LITMIR.BIZ

       CHAPTER NINE

      RAPHAEL’S APARTMENT WAS located in a trendy, upscale area of Milan’s fashion district. The lights and fanfare of the canal district were visible from the tenth-floor apartment. Yet there was utter privacy too.

      After the harrowing week at the hospital with Gio, the quiet and the ultraluxury didn’t sit well with Pia. Both of them had spent the whole week in the hospital, keeping a silent vigil by the side of the man they adored.

      She hadn’t argued when he had commanded that she would rest at his apartment for the night.

      They both knew she needed the break. At least they’d learned that the heart attack had been a mild one, and that Gio’s diet was the primary culprit.

      She poured herself a glass of Chianti from the wine rack and walked through the open, contemporary plan. She wished Raphael had stayed but he’d barely showed her to a room before he’d made his escape.

      Maybe he was afraid she’d pounce on him again.

      A harsh laugh escaped her as she remembered asking him if he was also afraid that she was stealing his share from Gio’s wealth. Clearly, Raphael had his own fortune to manage and didn’t need Gio’s. She explored the steel and chrome kitchen, the state-of-the-art gym, two balconies, a humongous study with a dark mahogany table in the center with a picture of Alyssa and floor-to-ceiling bookshelves with mostly books on automobiles and engineering, a sitting room and two guest bedrooms.

      She took a long shower in the attached bathroom of the guest room, only realizing then that she didn’t have any fresh clothes. Delving into the closet provided a white dress shirt, pressed and folded and a couple of packages of women’s new underwear. The bra was two sizes two big. Trying hard to rein in her riotous curiosity, Pia donned the underwear and the shirt which fell to her thighs. And knew it was Raphael’s.

      Instant comfort surrounded her at the faint scent of him. But it was unbearable too. Because nothing had changed.

      She still wanted him. And not just for a quick screw, as he had called it. Even with things awkward between them, she couldn’t help but soak in the warmth and strength of his presence over the last week.

      Efficient and ruthless as ever, he’d chased away the hordes of Gio’s relatives that had descended on the hospital with one look. When one had called him a backstabber, Raphael had simply shrugged it away.

      He’d been fierce, as if he could hold Gio to this earth by the sheer force of his will. He had let her borrow his strength, his conviction. He’d even made her smile when he’d snarled that the old goat was far from done manipulating the pair of them.

      But Pia knew him now. She saw what no one else did under that ruthless exterior. Gio’s attack had shaken him. She could feel something eating away at him, not that he would talk about it. And least of all with her.

      He’d made it perfectly clear he wanted nothing to do with her.

      As she sank into a deep slumber, Pia could think of no other man she’d want by her side protecting her.

      No man she wanted to know more. No man she wanted to risk her heart with.

      * * *

      Raphael had just finished his quickly put together 2:00 a.m. dinner, and poured himself a glass of red wine when he heard soft steps behind him.

      Dannazione, he had tried not to wake her...

      Closing his eyes, he stayed where he was, with his back to her. But he could see her reflected in the glass panes in front of him.

      Clad in his white shirt, which fell tantalizingly to her thighs, she was rubbing sleep-mussed eyes behind him. He should have trusted his instincts and stayed at the hospital.

      But he’d given his answer to Gio tonight and the knowledge of it was like the continual strike of a spark plug to fuel.

      “Raphael?” Her husky voice floated toward him across the kitchen.

      Swallowing the last of his wine as if it were water, he turned.

      Her hair created a vaguely golden halo around her face, her long, long legs—toned and nicely tanned, bare from her thighs down—hit him hard. All these days, he had watched her, wanted her, with a desire that grew stronger by the minute. He’d held off because he had no intention of taking her when he didn’t want a relationship. No intention of being roped into anything he didn’t want.

      Now there was nothing to hold him back. Nothing to stop him from possessing her.

      “Sorry I disturbed you. Go back to sleep,” he said, not quite meeting her eyes.

      She shook her head and a mass of hair fell forward. It was an utterly feminine gesture he was sure she didn’t even realize she’d made. He kept the marble island between them, as if physical distance could somehow negate the hot pounding of blood in his veins.

      “I had already woken up. For a few minutes, I couldn’t remember where and why.” She rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.

      That she felt so comfortable with him to stand in his apartment in the middle of the night, half-dressed, when she’d always been like a skittish horse around him, it denoted a level of trust he’d never wanted. “And then I had this sick, twisted feeling in my tummy. I thought I had lost Gio and you were... Then it all came crashing down and I jerked awake.”

      She leaned back against the wall, which made the shirt pull up. Another inch of toned thigh was displayed and his body tightened another notch. Her pose made those small high breasts of hers jut forward.

      Alluring and sexy and like a gift for him to unwrap. He swallowed hard.

      He needed to go to bed and so did she. Separately. And yet he couldn’t help asking, “I did what in your ghastly nightmare, Pia? What could be so much worse than walking away when you were trembling from the orgasm I gave you?”

      “You were screaming at me that it was all my fault. That I... I killed Gio.”

      Reaching her, careful not to touch her, he said, “You’ve had a strenuous week.”

      She dragged her fingers over her face, leaving impressions, “Oh, God, what are we going to do?”

      “We’re just going to sleep for about forty-eight hours.” The image of sleeping with her—their limbs tangled, her lithe body pressed against hers—hit him with a fierce longing.

      “I couldn’t sleep with all these thoughts swirling in my head. Would you tell me the truth if I asked you, Raphael?”

      He instantly became wary. “If I can,” he said reluctantly.

      He’d always been the protective type with his sisters and even with Allegra. After everything she’d done, it was he who had finally dragged her to the rehabilitation program. Whether he believed she’d get through it was a different matter.

      But with Pia, he was aware of all of his shortcomings. It was as if she constantly held up a mirror for him and he couldn’t bear to see what it would show. He didn’t want to hurt her. He didn’t want to do anything that would break her pure spirit.

      He couldn’t stay away from her either. Not anymore. Suddenly, he felt as if he could breathe again.

      “Did I cause Gio’s attack?”

      “Pia—”

      “No, please. You don’t know. But I...a few hours before the attack,

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