Secret Seduction (16 page)

They had purchased a disposable camera and had taken plenty of pictures of each other along the way. At the Archway, Jason asked a woman to take a few pictures of them standing under the archway. He’d quickly kissed her for one, and in the other they’d smiled at each other. She couldn’t wait to have the film developed, and silently wished for her iPhone and its digital photo abilities.

From there they walked over to the Temple of Venus, where Jason bought her a small trinket from one of the many carts that lined the streets. The bracelet had the image of Venus, the goddess of love and bringer of good fortune, or so the salesman said in broken English.

“It suits you.” He took his time putting it on her wrist. For a small, cheap trinket, Katie held the gift dear to her heart.

By this time the sun was setting, and they ended their tour of Rome back at the Colosseum, watching the sun sink low behind the large walls, lighting the sky in a spectacular array of light and colors.

Tourists clapped their hands when the sun finally dropped below the great walls, leaving everyone in its shadows. She pulled Jason’s head down and kissed him to more cheers from people around them. Laughing, they walked back to a cafe just down the street from where they were staying and ate dinner under the stars, with the street lights blinding her to anything else but him.

She never imagined being with him like this. She looked across the table and noticed that the bruising on his face had disappeared almost completely. She knew that he still had to have the small stitches, which sat just under two white butterfly bandages under his longer hair, removed. But his face was back to normal and he had never looked as good as he did sitting across from her in the most romantic setting she’d ever witnessed. Her mind quickly turned to the pleasure she was imagining under his hands. How had it come to this? Was she always going to be thinking about having his hands on her?

Looking across the table at him, she saw him smile at her and she could tell he was thinking almost the same thing as she was.

“If you keep looking at me like that…” he let the statement drop off.

“What? Will you punish me? Spank me? Maybe I want you to spank me. Maybe I want you to punish me.” She didn’t know where all that had come from, but when she saw his eyes cloud over, she knew she was in for it, and her excitement doubled.

“Check!” Jason raised his hand and waved at the waiter.

After paying, he took her hand and they walked quickly towards the bed and breakfast. They made it back to their room, but barely. They were both breathless when they came together behind their room door, and she knew it had nothing to do with the two flights of steep stairs they had just climbed.

His hot mouth melted her control and he held her against the wall until she pushed him and reversed their positions, almost knocking down a picture from the wall. Now his back was against the door and she enjoyed watching his amusement at her boldness. She nibbled his lip and ran her hands over him quickly.

“Little rough, aren’t you?” he asked, and she answered him by taking his bottom lip between her teeth and nibbling on it. Then she was pushing his hands away from trying to untuck her shirt. She stood back and slowly unbuttoned her blouse, almost making a show out of it, removing it slowly. Then she followed it with her skirt, until finally she stood in her sexy black bra and panties in front of him.

He stood there, leaning against the door, breathless.

“My God, you are beautiful.”

Walking slowly towards him, she removed his shirt in one fast motion. He was sure she’d popped a few buttons, but he didn’t care. Then she quickly removed his belt and started in on his jeans.

“Katie?”

“Don’t! Let me,” she moaned as she started trailing kisses down his chest until she hit the top of his jeans.

Then she pulled them over his hips and smiled as he groaned her name.

She wasn’t going to let him control the speed this time. This time she was in charge and wanted, more than anything, to see him squirm under her hands and mouth. She wanted to show him that she could be in charge, that she could give him as much pleasure as he’d shown her the last few days.

She slowly pulled his jeans down his legs and watched as his arousal pushed against his skin tight boxers briefs. Then, slowly, she freed him and held her breath at how beautiful he was. She reached for him and ran a finger up and down his length, enjoying the fact that he held his breath as he watched her face.

“Let me know if I do something you don’t like,” she whispered.

Then, as she watched his face, she leaned in and kissed him, then licked the trail her finger had just taken. He grabbed her head and moaned, so she continued to experiment with her mouth, giving him pleasure and arousing herself at the same time.

“Katie,” he said, then he grabbed her under her arms and hauled her up. Taking the dozen or so steps to the large four-poster bed, he dropped her on the soft mattress and was inside her before she could think.

He held himself above her, looking into her eyes until finally, she grabbed his hips and forced him to move.

“Please, Jason, I need you.”

“I need you, too, Katie, too damn much.” Then he was moving quickly and his thrusts became almost violent as they were both overwhelmed by each other.

The next morning they decided it was time to finally call her family. It had taken him quite a bit to convince her that they needed the extra help in figuring out who was after her. Plus, they needed to find out where to meet everyone.

She would have been happy continuing on her travels until she became tired of it all and returned home to Boston. But Jason had convinced her that a trip to meet Damiano Cardone was the next move they needed to make.

After the call to both her fathers, it was agreed the best place to meet would be at the New Edges Corporate office building, which happened to be only a few blocks away.

They checked out of the B&B and left their bags in the rental car, which they decided to leave parked in a small spot they had hunted down the day before. Then they set off on foot for the short journey.

They stopped and ate breakfast and had some coffee at one of the street cafes. Watching people walk by was one of the normal things Katie missed about being in larger cities.

When they were done eating, they still had an hour before the meeting, so they spent the time walking around the stores and enjoying the scenery. Then they started heading to the larger office building they could see in the distance. The tall glass tower was a beacon in the older city with its large, bright sign that hung above the rest of the shorter, older buildings. The closer they got to the building, the more nervous Katie felt. She actually felt her hands sweat and they even shook a little.

She knew Jason understood her and he tried multiple times to keep her mind off the meeting. He joked with her, trying to get her to think and talk about other things, but nothing was working. He’d always had a knack of keeping her mind off impending doom. Back in high school, he’d joked and made her laugh right before every test she’d had. Then he’d been there to help pick her up if she had failed, or help her celebrate if she had passed. He, of course, had always gotten A’s, no matter what class. She had struggled a little more in school. It didn’t help that she had no clue what she wanted to do after school. She’d gone through multiple career plans. Doctor, teacher, architect, lawyer, and even, at one time, a zoologist.

Jason had always known what he wanted to be; law had been in his blood. All his hard work at school was paying off. When she’d left, he was on his last year of college.

Now, however, she couldn’t stop thinking about what was about to happen. They were just across the street from the large building. She wanted to turn and run, with or without Jason, but then he reached over and grabbed her hand and she felt her nerves disappear.

“I’ll be right here with you.” He smiled over at her just as they heard the squeals of tires.

“They are at New Edges, you fools. How could you let her get this close?”

“We know, we’ve been waiting for her here. We’re right outside; don’t worry, we’ve got her.”

“Fine, just take care of it, and don’t mess up this time.”

The line went dead, and he cursed and tossed the phone down. “Okay, Raul, we need to do this quick. Don’t screw it up or we’ll be out of our money.”

Rodrick Derby sat in the lobby of New Edges next to his son, Ric. The fact that he was on enemy territory didn’t escape his attention. But he’d do anything for his kids. And no matter what Kathleen had said or done, nobody and nothing could take Katie away from him.

She was his daughter. After all, he’d been the one who had picked her up after a spill on her bike, he’d been the one who’d been there for her her whole life, whether she’d been ill, sad, or happy.

It had cut him deep, at first, when Katie hadn’t called him this last year. But he knew his daughter, knew that she needed time to heal. He couldn’t blame her for taking off. After all, it’s what she’d been taught to do. Every time he and Kathleen had problems in the past, they would retreat to different corners of the globe. He to Alaska on his extended fishing trips and her to Italy. Now he knew now why she had always frequented here. The two main reasons were walking towards him now.

Seeing Damiano and Dante Cardone walk out of the glass elevators did little to calm his nerves as he waited for his daughter. The lobby of the building was fairly packed, since there were small shops on the first two floors.