She beamed at me. “I’m glad we cleared that up.”
“I have something to tell you—something that I hope will take your mind off Nicky—maybe forever.”
She brightened up. “Really? Great! Let me hear it.”
“Cesare Terranova is coming to stay at the estate for a while. This is your chance to get reacquainted with each other and see if you have a future together. If you play your cards right, you could come out of this with an engagement.”
She hopped off the desk, jumped up and down on the spot, and clapped her hands. “Goody! Yeee! When is he coming? Which room is he staying in? How long is he staying? I want to make sure everything is perfect. This is great!”
My heart plummeted all over again. I knew she’d be happy about Cesare coming to stay. I didn’t realize she would be as delighted as this.
Everybody saw the way they acted at the funeral. They acted like they were kids again and no time had passed since they loved each other so much.
I should have been happy that she was going to marry someone she really liked, but I couldn’t be happy about this. A flash of fantasy blinked across my mind, and I pictured myself killing Cesare, dumping his body in the East River, and marrying Gia myself.
She never needed me, and she would never love me as anything but an uncle. I was just a cardboard cutout filling a spot until her real prince stepped in. Whoever it was would push me aside, and Gia would forget all about me.
That was as it should be, but it still stung. I did my best to smile at her reaction and looked down to pull the laptop back to my side of the desk.
I waited for her to run off and start preparing for Cesare’s arrival, but without warning, she charged me and wrapped her arms around my waist. She hugged me tight and rested her head against my heart.
I gulped down rising anguish. Every minute I spent in her presence was turning into an excruciating agony. She hugged me a thousand times over the years, but now it just hurt because I could never take it any further.
Her arms around me meant the world to me, but they didn’t mean anything to her. She would forget all about me as soon as she started thinking about Cesare again.
I put my arm around her shoulders and hugged her back. My mind went into a tailspin imagining all the things I’d like to do right now—slide my fingers into her hair, guide her lips to mine, feel her melt in my arms as her breath quickened, wrap my fingers around her curvy ass…
I tried to push those thoughts out of my head. This was my niece, my precious little princess… but she wasn’t. She wasn’t related to me at all. She was a beautiful, voluptuous, intelligent, sensitive woman pressing her body against mine. I could even feel her breathing through her blouse.
She straightened up and shook her hair back from her face. She looked up at me… and froze when our eyes met.
There she was, right in front of me. Her eyes caught me in their undertow all over again. I couldn’t stop thinking about her as so, so much more than just a girl in need of my guidance and protection.
She looked up at me, and then she glanced down at my mouth. Her pupils dilated. Was she…? Her nostrils flared, and the faintest blush colored her cheeks. Was she thinking about me the same way?
Before I could think to stop her, she rose on her tiptoes and kissed me—and not on the cheek. She kissed me on the mouth—for real.
She sank down and stared up at me with something like a challenge. Did that just happen? Did I just imagine Gia Leone kissing me? Maybe my own fantasy ran away with me.
She still had her arms around my waist, and a sudden reckless daring seized me. I bent down and kissed her back. I meant to just give her a peck the way she did to me, but before I could think twice, she slipped one arm around my neck and pulled me down into her mouth.
My head exploded as her lips parted and her tongue darted between my lips. I was kissing her, and she was kissing me back.
All my fantasies erupted to life. I couldn’t keep my hands off her. I was kissing her the way I always dreamed—but not like I always dreamed. This was real—very, very real. Fuck, her mouth tasted so hot and sweet!
My hands slipped behind her back, and her body sagged in my embrace. She melted against me in such delicious waves that I couldn’t stop myself. I didn’t even try to stop it.
Scorching hot blood rushed to my crotch, and I crushed her against my hard prick. She whimpered in my mouth, and that sound set me off as never before.
I tightened my grip on her and started kissing her harder. My tongue swirled around hers, and then I pushed her tongue back into her mouth. She gasped, and her lips went slack for a minute when I dug my package between her legs.
I lifted her off the floor, and she dissolved in my arms so perfectly. I glided my hand down to her ass and ground her sweet body into my throbbing prick. I wanted her right now, right here on my desk.
I didn’t give myself a second to doubt. If this all came to an end in a few minutes, I didn’t want to walk away with any regrets. If she wanted this, I would give her everything she wanted.
I swiveled her around and sat her down on the desk. She kept sighing and yelping in my mouth. I tore off her lips and attacked her shirt buttons. She still wore the tight pencil skirt she had on at the funeral. It stopped her from spreading her knees, but I didn’t care.
I tore her blouse open and panted through bared teeth, squeezing her breasts and shoving her skirt up with my other hand. I pushed it high enough that she pried her legs apart. She really did want it.