Page 27 of Alejandro's Prey

If he hadn’t had years of combat and military training he might have stumbled. Angelina Giancarro was perfection. From the top of her flyaway blond hair to the bottom of her heeled sandals. She clung to the car door as if she would never let go, as if it were the lifeline between her old life and her new. She watched warily as he approached, her gorgeous grey eyes taking in every inch of his dark suit and tall form. She backed up a little, bumping into the doorframe.

He took her hand, peeling it one finger at a time from the edge of the door and giving it a light squeeze. “Ms. Giancarro… Gina. It is a pleasure to meet you,” he told her, meaning every word.

“Th-thank you… Alejandro.” Her voice was soft and slightly husky. The caress of his name shot arrows of heat right through him. He’d never felt such an intense, instant connection to another person before. This was more than lust. He studied her carefully.

“Your bags?” he asked.

She cleared her throat a little and swallowed, dropping her eyes. “In the trunk.”

He leaned into the car and told the driver to open the trunk, then lifted her bags. Gina took a small carry-on and they walked toward the plane together. “Did you get a chance to finish everything you needed to?” he asked, indicating she should go ahead of him onto the airplane.

“You mean say goodbye to the friends I made, the life I created here?” she said quietly. “Because I won’t be back. We both know that. Yes, I said goodbye, made my excuses.”

Alejandro secured her luggage and turned to look at her, studying the lovely blond where she stood, poised and ready to fly to Mexico with him. He’d thought of this as nothing more than a babysitting mission. But for her, she was being torn from the life she’d created in a city, in a country that wasn’t her own, because her family had been targeted for assassination more than a decade ago. Now she was being called back. All because she’d been born into a mafia family. No one asked her what she wanted, they just told her. Yet, she wasn’t fighting fate, she was giving in gracefully.

“Are you going to be alright?” he asked gruffly, showing her to her seat. “Can I get you anything?”

She tilted her head to the side and watched him with a tiny frown as he took the seat next to hers. He hadn’t planned on being so close to her, hadn’t planned on wanting Casey’s last living relative for himself. But something primal was driving him. He needed to feel her soft body against his, catch her subtle scent as she shifted to get more comfortable in her seat.

“No, I’m fine, thank you Alejandro.”

The way she said his name wrapped right around every part of him, especially his dick, making him harder than he’d ever been in his life. And there was nothing he could do about it without scaring her, so he had to just sit there and take the torture, breathing her in, feeling her soft shoulder rubbing against his arm whenever she shifted.

He tried to engage her in conversation a few times during the flight but mostly she answered his inquiries politely and then fell silent. He sensed a timid sadness about her. Not a deep sadness or anything, but a sense of loss. The same feeling her cousin held. He suspected the two women would get along very well once they met. He just hoped they both survived the upcoming confrontation in Mexico. His gut twisted in aggravation as he thought of sending a quiet little mouse like Gina into a situation like Mexico. She wasn’t mobbed up like the rest of them, she was too soft. Too sweet. He was suddenly angry at all of them for thinking this was a good idea. Angry at himself for allowing her to get on the airplane and leave her life in London behind.

He glanced down at her. She was leaning back in her seat, with her long, slim feet propped up on the opposite seat. She was reading a book, but not a normal book. This one had pictures and word bubbles. He thought maybe it was called a graphic novel. The incongruity, the sheer innocence of her reading such a thing made his lips twitch. He vowed then that he would make damn sure she came out of Mexico alive and whole, and that she would find happiness in Bolivia.

He allowed his gaze to trail over her, taking in her long legs where the skirt of her dress had bunched up revealing her knees and a delicious amount of thigh. The curve of her breast was also visible from his angle. Her luscious lips were pursed in concentration, her fingertip tracing the pink length of her mouth. His cock hardened even more. He cleared his throat and shifted in his seat, uncomfortable but damned if he was going to find another seat. He was going to have to make damn sure his men knew not to go near this woman while she was staying at the compound; she was too fucking tempting by half. She tilted her head to the side and looked at him, pinning him in place as though seeing right through him, catching him in the act of fantasizing about her.

“Hey, Alejandro, do you like Spiderman?” she asked.

He grinned at her. “Sure,cariña.” He had no idea. Men in tights weren’t really his thing. But anything Gina enjoyed was about to become his thing.

She grinned back, flashing him her beautiful teeth. “I bet you’re good at finding hard to find things, aren’t you?”

He knew in that moment that he’d met his future wife.

THE END