The Princes' Brides. Sandra Marton

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СКАЧАТЬ throaty little moans. The soft cries. The lift of her hips to his. Real. All of it. So real, he knew he’d never forget anything they had done together.

      And he was damned well going to force her to admit it. She might have come on to him deliberately but after the first few minutes in his arms, everything had changed.

      Aimee had followed where he led, all the way to ecstasy.

      Dio, just thinking about it was making him hard, and if that wasn’t ridiculous, he didn’t know what was. He was a man who had his pick of women and even the occasional ones who started by pretending his touch drove them crazy soon forgot to pretend.

      There were half a dozen women waiting for his return to Rome. One phone call, he’d have whichever of them he wanted ready to welcome him into her bed.

      But he would be less a man if he didn’t end this in a way that made it clear who was the victor, not just by walking out on the deal James Black had engineered but by forcing the old man’s accomplice-in-crime to admit that what she’d felt in his arms had been real.

      It was the penalty she’d pay for her duplicity.

      Nobody lied to Nicolo Barbieri and got away with it, especially not a woman who had haunted his days and nights for three entire months.

      The cab pulled up in front of a tired-looking, five-story tenement. James Black’s granddaughter, Saturday night’s party girl, lived here?

      Maybe he had the address wrong.

      There was only one way to find out.

      Nicolo handed the cabbie a bill and told him to wait. Then he climbed the grimy steps to the front door. An unlocked front door.

      Not a good idea in a neighborhood like this, but how Aimee lived was not his problem.

      The door opened on a small vestibule, thick with the faint but unmistakable odor of beer and other, less palatable things. The only signs of life were the mailboxes set into a stained gray wall.

      Nicolo scanned the nameplates. A. Black lived in apartment 5C.

      The door that opened into the house itself had no lock, either. None that was usable, anyway. Ahead, a dimly lit staircase with time-worn treads rose into the gloom.

      Nicolo started up.

      By the time he reached the fifth floor and apartment 5C, he was almost hoping he’d come to the wrong place. This was the kind of building that epitomized the things people tried to avoid when they lived in Manhattan.

      So what? he told himself again. How Black’s granddaughter lived was her affair.

      He hesitated. Had coming here actually been a good idea? What would he gain by forcing her to admit she’d enjoyed what they’d done together? Was his ego that fragile, that it needed affirmation from a woman like this?

      Before he could change his mind, Nicolo pressed the bell button.

      Nobody answered.

      He rang again. And then again. Okay. He’d come here, she wasn’t home. That is, she wasn’t home if he even had the correct address, which he doubted…

      The door swung open. Not far, just a couple of inches, but enough for him to see the woman who’d opened it.

      Aimee.

      She stared at him. Her eyes widened. “No,” she whispered, “no…”

      What would come next was in those wide eyes. Besides, they had done this dance before.

      She started to slam the door but Nicolo was too quick. She cried out and fell back as he put his shoulder to the door and forced it open. A second later, he was inside a tiny foyer.

      Aimee was pressed against the wall, looking up at him with fear in her eyes.

      He felt a tightening in his gut.

      She hadn’t been afraid of him that night…But this wasn’t that night. It was good that she was afraid. Hell, it was what he wanted. When he was done with her…

      “No,” she said again, her voice high and thin.

      Her eyes rolled up. She collapsed as if she were a marionette and someone had cut her strings.

      Nicolo caught her before she crumpled to the floor. It was an automatic move but he knew damned well the faint was simply another outstanding performance…

      Merda. His heart skipped a beat. It was not an act. She was limp in his arms.

      He looked around frantically, saw a small sofa and carried her to it. “Ms. Black. Aimee. Can you hear me?”

      Stupido! Of course she couldn’t hear him. She was unconscious. What did you do for an unconscious woman?

      Cold compresses. And spirits of—of what? Ammonia? Who in hell had spirits of ammonia lying around in this day and age?

      A doorway opened onto a kitchen. Nicolo hurried inside, grabbed a towel from the sink, stuffed it with ice cubes from the fridge’s freezer tray and ran back into the living room.

      Aimee lay as he’d left her, small and unmoving, her pulse beat visible in her slender throat.

      “Aimee,” he said softly.

      She didn’t respond. Nicolo knelt beside her. Slipped his arm around her shoulders and lifted her to him.

      “Aimee,” he said again, and gently placed the ice pack against her forehead.

      After a moment, she groaned.

      “That’s it, cara. Come on. Look at me. Open your eyes and look at me.”

      Her lashes fluttered but her lids stayed down. Nicolo drew her closer. Held her against him, eased her silky curls from the back of her neck and ran the ice pack lightly over the nape.

      She moaned softly, her breath warm against his throat.

      He closed his eyes.

      He had forgotten what it was like to hold her. The delicacy of her bones. The floral scent of her hair. The unblemished softness of her skin.

      His arms tightened around her. “Aimee,” he whispered.

      Suddenly he held a wildcat in his arms. She pulled back, curled her hands into fists and pounded them against his shoulders.

      “Get away from me!”

      “Aimee! Stop it!”

      “What are you doing here?” Her voice shook. “Get out. Do you hear me? Get out!”

      Nicolo grabbed her wrists in one hand. “Damn it, you fainted! Would you rather I’d left you lying on the floor?”

      “I’d rather never see your face again!”

      His mouth thinned. He let go of her and rose to his feet.

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