Because he couldn’t find a flaw.
He couldn’t find something to dislike in the shape of her hips, or the length of her legs, her skin golden with a sheen from the rain, but olive-toned, too. Her breasts, emphasized by the beige lace of the bra cups peeking out from the low-cut front of the dress, lifted and fell quickly with her breaths, which only drew his gaze higher. To the delicate column of her throat, tense with her nerves, and making that diamond choker glitter as it caught the light.
And her face.
Her face.
Small featured, wide eyes, stained-red lips, and beautiful.
Yeah, it was no fucking wonder to him why this woman had caught his lover’s eye. Because frankly, it took very little effort for her to make Alessio pay attention to the way she looked, too. Although, physical beauty was one thing.
Anyone could be beautiful.
Lots of people were.
What was it about her that made Ginevra different?
That was his question.
He’d thought, maybe stupidly, that he would come here and find out why Corrado had been so willing to lie to Alessio for nothing more than a woman—if he wanted a woman, there were thousands of them all around him, he could go find one.
What was it about this woman?
Why lie for this woman?
And that just pissed him off.
A lot more.
“Where is Corrado?” Ginevra asked.
Her voice was musical, really. Soft, and light. Like a melody floating through the air to reach his spot down the hall. He could hear the nerves working in her tone, too, and yet, she still managed to sound polite.
Why was she being polite?
If she knew who he was—did she even know?—then she would have no reason to be nice. It made him wonder if Alessio wasn’t the only person Corrado had been lying to lately. It wouldn’t be such a stretch, all things considered.
“Well?” Ginevra demanded.
Okay, there went her politeness.
Alessio, who hadn’t moved from his spot against the wall since she opened the penthouse door, tipped his head up a bit. He’d not really met her stare since she found him standing there. Oh, he looked her way, and she looked his. He took his time to check out what made up the woman that his lover seemed determined to hide from him, and he hadn’t missed the way she looked him over, either.
Still ...
He hadn’t met her gaze.
Not until now.
Through the longer strands of his shaggy hair, he met Ginevra’s stare head-on, unfazed and calm on the outside. He wanted her to see that—needed her to think that despite her presence here, he was fine.
Even if he was anything but.
He felt like a war, really.
She wouldn’t know it.
Ginevra stilled in place, her milk chocolate-colored eyes widening. No, she didn’t know her presence put him on edge, but he absolutely could see what his company did to her. Not that the beautiful woman wanted him to know, he thought, because she was quick to clench one hand tightly around the clutch she held, and her other formed a fist at her side. That trembling in her shoulders stopped, and she tipped her chin up.
Staring right back at him.
Standing tall.
As beautiful as ever.
God.
Any other fucking time—any other fucking woman—and he would have really appreciated that spirit. That determination he found in her gaze, hell yeah, he would have liked it, and urged her on to show him more.
He loved when people surprised him.
Not this woman, though.
Not right now.
“Are you going to answer me, or not?” Ginevra asked.
Fine.
But he was having fun here, that’s all.
She didn’t have to know that, right?
“Oh, I tricked him,” Alessio said, grinning.
He tipped his head to the side a bit to watch her from that angle. He kept finding new things about her to stare at depending on the angle, and the direction at which he watched. Like now, he could see the way the side of her smooth, creamy throat worked as she chewed on her words, and held them back.
Come on, girl, say what you wanna say to me, I fucking dare you.
She had to know who he was.
Had to.
He just felt it in his bones.
Good.
Because he wanted her to.
She’d came into this place after him; she came here when he’d already been here. His thing—his person—was not for her. And he wasn’t going to hand it over; he would not give Corrado to anyone. They would have to take him from Alessio first.
“I tricked him,” Alessio said again, shrugging one leather-covered shoulder. “See, I knew he wouldn’t give me five minutes alone with you when, up until now, he seemed determined to keep you from me, for whatever reason.”
“I thought he was with you tonight.” Ginevra’s fingers drummed against the side of her clutch, and she glanced away from him. All those nerves—he saw it all and took them for what they were. “I saw the message you sent—that was you, right?”
“That’s how I tricked him.”
He laughed.
Ginevra simply stared.
Alessio rolled his eyes, getting bored now. “See, if I got him away from you ... then I wouldn’t have to worry about him being over my shoulder when I came up here to find what I was looking for.”
But, oh, he certainly planned to have a conversation with Corrado, and very soon. He suspected the man was realizing, if he hadn’t already, that Alessio was not, in fact, at a bar two blocks away from this penthouse that he and Corrado frequented together to play pool when they were in the city.
It wouldn’t take much for Corrado to put two and two together—it always made four, after all. He’d be on his way back to this penthouse soon, if he wasn’t already, and then Alessio would move into the second thing he came here for.
Dealing with Corrado.
Letting him know he knew.
Simple, really.
“And did you?” Ginevra asked softly.
There was something about her lips that kept drawing his gaze in. The bottom lip was a bit fuller than the bottom, making her look as though her mouth was set into a sweet pout. Stained red from whatever lipstick she had been wearing earlier in the evening, the color took away the innocence her mouth might held and made him think of dangerous things.
Like how one might smudge what remained of the stain, or how it got that way to begin with. Was it the rain? Her tongue wiping at the line of her lips? Corrado, even? Had he kissed it off her—licked it off her?
All things Alessio didn’t need to wonder.
Yet, he still did.
“Well, did you?” Ginevra asked.
“Did I, what?”
“Find what you were looking for here.”
How simple that question felt.
The answer was far from easy, though.
Because no.
No, he had not found what he was looking for. Some crazy part of him thought he would come here, lay eyes on this woman, and just know what it was about her that had Corrado willing to hide her. Whatever it was about her that made his lover prepared to throw away the trust that Alessio gave to no one.
He still didn’t know.
It pissed him off.
Pushing away from the wall, Alessio moved down the hallway faster than Ginevra could react to his oncoming form. She took a step back, though, but it was too late because he’d already come close enough to her that his proximity alone allowed him two things.