She kissed his mouth, heat and tenderness and affection and a hundred other things rushing out of her on a wave she couldn’t curtail. “That woman was a first-class moron, if I may say so.”
A smile curved his mouth. “Wow… Are you sure you don’t need to wash out your mouth?”
“Oh, don’t encourage me, Bianco. It could get a lot dirtier, believe me. The reason I liked Aunt Grace so much was because she had no problem cursing in front of kids either.”
“I can’t wait, bella.”
Clio laughed against his mouth, a river of joy flooding her.
As if it was as natural as drawing breath, he captured her mouth with his. Molten heat uncoiled in every nerve, every muscle. It was as if her body knew what he could give, and craved it.
Tongues dueling, lips scraping against teeth, in a matter of seconds, they were both breathing hard.
Somehow, Clio had climbed into his lap and was straddling his erection. With a moan, she moved, the crease of her sex rubbing against his, sending erotic tingles through her lower belly.
Cursing, Stefan locked her hips before she could do it again. Color bled into his cheekbones, his nostrils flaring. “As much as I would love nothing but to be inside your wet heat, bella, I want to hear your story more.”
Sighing dramatically, Clio smiled. “Oh, to be denied sex for a story… Your libido and prowess has been overestimated by the media, Bianco.”
He bit her lower lip as punishment and a hundred nerves jangled within Clio. “The sooner you tell me, the sooner you can have me, Mrs. Bianco.” His grin was so natural, so filled with that openness he had possessed so long ago that her breath caught in her throat. “Any way you want.”
“Fine. But don’t forget your promise.”
It was the first time he had actually smiled after a conversation about Serena and the poison she had spewed in his life. For that smile, she could give up all the money in the world.
Clio hugged the fact to herself like a proud accomplishment.
“What about the money your aunt Grace bequeathed you, bella?”
Knowing that his mood was going to worsen, Clio slipped off him and got to her feet. “I met Jackson a few years later. Until then I put Aunt Grace’s money in a CD that I couldn’t break for five years. It had matured a year after I met him. And he talked me into investing it in his hedge fund company.”
The room went from warm to ice-cold in a matter of seconds.
Uncoiling his huge frame from the bed, Stefan reached her. “And?”
“I have known it for a while at the back of my mind from the bits and pieces I have heard him mutter about over the last year. And I have seen proof of it now. He lost most of the investors’ money.”
“That’s a risk you take with hedge funds, bella.” Pulling her to him, he wrapped his arms around her. “I’m so sorry you lost the money she gave you, Clio. I’m sorry he deceived you in so many ways.”
Clio went into his embrace as if it was the most natural thing in the world to do. And the fact that he had done something nonsexual and intimate without reservation, it blunted the shock of realizing another level to Jackson’s deception.
That something her aunt had given her out of love was now lost to her hurt more than the fact that she was basically penniless. Again.
“That’s not it. From all the claims he made, and the returns he’s been showing in his statements, my investment should have grown by leaps and bounds.”
She went back to her bedroom and grabbed the files. He was heading into the kitchen, so she laid them on the table. After a few seconds of rifling through it, he stared at her with icy fury in his eyes.
“These records show your investment had nearly fifty percent returns. But the actuality is that he’s lost it all? He’s fronting the funds from somewhere else?”
“Looks like it,” Clio whispered.
Instantly, she was lifted off the ground in a bear hug. “You did it, bella. You found it.” Putting her down, he cradled her face in his palms. “That’s all we need to expose him, bella. Jackson won’t recover from this.”
“It doesn’t feel like an achievement, Stefan. I have a sick feeling in my gut. Everything he did, everything he ever said to me, it was all such a big lie. How can I ever—”
She was more than surprised when he pulled out a dining chair and pulled her onto his lap. His long fingers tracing the angles of her face, he pressed a kiss to her temple. Held her within the cocoon of his embrace. “Shh… It’s all his shame, Clio. Not yours.”
It was a place Clio never wanted to leave, and the want was so visceral that she shivered.
* * *
Holding Clio in his arms as she trembled, seeing the pain in her beautiful gaze abate as he kissed the lush curve of her mouth, Stefan finally felt at peace after a long time.
Strange since seeing his parents after so long, unburdening his shame and guilt with his father, and making love to Clio, the day should have been an emotional roller coaster.
Yet the facts that Clio had uncovered about Jackson, that he finally had a chance to bring him to justice for all the wrongs he had done to so many people, freed something inside him.
He couldn’t find it in him to be angry with Clio anymore for interfering. Instead, he felt grateful.
With her actions, she had only shown him how much power he had given Serena’s rejection over his very life. And yet here she was, struggling to find herself again after Jackson had stolen so much from her.
In the face of her strength, Stefan felt some of his own bitterness melt. He lifted her and carried her back to her bedroom, drenched in the realization that a small part of him could trust a woman again.
However their marriage had started, it seemed he had a wife who bore his name with care and honor and duty.
CHAPTER TWELVE
TWO WEEKS LATER, Stefan and Clio arrived in Gazbiyaa, Zayed’s desert kingdom, the evening before Zayed’s wedding was to take place. The desert palace glittered in the setting sun, breathtakingly beautiful, a haven of luxury amidst the stark landscape of the desert.
Stefan and she had been shown to a suite in the wing of the palace that was away from the festivities of the wedding and provided privacy, just as Rocco and Olivia, and Christian and Alessandra had been.
With Stefan catching up with Rocco and Christian, and feeling a bit fragile to face the other women yet, Clio toured the Gazbiyan palace with a bevy of maids—at least the portions that she was allowed to without infringing on the customs of a kingdom that clung to its traditional roots. A kingdom that Zayed was determined to pull away from the brink of war with its neighboring nation.