Chapter 15: Without a Clock

Renata's POV

I knocked on his door at midnight with my phone left on the hall table and my watch in my pocket.

Gabriele opened it in his shirtsleeves.

He looked at my empty wrist.

"There's only one exit in this house I want," I said. "And it's this one."

He did not say anything.

He stepped back, and I walked in, and he shut the door.

The room was dark except for a lamp, and the bed was wide and made.

On the nightstand sat a small brass clock.

I crossed to it and turned its face to the wall.

"Now there isn't one in the room," I said.

"Renata."

"You said come and find you."

"I did."

"I'm here."

He crossed the floor in three steps and took my face in both hands.

His kiss was slow, and it was nothing like the one on the couch.

That one had been hunger.

This one was a man who had waited five years and meant to take every minute of it.

I pushed my hands up under his shirt, and his skin was hot and tight over the muscle.

He sucked in a breath.

"Slowly," he said against my mouth.

"I don't want slowly."

"I know."

"Then what are you waiting for?"

"Underboss only," he said, and I felt him smile. "Those were the terms."

"Then amend them."

"To what?"

"Underboss and yours," I said.

He made a low sound in his chest, and the next kiss was not slow.

He walked me back until my knees hit the mattress.

He undid my blouse one button at a time and pushed it off my shoulders.

When it fell, he stopped.

The lashes had faded to pale lines across my back, and he looked at every one.

He touched the old scar on my shoulder blade with two fingers, and then he bent and put his mouth on it.

It was warm and careful and it made my knees go.

"Nobody gets to put a hand on this again," he said into my skin, "unless you ask."

"I'm asking you."

"Say it again."

"I'm asking you, Gabriele."

He unhooked my bra and let it drop.

His hands came around to cup my breasts, and his thumbs dragged across my nipples until I arched back into his chest.

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