“How do we work out the other women, Val? Do we work out that I get to sleep with other men? Is that the way our relationship is supposed to go forward? I guess we should have talked about what we both expected. The idea that another man could touch me after you was abhorrent. I thought it would be the same for you, but clearly I was wrong.”
“You weren’t wrong, Emme.” Valentino let go of her wrist for the first time, bringing his hands to his lap. He stared down at his empty palms. “Touching anyone but you or allowing any other woman to touch me feels disgusting.”
“And yet you did.”
“If you think I stuck my dick in her, I didn’t.”
“She was naked, Val. In your bedroom.” Her lungs nearly seized all over again. She couldn’t breathe.
She was back in that room, looking at the man she loved more than life itself. She’d gone to him prepared to tell him she’d give up everything for him. She would live her life with him. She knew if she chose Val, she would never ride the shadows again. Her mother would disown her. She would be considered the wife of a criminal. It didn’t matter. She loved him that much.
She had ridden the shadows right into his home, bypassing his guards, straight into his bedroom. He hadn’t been alone. There had been a tall, busty blonde, completely naked, facing Val, on her knees, looking up at him and inquiring about Emmanuelle.
“I thought you were all about that little Ferraro girl.”
“Really, babe?” Val had said, his fist in the woman’s hair. “I had orders to make her fall in love with me, which was damn easy to do.” He sounded like he was snickering. “Do you really think I want a spoiled baby who doesn’t know jack about sex?”
Her world had shattered, not just her heart. Val had looked up then, his eyes meeting hers. For one terrible moment, she thought he looked as devastated as she did. She’d stepped back into the shadow tube and let it take her. She hadn’t ever allowed him to talk to her about that night since. Really, what could he say?
CHAPTER FOUR
Emmanuelle, breathe,” Valentino said. “Princess, you’re not breathing.”
She wasn’t. She couldn’t get air. It was silly, really. She was over this. She had been for the last two years. Okay, maybe the last year. She’d taken a year to grieve. To put up barriers between them. She’d had to find a way to block out that sensual melody he could play on her nerve endings when she felt so sorrowful. It had taken time—and distance. She’d taken rotations for work in foreign countries. So many of them, exhausting herself so she couldn’t think.
Emme forced air into her starving lungs. “I just want to know how to undo the ties between us, Val. You don’t need to explain things. I didn’t ask about other women because I was too naïve.”
“I know it looked bad. It sounded bad. It hurt you, Emmanuelle, and I’m so sorry for that, but that woman had been sent by Miceli. I wasn’t about to let her take back information to him that you meant something to me. By that time, I knew he was part of a human trafficking ring. He knew I was trying to find a way to prove it to Giuseppi. I didn’t have a clue about the auctions, only that he had a hand in young girls being kidnapped in other states.”
Emmanuelle wanted that information more than she wanted to dwell on her own hurt. She’d heard rumors about far too many young girls disappearing. They were taken from malls. On their way home from school. From after-school classes. From jobs. Just about anywhere, never to be seen again unless a dead body turned up.
“The woman you saw—her name is Marge Marino—is deeply entrenched in Miceli’s organization. She runs one of his strip clubs for him. She’ll do anything he wants her to do, including kill someone. She’s one of his most trusted enforcers. I was pretty shocked when she started coming on to me. Nothing big at first, just kind of smiling at me and then rubbing up against me. Eventually, she called and asked me to have lunch with her. She kept coming on to me and once in a while slipped in a question about you. Miceli and I were dancing around each other. He knew I was investigating his activities.”
Emme didn’t say anything. This was the woman who had laughed with Val over Emmanuelle’s lack of knowledge when it came to sex. Running a strip club where anything went in the back rooms, Emme could imagine that Marge had a vast experience that she didn’t.
Valentino groaned and reached for her wrist again. He settled his fingers on her skin gently but firmly. She knew she shouldn’t let him. She should even feel repulsed, but she ached. Hurt. Needed comfort, even if it was from the enemy. She stayed very still and didn’t look at him.
“There were all kinds of rumors about the two of us. Miceli wanted a way to get to me. All he had to do was confirm that I was crazy about you, Emme. We were careful, so no one ever managed to see us together, but I had to deny to everyone that you mattered to me. I knew the moment Marge started coming on to me and slipping in sly little questions about you that he’d sent her.”
Emmanuelle tried to push away the images of the woman, naked, laughing with Val at her expense. Unfortunately, they were burned into her memory for all time. Subtly, she tried to pull her wrist free of his hold.
Val clamped his fingers tighter. “Will you just listen?”
“Why? Are you going to tell me how good she was at sucking your cock for you?”
“She was never going to suck my cock. For fuck’s sake, Emme. Every time Elie put his hands on you, I knew it. We’re tied together. If another woman touched me or put her mouth on me, don’t you think you would have known it? I had to convince her you didn’t mean anything to me and that Giuseppi was trying to get dirt on your family. More, I had done a little bit of establishing some groundwork of my own, acting like I was more open to some things my father wasn’t in terms of trafficking.”
Emmanuelle was silent, trying to process what she’d seen, the sound of his voice now, both stark truth and even annoyance at her for not believing him when he’d tried to explain over and over and she hadn’t let him. She forced herself to remember what Elie had said to her when they’d been in the pizzeria together. Sometimes things weren’t what they appeared and people needed to be heard out.
It was difficult to get past the sight of the naked blonde or the sound of the shared laughter. Maybe that was the worst of it. The humiliation. Did Brielle feel that same humiliation every time she looked in the mirror the way Emmanuelle did? Emme wanted to go find Elie and kick him just the way she wanted to kick Val.
“How were you going to avoid her sucking your cock when she was so very intent on doing just that and still have her go back to Miceli and report you were one hundred percent on board with whatever she wanted?” Emmanuelle didn’t even care that there was sarcasm in her voice. She couldn’t wait to hear his explanation.
“Dario. He knew the setup. He knew what Marge was there for. The moment she stripped down, got on her knees and crawled to me, I sent him the signal to interrupt us. Fortunately, she asked the question I was waiting for. Or unfortunately, due to your timing. In any case, Dario arrived, walked right in with an emergency, ignoring Marge and telling me we had to go now.”
“I see.” Emmanuelle wasn’t certain she could believe him. She didn’t know what to believe. She’d had two years of reliving that scene.