Athena
“What the hell?” My words came out breathless as a familiar musky scent overwhelmed my senses.
I blinked, taking in the sight before me. Luciano had me pressed up against his shelf, his eyes narrowed with a piercing gaze. His brows were creased in anger. Anger or desire. Or a mixture of both. With him, one could never be too sure.
He breathed evenly- almost too evenly as if he was trying to keep his breath in check. His hands were on either side of my face, gripping the shelf as he bore down on me. I could feel the heat radiating off him, encircling me in a warmth that felt so damn enticing.
And that made me fucking uncomfortable.
Keep your head in the game, Athena, I snapped at myself mentally. I was supposed to seduce him, not the other way around. Never the other way around.
Slipping my hand between us, I rested my palm lightly on his chest, feeling his heartbeat thrum rapidly underneath my fingertips. I heard him exhale lightly and smiled.
“What are you doing Luciano?” I whispered, leaning slowly into him. My hands slowly trailed up his chest. He hummed at the feel of it, encouraging me. His hard flesh pulsed and rippled under my touch and I sighed contentedly. It was working.
Standing on my tiptoes, I reached up to press my lips against his when suddenly he pulled away, tsking at me while shaking his head like some disappointed father.
“You’re hanging by a thin thread Raven,” he said coldly, every trace of desire wiped from his face. “If this happens one more fucking time, you’re out. For Good.”
The threat in his eyes was real. There was no denying the fact that Luciano would get rid of me if I proved to be an obstacle to him. With the way things were looking between us, it seemed that was all I was.
But you had almost had him, a stubborn voice in my head protested. What was the need for him to press me against the damn shelf, to touch me if he didn’t want me? If he wasn’t affected by me, why would he have approached me at all?
You’re lying, I wanted to spit in his face. You want me. You can’t be faking it!
Oh, but who was I kidding, I thought with a laugh. This was the mafia don. A man with many faces. A man who had succeeded in wrapping both the Italian police and the American police around his finger. A man who pretended to be a saint before the public but deep inside, he was the fucking devil! If he wanted to fake being affected by my touch, If he wanted to pretend he was affected by me, I had reasons to believe that he would do so effortlessly.
That was how crazy Luciano Moretti was. And the quicker I acknowledged that he was a nasty asshole, the quicker I could get this over with. Falling for him was not an option. Heck, breathing the same air as he was killing me.
“Sure thing,” I replied. The breathlessness and softness in my tone were gone. I could play the game of cat and mouse too. Pulling my face into a blank slate, I tipped my head at him in a nod and walked to the desk to drop my bag. The damn thing had dug into my back when the idiot pressed me against the shelf.
As I laid down the files he had sent me to pick up, his eyes followed my every move, as if he expected me to bail or something. Making sure they were neatly arranged on the desk in his study, I straightened, fished out my phone, and turned to see him still standing by the shelf.
“You have a meeting by nine thirty Mr. Moretti. You might want to change that-” I glanced briefly at his tank top. “Into something much more appropriate.”
A scowl made its way to his face and almost like a petulant child, he stormed out of the study.
***
“That will be all gentlemen,” Luciano announced on the conference call, alerting me that he was almost done.
I scrutinized every corner of the study room while he was in the meeting. Mahn, the man must have a lot of enemies! He placed cameras almost everywhere. I doubted even the living room had that many cameras. Why the hell was the study loaded with cameras?
“What is next Miss. Gonzalez?” He asked after he hung up.
I looked down at the schedule in my hands and then at the time on my wristwatch. “Lunch,” I said simply.
He rose from his desk, nodding, and was about to walk out of the room when he paused and turned around. “Would you care to join me?”
My brows shot up at his request. What the hell was wrong with this dashed man and giving me mixed fucking signals?!
“I can get my lunch, Mr. Moretti,” I replied and watched him stiffen.
“Splendid,” he replied dryly and walked on out.
I glanced at a corner of the room and sighed. With the way the cameras were placed, I would be sighted on one of them before I could finish tapping all of them. Besides, there was no way my gown would allow me to scale the walls. I’ll come way more prepared next time.
Seducing Luciano was proving to be an arrant waste of time.
***
When I eventually got back home that evening, after a long day of trying not to gut the idiot, Frederick sat on my couch sipping from a juice box, while blinking up at me innocently. It was hilarious how a man in his fifties could behave like a freaking child whenever he felt like it.
“If you’re here to ask about progress,” I murmured tiredly, dragging my feet to the kitchen. “There’s none.”
“For now,” he replied confidently. “I know you’ll have him on his knees soon enough kiddo.”
I chuckled as I grabbed a bottle of wine and two glass cups. “He’s not that easy to wrap around Frederick. The bastard has tough skin. It’s hard to know how far I’m getting under it, but after today, I doubt it’s very far.”
Frederick tossed the empty juice box on the table and held out his hand to receive the bottle of wine. “Consistency is key,”
“No,” I replied. “Consistency will get Raven Gonzalez fired from her job.”
“He said that?”
“Yup, twice now.”
Frederick poured our drink in silence, mulling over my words, and sighed. “Well, that sucks.”
“Terribly. But not so much. Working as his PA does allow me a closer look into his life. I would think that was why he is being secretive around me.” I shrugged, reaching for the spine of the glass, and sipped from the wine. A sigh of pleasure slipped from my lips. “This is good stuff.”
“Yeah, very good stuff,” Frederick mumbled. “Is it too much for you to bear, Thena? I know how much you detest Moretti.”
“So fucking much,” I said pointedly. “I’d say we slice his neck, frame him with evidence and have him gone for good.”
“That’s cruel,” Frederick laughed and downed a glass. “You’re supposed to think about the public. The people.”
“I stopped thinking about the people, the minute you gave me this assignment,” I said looking him dead in the eyes.
His eyes were saddened. “Kiddo-”
“Oh don’t fucking blame yourself. I’m grateful for this. It’s my chance at revenge. I’ll break him down to fucking pieces and reduce him to nothing.” My fingers gripped the glass cup tightly, imagining I was wringing Luciano’s head like it was wet cloth. He would pay. For killing my father, for humiliating me, for all the days I spent on the streets, mad with anger and delirious with hunger, Luciano Moretti would pay.
“You’re a strong kid Athena,” Frederick said fondly and I smiled. “You always have been. I remember when I saw you that day, clutching that broken knife to defend yourself.”
I shrugged like it meant nothing. But that day changed my life. If Frederick hadn’t driven past that corner, I would have been molested and left for dead. A sixteen-year-old girl was ganged upon by several old bastards who thought they could have a little fun. Bastards! I made sure they couldn’t fucking walk.
“I saw the look in your eyes that day, kiddo. The murderous intent. How much pain those green eyes had seen.” He sighed, closing his eyes. “And I thought to myself, if I let her roam free, she’ll see worse things. And those terrible things will drive you mad Athena. The only way I could think of that would save you was incorporating you into the FBI.”
“I know Frederick.” I said soothingly. Why on earth was he being mushy? “All this sappiness will drive me nuts. Stop it.”
He simply laughed and poured another glass. “Sorry, Thena. I’m just… thinking I had done you wrong. I should have given you a normal life. A happier one than chasing after mafia lords-”
“Trust me,” I said, my face pulled in a serious expression. “Nothing will make me happier than seeing Luciano dead. Nothing.”