PunishingPhoebe (6 page)

He moved quickly, stripping her with a
single-minded determination that compensated for him using only one hand.
Phoebe knew she should resist, but her body called out for his possession, even
as her mind cringed away from her own actions. How could she so wantonly
abandon herself to Luca, allowing him to use her?

The ability to think left her when Luca had
her stripped bare. He released his hold on her wrists, and she started to lower
her arms. “Leave them,” he said harshly, making her freeze.

Her mouth went dry when Luca disrobed, seeming
to remove his clothes at a pace designed to drive her insane. She moved one
hand toward him, eager to assist, and he stopped. Luca grasped the offending
limb and brought it back above her head again. “Don’t move.”

“Please.”

He was clearly delighting in her agony as
he finally undressed completely, slipped on a condom and stepped closer. He
hovered just out of range, so she couldn’t feel his body against hers, just the
almost-touch of his skin near hers. “Who do you belong to, Phoebe?”

She shook her head, refusing to give him
the answer he sought, to debase herself to that extent. She closed her eyes,
biting down hard on her lip when he fondled one of her breasts, his thumb
gently stroking her nipple.

“Who, Phoebe?”

Once again, she shook her head, though more
feebly. Her strength to resist him was rapidly diminishing. When he dipped his
head to take her nipple into his mouth, she cried out.

“Say it, Phoebe.”

Did he have to keep saying her name like
that, with that sexy drawl, prolonging each syllable until she thought she
might go mad? “No,” she whispered.

He held his body so close to hers she could
feel the hair on his chest tickling her nipples. “You know you belong to me.
Surrender.” Luca took her hands, grasping one in each of his and bracing them
against the wall. She tossed her head, finding her resistance worn away. “Mine,
Phoebe. Confirm it, and I’ll give you what you want.” The head of his cock
nudged the slick folds of her pussy. Instinctively, she arched against him,
eager for his cock, but he pulled away.

She dropped her head, giving in. “I’m
yours.”

“For as long as I want you,” he prompted.

Tears blurred her vision and she managed to
nod. Her humiliation was total, but she wondered what else he had in store for
her.

To her surprise, Luca’s mouth moved to the
bend of her neck, forcing her to straighten it. She moaned when he stroked the
sensitive flesh with his tongue, and he took advantage of the moment to lift
his head and seize her mouth.

She expected him to ravage her, to mark her
as his possession, but his lips were gentle on hers, a marked contrast to the
hardness of his body as he let himself melt against her. His tongue penetrated
her lips as his cock entered her, and Phoebe responded with passionate abandon,
thrusting against him ardently as she returned his kisses. His grip on her
hands had loosened from a hold of confinement to one of connection, and she
squeezed her fingers around his hand. Luca’s hips formed a natural rest for her
thighs when she locked them around him as he plunged deep inside her, making
her breathless with need and pleasure.

Her pussy spasmed, triggering convulsions
in his cock, and they came together, a chorus of grunts and groans voicing
their release. Phoebe laid her head against his shoulder, licking the skin and finding
it tangy with the salt of his perspiration. She didn’t have words to describe
the experience, to do justice to how good it had been, and words wouldn’t have
been appropriate anyway. The peace between them was too fragile to shatter
right then.

He eased away from the wall, bringing her
with him. Still, they didn’t speak. As he lowered her to the Victorian bed, he
gently kissed each of her closed eyelids. Only after he had joined her,
wrapping his arms around her, did he finally speak. “Rest,
mia tesoro
.
Tomorrow will be a long day.”

* * * * *

Phoebe lifted the phone to call Anya after
consulting the card that had her sister’s room and phone number printed on it.
Reluctantly, she pressed the keys, seeing no other way around things. Luca had
demanded that she return with him to New York. She doubted her ability to make
him believe she’d had good reason for taking the money. It pained her, but her
own guilty conscience prodded her to give Luca whatever he wanted. Anya
probably wouldn’t understand, but that couldn’t be helped. She wouldn’t be any
more useful to her sister here than she would be in New York City if her
thoughts stayed centered around Luca, and how she had hurt him.

Her sister answered on the second ring,
sounding tired. “Hello.”

“Hi, Anya.”

“Phoebe.” Her voice brightened
considerably. “You’d better be calling to tell me you’re on your way. I’m
starving.”

She sighed. “Sorry, but no. I can’t make
breakfast.”

“Oh. What’s up?”

“I have to go back to New York.”

Anya made an ambiguous sound. “Are you
serious?”

“I’m sorry, kiddo, but I have no choice.”
That was an understatement. “Do you want to come home and return later for
treatment?”

After a hesitation, Anya said, “That
doesn’t make sense. I just don’t know if I can do this alone.” She sounded on the
verge of tears.

Phoebe’s stomach cramped in reaction. “I
have faith in you, Anya. You’re going to do just fine.” She forced herself to
sound cheerful. “You know I’ll be back just as soon as I can.”

“I know.” She cleared her throat. “Maybe
I’ll be done with the program by the time you can get away from work again.”

“Maybe.” Just how long would Luca expect
her to play his revenge game? When would he decide she had paid him back
sufficiently by using her body as payment?

“I love you, Phoebe.”

“I love you too.” She set the phone back on
the handset gently, her fingers lingering on the device for a moment, wishing
she could take back the phone call she’d just made, along with the reason for
having to make it.

As she turned, Phoebe bumped into Luca.
Gasping with surprise, she clutched her chest. “You startled me.”

“Sorry to interrupt such an intimate
conversation.” His eyes glowed darkly with anger.

“Luca—”

“Get dressed. Our plane leaves soon.” He
turned his back on her, and his posture communicated he wasn’t open to a
discussion regarding what he thought he’d heard.

With a small shake of her head, she turned
away from him. Futility weighed on her, making it almost impossible to summon
the energy required to shower and dress. There was an irreparable breach between
them now, and all the sex in the world wasn’t going to heal it. Any hopes she’d
had of a meaningful relationship had died the moment she’d accepted Salvatore’s
offer. Yet, what other choice could she have made? The worst part was Luca
would never know her reasons because he refused to hear them—not that he would
believe anything she told him now.

An hour later, Phoebe sat beside Luca on
his private jet, pretending to read a magazine she’d found on the table. He was
absorbed in a stack of paperwork probably related to the Giovanni merger. Other
than the occasional brooding glance cast in her direction, he might as well
have been set in stone.

Her fingers itched to reach for her cell
phone to call Anya, but she hesitated. Even if the call would go through, she
didn’t want to speak in front of Luca. A part of her liked having him think
there was another man in her life. It made her feel safe and protected to have
a buffer between them, however flimsy. As long as an imaginary lover stood
between them, he would maintain an emotional distance. It could be vital to her
self-preservation and might be the only thing to keep her from doing something
stupid, like falling in love with him.

He abruptly closed the file as they neared
the private landing strip. “We’ll go straight to your apartment.”

She arched a brow. “I’m a little…sore from
last night.”

“So you can pack,” he said in a cool tone.

Phoebe frowned. “Pack? For what? Are we
going on a business trip?”

Luca opened his briefcase to place the file
neatly inside. “You’re moving in with me.”

Her mouth dropped open and she closed it so
quickly her teeth clicked together. “What? Are you crazy?”

“I’m not letting you out of my sight
again.” He looked up from the briefcase to watch her with narrowed eyes. “I
don’t trust you not to run off again. You obviously have a lover in Boston. Who
knows where else you might have men waiting for you?”

“I’m not a whore.” She spoke loudly enough
to worry the crew in the cockpit had heard her, even through the door
separating it from the main cabin.

Luca snorted. “What else do you call a
woman who trades her body for money?” His cool façade cracked slightly,
revealing a hint of anger and something more. “How many other men have you done
this to, Phoebe? Was Seaton’s family the first you extorted money from, or just
the latest?” He shook his head. “What drove you to behave like this?”

Anger warred with pain, eventually winning.
She glared at him. “You’ve obviously already figured it all out. Why should I
offer any explanations now?”

“Why indeed, when there can be no
justification for your actions?”

“Precisely.” She straightened her jacket.
“I’m not moving in with you. You’ll just have to trust me to keep up my end of
the deal.”

“But I don’t trust you. You will be moving
in with me because, as much as you hate to admit it, your body wants mine with
a marked lack of reason.” He seemed confident she would be taking up residence
with him by the end of the day.

With a mutinous set of her mouth, she said,
“I am not leaving my home. It will be a cold day in hell before I give up my
autonomy to be at your beck and call.”

Two hours later, Phoebe followed Luca into
his sumptuous penthouse apartment in a twelve-story building in mid-town. A
chill ran down her spine, making her wonder if hell had indeed frozen over.

Chapter Four

It was strange to be back at her desk less
than twenty-four hours later, as if nothing had changed. Yet, everything had
changed. She now knew Luca as intimately as anyone could know another, but knew
nothing about his heart. He had closed it to her. The only thing she could take
freely from him was his body, and while she enjoyed the sex, she wanted more.
Once upon a time, she had dreamed of a relationship with Luca that included
making love. Now, they had a pale imitation of what might have been, built
solely on lies, misconceptions and sex. It was physically satisfying but left
her emotionally bereft.

Her phone buzzed. “Did you find that file
yet?” Luca asked, sounding impatient.

She winced, realizing while lost in her
reverie at least fifteen minutes had passed since he asked for some key
paperwork that had been missing from the Giovanni packet. “Just now. It was
misfiled.” Better to look incompetent than to appear weepy. It was bad enough
she was emotionally vested in the travesty they were acting out. He didn’t need
to know she felt anything remotely sentimental.

As if the day wasn’t already bad enough,
the sound of Salvatore’s wheelchair entering her office let her know it was
about to get worse. She pretended not to see the old man as she lifted the
folder and turned toward Luca’s office.

He dashed her hopes of avoiding a
confrontation with his first spiteful statement. “Now you’re his whore, aren’t
you?”

She took a deep breath and tried counting
to ten. Before she even made it to five, he continued.

“It sickens me to know you’re sharing his
bed.” A wheezing laugh escaped him. “However, I am comforted to know the affair
will be short-lived. I won’t ever have to worry about him trying to marry you
now that he knows what you are.”

Phoebe whirled around, glaring down at him.
“He knows what you are too—a manipulative, hateful old man who will stop at
nothing to control those around him.” Somehow, she managed to steady her voice.
“You might have opened his eyes to my so-called flaws, but at what cost to your
relationship with him?”

Salvatore snorted. “As if a whore like you
could come between my son and me. You are trash, pure and simple. Not a cent to
your name that you’ve earned the old-fashioned way, no breeding of which to
speak and nothing to redeem you. I’d do what I did a thousand times over. My
only regret is I didn’t personally ensure you left New York as I had planned.”

“You—” Whatever might have flown from her
tongue halted with Luca’s arrival. He strode out of his office, glaring at both
of them.

“Enough. I won’t have you two behaving this
way, especially not in the office.” His disapproving gaze alternated between
the two of them, making her feel like a recalcitrant child. “What if a client
witnessed this display?”

She swallowed a ball of anger and managed a
nod. “You’re right. I apologize, Luca.” Phoebe didn’t look at Salvatore.

He didn’t bother to wait for his father to
issue an apology, apparently realizing it would be an exercise in futility.
Instead, he took the file from her before turning fully to his father. “What
brings you by, Papà?”