want to have to worry every two seconds that you're going to get scared and run. You belong to me and you need to prove it now by giving yourself to me, all of you."

He hung at her entrance, waiting. Waiting for her to answer him, and Natalie knew this was yet another point in their relationship that they were crossing. He was going to trust her to be his if she could prove to him that she
was
his, that she wanted to be his, completely. Her eyes glazed over as she felt the wet heat he always induced within her body sliding down and easing his way. She was conscious enough to know she still needed to give him an answer. Give him the only answer she could. "Yes."

He slammed inside her and held himself within her while he shoved his head against hers, demanding her mouth without words. Natalie gave it to him, and his tongue plunged inside, and he began kissing her as if his very life depended on it.

Her hands ran up and into his hair and she kissed him back. Their lips clung and their tongues swirled together as he began taking short, stabbing strokes, his hips banging against hers. Her mind began to shut down as he began hitting that place inside of her that she couldn't resist. He pummeled her, and she twisted her head away, needing oxygen as she began to come.

"Come, baby. Come on my cock," he demanded in a harsh, gravelly voice.

She couldn't fight it and she heard a sharp, keening sound and only barely realized that it came from her throat. Her body stiffened as pleasure consumed her. She felt him take three more strokes, and then he was coming with her.

His head sank down beside hers, and they took large, gasping breaths, trying to recover. They came down slowly, and he lifted away from her, and dropped her back to her feet. As he disposed of the soiled condom, wrapping it in a tissue and shoving it into his pocket, she knew he'd had every detail of the encounter planned. It didn't make her angry, it was just an aspect of his character that she was beginning to know very well. He was the consummate planner.

She adjusted her clothing with hands that trembled and leaned back against the elevator wall in silence as she waited for his next move.

He observed her quietly as well and finally, the silence became too much for Natalie and she had to break it. "How'd I do?" she asked softly, attempting a light-hearted effect she was far from feeling.

A glimmer came over his eyes that she couldn't interpret and his words when he spoke sounded sarcastic to her. "Excellent, sweetheart."

Confusion attacked her. "Are you mad at me?"

"Why would I be mad at you? You haven't done anything wrong, have you?"

"Not that I know of."

"Then I couldn't be mad, could I?"

Marco watched Natalie as she gripped the railing behind her with both hands and tried, unsuccessfully, to control the fine trembling of her limbs. He knew he was being an ass but he couldn't stop himself. He
was
mad, and it was her fault he was mad, at least that's what he was telling himself. He felt as if he was caught. Caught in her hold that he couldn't shake. He didn't want to shake it, damn it. He'd been perfectly happy before yesterday. He'd been able to monitor her movements and he knew exactly when she left the penthouse and where she went. Or so he had thought.

It hadn't really been that way, but he hadn't known it. And now, now she was asking him to trust her,
to trust her for God
'
s sake
, when he'd never trusted a woman in his life. He didn't know how to trust her. But evidently, if he wanted to keep her,
and he did
, he'd have to learn how to trust her, and quickly. So yes, he was a bit pissed. Pissed at her for her demands, pissed at himself because he wouldn't just relinquish her. Just let her go. He knew if it had been any other female that's exactly what he'd do. She'd be gone. Gone in a heartbeat. That quickly.

But not Natalie. He was addicted. Completely. He knew it. And goddamnit, Natalie probably knew it as well. He
knew
he was sexually addicted to her; there was no other explanation. He was addicted to her scent, enthralled with the sweet sounds she made when he slid inside of her. He was completely intoxicated with her taste. Her skin was so soft, so sweet he almost couldn't stand it. He physically wanted to lick her; sometimes he wanted to actually bite into her flesh. But he couldn't, at least, not beyond a certain point. He loved it when her thighs would clench around him in need, it set off a ravenous hunger inside of him that he didn't think he'd ever be able to quench.

As she watched him warily now, he felt himself calm down a bit. She
had
been excellent, had given him exactly what he wanted. And he shouldn't be taking it out on her now. "Come here."

Her eyes flared and he realized she was agitated by his demand. Did she think he was going to rip her pants off again? He damn sure wanted to. But not now. Now he had something to prove to her.