Her Venice Affair (The Albury Affairs) (13 page)

Riana pinched his cheek, and then she moved to sit on
his lap. “I’m serious. Don’t worry about the takeover. You’ve done everything
right and Torino will see it would be best to sell to you if he wants his dream
to stay alive.”

Allan shifted her around so that she was straddling
him. He pulled her against him and her soft chest pressed against his hard
chest. It amazed him how perfectly she fit against him and he loved to feel her
supple softness tangled with his lean hardness.

“Would you give up your dream to me and let me do as I
wish with it?”

Allan thought he saw something cross her face before
it quickly disappeared. Was it sadness, remorse, regret?

His heart thudded hard.
Please don’t let her regret this trip
.

But even as he wished it, he knew by the end of this
trip they would both be regretting it. Things between them had changed. Even
when they made love—yes, he’d admitted they made love and no longer just had
sex—it was different, more involved. He felt that she gave her all to him and
he had just begun doing the same.

It was hard not to give everything that was him, plus
his money, to a woman like Riana.
Because
that is the thing, there is no other woman like my unicorn.

“Well…it’s like giving up a child. If I couldn’t take
care of a child, I would give him to someone who can. I’d of course make it an
open adoption so I could see him as much as I can. But there would be rules I
would have to follow from the adoptive parents so that I didn’t screw up his
chances of a better life.” She drew in a deep breath and let it out shaky. “I’d
love him more than enough to do that.”

Allan saw the fear cross her face. If he hadn’t known
better, he’d have sworn she was talking from experience. But aside from him—as
much as he hated to think about it—Steve was her only lover and they had been
together for only six months. Too soon for a child to be born from that relationship.
So what was it?

“Riana, I know you. You wouldn’t give up your child
unless it was the last resort.”

“This is the last resort for Torino, isn’t it?”

He rubbed her back and kissed her lightly on the lips.
“You do know if you find yourself in that situation you can come to me for
help, right?”

The thought of her being pregnant by another man tore
at him, but it was the truth. He would do anything for Riana.

She ran her fingers into his hair and tugged his head
back. “I know. You are a wonderful man. That’s why Torino will sign over his
baby. Of course, with some visitation rights.”

Oh, no. Allan saw where this was going. She might be
shy and a little naïve but she had no problem championing those she thought
couldn’t help themselves. First it was the employees from the companies he took
apart, now Torino. This was something they were not going to fight about.

“I know where you are going with this, Riana, and the
answer is no.”

She shrugged, lifting her hands palms up. “What? You
don’t even know what I mean by visitation rights.”

He stood up, lifting her with him. “But I know you and
we are not going to discuss this. You need to sleep, anyway.”

He went to set her down on the bed but she wrapped her
arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. “I know that’s not how you
do business, but just think about it. If Mr. Torino feels like he’d have—”

He tugged at her arms. “Goodnight, Riana!”

She tightened her hold on him and went on. “—access to
his lifelong dream then it would soften him up. Keep him as a manager or an
advisor.”

Allan chortled. “Why don’t I just dig a hole and pour
all the money I’m using for the acquisition into it?” She pulled his hair and
he winced from the pain. “Damn it, Riana! What was that for?”

“If you take
Casa
Italiano
completely from him without an inch to
call his own, you are going to kill him. He’s worked too hard and too long to
just give up without a fight. Its bankruptcy may not even be his fault.” She
kissed him and smiled. That smile always made his decisions waiver, granting
Riana her way…sometimes. “Not everyone has a son like you, Allan. Your father
got lucky and he’s probably kissing your mother’s feet because she gave him a
son like you.”

Allan felt his chest tighten, but this time with pain.
It still hurt that he didn’t have his father anymore to guide him when he felt
lost, like he felt with Riana. Feeling all that he felt for this woman was like
running around in a maze, and some outside perspective from someone he trusted
would have helped. But his father was dead, and his best friend Matthew was in
London on his honeymoon.

He and Matthew had been lifelong friends all because
of their own fathers’ business and personal relationship. They went to the same
schools right from kindergarten to college until Matthew went off to Harvard
law and he went to Yale business school. They’d both interned at Sinclair
Enterprise under their own fathers and they were now filling those large shoes
after their passing. Matthew as head of legal and Allan as president of the
company.

Allan smiled, brushing his knuckles across her soft
cheek. His dad would have loved her. His mom as well.

He probably should tell her that his parents were
dead, but not yet.

But she was right. Allan Sr. always bought Aurora, his
mother, gifts in honor of his wonderful children. And they really were good
kids. He and Melody never got into scraps or foolish things kids in his private
academy did. Drugs, skipping school, stealing his parents’ cars, or smuggling
alcohol to school just didn’t make sense to him. There was nothing exciting
about it. Extreme sports like snowboarding, something his father always
encouraged him to do to burn off his excessive energy, was exciting enough for
an outlet.

 
His father was
lucky to have him as a son, and Allan was even more blessed to have him as a
father, and to have made him proud. But Allan still wished he had been loveable
enough for this father to fight for. If not him, for Melody.

But he couldn’t keep thinking about that. He had a
sexy, wonderful woman in his arms, and he would rather do more than argue with
her about something he was never going to budge on.

Allan tickled Riana until she let it go, falling in a
heap of laughter on the bed.

“That’s not fair!” she whined.

Allan climbed over her, trapping her under him with his
hands and knees. “Oh, it’s fair. You used that silly smile you always pull when
you are trying to talk me into something.”

Riana pouted and blinked repeatedly, looking
innocently up at him. “What smile?”

Allan chuckled and dropped on top of her. She cradled
him between her thighs, her hands coming up to stroke his hair and shoulders.
Being there, in that position together, felt so right to Allan it scared him.
He dreaded the day they would have to say goodbye to this, but until then, he
was going to make the most of it.

Allan kissed her as he slowly pulled her tank top up
to feel her bare, soft, warm skin.

Riana gasped, and then pushed him back to pull his
shirt over his head. “We are not done discussing Torino.”

Allan pulled her pajama pants off after he did away
with her tank top. He knelt above her, taking in her magnificent, naked body.
Damn. He was a lucky man. She gave him her beautiful body and everything in it
selflessly. No one had ever done that for him and he would always cherish her
because of it.

Allan made quick work of his belt and pants and joined
their bodies. Riana gasped, her legs going around his waist and her fingers
digging into his back. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly
against him, but she still didn’t feel close enough.

He devoured her lips as he moved inside her. She moved
up to meet his every stroke and he picked up his tempo. “I want you, all of
you!” he demanded.

“You have me, all of me!” she cried out. She buried
her face in his neck and he felt every gasp and harsh breath, which only made
him hungrier for her. He moved faster, loving how she held him so wonderfully
tight inside her.

As Allan took what she gave, for the first time, he
gave her all of him in return. He realized he was never going to get enough of
her and he was never going to be the same after she left.

 
When they both
finally came back down from the wonderful oblivion, Allan kept their bodies
tangled together and watched Riana fall asleep with a contented smile on her
face.

He wanted to always watch her fall asleep with that
smile on her face, every single day for the rest of their lives.

 
He pulled her
on top of him and wrapped his arms around her. She hooked her hands under his
shoulders and cuddled into him. There was no way he was going to sleep tonight,
not with everything going on in his mind.

Shit
! He was in trouble. They both were.

* * * *

Riana woke up with Allan’s chest pressed against her
back, his arms around her and his legs raised under her, tucking her into the
curve of his body. She always felt safe and wanted when she woke up like this,
with his large body wrapped around her.

She turned to her back to face him, careful not to
wake him. He looked so gentle when he was asleep, like a little boy. If she
didn’t know him, just seeing him like this, she would have thought him
harmless. But in reality Allan was far from harmless.

She took his hand and held it over his baby inside
her. “I hope you are a boy,” she whispered speaking to her unborn baby. “I want
you to look just like your daddy.”

Leaving one hand over Allan’s, she brushed his hair
back—it was now so long it covered half his face—behind his ear with the other.
“Well, you won’t look exactly like your daddy, but I’m sure you’ll have the
same brown hypnotizing eyes, nose, sexy lips that make me melt when he smiles
and strong chin.” She spoke with adoration tracing his nose, lips and chin with
the tips of her fingers. “And you are going to make him proud, just like he’s
making your grandpa proud.”

Riana’s smile faltered and remorse filled her. “But
mommy has to tell daddy you exist first for that to happen, doesn’t she?” She
blinked back tears. “He might hate me but he will love you. I promise.”

Allan sighed moving his hand to her waist and pulling
her to him. She tucked her head under his chin so that he wouldn’t see her
tears.

“You promise what?” he asked with a raspy voice.

Riana stiffened. “What?”

He tightened his arms around her. “You were talking. I
only caught the last part. What’s the promise?”

Riana began to panic. She needed a lie, a convincing
one.
Oh, Loraine would be so useful right
now!

Allan nudged her. “Riana?”

“I,
ah
…”

His Blackberry rang, saving her.

Allan moved her aside and sat up. She looked up at him
and her heart stopped. His hard gaze was focused on her like he knew she was
hiding something.

 
Oh God, he is going to make me tell him.

She knew he wouldn’t have to do much to get her to
confess. Riana wasn’t a good liar, and she wore her emotions on her sleeve
making her easy to read. And Allan read her like an open book.

He turned away from her, grabbed his phone, and she
began to breathe again.

“What?”

Riana jumped at how forceful the word was spoken into
the phone.

Allan rubbed his hand over his face and into his hair.
“We’ll be there in a day…what?…oh, my girlfriend will be with me.”

Riana sat up.
Girlfriend?

Was that how he acknowledged her when he introduced
her in Italian? Riana giggled. It was a significant step up from bed mate, even
though it wasn’t wife.

Allan turned to her, his brows creased together. Then
he shook his head and chuckled. “Just make the same arrangements for her and
beef up security. She’s going to be alone more in Venice with this takeover.
Yeah…” He groaned and began speaking in Italian harshly, leaning back on the
headboard.

Riana knew what that meant. They’d hit another road
block. But what was this about security being beefed up? Had they always had
bodyguards with them? Because if so they were very good. She never noticed they
had company.

She could already hear Allan scoff, ‘I pay them to be
that good’ when she would ask him about it.

But why would they even need security? Riana slapped
her forehead. It would probably have to do with someone being a billionaire,
duh
! Her boyfriend was high risk. He was
on every kidnapper’s wish list.

Oh God, did
they watch them make love on the beach?
Riana was horrified by that thought, but that feeling didn’t last long.

 
She nibbled on
her lower lip as she smiled. Boyfriend. Allan was her boyfriend!