She exhaled shakily and touched her lips to the crinkly hair on his chest. It felt like fingers clutched at her throat hearing him say those poignant words.

“Emma?” he prompted after a moment.

“Yes,” she whispered.

His fingers moved on her scalp. “If I’m only going to have you for a limited period of time, I want you completely, and on my terms. Will you see Dr. Parodas tomorrow?”

She should say no. She was crazy to be considering it. It was a level of intimacy far beyond their agreed-upon relationship. But the mental image she had of him staring up at the ceiling, believing himself to be protected by the darkness, plagued her.

He was so alone, even here, while she was pressed so tightly to him, skin to skin. She wasn’t his savior. She wasn’t much of anything but a very average young woman. And yet, there was that connection she felt to him, a connection she couldn’t entirely explain away by naïve imagination.

“Yes,” she whispered, forcing the word out of her constricted throat. “I’ll do it.”

He fell asleep before she did. Emma lay there, feeling the subtle rise and fall of his chest beneath her cheek, entranced by the sensation, lulled by his clean, spicy scent mixing with the subtle perfume of sex, the fragrance heady and delicious. Being in Vanni’s arms cast a spell around her. The last thought she had before drifting off to sleep was that perhaps her entrancement was why she’d agreed to sacrifice so much of herself, when he was offering so little in return.

She awoke in a warm cocoon to the sensation of her sex being cupped in a possessive gesture while a large hand stroked the curve of her hip lazily. Emma realized she lay on her side, facing the windows while Vanni lay behind her, his long, hard body curling against her backside. His cock pressed against her ass, the only thing separating her from his stiff, pulsing erection a thin layer of cotton. Morning light filtered around the luxurious drapes. His fingers moved slightly on her sex and she purred sleepily.

“I haven’t slept that well since I was a kid,” he said near her ear, the deep, raspy sound making the skin of her neck roughen. “But even so, all night I dreamed about this.” His fingers moved again subtly on her pussy. “Are you tender?”

She bit her lip. “I’m fine,” she whispered. In fact, her sex ached with a dull throb. She wasn’t used to having as much sex as she’d had yesterday, nor was she accustomed to Vanni’s forceful, all-consuming manner of lovemaking. His hand stilled between her thighs. She felt his warm breath on her neck when he exhaled heavily.

“You’re lying, Emma,” he said, sweeping the hand that had been cupping her sex up her belly. Emma swallowed thickly when she felt the warm dampness on his fingers. His cock flicked against her backside. She tried to turn to put her arms around him, to assure him that she was fine, but he stopped her with a firm hand on her shoulder. “Trust me,” he said near her ear, his voice a dark, seductive threat, “you don’t want to test me. I felt you flinch just now. I’m going to go jump in the shower.”

“No, Vanni,” she protested when he moved away from her. She turned over and reached for him, but he was already standing by the bed. He looked down at her, his face rigid, his blue-green eyes glittering.

“You’ll have to have an exam in less than an hour with Dr. Parodas. Do you really think it’s advisable?” he asked, his handsome mouth quirking, one eyebrow shooting up and giving him a devilish demeanor.

“Maybe you’re right,” she said slowly, but her gaze sunk down his ridged, sun-bronzed abdomen to the vision of his erection tenting his pajama bottoms. “There’s something I should probably confess to, since you were being so honest last night,” she mused, stretching luxuriously so that the sheet slid below her nipples. His gaze darted downward hungrily.

“What?” he asked warily.

“I knew it was apricots.”

When he didn’t respond immediately, her gaze slid up to his face. He wore a storm cloud expression.

“Dammit, Emma, you’re going to pay for that,” he grated out, pointing a condemning finger. He came down on the bed next to her, his mouth set in a grim line, and her heart began to race. She tried to reach for his cock, but he caught her wrists and pressed them to the pillows. She couldn’t help laughing softly, even though he looked so fierce. “Don’t you dare look so smug,” he breathed out, and her laughter faded even though her smile lingered. “And don’t say I didn’t warn you, either.”

He dipped his head, immediately spearing her lips with his agile tongue, sinking into her, taking his fill. Her flesh turned to warm, sweet syrup beneath Vanni’s angry, wild kiss, and she remained completely unrepentant.

Week

FIVE

Chapter 22

The weather was par for the course in southern France when his pilot, Marco, landed. Vanni stared out the window onto a sun-drenched, luminous Mediterranean afternoon. They’d left Chicago in the middle of the night. He’d continued working on the flight, but also slept for almost four hours, which pleased him. Insomnia had become his constant demon as of late. Plus, he’d gotten an unheard-of seven hours of rest the night before, deep, peaceful sleep . . .

. . . with Emma in his arms.

How she could infuse him with energy, make him horny as a teenager, and yet promote a solid night’s sleep at the same time was yet another mystery when it came to Emma.

As they taxied in the private plane at the Nice Côte d’Azur Airport, he fleetly checked the dozens of messages that he’d acquired on the transatlantic flight. When he noticed that Neil Parodas had called recently, he immediately hit redial.

“Neil, I hope I’m not calling too early,” Vanni said when the physician answered on the second ring.

“No, I’m up and about. I was half expecting a call, after seeing you yesterday. We only had a little time to talk in private. That was certainly an unusual visit for you.”

Vanni zipped up his briefcase. Through the window, he saw that Marco was approaching their usual spot for deplaning.

“Well, there’s a first time for everything,” Vanni said, referring to the fact that he’d never brought a woman to his personal physician with a request for blood tests and exams with sexual safety in mind. Of course he and Meredith had gone to him for their premarital blood tests, but this was different. He’d known Neil for almost ten years now. As his private physician, Neil was privy to quite a few personal and intimate details about Vanni. He was one of a handful of people that had earned a place of trust and respect in Vanni’s life.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Neil was saying in his characteristic deep, warm voice that invited trust and confidence. “Ms. Shore is a beautiful young woman. Smart, too. What is it that you wanted to speak with me about?”

“Did Emma happen to mention during her exam yesterday anything about what happened to her when she was a child?” Vanni asked. The plane came to a halt, but he remained unmoving in his seat, staring intently out his window onto the luminous summer day.

“I’m not sure that I know what you mean,” Neil said cautiously. Vanni sensed his unease in talking about another patient.

“Emma and I both signed release forms so that you could discuss our medical conditions to each other.”

“Technically speaking, Van, those forms clear me to talk about the results from the exams and blood draws I did,” Neil said dryly.

“Well this relates to the test results and exam,” Vanni assured. “When Emma was young, she was diagnosed with alpha thalassemia. When she was nine, she had a heart attack because her organs weren’t getting enough oxygen.”