“Thanks for breaking your rule again tonight. I needed it.”

  He was tempted to cross the room, sweep her into his arms, carry her over to that table and take her long and hard on it. Instead he said, “I needed it, as well.”

  Then he turned and, forcing his legs to move, continued toward the elevator.

  Chapter 8

  Rome, Italy, a month later

  “Are you sure you’re okay, son?”

  Zion took another sip of his coffee as he spoke into his cell phone. “I’m fine, Pop. You worry too much.”

  “Well, what am I supposed to do when I hear you’re not coming home for the holidays?”

  “That’s not definite,” Zion said, dropping his head back against the sofa, although he knew in a way that it was. “I might surprise everyone.”

  “I hope you do. I think your godbrothers think you prefer not being around them now that they’re married and you’re not. I wished the six of you hadn’t formed that darn club.”

  Zion chuckled. “They know better than that, and the club has nothing to do with it. I am happy for them and their wives are the best.”

  “Well, if that’s not what’s keeping you away, then what is, Zion? Why don’t you like coming home?”

  Zion rubbed a hand down his face and wished he could tell his dad what had bothered him for close to nine years. If he were to ever reveal his mother’s deathbed confession it would probably destroy his father. “You’re imagining things. I do like coming home.”

  “You could have fooled me. In fact, I never knew why you wanted to leave the United States and live so far away right after your mother died. I know losing Alyse was hard on you, but it was hard on me, too.”

  Zion hung his head and closed his eyes for a second. He knew how hard it had been for his father to lose the woman he’d met and fallen in love with. Of the six close friends from Morehouse, his father had been the last to marry, claiming he’d been in no hurry to end his bachelor days. Pretty much how Zion felt now. His parents had met when his businessman father had gotten hurt on a ski trip with friends, and was taken to the emergency room where Zion’s mother was on duty as a nurse.

  “I know, Dad. I know how much you loved Mom.” He opened his eyes, thinking, Too bad she didn’t love you as much.

  “It was nine years last week, son. It’s hard to believe, isn’t it?”

  Zion lifted his head. “Yes, it’s hard to believe.” All of it. He could remember it just like it was yesterday. He often wondered why he had to find out when his mother was dying that she’d been unfaithful to the man who’d loved her. A man who was determined to keep her memory alive.

  “I went to the cemetery to place flowers on her grave.”

  Zion didn’t say anything. He truly didn’t have to. Langren Blackstone had slipped into that melancholy mood. It always happened this time every year, around the anniversary of his wife’s death.

  “Pop?”

  “Yes?”

  “Have you given any thought to dating? Look at Goddaddy Anthony. He seems happy with Claire. None of us thought he’d ever get over Carolyn.”

  Anthony Lassiter, Uriel’s father, had married Claire Steele a few months ago. About five years before, Anthony’s first wife of over thirty years, Uriel’s mother, had asked for a divorce so she could date younger men. The divorce had left Anthony in a bad way emotionally. He and Claire had dated for almost three years before deciding to make their relationship permanent. That meant a second chance at love was possible for some people.

  “Anthony is happy with Claire and I’m happy for him. Things are different with me. I doubt that I can ever love another woman beside your mother. There can be only one woman for me.”

  Zion tightened his jaw to refrain from saying it was too bad his mother hadn’t thought there could be only one man for her. He hung his head again, knowing his father would never learn that the wife he loved endlessly had betrayed him.

  “I might surprise you and come home. I won’t say when,” Zion said to his father.

  “That would be nice if you did.”

  “How’s your golf game coming along?” he asked, knowing it was time to change the subject. For the next ten minutes Zion listened to his father. When they finally ended the call, he stood and stretched.

  More than once he had come close to telling his dad the truth of what his mother had done, but Zion knew he never would. All it took was for him to remember how emotionally damaged his godfather Anthony had been after finding out his wife hadn’t been the woman he thought she was for all those years. Zion refused to let his father go through that.

  His mother’s infidelity, although she’d sworn to Zion it had happened only once, was one of the reasons he’d moved to Rome not long after her death. It had been hard seeing his father stricken with grief for a wife who hadn’t been faithful to him. And Zion being privy to her indiscretion made him feel guilty and as much of a traitor as his mother had been.

  It was Zion’s secret, one he’d shared only with his godbrothers. The guys felt whether he was Langren Blackstone’s biological son would be an easy enough thing to prove or disprove just by checking their DNA, but Zion didn’t want to risk his father ever finding out that the woman he’d loved so much had once been unfaithful to him. So instead of hanging around and letting something slip, Zion had moved to Rome.

  Easing back on the sofa, he grabbed the TV remote, deciding to see what was on the American stations he was able to get. He was flipping through the various channels when something being said on Entertainment News caught his attention. “What the hell?” He sat up straight to hear what the announcer was saying.

  “According to Nikon Anastas, he has asked Celine Michaels to marry him and she’s accepted. No details of when the happy couple will be tying the knot, but we’ll keep you abreast of those details later...”

  A photo of Celine and Anastas in a happy embrace flashed across the screen. Zion clicked off the remote and the television went black. He tried to control emotions he didn’t want to feel, had no right to feel. He went to the kitchen for a beer.

  Celine Michaels. The woman with whom he’d shared a blazing sexual chemistry that even now, a month later, made him think about her constantly.

  He’d been convinced that there had been something powerful, dynamic and monumental going on between them. There had to have been for him to react to her the way he had back then.

  And now, barely a month later, she was getting married.

  He twisted the cap off his beer bottle and took a huge swig. She had asked him if he was seriously involved with anyone, but he hadn’t asked her. He’d just assumed she wasn’t. But if she was getting married, that meant she and the guy must have been involved when she had let Zion kiss her. Down in that wine cellar, he’d come within seconds of making love to her. How could a woman commit to one man and let another man take liberties with her that way?

  Wasn’t that the same question he had asked his mother?

  He took another long swig of his beer and finished it off. Anger began consuming him and he felt like throwing the bottle against the wall. But he refused to let another woman break him down.

  * * *

  Celine’s plane had landed in Rome yesterday and she was convinced if she had to attend another party she was going to scream. The nerve of her father, bailing out at the last minute and not flying to Europe with her. Especially since coming here had been his idea, not hers.

  And then to make matters worse, Desha had called a few hours ago to give her a heads-up that the media were claiming she and Nikon had gotten engaged, and that Nikon himself had made the announcement. What kind of foolishness was that? She had tried calling him, but his press secretary said he wasn’t available and she’d give him the message Celine had phoned. So far she hadn’t heard from him.

  She had been able to reach her father, who assured her that what had gotten leaked to the press was nothing more than a PR move and that he would explain everything in detail when she returned to the States. It angered her that he felt he could make such a move without her permission. She had given him fair warning that if she got accosted by the paparazzi in Rome, she would tell them Nikon was the last man she would marry. Her father had tried talking her out of it, saying it would ruin an extensive PR strategy he and Nikon had concocted, but she didn’t care.

  Her father’s actions were just more proof that it was time for her to stop allowing him to manipulate and control her. It was time she made some important decisions in her life. When she returned home she would tell him she intended to move out. Then she would tell him about her involvement with Second Chances. Lastly, she would let him know her life was no longer his to control and manipulate.

  Settling in the back seat of the limo, she glanced out the window and marveled at the beautiful architectural designs of the buildings they passed. She wished the picturesque views of Rome could stop her mind from wandering, but they couldn’t.

  The moment the plane had landed, the first thought that had entered her mind was that this was where Zion lived. Zion Blackstone, the one man she just couldn’t seem to forget. There hadn’t been a single day during the past thirty that she hadn’t thought of him.

  She should have known from the first time she’d laid eyes on him, from the intensity of his gaze as he’d stared back at her, that he would be someone she wouldn’t easily forget. She thought she could ignore him, but that hadn’t worked. The sexual tension between them seemed only to escalate. And suggesting they go to the escape room hadn’t been a bright idea, after all. Just being around him had sensitized every sensuous nerve in her body, reminded her that she had hormones that could rear up at times, and made her pulse race at an alarming speed.

  It was there that he’d pulled her to him and kissed her in a way that had totally and thoroughly messed up her mind. She had figured nothing could have been that good, but here it was a month later and she had to concede that it truly had been.

  He had seduced her. Not with words but with action, the way he’d given her a full-contact, hot and heavy, wet-tongue, tonsil-touching kiss. And he was seducing her mind, sight unseen, with memories. At times they were so vivid she had to take a deep breath to stop her pulse from escalating.

  When the private car rolled up to the huge mansion, she instructed the driver in Italian not to leave, because she intended to stay less than thirty minutes. That would give her a chance to make an appearance and say hello to the American ambassador and his lovely wife. Then she would go back to the hotel, and pack to return to the States first thing in the morning.

  Several Italian reporters tried getting a statement from her as she hurried up the steps to the party. She ignored them and kept going, and was glad when the guards forced them back.

  Celine remained at the party for a little while and was about to leave when a tall man approached. “Ms. Michaels, I’m Stefano Calabria, assistant to the ambassador,” he said, flashing his credentials and speaking with a deep Italian accent. “Word has reached the ambassador that the paparazzi are out front. He’s instructed me to handle the matter. I’ve requested that your driver bring your car around back. Please follow me.”

  “All right.” She followed the man, grateful the ambassador had the insight to assist her in avoiding the paparazzi.

  The car was waiting and Mr. Calabria opened the door. “Thanks,” she said, smiling up at the man as she slid onto the smooth leather seat.

  “You’re welcome, signorina. Enjoy the rest of your evening.”

  The car moved away and she settled back against her seat. Moments later she noticed they were taking a different route than the one they’d used earlier. “Any reason we’re going a different way?” she asked the driver.

  “No reason, signorina.”

  She frowned, suddenly noting this was not the same man. “Wait a minute. You aren’t my driver. Who are you and where is he?”

  The man chuckled. “He’s indisposed at the moment. Just relax. We’re in for a long ride.”

  A long ride? The hotel where she was staying was only ten minutes away. Where was this guy taking her? “Where are we going?”

  “Not sure what your end destination will be. I was told to take you to a place several miles from here to wait for further orders.”

  To wait for orders? What on earth was going on? “Your orders from whom?”

  “Please, signorina. No more questions. Just sit back and enjoy the ride.”

  Like hell she would. “You will tell me what I want to know and you will tell me now,” she said, with forcefulness in her voice.

  The vehicle came to a traffic light and the driver turned around in his seat to stare back at her. He removed his chauffeur cap and tossed it on the seat beside him. “Your fiancé owes us money. He’s promised to pay within a week. And you, Miss Michaels, are our collateral until he does. That means you will be our guest. And just in case you’re tempted to try using your mobile phone, we’ve blocked all incoming and outgoing calls.”

  Celine stared at the man, certain she’d misunderstood him. But seeing the serious look on his face, she knew she had not. “First of all, I don’t have a fiancé. Secondly, I am an American citizen and you can’t block my calls or hold me against my will. And—”

  “Unfortunately, you have no say in the matter. And you are Nikon Anastas’s fiancée. It was announced in the media that you are and he verified as much to us.”

  “Well, it’s not true, and I want to be taken to the hotel now.”

  The traffic light changed and the vehicle continued...in the wrong direction. She knew what he’d said, but pulled her phone out of her purse anyway. When she clicked it on, the words Not in Service flashed across the screen. She glared at the driver. “You can’t hold me against my will.”

  “You’ve said that already. And just so you know, Anastas knows you’re being held until he pays up. He has no problem with our arrangement and says he will come get you in a week.”

  “A week? If I go missing for a week without a trace, my father will contact the American embassy for answers.”

  “Anastas assured us that won’t happen, and from what I heard, your old man is aware of Anastas’s plan.”

  Celine sat up in her seat. Her father? What was this man talking about? There was no way her father would go along with this. “I don’t believe you. My dad would never do anything to place my life in danger.”

  The man laughed. “I didn’t say he would. I think Nikon convinced him your life wouldn’t be in danger, and it won’t. Just as long as Nikon comes through for us by paying the debt he owes, you’ll be all right.”

  Celine didn’t say anything. She was too busy thinking of how she would get out of this. She was boiling mad. How dare her father and Nikon involve her in something like this. “Look, mister, you can’t keep me here against my will.”

  “Your fiancé said we can.”

  “I keep telling you I don’t have a fiancé. I will have you arrested for kidnapping.”

  “It’s not kidnapping, signorina. It’s safekeeping. Your accommodations will be excellent and we have been instructed to see to your every whim.”

  When he pulled the vehicle into the parking lot of what looked like a market, he said, “I smoked my last cigarette and will go into this all-night store to grab a pack. Don’t waste your time trying to get out because you’re locked in.”

  Celine knew now might be her only chance to get away. She couldn’t go back to the hotel, since that was the first place they would look for her. And she couldn’t go to the police until she knew how her father was involved. “Wait! I need to use the ladies’ room,” she said, when he opened the door to get out.

  “No. We will reach our destination in less than an hour.”

  “I can’t wait that long. For goodness’ sake, what can a helpless woman like me do?”

  The man glared at her for a moment, and then, as if he agreed with the assessment of her weakness, he said, “I will walk you to the ladies’ room and wait for you to come out. Don’t try anything crazy while you are in there.”

  She didn’t intend to make it to the restroom. She had scoped out the area and they were still close to downtown Rome. She didn’t know how many people were involved in this. So far she knew of the guy who’d identified himself as the ambassador’s assistant at the party and this driver. Were there others? Those involved would be looking for her, and she quickly thought of where she could go and hide out.

  “Remember what I said. No funny business,” he repeated, opening the door for her.

  As soon as she was out of the car, she turned on him and did what her friends, the Moretti triplets, had told her to do if she was ever in such a situation. She gave the man a hard kick below the belt. He went down and she took off running.

  Chapter 9

  Zion was awakened from a sound sleep by the buzzing of his security intercom system. Well, not exactly a sound sleep, not when he was in the throes of a hot dream. In a way, he appreciated the intrusion. He had no business dreaming about Celine Michaels, anyway. She was now an engaged woman.

  He wondered why Parker was buzzing him. It was close to two in the morning. No one would be visiting him at this hour. He reached for his cell phone and pressed the single digit that connected him with the head of his security. “Yes, Parker?” he asked in a sluggish voice. “What is it?”

  “Mr. Blackstone, I hate to bother you, but there’s a woman here requesting to see you.”

  Zion rolled his eyes. The last thing he wanted was to be bothered by some woman intent on making a booty call. Hmm, then maybe not. He’d seriously thought about hooking up with someone since returning from California, but the thought of having sex with anyone other than Celine Michaels had been a turnoff. Not anymore. The sooner he could bed some other woman, the better. Then maybe he could stop having dreams about Celine.