His Dirty Demands (Dirty Billionaires 1)

“Are you hurt?”

“I have a bum knee, it’s nothing.” I’m overheated. Without thinking I untie the coat as I make my way to my door, unlocking it before I turn to tell him goodbye. He hasn’t moved from the top of the stairs—he’s almost twenty feet from me. God, he’s so still. For a moment I can barely tell he’s breathing. Is it the way he’s so cold that makes me lash out? I don’t know; what I meant to say was thank you for a surprisingly nice evening. What comes out is, “You really aren’t going to say anything about the dress?”

Oh my, I have truly poked the bear. A growl comes from him, low and guttural. I blink, and he’s in front of me, pushing me back against the door with his body. That can’t be what I think it is, then he moves, and oh my god it is. Holy crap, I blush at the way my body floods to prepare to take him inside even though I haven’t the faintest idea if he could fit. One large hand is burning me through the dress on my left hip, the other is around the back of my neck, lifting me up to him. His touch on my skin burns hot as any brand, marking me as his. Blacker than black his eyes swallow me whole as heat sweeps over me down to my toes.

“You want me to say something, Alicia? You want me to say you are so beautiful you make my entire body ache and my cock so fucking hard I swear the lightest touch would break me? You want me to say that the moment you took off your coat, I wanted to take you like an animal on the floor right where we both stood because my blood called for you? Do you want me to say that every time you chewed on that bottom lip of yours tonight, I wondered what your mouth would look like stretched around my cock?

“Or that the first time I saw you I wanted to fuck you up against the wall of the elevator, your legs wrapped around my waist and me sucking on that bottom lip as I fucked you hard and rough. That last night I dreamed of doing just that as I have several times since that first moment I saw you. Is that what you want me to say? It’s true, every fucking word and so many more.”

Oh god, so dirty, so hot, so fucking unbelievable, except I don’t doubt him for a second as he’s practically vibrating leased emotion. His words have melted every bone in my body, causing me to sink into him. The hand at the back of my throat tightens. I’m plastered against him, it’s my every dream come true and better than any I ever imagined it.

Yet fear mingles deep inside, not of him despite his almost feral behavior. The fear is of me, from me, how much I want him, want this moment to never end. “I don’t know.” I’m not even aware the words come out of me in a shaky whisper. I hear them from far away. Instantly, Cesare lets me go. My knees give way, and he catches my arm in a hard grasp to keep me standing. I grab the doorframe, embarrassed.

“Once you know, then we can go from there.” I blink, and he’s gone. His steps echo on the stairs.

Well, now I know what Cesare Sabatini wants. But what the hell do I want?

6

Cesare

Slamming into the car, I order Daniel to take me home. Christ, I’m still shaking from need. Why the fuck did I let her push me into giving voice to my desire? All night she had been asking for it, begging for it. Prodding and poking for a reaction, even though she had no idea what she was asking for.

I tried, damn it. I really tried. The cigar was nothing more than prevarication to annoy her, to keep her at a distance, to keep my hands from reaching for her and...fuck, I don’t even know.

While I was annoyed by Billings being too drunk to join us, I saw the evening as nothing more than a means to find out more about Alicia Jeffries, to find out what it was about her that drew me to her. A good dinner, hopefully, pleasant company, nothing more. Then she opened the coat. How I stayed standing, I don’t know. I’ve been hit in the temple by a guy twice my size with a fist the size of my head, and I swear I don’t think I was more stunned from the hit than I was at the sight of her.

Even now need is clawing at me. I hadn’t lied, I wanted to take her then and there without any preliminaries, raw, like the animal she was turning me into. This carnal need isn’t me. It’s never been me, and I resent the fuck out of Alicia Jeffries for what she’s doing to me.

I’ve barely closed my door before it opens again. Considering there’s a doorman and you need an electronic key card to get to this floor where only my and Dante’s condos inhabit the space, I don’t bother locking the door. I’m starting tonight, though.

“You’re home late. It’s almost eleven thirty,” Dante taunts as he hops on the bar separating the living room from the kitchen. After the foyer, the whole place is open plan from the kitchen to the living room to a massive dining room.

“I’ve been home later than this for client meetings.” I pull off the suit jacket, tossing it onto the long leather sofa. The fucker laughs. How he knew, I don’t want to know. The cuff links come off easily, and I slide them into my pockets as I roll my sleeves back.

“Except this wasn’t a client meeting. This was just you and Ms. Jeffries out to dinner. Imagine my surprise when I stopped by to make sure I didn’t need to protect Ms. Jeffries from you, and I saw her so enraptured in whatever you were saying she didn’t notice a single thing around her. Or the way you didn’t notice I was in the room either. Seeing as how you are home before midnight, I know how it didn’t go. I can keep my assistant for a while longer, but how much longer?”

Fuck, maybe if I’m honest he’ll let it go. I slump into the normally comfortable sofa. “It’s not happening. She doesn’t know what she wants. Which means she doesn’t want me. Which means, it’s not happening.”

I allow my head to fall back to search the ceiling. Nope, no answers there either. Dante’s quiet for so long I wonder if the asshole has lost his voice. I turn to see he’s hopped off the bar and is leaning against it thoughtfully, his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants, the only thing he’s wearing. “She’s a virgin.”

Goddamnit. I close my eyes as I go through every second of the evening, which adds up to Dante’s words not being some sick joke. So many things make sense. Christ, I need to get drunk.

I had no idea I spoke aloud until Dante sighs. “It’s not bad enough to get drunk over.”

“Bullshit, or you would have told me sooner.” I’m up and heading for the bar. Fuck wine, I grab the bottle of Macallan that a decade ago I would have winced at the price of and take a nice, deep burning swallow.

“Che, come on.”

“No, no Che come on. No, whatever it was, it’s over. Virgins, they want more. They want forever and things I can’t give. I’m not saying she doesn’t deserve those things, fuck, she deserves everything she wants, but I’m not the one to give it to her.” I take another swallow of the scotch, thankful for the burn, for the fire that follows to warm me up because I’m afraid of the cold that threatens to take me over.

***

Alicia

I’m lying on my bed, still in the damn dress I’m going to burn, with my mind spinning when my cell phone rings. There’s only one person who could be calling this late. I scramble for my phone as perturbed Grover makes it clear he’s not happy about being woken up.

“Hey, what’s up? Are you okay?”