Giorgio (Vigilance 1)

“How did you get this job?”

Giorgio glanced at me. “It’s invitation only. You’ve got to know the right people.”

“But what you do isn’t…”

“Legal? Fuck no. But it needs to be done.”

That was a hell of a lot to take in. “How do you get away with that?”

“There are people involved with a lot of money and a lot of power.”

Trained killers with money and power. That was terrifying. “You really just called somebody to come take that man away.”

“I did. He’s tied up in the house right now. I gave him something to keep him resting while he waits.”

“A sedative?”

“Yes.”

“And you just happened to have one on you?”

“Always.”

Fuck. He was even scarier than I’d thought. “The first time I saw you I thought you were dangerous.”

“I am, but it didn’t keep you away, did it?”

“Not for a second. It was a total turn-on.”

“How about now that you know more?”

I considered that for a moment. “Nothing has changed.”

He gave me one of his half smiles, then focused back on the road. “What made you realize something was off with Alan?”

“From the beginning, I felt slightly uneasy around him, but I kept telling myself it was just nerves. The more I was with him, the more I felt like he wasn’t ever his real self with me. It was like he was playing a role, like he distanced himself from whatever we were doing, even sex.”

Giorgio’s hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I do not like thinking about that bastard touching you.”

I shouldn’t love Giorgio’s jealousy as much as I did, but scared as I was, his fierce protectiveness made my cock start to swell. “I ignored my reservations because I liked the attention I got when I went out with him, and I wanted a showing in his gallery. I never saw what we had as something that would last long-term, but the more time I spent with him, the more uneasy I became. He was never warm. There was never any soul in… anything he did.” I hadn’t really understood how wrong it had felt until I’d been with Giorgio. “That might sound ridiculous, but—”

“Not at all. You are one hundred percent present in everything you do. You deserve the same from any man you’re with.”

“We weren’t exclusive. He made that clear from the beginning, but he expected me to be available whenever he chose, and he’d get annoyed with me if I wasn’t.”

Giorgio growled. “Fucking bastard.”

“I shouldn’t have put up with it, but I thought showing my work in his gallery might be the break I needed. My agent hadn’t been able to get me any high-end galleries like his because I was so new. I know it sounds stupid now, like I was pimping myself out for a gallery showing he probably wasn’t ever going to give me. All he wanted was for me to smile and look pretty as he paraded me around at parties. It was like I was his pet artist. I fucking hated it, but I was caught up in wanting to prove myself, and I let it go on for way too long.”

21

Giorgio

I wanted to beat Alan Hendon senseless, wait for him to wake up, and do it again. When I finally got tired of that game, I’d put a bullet through his heart. How dare he treat Lane like that?

“What made you end it?”

He sighed, and I laid my hand on his thigh, wanting to reassure him. “Like I told you, he wanted me to come with him to a sex party. I wasn’t opposed to the idea in theory, but something about the way he described it and the people I knew would be there told me I should say no. Fortunately it was on the same night as a small showing my agent had booked for me. Alan was furious when I’d said no. He told me there would be people there who could further my career and that networking with them was more important than some tiny gallery that would never get me anywhere. But how the hell was I going to network in the middle of an orgy?”

I was so mad I could have sworn there was a red haze over the road. “I’m going to kill him.”

“No. He’s not worth the trouble. I told him I wasn’t going to get a reputation for not showing up for openings. I liked the gallery owner, and while the establishment was small, she was well respected.”

“What did he do then?”

“Nothing immediately, but when I got home after the opening, he’d let himself into my apartment and brought another man with him. He said he was sure I needed a thorough fucking to celebrate my showing, so he brought along someone to join us. The man’s eyes were cold and emotionless, and he looked at me like I was no more important than a blow-up doll. I’d had threesomes before, but that wasn’t what I wanted that night, especially not with someone as creepy as the man he’d brought.”