The Italian Billionaire’s Nubian Queen

“Aly? Are you all right? You’ve been in there for nearly two hours! I need a shower, too.”

“Sure. Sure, sorry, come on in.”

“You washed your hair?”

Brianna knew how much work it was. That was why she’d straightened her own very sleekly.

“I kind of fell asleep in the bath so I didn’t have much of a choice.”

“That’s why they say you shouldn’t have baths when drunk. Come on, let me help with your hair. Did you bring your scarf?”

“Yes,” mumbled Alyssa and let her sister do one of the things she’d always enjoyed doing.

“Why don’t you let your hair grow out if you love playing with curls so much?” asked Alyssa, after a while.

“Adam likes how I look with straight hair.”

Alyssa bit her tongue instead of saying what she wanted to say.

“It’s not like that, really. I wanted an excuse to not fuss over it anymore. It was easier… You know what everybody in Adam’s family is like.”

Alyssa sighed.

“I do know.”

“I guess it was easier to fit in.”

“I guess it was.”

“Don’t judge me,” snapped Brianna.

“I’m not. I really aren’t. And I’m glad you still have your skills. My hair looks better than when I do it myself.”

“Of course it does,” scoffed Brianna, making Alyssa laugh.

It was easy to shrug off that disturbing dream when they got ready for bed and snuggled in. There was a chill in the air, and neither sister turned the heater up high. The thick duvet was comfortable and fluffy enough to make her feel like she was wrapped in a cloud.

A cloud, like the one…

No, utterly ridiculous.

Alyssa was glad to fall asleep, and as she fell asleep, she was sure that she wouldn’t fall back into that dream. She was right. She didn’t. But that night, all of her dreams had him in them. All her dreams were of him.

***

Matteo woke up at dawn, as he always did, whatever time zone he was in. But he hadn’t slept well.

The dreams.

She’d come to him in his dreams… and they’d been very disturbing dreams. She’d come to him, her lips painted red, her eyes lined and hooded, her hair wild and curling, as imperious as a goddess. She’d crooked her finger at him and he’d followed her, over the ocean, into a storm, where she’d wrapped herself around him and taken him, devouring him, and he’d been willing to be devoured. He’d been willing to be taken.

No, more than willing. He’d been eager for it.

He’d woken up and swore he could taste her, that he could feel the zing of electricity that crackled around her as she moved, hear her laugh that had barely faded from his heart. He’d woken up with his heart thundering, and nothing could soothe it.

It was just because he’d had a very long day. He’d been awake for far too long, he’d worked far too hard. He should’ve taken a break instead of making it something of a busman’s holiday like this. It wasn’t working very well to relax him.

But something about her…

Alyssa.

Her voice haunted him as much as her face did. He’d watched her, even if he’d felt like a creep doing so. He’d watched her as she’d enjoyed his wines, unabashedly and with such gusto. It had been wonderful to watch. That was what he wanted for every single person who tasted his wine—that enjoyment, that willingness to embrace the passion that was in every bottle of Colombo.

Was that why he’d wanted her? Was that why she’d twisted him up like this?

It wasn’t, thought Matteo impatiently as he shaved, as if he hadn’t had other women. Beautiful women. More classically beautiful than Alyssa Benjamin, of course. Women who would make any man stop in his tracks and look at them twice, at the very least.

But none of them had given him the kind of dreams that Alyssa had given him that night.

And she’d dismissed him.

It wasn’t even as if she’d encouraged him, or been polite. She’d had the nerve to dismiss him and call him grumpy! Of all the audacious, outrageous… unexpected responses to get from a woman! How long had it been since he’d been rejected by a woman?

Matteo paused as he washed his face.

He couldn’t remember ever having been rejected by a woman. Not since he’d become a man. Even as a boy, he couldn’t really recall…

The first woman to reject him.

Maybe that explained it. Maybe it was as simple as that. The dreams, well, that was probably because he hadn’t had a woman in too long. He enjoyed all the pleasures life had to offer, and the pleasure two people could find in each other was one of the most potent. He enjoyed that. Maybe he’d denied himself that for too long.

Yes, he preferred that explanation to most others. It made the night before an aberration.

Yes, that was better.

He patted his face dry and he walked out to his room. He knew that the cabins were perfectly adequate, but he was in the cottage, which had enough room to function as an office as well. Maybe he would take a break. Maybe he needed a break.

It wasn’t like he had to go back to Italy immediately. The new operations in the States might benefit from having him there, though he did have an excellent team there, too. He could perhaps even take a real vacation. Go to Disney World, thought Matteo with a grin, though he’d never before felt the smallest inclination to go to Disney World or any such place before.

And if he happened to run into Alyssa Benjamin during his time there…

He paused as he reached for the crisp white shirt he would wear that day. Why was she still on his mind? He’d decided that it had been an aberration.

Annoyed, he walked back into the bathroom and pulled off the sweatpants he wore. He barely glanced at himself in the full length mirror before stepping into the shower. He’d already worked out, sixty minutes in the gym. He’d also put in about an hour’s work.

He let the jets work out whatever stress was still left in him. Closed his eyes, leaned against the wall and let his mind go blank. Focused on the feeling of the warm jets of water hitting him and soothing his tired muscles.

Maybe he was more tired than he liked to admit.

It wasn’t for vanity that he worked out, though he had plenty to be vain about, and he knew it. Easily a couple of inches over six feet, he’d once been described as a magnificent specimen of manhood. He worked out because the discipline appealed to him. And so did the strength he gained from it.

That discipline and strength extended to his mind. Usually, he could empty it on demand. He found it a useful way to focus when he needed to.

But that day, as he stood there with the water hitting him, he felt the spray of the ocean and the wind, the taste of rain, and she filled his mind again. Alyssa, with her glowing eyes, her wicked smile, her wild hair and all that confidence and arrogance—she had a hold of him, and he couldn’t get her out of his mind.