The Playboy's Fugitive Bride (26 page)

“You like that?”

“Yes.”  The friction was excruciatingly pleasurable.  He pressed a little deeper, but still not deep enough to reach her maidenhead.  Nia had never had anyone’s fingers but her own inside her, and at those times, she too had stayed close to the entrance of her body so as not to rupture her hymen. 

“What about this?”  He flicked the pad of his thumb across her swollen clitoris.

The shock of it wrung a loud moan of pleasure out of Nia.

For a split second, she remembered where she was and tried to stifle her screams as Massimo began to strum her with his thumb and finger.  She was very much aware that his fingers were thicker and longer than hers, and that the one lodged inside her was massaging previously unexplored regions of her sex.  But as her pleasure intensified and fire licked through her veins, Nia held Massimo in a death grip and abandoned herself to the pull of her second orgasm for the night.

As her scream started to erupt, Massimo covered her mouth with his.

Her cry was raw, so raw her throat hurt.  Her body remained taut for long shuddering moments, then, breathing like an exhausted cheetah, she finally dropped her head on Massimo’s shoulder and let her arms fall limply down his back.  She felt Massimo’s hand caressing up and down her back, soothing her.  Her mouth pulsed from the rawness of his kiss, and the areas around her lips tingled from the grating of his light beard.  Nia let herself sink into the thrill of it.

“My God,” he said after a long silence, “you’re so tight and hot, for a moment there I was afraid you’d either burn or snap my finger off my hand.  I can’t think of a story to tell our children when they ask what happened to the middle finger of my right hand.”

Nia’s spontaneous giggles swiftly faded into a groan as her sensitive flesh tightened around his finger still inside her.  “Maybe you shouldn’t go sticking it into strange dark holes, then,” she said unable to resist.  “And you could tell them the cat ate it.”

He chuckled heartily.  “Ah, Nia, I love the way your mind works.  We’re going to have so much fun together in bed as husband and wife.”

Nia closed her mind to his words and tried to re-erect her wall of defense against him.

“Can I have my finger back now?”

Too weak to speak, she nodded.  Nia winched when he slowly pulled his finger out of her then rearranged her panties.  If his finger had brought her so much pleasure, she could only imagine what his shaft and his mouth would do for her.  She might be a virgin, but Nia was well aware of the carnal cravings of her body and what it took to satisfy them.  She’d been taking care of her own needs for years now and each time she made herself come, Massimo Andretti had been right there with her, his blue eyes boring into her, coaxing her on.

He eased her upper body away from his and forced her to look at him.  The pale blue rim around his irises darkened with emotion.  “I will take care of you, Nia,” he said.  “As my wife, you will be protected and cared for.  No one would dare try to hurt you.”

You’ve hurt me, Massimo, far worse than anyone else will ever hurt me.  Can you protect me from you?
  Nia wished she had the courage to voice her thoughts, but revealing her true identity to Massimo would be a foolish thing to do for several reasons.  Just because he’d forced her to marry him didn’t mean the conflict between them was over.  It had just become more problematical.

“Are you strong enough to stand?’ he asked, breaking into her thoughts.

“Yes.  I think so.”  Nia took a deep breath and tried to relax.  When he eased her to the floor, she pulled her dress down and straightened the belt, strategically avoiding eye contact with him.  Twice tonight he’d brought her sexual release without taking any for himself.  He was a generous man.  Really generous, she thought as her eyes encountered the huge bulge in his pants.

“Perhaps you should get cleaned up, change into something more flattering,” he said curtly before walking around the table.  “We have a wedding ceremony to attend.”  He dropped his weight into the chair he’d been occupying and gave his attention to the papers he’d been studying when she’d arrived.  He picked up his cell and proceeded to send someone a text, before he dialed a number and immediately began talking, in Spanish this time.

And just like that, they were back to business, Nia thought, even as her body still tingled from her orgasm and the warm moisture between her legs grew sticky. 
It was business.
She’d agreed to marry Massimo to get the charges against her dropped.  So even though they’d just shared an incredible intimate moment, there was no need for her to expect any affection from him.  Massimo was physically attracted to her, and as his wife, he expected her to make love with him when the need arose.

This was a
quid pro quo
arrangement, and Massimo was getting all the
quid
and all the
quo
.

As that reality sunk in, Nia made her way to the back of the room to her luggage and began digging for fresh underwear, her makeup case, hair stuff, and a suitable outfit to get married in.

As ruthless as Massimo was, she knew in her heart that he would not have sent her to the women’s prison in Concord, but he would have prolonged her stay in the jail cell here in Granite Falls for as long as it took for her to bend to his demands.  He probably would have provided her with a more comfortable bed and a television and sent her down three gourmet meals from Azi’s kitchen each day.  He would probably come visit her at nights for conjugal visits right in this very room.  He could have waited her out for days, weeks, months if he had to.

It wasn’t a terrible way to kill some time—if one had time to kill.  Nia didn’t have the luxury of time on her hands.   

She had to make Eddie’s drop within six weeks.  That’s all the time she had before she could shed her past like a loose robe and get going with the rest of her life.  She couldn’t bring Aaron back to the states until her business with Eddie was over.

But how was she to accomplish that task while married to a man she knew would be watching her every move?  And not only he, but the rest of the world as well.  If she married Massimo tonight, the news of their nuptials would be everywhere by tomorrow, and Eddie might decide that he wanted more than what he was owed.  She’d watched enough movies to know that once crooks knew they could squeeze a pint out of their victims, they would try to squeeze a quart.

With Massimo’s billions added to the equation, Eddie would want a few gallons even though he’d promised that she and Aaron would be free and clear of his threats as long as she paid him off within the agreed time.  Nia had no doubt that Massimo would crush Eddie like a bug if he attempted to hurt her.  But Aaron was still out there unprotected, and who knew if Eddie had already figured out where he was hiding and had someone watching him, waiting for her to mess up.  What if he kidnapped Aaron for a higher ransom? 

Dear Lord
.  Nia’s mind went into panic mode and her hands froze on the flap of her suitcase.  Eddie wasn’t the only person she had to worry about discovering she’d married one of the richest men in the world.  Aaron was aware of the conflict between the Norwoods and the Andrettis.  Like her, he blamed Massimo for their father’s death and had more than once expressed his hate for the man.

Nia had allowed him to vent since she’d also hated Massimo—or at least thought she did.  She could never tell Aaron about her indecent proposal to Massimo, nor worse, why she married him.  Aaron would lose respect for her.  He would see her as a repulsive traitor.

Nia dumped her clothes on top of the suitcase and buried her face in her hands.  She’d cleared one hurdle, just to run smack up against another.  When would it ever stop?  Her throat ached from desperation and defeat.

Nia wished her father were here.  He would know what to do, what to say, how to protect her, how to comfort her.  She missed him so much. 
Daddy!

Nia moaned as a deep familiar pain settled in her chest.

“Nia, what’s wrong?”

Nia stiffened at the sound of Massimo’s voice.  His tone was laced with tenderness and concern, the kind of tenderness and concern that no one had shown her since she was seventeen.  For the past five years she’d been projecting this aura of control and togetherness, primarily for Aaron’s sake, but inside she’d always been scared, uncertain, and alone.  She’d stayed strong and resolute.  As head of the family, it was her duty to do so.  She’d had no one to be strong for her.  And now that someone had come along, someone who was willing to take on the world on her behalf, she couldn’t point out the monsters that were frightening her, threatening her life.

“
Cara
?”  His tone had softened, almost to a whisper.

“It’s been a long day,” she said, fighting back the tears and trying to keep the tremors from her voice.  “I’m just tired.”

Massimo felt a sharp stab in his chest as he watched Nia slump to the floor with her face buried in her hands.  She looked frail and beaten down—not the image he wanted her to project while they exchanged their vows.

As her sobs reached him, something told Massimo that her fatigue ran far deeper than the physical.  Her emotions and psyche were shattered as well.

He left his chair and, dropping to the floor beside her, he gathered her into his arms and held her tightly as she cried softly.  He felt like a jerk for causing her such distress.

Damn it!  Not only had he been determined to keep Nia in town and force her to marry him tonight, but he’d also wanted to know why she needed that money and who she had to pay off.  Since Paul had vanished into obscurity, Massimo had been tempted to hire another private investigator to dig further into her background—talk to her friends and neighbors—but unsure of what he was dealing with, he’d refrained from doing so.  Tipping off the wrong person about Nia’s whereabouts could put her in more danger.

And that was the absolute last thing Massimo wanted to do.

He’d hoped to trick her into revealing that bit of information earlier, but he’d gone about it all wrong and she’d clammed up.  It might also have given him a clue as to where he’d seen her before.  That image of her eyes staring back at him through the slits of the
khimar
had sparked his hope of recognition.  Several times tonight he’d tried to evoke that image again, widen the scope of the lens to include the immediate surroundings, but to no avail.

Massimo sighed as Nia burrowed deeper into his embrace like he’d often watched Jabari’s cubs burrow into their mothers’ chests.  He was tired too, and would love nothing more than to scoop Nia up, take her home, and put her to bed. 
It has been a long day
.  He’d been up before dawn and needed a good night’s sleep himself.  He’d never met a woman who worried him half as much as Nia Sylk did.  Or perhaps he should say he’d never met a woman he cared enough about to let her worry him.

As he threaded his fingers through her long silky hair, Massimo found himself wishing he’d met Nia six months ago when he’d finally decided to keep his inheritance.  He would have loved to take the time to woo her properly, teach her to trust him, to depend on him, to know he was on her side, make her want to marry him instead of forcing her into doing.  She’d stumbled into his life way too late to afford him that luxury.

Massimo tightened his arms about Nia and rested his chin on the top of her head as the sounds of her sobbing ceased.  Except for the heavy thudding of her heart—or perhaps it was his—the room was shrouded in silence.

He found the thought that he needed Nia very satisfying for several reasons, but he concentrated on the one most critical.  It was imperative that he maintained control of Andretti Industries since Fonandt Energy had secured ninety-five percent of the global wind energy contracts.  He and Bryce had been the biggest winners at the meeting tonight, and starting early next week they’d be doing a lot of traveling as they prepared to make the world a better place for future generations. 
Theirs included
. 

All the good he was set to do would be gone if he lost control of Andretti Industries.  As he held her, Massimo once again swore in his heart that he would protect Nia from whatever big bad wolves were after her.  He would destroy them, all of them, for threatening her, for pushing her to the point where she thought she had to prostitute herself.

As her husband, he would have every legal right to revenge her honor by any means possible.  This might be the twenty-first century, but the customs of the old ways—the old Italian ways—were still entrenched in Massimo’s heart.  When it came to family, honor and loyalty ruled.  Nobody threatened an Andretti and got away with it. 
Nobody
.

Even his father had returned to the old customs and sent Judith Carmichael and the bastard child she was carrying packing when he realized how much pain and embarrassment his affairs had inflicted on his wife.  Sadly, by then it was way too late.  He’d already lost her respect, her trust, and most significantly her love.

Massimo was determined that Nia would not suffer such a fate.  Boy, a lot about him had changed in four days, he realized.  At what precise moment had he become such a sap?

Massimo tensed at the knock on the door.  He turned his head to see the blonde head of his attorney, Steven Lynd, peeking through the narrow pane of glass.  He raised his hand to halt his entrance.  As Steven drew back out of sight, Massimo eased Nia away from his body so he could see her face.

He felt that sharp stab in his chest again as he gazed into her red teary eyes.  “My lawyer and the judge are ready,” he said, rather authoritatively.  He hated being so rash with her, but he couldn’t show one ounce of weakness or she would back out of the agreement.  She had to still believe he was a jerk.

“Can’t we just go home?” she asked on a sniffle.  “I already agreed to marry you.  Do we have to do it tonight?”

“I’m leaving the country on business in a few days, Nia.”