CHAPTER 8: THE PRICE OF TOUCH
1052 Words
Mia spent the night wide awake despite the fact she pretended to sleep. Salvatore held her in his embrace but her thoughts remained active during the silent aftermath of their activities.
Each kiss he shared and every touch that broke her control led her closer to him.
Into him.
Into this life.
And she knew better.
When she finally dressed again... Salvatore stood by the window while using his phone to speak in a harsh Italian tone. The intensity of his anger remained barely controlled. His fury was targeted at the person at the other end of the call.
She tried not to listen. But failed.
The words shipment, betrayal and cleanup crew drifted to her hearing while her stomach knotted.
This wasn’t pillow talk. This was blood and bullets.
Salvatore finished his call and faced her with his eyes still flashing from the recent conflict.
“You are quiet,” he remarked.
"I am thinking.”
“A dangerous habit.”
She approached him, arms folded. “Tell me one thing.”
He lifted an eyebrow.”Anything.”
"How much of last night was actually real? And how much were you playing me like every other pawn in your kingdom?"
His jaw rigidly tightened. He couldn't lie.
"I don't play with fire unless I want to burn," he remarked.
“And you… sei fuoco, Mia. You’re fire.”
Her breath caught.
But she was not yet ready to melt. “Then, remember... I burn too.”
The words hung between them like smoke.
Salvatore's phone buzzed once more. He looked at the screen, his whole demeanor shifted... cold, rational.
"Stay here," he commanded as he snatched for his coat.
"Don't open the door for anyone. I really mean it.
"What's going on?" she asked.
But he was already at the door. "Someone coded my security gate. That only happens if someone wants to start a war.
Then he vanished.
Mia stared at the vacant door, her pulse racing. She was in the middle of something now... bigger than s*x, bigger than law.
She had power last night. Now the power was bleeding.
She strolled over to the window, gazing down at the city wondering whether it might provide answers.
All it provided her was the sound of sirens.
And the whisper of a truth she avoided confronting.
She was already too far down.
***
Mia stayed quiet long after the door closed behind Salvatore.
His presence lingered in the room, on the sheets, in the warm press of his kiss still stinging against her lips, in the anguish between her thighs that no amount of reason could soothe. She despised how much she craved him and how he made her forget all he was meant to be.
The silence closed in on her. She stood, the soft cotton of one of his shirts ghosting over her bare skin as she wrapped it around her body. Her mirror startled her... flushed cheeks, bruised lips, hair wild and wet. She did not resemble a defense lawyer. She resembled a lady coming apart.
A vibration on the nightstand snapped her out of her thoughts.
It was her phone. A new message.
Unknown number: You're in over your head, Mia. Walk away before you sink.
She gazed at the screen, her heart beating.
There was no name or hint. Simply a warning with some threat. And it cooled her in a way Salvatore's threats never had.
She lowered the phone gently , her mind already overthinking. Was it linked to the case, to Salvatore, or something worse?
As she attempted to calm her breathing, her fingers drew around the edge of the nightstand. This was not only about desire any more. Somebody was monitoring her. Someone did not want her defending Salvatore Ricci.
And if she wasn't vigilant, this thing between them... whatever it was... might cost her more than simply her reputation.
It might cost her life.
She reached for the curtains and shut them tight, plunging the room into darkness. The brief false sense of security.
Her mind ran wild... Who had sent the message? Who knew where she was? Only a few people even had her phone number. Was this simply intimidation or a threat?
She dropped the phone on the bed, then moved to the middle of the room and embraced herself. Salvatore's shirt's warmth provided no solace now.
Her intuition indicated right away that something had changed. This went beyond a single client. It was not only about s*x. She was being pulled into something deeper, darker... something she feared she could not escape.
Suddenly the door swung open.
Mia's heart jolted, but it was just Salvatore walking back in with a look like thunder chiseled his features.
“Who sent that message?”
Her mouth opened in astonishment.
“How did you...?”
He said without remorse, "I have your phone tapped."
“It's a safety measure.”
Her fury rose, but laced with fear. “You had no right...”
"I had every right." His voice lowered into something deadly.
"Because you ceased being a civilian the instant you entered my world. That message was not idle, Mia. It's a warning.”
She gazed at him, looking for any indication of manipulation in his face, but what she found was coldenss and something else. Fear. Not for him.
For her.
In two strides, he snatched her chin lightly but firmly, closing their gap.
"You think this is still about the trial? You think this is about us in bed?" His voice was subdued, hoarse.
"They know who you are now. They will use you to reach me.”
Mia's breath caught. "Then leave me and let me go."
"No." His gaze darkened.
“I will not.”
Then he kissed her fiercely and mercilessly, as though he were claiming. His hands held her waist, drawing her flesh against him, and the world disappeared. There was only him. His heat, his appetite, his tongue.
She gasped, "You shouldn't care," then broke the kiss.
"But I do," he snarled as he carried her.
"And that makes you mine to guard. Mine to destroy. Mine to burn for.”
With that, he carried her back to the bed, with a storm in his eyes and a war in his touch.
- Writer
