I Want To Be Yours (13 page)

“Nothing to say?” Nico waited, deliberately poking at her fragile temper. “Good. Go get dressed. We have a plane to catch. Your packed luggage and a change of clothes have been left in your bedroom. You have an hour before we leave for the airport. I suggest you use the little time you have left effectively. You don’t look too hot right now.” He smirked and started gathering the papers scattered on his desk.

He was just barely alerted to the danger by her animalistic growl.

She flew across the desk at him, with vicious swings of arms and legs aiming to inflict bodily harm, yelling, calling him foul names he’d never heard before.

He was careful in restraining her, trying not to hurt her, but she was a mother cat whose kitten had been taken from her. She was tireless, frantic in her assault.

Damn, she got me in the eye. That shit hurts!

“I swear, Nico, if you don’t return my daughter to me this minute I
will
kill you!”

Nico lifted her viciously squirming body up over his shoulder and carried her out of the room. Mari never stopped furiously swearing at him and hitting him wherever she could reach during the brief journey to her bedroom.

He threw her effortlessly to the center of the bed. He followed her down, holding both of her hands in one fist above her head and imprisoning her limbs with his big body.

“Calm your little
arse
down! I don’t want to hurt you!” Nico yelled in her ear above the racket she was making.

“There is no way you can hurt me any more than you already have. Alex and I have never been apart!” Mari wailed and convulsed in an anguished cry. The tears streaming down her face were heartbreaking. She bit her lip and sobbed brokenly. Nico had to steel himself against the need to comfort her.

He turned his head, not wanting her to see his emotional response to her distress.

“
Basta
! Stop this! You are unnecessarily getting yourself in a state, for nothing. The longer you fight this, the longer she’ll be without us. Despite our short acquaintance, I miss her already too.” He paused, giving her time to quiet down.

“You have to marry me or you’ll never see her again,” Nico stated, determinedly holding her immobile as she renewed her fight.

“I don’t want to marry you, you autocratic, insufferably arrogant bastard! I hate you!” Mari spat at him.

Bloody hell! She almost connected to my family jewels.

They wrestled for a minute longer before she abruptly went very still, seemingly worn out in the face of his unyielding strength.

Nico sank briefly into her softness, exhausted from restraining her. He was suddenly conscious of his hips fitted snugly against hers, with only a tiny panty and his trousers between them. His shaft lengthened upon feeling her heat beneath him. The need to dominate her was overpowering.

Nico aligned his body to cover hers, while keeping her hands secured above her head. What had started as a calculated attempt on his part to intimidate her to his will, resulted in an explosive amount of lust slicing through him.

“
Dio mio
, what the hell am I going to do with you?” Nico groaned deep in his throat and gave in to the devastating need to kiss her.

Her sweetness exploded on his tongue as he slid his lips over hers. She trembled under him, trying to burrow closer to him. Her response fueled his lust and every muscle in his body vibrated in intense arousal. His years of abstinence, as his dick had refused to cooperate for any other female, severely exacerbated his ability to rein in his desire. He was so hard, he could barely hold back from plunging into her heat without preliminaries. The kiss went on and on, intoxicating him more than any alcohol could.

He could taste her tears in the kiss. It was almost his undoing. He stroked a possessive hand over the swell of her breasts, gently grazing the hardened nipples visible through her shirt. .

Her gasp of pleasure triggered another shock of lust that shot immediately to his groin. He dragged his mouth away from hers, feasting on the sight of the darkened, rigid nipple he’d uncovered. Plucking at the peak, he watched in fascination as it tightened further under his tender caress. Mari arched into his hand, silently, begging him to relieve her distress. He gently blew on the nipple before taking it deeply in his mouth, tormenting her with his tongue and teeth.

Nico rose up and engaged her lips in another devastating kiss. It was wild, carnal, and erotic. He impatiently tore her tiny panty from her hips and then sensually probed her wet center.

A ringing noise pierced his dense sexual haze. Mari, still trying to kiss Nico’s lips, whimpered when he abruptly stopped kissing her and leaped from the bed. Her eyes were misty with feverish need. She looked at him in complete confusion. She shook her head as if trying to clear her foggy brain and focus on what he was trying to tell her.

“That’s our ride. Get dressed and meet me downstairs,” Nico stated huskily. His movements were slow but methodical, aware of her distress and mindful of his body’s painful protest of the abrupt interruption in the proceedings. He fought the overwhelming need to soothe her, and held on to his resolve to see his plan through as quickly as possible.

She had to marry him. He had worked tirelessly yesterday to secure a marriage license from a small Caribbean island where he held some business interests.

“Nico, I don’t think…”

“That’s just it, Mari. Don’t think. Come with me. Marry me and give our daughter her heritage, her family. Don’t take that away from her. We need to put her best interests first and ensure that she is given every opportunity to maintain what is rightfully hers.”

“That’s not fair! I’ve always done what’s best for my daughter.”

“Well then, you shouldn’t have a problem doing this one more thing. We need to do this and get our daughter before she starts missing you as much as you miss her. I’m sure she’s fine with my parents, but the kid only met them this morning.”

He took a long, lingering look at her, still displayed in careless abandon on the bed. His gaze was slow and deliberate, traveling the length of her body, returning her troubled gaze with a smoldering, wicked gleam of his own. “The quicker we get married, the quicker we can finish what we started.”

Mari ignored his provocative comment. “Did she cry? Did she ask for me?”

He was not surprised by her concern for their daughter’s distress. He’d been relying on it.

“Only a little, but I’m sure she’s fine now.” Nico was sure God would forgive his lie. Alex had been too enamored with her new cousins to pay the adults any attention. When he’d left his daughter at the estate, she was happily playing with her them and their puppies. But he knew Alex’s supposed misery was the catalyst that would spur Mari along.

“Go! I will be down shortly. This isn’t over, Nico. If you think I’ll ever let you touch me again, think again!”

Nico wasn’t worried about her threat. They both knew neither of them could resist the other, even if they tried.

Chapter Nine

Mari read and
reread the document Nico had given her. A prenuptial agreement was expected, given Nico’s vast wealth, ensuring the limitation of risk on his assets. Protecting his family, and by extension, the Group’s employees, was a given. Her payoff increased by the number of children from their union, but was nonexistent should there be any infidelity on her part. Nico would retain custody of their children, which Mari strongly objected to. She drew a line through that statement, and looked at Nico, who was sitting across from her on his private jet.

“Alex stays with me always,” Mari stated defiantly. “There is no need to mention other children, as I’m never going to sleep with you again.”

“You say that now, but it will be you tearing at my clothes to get in my pants soon. You can pretend and lie to yourself as much as you like, but we both know how much you want me. If I reach for you right now, I’ll bet I will find you wet and ready to do whatever I want.” Nico gazed at her indolently.

“In your dreams, you bastard!” Mari was incensed by the accuracy of his statement.

“In fact, if I spread you on the floor right now, I could make you scream for me in ten seconds flat. But you would like that, wouldn’t you? No, I think I will make you beg.” Holding her mutinous stare, Nico leaned in close, so that their noses almost touched as he whispered into her parted lips. “Only until you beg me, will I give you what you want. And Mari, I promise you, we’ll not leave our bed until we have both gotten our fill. I will take you hard, then soft, fast, and then slow. There will be no area on that beautiful body that I will not kiss, lick, or caress. But only when you beg me for it. Only then will I satisfy us both.” Nico returned to his seat and picked up the prenuptial agreement and made the necessary changes, initialed them, then gave it back to her to continue reading.

Mari was speechless. His unapologetic audacity infuriated and aroused her in equal measure. The dampness between her thighs was testament to how swiftly she was rendered weak with desire for him. How the hell was she to function after that display of verbal seduction? Damn him anyway. The arrogant, ruthless bastard was deliberately trying to send her crazy. She sat there, fighting to regroup, long after Nico had flipped open his laptop, deliberately dismissing and ignoring her.

Mari glared at him. She held herself rigid, trying to suppress her escalating need, all the while angrily devouring him with her eyes. His words shouldn’t have aroused her to this level. But he was right. She was so wet for him, almost vibrating with the need to feel his hard length deep within her. Entertaining herself with visions of having him at her sensual mercy served only to exacerbate her sexual frustration. A few fortifying breaths later, she was able to articulate, with some coherency, her proposed amendments to the contract.

They agreed on joint custody in the event of a divorce and were finally ready to sign off on the pre-nup. Nico called two smartly dressed young flight attendants, one male and the other female, over to witness the signing. They both looked as if they’d come straight off the catwalk: slender, tall, and beautiful. They were courteous and polite and didn’t so much as blink when they were asked to witness the very personal document. They dutifully signed without reading the pages.

Once they left, Nico gave her an emerald-cut diamond engagement ring in a chased platinum setting. He placed it on her finger himself, giving her a swift, hard kiss before returning to his seat. “That was my grandmother’s ring.”

“Thank you. It is beautiful,” Mari murmured, somewhat uncertain if this was the same ring Celina had worn.

“No, Celina didn’t want ‘old junk’. Her words, not mine,” Nico supplied.

Mari was embarrassed she’d asked the question aloud without realizing it.

Ignoring her discomfort, Nico took out his mobile and punched in a few numbers. He spoke softly into the phone before giving it to her.

“Hello?” Mari looked at Nico, wondering who could be on the other end. Nico simply regarded her with an unreadable expression.

“Hi, Momma!” Alex’s little, excited voice came on the line.

“Oh, Alex! How are you, baby?” Mari asked with the phone clutched tightly in her grasp, her vision obscured with involuntary tears.

“I’m fine. You comin’ to get me, Momma?” Her child’s innocent inquiry evoked a maelstrom of emotions that tore at her.

“Soon, baby. I just have to go somewhere with Daddy and then I will come get you.” Tears streamed down Mari’s cheeks as she bit her lip to keep the sobs at bay. This was the longest she had ever been away from her daughter. And Nico expected her to last two whole days without seeing her?

“Okay! Papa and Mama here. Gio and Martha, too. Can I have a puppy, Momma? Tony say I can have one of his!”

“We’ll talk about it when I get there, okay, baby?” Mari fought for control. She could barely speak above the tears clogged in her throat. “Be good until Daddy and I come for you.”

“Okay! Love you, Momma. I got to go now. Amanda is playing with my new doll! Bye!”

The phone was dropped at the other end and was immediately picked up by someone else. A booming male voice came on the line and introduced himself as Nico’s father.

“Alex will be fine. She’s a bit excited with all of the activities going on around here at the moment. So don’t worry. You and Nico have a good time. We will call if she shows any sign of distress.”

“Thank you for taking care of her,” Mari said tearfully.

“No thanks needed. We are grateful to you for giving us this miraculous baby and allowing us into your lives. She is a credit to you. We trust all goes well with you and my son.”

Mari didn’t know what to say except “thank you”, and returned the phone to Nico. He spoke to his father another few minutes before disconnecting the call.

“The flight will take another seven hours to get to our destination.” He looked at Mari’s tear-stained face with some concern. “If you would like to rest, or clean up, there is a bedroom and bathroom through those doors,” Nico advised, indicating a set of double doors to the rear of the jet.

“Why?” Mari asked.

“Because you need to rest. It’s a long flight.”

“No, why are we flying to an island on the other side of the world to get married when we could get married in England and I could be with my daughter sooner?”

“I have my reasons,” he said dismissively.

“What? That’s it? You have your reasons and I am supposed to accept that?” She looked at him as if he had lost his mind.

Nico ignored her and went back to typing in his laptop in front of him.

“You know what? I’m going to be a little fairer to you than you’ve been with me by giving you fair warning,” Mari began conversationally.

Nico looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.

She continued in a calm voice, one she was far from actually feeling. “Tell me what I want to know, or that wildcat you were accusing me of being a few hours ago will pale in comparison to what I will be in a few seconds.” She crossed her long legs, drawing attention to their toned, shapely length, and looked him calmly in the eye.

“I don’t respond well to threats.”

Without warning or further words, Mari snatched his laptop from its perch on the table in front of him. She sprinted to the other side of the cabin. Nico didn’t move a muscle.

“Now, as I was saying…” Mari gave him a devilish grin. With a few strokes on the laptop, she disabled it. “You want this back with all of its files intact and no damage to the Group’s network? I suggest you start talking. Now that’s a threat!”

Nico looked at her, his expression blank, except for his silver-blue eyes blazing back at her with promised retribution. “Give it to me, or I spank your ass and you won’t sit down for a week.”

“Shit!” Mari couldn’t believe how quickly her crotch flooded by
that
threat. “A spanking, you say? Em… are you sure you want to threaten me with that? Because I gotta tell ya, that’s not an incentive to desist.”

He was on her so fast, she could not believe a man so big could move so fast. He lifted her by her waist to a spot against the wall, and pinned her there with his massive, hard frame. He took the laptop from her with ease.

“Go rest and stop trying to get me to fuck you. I will fuck you when you’re my wife!”

Nico stepped away from her and opened the laptop. He very quickly reversed the disabling commands that she had programmed in the device. “I never forget a lesson learned.”

“Shit!” Mari said again, wishing she’d never shown him that particular recovery method.

“I got married in England before. I don’t want this marriage to have any similarities to that event,” he said without taking his eyes from the laptop.

It seemed that that was all he was going to say on the matter, because in the next instant the female attendant entered the cabin, obviously responding to some silent command he had sent.

Mari thanked him sarcastically and allowed the attendant to escort her to the bedroom. The woman followed her inside and indicated where everything was, including an
en suite
bathroom equipped with a large shower. Her overnight bag had been pre-packed by Martha, and a king-sized bed sat invitingly in the center of the room.

Mari thanked her for her help, and went immediately to take a much-needed shower. She carefully hung up the fitted orange spaghetti-strap dress and its matching short-sleeved jacket.

The shower was refreshing and invigorating. However, Mari didn’t want to return to the main cabin to engage in any more verbal sparring with Nico. She was tired of going over the same ground and getting nowhere. She knew it was cowardly, but she needed to regroup in order to fight another day.

She fleeced a robe from its perch in the bathroom and reclined on the bed to think.

She must have fallen asleep, because the next time she was conscious, she noted that the room was darkened, more conducive to sleep, and that the shower in the bathroom was running.

She smiled to herself, gleefully, as an inspired plan formed in her mind. Nico wanted her to beg, but what if she turned the tables on him and made him beg? She whipped the robe off her body and discarded it carelessly on the armchair beside the bed. She quickly brushed her hair until it had a healthy shine and was like silk to the touch. She climbed back in bed, this time removing the top comforter, placing herself between the white satin sheets.

She heard the shower shut off and had to fight to control her breathing. He hadn’t even entered the room, and already her composure was dwindling. She forced her body to remain still. She took slow, deep breaths, and pretended to be asleep as she heard the bathroom door open.

Nico exited the bathroom while towel drying his hair, another towel slung carelessly around his hips. He walked farther into the bedroom and immediately noted the discarded robe thrown on the armchair. He stared transfixed at the outline of the naked figure of his soon-to-be wife, pretending, very badly, to be asleep.

The sheets were stretched tight around her, from the top of her breasts down to her feet. He couldn’t help but notice her long, shapely limbs were spread in blunt invitation, her left leg bent, with her foot touching her right knee. His gaze fastened on her round, melon-sized breasts, erotically outlined against the satin material. He watched her twitching eyes as he advanced toward the bed, and grinned to himself. Did she think he would give her what she wanted, without her begging, as he’d promised she would have to?

My sexy fiancée has a lot to learn about her future husband.

He had to admit he was enjoying her attempt at seduction. Nico sucked in his breath, and then promptly forgot to breathe, because even as he watched, the luscious figure moved sensually to assume a more comfortable position in the middle of the bed. The right leg was thrown even wider and the sheet slipped just below her nipples, which stood erect, begging for attention.

Nico looked his fill and took in quick, shallow breaths as he tried to fill his starved lungs with much needed air. The little witch! The liquid fire that filled his groin almost brought him to his knees.

He watched as Mari’s eyes opened slightly. She tried to peer at him without alerting him that she was awake.

The little sneak!

Nico discarded the towel around his waist. He almost laughed out loud as her eyes briefly widened on the sight of his blatantly visible, rock-hard shaft. His breath quickened in fascination as her hands slowly covered her breasts and she gently, leisurely, rolled her nipples with her fingers. She licked her lips and opened her legs even wider, silently begging him to take her.

He simply stood at the foot of the bed, willing his now leaking cock to calm the hell down.

“If you want me to make love to you,
cara mia
, you will have to ask nicely,” Nico drawled in a slightly bored tone. He smiled grimly at her determination to not respond to his edict. He regarded her for another few seconds before climbing in the bed, positioning his naked frame on top of the sheets. He closed his eyes with deliberate calm. She would never know how much he suffered for those few hours, how difficult and painful it was to deny his body’s screaming desire.

His years of abstinence had never been this torturous.

Mari lay there rigidly, silently willing him not be able to resist her. The smell of his soap, clean and masculine, made her clit pulse in fevered anticipation. She held her breath for a few more minutes, and was about to give in and beg him to take her, when she heard his soft, gentle snore.

Are you kidding me? The bastard has fallen asleep.
Mari was so angry, she was practically frothing at the mouth. She was tempted to end his miserable life right then and there. How could he sleep when she was suffering so? She had no idea how long she laid there in agitated longing before she fell into an exhausted sleep.

***

Mari woke to a gentle shake upon her shoulder. She opened her eyes, initially disoriented, not recognizing her surroundings, and noted an impeccably dressed Nico, sitting on the bed close to her hip. He caged her with his arms placed on either side of her head and leaned in to give her a kiss on her slightly parted lips. He smacked her sharply on the hip and got up from the bed.