Love in the City, an erotic romance novel (26 page)

She nodded, then let go of the pillow and cuddled in next to him. Her face still bore a serious expression.

He wrapped his arm around her and held her other hand.

Anabelle was quiet.

“Something’s still bothering you,” he said.

She looked at him. She could get lost in those big, blue eyes. She shook her head.

“If we’re going to move forward, we need to talk if something’s bothering
one of us.”

She nodded, then squeezed his hand. “I just don’t know if it’s the right time.”

“What is it?”

“Well,” she started to say, feeling embarrassed, “Raquel aside, there were so many other women coming onto you at the ball, just when I was with you…”

“I can’t control what other people do.”

“I know, it’s not that…it’s just, if Raquel made a second move on you that night, I imagine there were others as well after you went back down.” She looked up at him, trying to gauge his reactio
n.

He gave her a soft smile. “Nothing happened with anyone, Anabelle. I promise you that.” He reached up to touch her cheek and leaned in for a long, lingering, passionate kiss.

Anabelle felt partially relieved. She melted into him, her hand resting on his thigh. She moaned softly as his tongue found hers. She felt his hand slide down her shoulder and arm to her waist. His hand then slid to her hip, gripping it and giving her a slight tug. She could tell he wanted her. Her body became aroused at his touch, the feel of his lips on hers. She rubbed his thigh, inching her hand a little bit higher.

His mouth opened a bit wider as he continued to kiss her. He slid down
the sofa, leaning further back.

Anabelle kept her hand on his thigh, wanting to feel his body again. She moved her hand up and down his thigh, coming dangerously close to heating things up to a boiling point. Then she paused, her mind interrupting the pure desire she had been feeling.

Giorgio’s eyes opened, half-lidded, his full lips parted and swollen from their kisses. “Is everything okay?” he asked.

Anabelle looked down at where her hand rested on his thigh, just below his bulge. It was
a teasing touch, she knew. “I…just wonder…”

“What?”

“Well, I know you said nothing happened with anyone, but other women did try, didn’t they?”

“They tried. They failed,” he said.

She pursed her lips. She needed to ask. Her thumb brushed against his leg. “You can tell me if I’m…if this isn’t the right time yet.”

“For what?” he asked, curious. Then his lips curved into a sly smile. “If you want to take me, just ask,” he said in a low, seductive voice. He rested his head against the sofa as his legs parted even more. “I’ll let you.”

Her temperature spiked as she looked back down at his body, open to her, her hand still positioned on his thigh, indicating her desire for him. He was a crazy amount of sexy. “Are you sure you won’t let anyone else? I mean…we haven’t discussed whether or not…”

“Ahhh,” he said, grinning, “I see where this is going. You really need to just say what’s on your mind.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Women feel that if you really care about us and are paying attention, you’ll know what we’re thinking and what we need to hear, when we need to hear it.”

He laughed softly. “Men are
way thicker than women realize. Your gender is rather a mystery to us. You confuse us to no end.”

She bit her lip.

He regarded her for a moment, then smiled. He moved his hand over top of hers where it rested on his thigh.

She looked at it.

He leaned in and kissed her again, even more passionately this time. She felt his hand squeeze hers, then felt his legs open more. As he continued to kiss her, he took her hand and slid it higher.

Her breathing became heavier, her heart pounded.

He gave a soft moan as he slid her hand between his legs to rest over his bulge. He held her hand there as his hips pushed forward.

She felt
him harden.

He looked down at where her hand was, then up at her.
His cheeks had reddened with his arousal. “I’m just yours. No one else’s.”

“You mean that? We can be…exclusive?” She wanted to be sure what he meant.

“Yes,” he said, smiling at her, “no one else has access. This club is exclusive to one member, you, Ms. Anabelle Parker.” He pressed her hand against him. “If you want that, that is.”

She nodded, smiling. “Yes, yes, I do. Very much.”

“Good,” he said, leaning back in to kiss her, “me too. I don’t want any other guy coming along and touching my woman either.”

“No way,” she said as she felt his body
harden even more beneath his pants. She wanted him badly. She moved to undo his belt, then stopped. “There’s something else,” she said.

“I hope it’s just whether or not you can unzip my pants. The answer is yes.”

She groaned. She wanted to do just that. He was sexually, and in every other way, irresistible to her. But she’d regret it if she didn’t bring it up. “I do want to do that, badly, believe me.”

“I’m not convinced,” he teased as he shifted his hips forward again, pressing his
growing bulge into her hand.

Anabelle felt her
own face redden with desire. “Before we do that, and I do want to, I need to tell you something. It’s important.”

He looked at her. “What is it?”

She reluctantly moved her hand away.

He sat up, adjusting himself as he did, his face flushed.

She felt bad about fanning the flames of his desire, then putting the brakes on it, but the two of them always seemed to get physical very quickly.

He regarded her in silence, waiting for her to continue.

She took a deep breath. “You know my friend, Sarah.”

“Yes,” he said, wondering what her friend had to do with any of this.

“Well, I thought her journalism background would come in handy to do some digging into where those nasty rumors about your company are coming from.”

He frowned.
“Oh really?” He grabbed his beer. “You didn’t say anything about that.”

“I know,” she said,
sheepishly. “I remember you saying that you wanted to keep this confidential, but I hope you don’t feel like I invaded your privacy. That wasn’t my intention. I only wanted to help you figure out what’s going on and Sarah is extremely resourceful and discreet. I trust her completely.”

He finished the rest of his beer
as he considered his response. “I see. Well, I would have preferred that you at least mentioned to me what you guys were doing.” He set the empty bottle down.

Anabelle could tell that this bothered him, but he was trying not to show it.
“I’m sorry, we didn’t know each other well at that point. I should have told you.”

He nodded, his brow furrowed. “
Yes, you should have. Next time please let me in on things if they involve me, or the company. Before you do anything.”

“I will,” Anabelle said. “I promise.” She felt bad. They kept running over potholes trying to get this relationship straightened out.

“So what has your intrepid reporter friend learned?” he asked, clasping his hands together.

“Well, she’s really good at what she does,” Anabelle continued. “When she started tracking where all the comments were, she noticed that they would all be posted within an hour, no more, of when your company would release new information or when there was a write-up about your company in the news.”

“There’s lots of internet trolls out there,” he said, his expression turning more serious. “How can this help?”

“It shows someone is purposely
trailing your company to slander you. It also shows that they’re either keeping a close eye on every financial report that goes out, because even the smallest mention attracts their attention, or they know when and where these posts are going to be made.”

He
now had a deep frown on his face.

“That’s not all,” Anabelle continued.
“They started all of a sudden. Not just with one comment here or there. They all started at the same time across the board, with similar messaging. It would seem to be from the same person. It began a few months ago. Sarah said that it appears that someone has you specifically in their sights.”

“Me?”
Giorgio said, concern plainly etched on his face.

“
Yes. All of the comments have not only tried to smear your company’s name, but they are painting you as solely responsible for the troubles.” She shifted forward on the sofa. “Did something significant happen around then? Was someone angry with you over something?”

He thought for a moment, his brow furrowed. “A few months ago?” he repeated. “Do you know how much stuff happens in a company like t
his on a daily basis?”

She inhaled deeply. She was hoping
he would come to it on his own.

He shook his head. “I mean, there’s a thousand little things, but I can’t imagine someone being this intent on destroying my reputation. Not something with this degree of malicious intent behind it at least.”

Anabelle didn’t want him to feel insulted, but she had to tell him. “Sarah thinks whoever it is was angry that you took over as CEO. And that they’re hell-bent on getting you removed any way they can.”

He let out a long, frustrated sigh. “Me being CEO hasn’t been all smooth sailing, I’ll admit that. There’s been more than a few bumps in the road.”

She waited for him to continue.

“I guess it’s possible,” he said, looking down. “We never had these problems before I took over. My father was very well-respected.
He had a much better handle on things. He knew the business and all the players inside and out.” He ran his fingers through his hair.

“I’m sorry,” she said, touching his arm. “I know this isn’t a pleasant conversation.”

“No, no it’s not.”

“There’s something else, something related, that I need to tell you.”
She could see him cringe slightly.

He held out his hands. “Fire away.”

She thought of how to begin. She clasped her hands together. “It has to do with the night of the Dream Ball.”

He groaned and flopped back against the sofa. “That’s becoming quite the infamous evening for us.”

She nodded. “I know.” She took a deep breath. “There was something that happened that night that I didn’t tell you.”

“Oh?” he said.

“I wasn’t sure about it at first, plus there was so much else going on at the time. But, after talking to Sarah, it started to make sense.” She paused for a moment.

He just watched her silently, not knowing where she was going with this.

“I was in the bathroom, it was before you found me after talking to Raquel. I was upset and was hiding out for a bit. Someone came in and I don’t think they noticed that the far stall door was closed.”

Giorgio let her continue.

“The woman was talking on her cell phone. It sounded like she had gone into the bathroom for some privacy, but she was still talking in a hushed voice. She was saying things like it had to be posted while she was at the ball because people knew she was there. She made reference to some kind of announcement that was coming up shortly. She was mentioning something about suspect timing and secret overseas transfers, oh yeah, and scamming creditors.” Anabelle paused, trying to remember everything she had overheard.

Giorgio’s expression
was turning serious.

“
She told whomever she was talking to that it would make this person look like they were hiding something and scare the investors. She had already identified the sites where she wanted the person to post the comments.” Anabelle felt slightly breathless. This made her nervous. “She also mentioned that it would work because no one trusted the new CEO.”

Giorgio
’s frown deepened, thinking on what she’d told him. A few things clicked, but something still didn’t make sense. “That’s interesting. It does sound a lot like what’s been happening. But, I’m curious what makes you so certain it’s related to my business? There were a lot of wealthy business people at that ball.”

Anabelle pursed her lips. She had to just say it. “It was the voice I heard talking on the phone. I think I recognized it.”

“Who did you think it was?”

“Portia.”

“What? What are you saying?” He looked genuinely shocked.

“I’m just telling you what I heard. I’m sure it was Portia. You had just introduced her to me that night, so her voice was fresh in my mind.”

Giorgio didn’t know how to respond.

“Is there anything you can think of where she might have been acting suspicious around you? Something new or out of character?
”

“No, not really. I mean she’s intimately involved in the business. Has been for years, ever since she married my brother.”

Anabelle bristled slightly at his use of the word ‘intimately’. She thought back to the day she had seen the two of them together at lunch and how Portia seemed to be quite touchy-feely with him. She still wasn’t comfortable with their relationship, but she didn’t want to admit she had seen him that day. She hadn’t meant to spy on him.