She pulled her hand away and glared at him. “I remember. There’s nothing wrong with my memory. Where are you sleeping? Because I’m going to throw myself on the bed, and as soon as I do, I’m going to sleep.”
She wouldn’t be, he could almost guarantee that, although maybe that would be a good thing. If he stalled long enough, they’d both fall asleep and the moment would pass. She was giving him every out. If he took it, there would be no going back, and their relationship would never be what he wanted or what either of them needed.
“The master bath is through those doors.”
The doors were glass, and once opened, revealed the enormous two-person double sink with a marble top and gold faucets. A deep Jacuzzi tub dominated the side of the room facing the woods, along with the wide double shower and the rows of various showerheads.
“Who lives like this, Taviano? There are so many dials and things, I couldn’t possibly figure out how to use the shower,” Nicoletta said.
“I’ll show you.” She made him want to laugh. The way she glared at him like it was all his fault that the man who constructed the house had built it as if with Taviano in mind. “But not tonight. You’ve had a shower. You can just brush your teeth and hop into bed. Your clothes are already in the drawers and closet. Emmanuelle and Lucia added more.”
Before she could protest, he added one of the best reasons she couldn’t protest. “As riders, we have to wear certain fabrics. All of your clothes are best constructed in those materials. You can’t just get them off the street. My family makes them specifically for riders.”
“Right, okay, that makes sense.”
He heard the relief in her voice. He turned to the door to the left of the double sink. “This leads to my closet. The right door is yours.” He didn’t look at her face as he opened the door and walked into the enormous room that opened up even more as he walked inside. One could fit a small apartment in the closet. He didn’t look back to see what she was doing. He was damned tired, and he needed to pull himself together. Too long in her company was wreaking havoc on his body, and now, the emotional overload was adding to his fatigue.
Coming out of the shadows always brought on a rush of sexual urgency. It was hot and it was powerful. Having Nicoletta right there only added to the immediate need he had fought off for hours. The pain in his arm had been pushed back, and now it came rushing to the forefront, just to add to the fact that tonight was officially going to be a bitch of a night.
He didn’t like to sleep in clothes. He was a restless sleeper and he often got up and walked around the house in the dark and then went back to sleep. For Nicoletta’s modesty he pulled on a pair of loose-fitting drawstring silk pants that were designed to slip into the shadows if need be. There was never a time that the attack on their family was forgotten, and the riders were provided with every type of clothing to get them into the shadows under any circumstances no matter where they were should they be attacked.
When he walked out of the closet to the double sink, Nicoletta was already back, brushing her teeth, her hair in a messy knot on top of her head, the way she often wore it before braiding it to go to bed. She wore a little pair of boy shorts and a short tank by one of the newer designers. It was sexy chic, and on Nicoletta, Taviano had to admit it worked. The material was thin and nearly transparent, an ombre effect that started light and ended in a darker color at the bottom, just at the end of the short little shirt.
He tried not to stare, but it was nearly impossible to keep his gaze from returning to her breasts as she bent toward the sink.
She rinsed her mouth out and glared at him, her gaze jumping to his chest and then remaining there, her lips forming that rounded O he liked to see, which gave him a few fantasies of his own. She waited until he finished brushing and rinsing before she turned her back on him and marched to the bed, flipping back the covers.
“Where are you sleeping, Taviano?”
“Right there in that bed beside you, Nicoletta. And don’t get weird on me. We’ve slept together before. This is the master bedroom, and this is where we’re both going to sleep.” Decisively, he pulled back the covers on the opposite side of the room from her.
She paused in the act of getting into the bed. “It isn’t the same and you know it. You weren’t …” She trailed off again and pointed to his chest. “And I wasn’t …” She made some ridiculous circle with her fingers that seemed to encompass her sexy little supposed-to-be-non-sexy lingerie.