The Surprise Conti Child. Tara Pammi

wasn’t worth a single tear.

      Somehow, she managed to only delve deeper into the mazelike nightclub, the sexy, almost hip-hop-like music chasing her. One minute, she was pushing through the throng, and next, she was looking at a lushly carpeted, quiet corridor with three unmarked doors.

      Cursing, Alex turned around and banged into the one man she never wanted to see again.

      Why was he following her?

      “I told you to go—”

      His fingers on her wrist viselike, he slid a card at the door and tugged her inside. “You’re making a scene.”

      The door closed behind them with a finality that made Alex jump. But the stinging response that rose to her mouth died.

      It was a VIP suite. Eyes wide, Alex studied it, a furious flush rising up through her neck.

      Floor-to-ceiling glass paneling made up the far wall of the plush suite, giving a perfect view into the dance floor and bar on the two levels.

      Two lush couches stood against the far wall, adjacent to a small refrigerator. And on the other wall was a giant plasma screen that was currently turned off.

      Gut swooping, she turned. “I don’t think we should be here. This area...”

      “I own this club, Ms. Sharpe.”

      Laughter, more sarcastic than warm, gurgled out of her. A villa in Lake Como, a nightclub in Milan, and a growing luxury goods collection that celebrities were crazy about—the Contis might as well be from a different planet. “Of course you do. Have you had men watching me all this time?”

      The thick swath of his eyelashes shadowed his expression. “Valentina always has protection.”

      “And you told them to keep an eye on the American gold digger/slut, too.”

      “It was for your protection.”

      “And who protects me from you?”

      The dim, somehow still classy purple lighting in the room didn’t quite hide his flinch. But she was far too furious to wonder why.

      “What do you intend? To lock me up here? To have me neatly packed away in one of your jets and have me dumped on the other side of Atlantic? To send me off silently into the night?” No, he wasn’t allowed to dismiss her like this. Not when she felt so weak-kneed and aware of him. “You know your brother is a fast worker. What if I already have him in my clutches? Maybe Luca and I’ve already, thoroughly, f—”

      “Basta!” he muttered, before his hand descended on her mouth while the other one locked her against the wall.

      The rough, almost possessive grip he had on her hip branded her. But it was his gaze that held her rooted.

      A flash of temper? A spark of emotion? Whatever it was, it lit his usually droll gaze.

      He wasn’t impervious to her.

      Hot, reckless energy pounded through her, making her thrum with excitement. “You can think it, but I can’t say it, Leandro?” She drawled her words, adding a lazy taunt. “At least, with Luca, I know I’ll have a good time without insults.”

      Gray irises widened, bleeding into the dark black around.

      The quiet room shrank around the two of them, an explosive current springing into life. The masculine scent of him was a whiplash against her senses, his fingertips pressing into her flesh.

      Yet all Alex felt was charged up.

      “Do you know what you so dangerously provoke? Are you prepared for it?”

      A wealth of meaning reverberated in his statement and it lay between them, a grenade ticking away.

      Drunk on the challenge in his molten gaze, Alex couldn’t back down. “I don’t care how wealthy you—”

      His tapered fingers squeezed her palm gently. “I don’t agree with my grandfather, bella.”

      “No?”

      “No.”

      “Then why did you come tonight?”

      Tension filled the infinitesimal silence before he answered, “Luca told me he picked up a drunk Tina and couldn’t locate you. I don’t like the idea of you being out at night in Milan alone.”

      “You could’ve asked anyone else to do that. Your security team...you didn’t have to come yourself. You could—”

      “What you’re hoping for, it will never happen, Alexis.”

      “You called me Alexis,” she said simply, letting the warmth of his body float her away.

      His head cocked to the side, and he rubbed her jaw.

      Shock...he was shocked that he had said her name. The fingers that had been brushing her cheek pulled away. “Come, it is time for you to leave.”

      It was as if he’d slammed a door in her face.

      He wasn’t talking just about the nightclub or Milan, but Italy. He was telling her it was time for her to leave. Panic flared through her, but beneath it was a realization that sent her heart slamming against her rib cage. All these days...

      “You want me,” she accused. “You made me feel like I was the only one who felt it, as if I was gauche enough to read it all wrong—”

      In a near-violent movement that sent her breath bursting through her, Leandro captured her wrists. Stilling her body from leaning into him. “This is a mistake.”

      Yanking her hands away from his grip, Alexis pressed her body against his.

      A jagged sound wrenched out from his lips, throaty and low. Moving her hands up his chest, Alex tilted her head back. Every inch of his face was frozen in some kind of torturous agony. And she didn’t intend to let him win.

      She buried her mouth in the opening of his dress shirt. Velvet-smooth and hot, his skin burned against her lips. “Kiss me, just once. Show me what you feel, just once.”

      One hand snuck into her hair. Her scalp prickled as he tugged her up. Dark need pinched his features and Alex shivered, suddenly, finally, understanding the depth of the need he hid under that infuriatingly indifferent mask.

      Anticipation roped with tension set her nerves on fire.

      “You do not know who you’re playing with.”

      She jerked back. “Am I so beneath you then?”

      He shook his head. But the shadows didn’t leave his eyes. “You’re too young.”

      “I’m old enough to know what I want.”

      Flicking her tongue out, she tasted him. His hands vined tight around her, flattening her nonexistent breasts against his chest, knocking the breath out of her. “You think I’ll stop at one meager kiss?” Pure need punctured every word. “You think to play with my desire and walk away after a chaste embrace, to taunt me like you do these boys with your innocence?”

      His warning only incensed her desire even more. “I’m not the one afraid, Leandro.”

      A volley of Italian fell from his mouth as she pressed her lower body to his. The ridge of his erection against her belly made her quiver.

      His fingers descended on her hips, hurting her with their grip to keep her unmoving. “I will not touch my brother’s seconds.”

      “We shared one kiss before I walked away. I’m not interested in Luca.”

      “You are the first woman in the world to claim that.” Something flashed in his gaze even as his long fingers drew maddening circles over her wrists. “Which is why he likes you so much.”

      If her heart beat any faster, it would rip out of her chest. But still, she risked. And in this spine-tingling risk she took with Leandro, Alex felt more