His gaze jumped to hers, trying to assess exactly what she meant. Exactly what was bothering her. “Do what?”

She gestured with her chin toward his tie. “That.”

“I would have used my belt, but the tie was softer.”

She took a breath, her face flushing. “Do you tie up all your women, Stefano?”

“I’ve never tied up another woman. Never. Why would I bother? They didn’t belong to me, bambina. You belong to me. Only you.”

Relief crept into her eyes. It wasn’t that he’d tied her hands that bothered her, only the thought that he might have done the same to another woman. He fucking loved that. Reluctantly he allowed his cock to slip out of her. For one brief moment he’d been sated. That was already gone. Just seeing her body spread out before him like a feast was enough to get him started again. Catching her ankles, he slowly lowered her legs from his shoulders to the sideboard and then he reached for her.

He swept her into his arms, cradling her close to his body. “Put your arms around my neck.”

“My clothes . . .” She looked around her a little helplessly.

“Sorry, bella.” He couldn’t quite help the laughter in his voice. “I destroyed them.” He strode through the large apartment to the master bedroom.

Her fingers clutched his shoulder. “My room is the other way.”

“This is your room. You belong with me.” There was no room for argument. She was sleeping in his bed and would for the rest of her life. “And you’ll sleep naked or in some hot little number that I’ll rip off you in three seconds flat. I want to feel your soft skin next to me, and know that all I have to do is roll over and push my cock deep inside you anytime I feel like it.”

He took her right through his bedroom to the master bath and set her feet on the tiles. With one arm locking her to him, he ran warm water over a washcloth and then crouched in front of her. “Widen for me, Francesca.”

She blushed. It was cute as hell, especially given the way he’d fucked her. He tapped her inner thigh when she didn’t obey him. She dropped a hand to his shoulder to steady herself but obediently spread her legs for him.

“I’d prefer to do that myself.”

She had a little snippy bite to her voice that made him smile. “You’re mine, bambina—that makes this my privilege.” He carefully washed her thighs and then pressed the cloth against her slick heat. “Did I hurt you?”

She shook her head. “You know you didn’t. It was . . . amazing.”

When he finished he leaned into her and pressed a kiss in the dark curls. “Go lie on the bed, Francesca. On your stomach.”

Her small white teeth sank into her lower lip. “Stefano . . .” She broke off when he gave her a hard look.

“I’m not fucking around tonight, dolce cuore. I waited too long for you. Go lie on the bed.”

She took a breath as he stood, deliberately towering over her, crowding her space. “Do you have any idea how scary you can be?”

He tipped her face up to his and leaned down to brush a kiss across her mouth. “Sadly, Francesca, you’ll get over that all too soon.” He turned her around, gave her a swat on her bare ass, at the same time giving her a small push toward the bedroom.

Francesca yelped and threw him a smoldering look over her shoulder, one hand rubbing at his handprint on her bottom as she made her way back into the bedroom. He threw back his head and laughed. She was everything. To the outside world, he had it all. But his brothers, his sister . . . He shook his head, his smile fading. His cousins in New York, the ones in San Francisco and those overseas, shadow riders, all of them had no life and no hope of one. Not one that belonged to them. Until Francesca.

Word had spread fast through the family that Stefano had found a woman and that not only was she capable of producing shadow riders, but he had fallen for her. They actually had real chemistry. It wouldn’t be a marriage of convenience, but a true love match if he could manage to make her fall for him. If he could keep her. For him, Stefano knew there wasn’t an if. He would keep her because now, for him, there wasn’t a choice. He couldn’t give her up. He wouldn’t have done so before he fucked her, but now, after having his cock inside of her, after feeling her tight, scorching body surrounding his, he’d move heaven and earth to make her happy. To keep her.

She represented hope for his cousins, for his brothers and sister. If Stefano could find Francesca, they had a chance. He glanced through the open doorway and his heart nearly stopped. His woman had done as he’d asked. She lay in the middle of the bed, facedown, nothing covering her bare body, just stretched out on top of the sheets, her face buried in the crook of her arm.