He plunged into me one last time with a grunt, and I could feel the heat of his desire pooling deep within me. I couldn’t move, could barely breathe as his body twitched against my ass. And then his grip loosened on my hair, his body bent over mine. His forehead was slick with sweat as it rested between my shoulder blades. All I could do was collapse on the sofa, my body trembling from the feeling of him still inside me as he grew soft.
“Fuck,” he whispered. Trailing kisses down my back, I felt him slip out. I felt empty without him.
His hands slipped around me, maneuvering my body so it was over his. I was like a limp doll in his arms, allowing him to arrange me how he liked. I could do nothing else. From beneath me, he kissed my neck, cheek, and lips, brushing the hair from my face.
“Sienna…” He sounded uncertain now. No trace of the monster was left.
“Hmmm?” I let my head fall against his chest, too tired to open my eyes.
“I’m sorry.” His voice sounded far away now. Warbled as if I were lost in a dream. “I’m so sorry.”
I mumbled something incoherent, something I didn’t even understand. All the while, his hand continued to brush along my hair, flattening it against my back as he kissed my cheek again and again. This time, his touch was gentle, so different from before. I almost don’t recognize the man lying beneath me.
I don’t know when I fell asleep, but suddenly I felt Dante moving beneath me. His hand shook my shoulder gently, his voice calling my name. I groaned, my entire body feeling as if I’d been run over with a truck. Or a train. I couldn’t decide which.
“Sienna, your phone.”
Now I could hear the faint trilling of my phone from the bedroom. I didn’t think I could even stand to go get it and half-decided to just not to. But Dante was already pushing me to my feet. I swayed a bit as I stood, my mind still muddled. He helped me to the bedroom, grabbing my phone from the bedside table.
“Here.” After making sure I wouldn’t collapse to the floor, he turned away.
Squinting my eyes, I read the name on the caller ID. Matteo. Shit. I answered quickly. “Hello?”
“Sienna, where the fuck have you been? I’ve been calling you for the past thirty minutes.”
“Sorry, I was…busy.” I snapped awake, the fury and fear in his voice sobering me up immediately. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
“What happened?” Mateo asked incredulously. He gave a short bark of laughter. It was laced with bitterness. “What happened is that we’ve just gone fucking bankrupt.”
Ice floods through my veins. “What?”
“You need to get the fuck down here, Sienna. You need to fix this. I told you. I warned you not to close down the docks! Now, look what’s happened—”
“What the fuck happened, Mateo? I told you to take care of this!” I sat on the edge of the bed, disbelief washing over me. I can’t breathe. The walls of the bedroom pressed in around me.
“I tried,” he snapped. “But I told you I could only do so much. You should have been dealing with this instead of running after that fucking idiot.”
“Don’t talk about him that way,” I bit back. “Just tell me what the fuck happened.”
“We lost almost all of our biggest customers. All of them, Sienna, except one or two. They demanded refunds, and there was no way to stop them. Our accounts off-shores have been shut down. Everything is gone. Everything.”
I sat there, frozen. Dante came back into the room, a hesitant look on his face. His own phone was gripped in his hand, still swiped on to the calling app. I could see his father’s name in green.
“Does anyone else know?” I demanded.
“Pretty much fucking everyone,” Mateo growled. “I tried to keep it under wraps, but those who ended their contracts with us went straight to the fucking Scaranos.”
Dully, I stared at Dante. His face was pale, his eyes full of apology. He knew. Had he known this would happen? Is that what he wanted? Was his plan to run off on a killing spree and then fucking me senseless now just a plan to distract me from what was really going on?
“Sienna? Are you still there?”
“Shut the fuck up, Mateo. I’ll be down at the office in a bit.” I hung up the phone, too furious to speak.
“Sienna…”
“Don’t you dare speak to me,” I hissed. Jumping to my feet, I stalk closer. My finger jabbed into his chest, hard enough to bruise. “You did this on fucking purpose. You wanted me distracted, so I wouldn’t pay attention to what was happening right under my nose.”
“Sienna, I swear. I didn’t fucking know—”