The Undercover Billionaire Read online

Yet kissing Olivia was different. He could feel the tension in her body, as if she was on the point of pushing him away, and some deep instinct told him that if he wanted this kiss to keep going, he was going to have to go slow.

  “Slow” wasn’t in his vocabulary and really, he shouldn’t be kissing her at all, especially since kissing Olivia wasn’t high on his list of mission objectives. But now that he was, he couldn’t seem to stop.

  Pressing his hands flat to the wall on either side of her head, he ran his tongue along the seam of her lips, coaxing gently, encouraging her to open to him, because he was suddenly desperate to taste the sweet heat of her.

  She gave a little tremble as he did so, then sighed, mouth opening up under his, letting him deepen the kiss.

  Christ, she tasted so fucking good. She had back in the hotel room a couple of days ago too, but she tasted even sweeter now, though he had no idea why. Her mouth was hot and when he touched his tongue to hers, encouraging her to respond, she made a soft sound in the back of her throat.

  His cock got suddenly insanely hard and before he could stop himself, he’d closed the distance between them, pushing her up against the wall so all her soft heat was pressed the length of his body. Then he gripped her chin and tilted her head back, sliding his tongue deeper into her mouth, taking the kiss from gentle to something hotter, more demanding.

  His blood was pumping hard in his veins and all he could think about was tasting her deeper. Then maybe undoing all the buttons that fastened the front of her dress and opening it up, touching her skin, perhaps sliding his hand between her thighs, feel how wet she was for him. God, he wanted to get inside her.

  He wanted her heat and her softness. He wanted her sweetness. Everything female about her that excited everything male in him. And maybe it was simply because she was a woman and he hadn’t had a woman in six months, or maybe it was more than that. Whatever it was, he wanted her. Like, now.

  At that moment, Olivia made another sound, this time one of protest and her hands were against his chest, pushing at him. He didn’t want to stop, but he made himself, lifting his head, struggling to catch his breath.

  She looked up at him, her eyes wide and dark, her cheeks flushed. Her hands weren’t pushing now, her fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt as if she wanted to keep him close instead. “I can’t leave,” she murmured. “I can’t.”

  At first, his head was so full of the taste of her that he couldn’t work out what she was saying. “Leave? What do you mean?”

  “I can’t leave with you.”

  Of course she’d know he wasn’t here to question her about her apparent preference for that asshole May. She’d escaped from him a couple of days ago and had realized that he wasn’t going to let that stand.

  He tried to steady his breathing, but it was difficult with her standing so close, filling his head with her sweet scent. “You don’t have a choice,” he said, his voice huskier than he wanted it to be. “I’m taking you whether you want to go or not.”

  Her fingers curled tighter into his shirt, her head shaking. “I can’t, Wolf. Dad needs me. He needs me to do this with Daniel. And I can’t let him down, I just can’t. Everyone left him, everyone took things from him. His wife committed suicide and then his sons took his company away from him.” She took a breath. “He’s got nothing and no one anymore. No one but me. And I can’t let it happen. Because I know what it’s like to…” She stopped and looked away, biting her lip.

  Wolf knew he should be letting her go and getting her in that elevator, that the minutes were ticking by and sooner or later someone was going to come looking for her. But he couldn’t make himself move.

  The distress in her eyes made his chest feel tight. He’d never understood why she was so loyal to her father, why she felt she had to do all the things she did for him, but he maybe he did now. A little anyway. “What did you lose?” he prompted softly. “Tell me.”

  Her lashes fell and he could see the gleam of moisture on them, and it made his chest go from tight to sore. He had a hand beneath her chin, and it was instinct that made him stroke the line of her jaw to offer her some reassurance.

  She shivered as he did so, but didn’t pull away. “Dad wasn’t the only one who lost something when Mom died.” Her voice was so quiet he almost didn’t hear the words.

  Shit. Her mother. Of course. She’d spoken about her in those conversations in the library, but not a great deal. He almost wondered if she was afraid to for some reason. But he did know that Olivia had grieved for the loss and had grieved deeply.

  Apparently she still did.

  It left him with nothing to say, because what the fuck did he know about consoling anyone? No one had consoled him after Noah’s death, not even his brothers. They’d all been struggling with their own issues and none of them had anything left for shit like reassurance.

  He stroked her jaw, looking down at the top of her head, her glossy brown hair shining under the lights of the corridor. He had to fight the urge to bury his face in it, inhale the strawberry scent of her shampoo or whatever the hell it was that made her smell like that.

  “Shit, I know it’s hard,” he said, trying to think of something better to say than that and coming up with nothing. Words weren’t his forte and never had been. “But … Liv, you can’t sacrifice living your own life because of what happened to your Dad.” That her father wasn’t worth her sacrifice he didn’t add, even though he wanted to. “None of that is your fault.” And it wasn’t. Whatever had happened to Cesare de Santis, he’d brought it on himself.

  A breath went out of her and she leaned forward, putting her forehead on his chest, holding onto his shirt, and his heart raced, thundering in his head. The slight weight of her against him was making him lightheaded and all he wanted to do was put his arms around her, crush her against him. But she was so small and fragile, and upset.

  “I know.” Her voice was muffled. “I know it’s not my fault. But there’s no one around to help him but me.”

  Wolf’s jaw ached and he had to lower his hands to his sides, because he couldn’t trust himself not to keep on touching her. “It doesn’t have to be you. Why do you need to help him anyway? What has he ever done for you?”

  She shook her head, the slight movement of it against his chest making him wish he wasn’t wearing his goddamn shirt because he wanted to feel her silky hair against his skin. “He’s my Dad,” she said simply. As if that explained everything.

  And it did. Loyalty to someone, even as flawed as her father, was something he understood and understood well. He’d done many things for his own father, things he wasn’t proud of, but he’d done it because Noah was his dad. And Wolf loved him, despite everything.

  He prized loyalty too, and Olivia was loyal to a fault. Even if the person she gave her loyalty to didn’t deserve it, and God knew her father didn’t. Come to think of it, neither did he, not after he’d lied to her so completely and for so long. Yet here she was, letting him kiss her then resting her head on his chest like he was the friend he’d once been to her.

  Shit, they really needed to get out of here. This wasn’t the time or the place for heart-to-heart chats.

  Glancing toward to the restaurant doors, he checked to make sure the coast was still clear, then said, “Yeah, well, whether you want to marry that son of a bitch for your father’s sake or not, I’m not letting you. We gotta get out of here.”

  She started to shake her head again, but he grabbed her chin again and held her tight, looking down into her eyes. “You’ve got two choices, Liv. Either you come with me right now or you scream and make a fuss and I take you anyway. What’s it to be?”

  An expression he couldn’t read flashed across her face. “I have bodyguards.”

  “Which I could take out in ten seconds.”

  “Daniel has a couple too.”

  “You think I don’t know that? I’d take them out in five.”

  She swallowed and this time her indecision was clear. “Wolf…�
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  So he made the decision for her. Taking her arm, he walked with her to the elevator and hit the button.

  She made no move to get away from him, only glancing once toward the restaurant. She didn’t scream or cry out. Didn’t yell for help.

  “If anyone asks, you did your best to escape me, but I was too strong for you,” he said as the elevator chimed. The doors opened. He lifted his hand and pointed two fingers at her. “Also, I had a gun. Which I used to force you into the elevator.”

  She glanced down at his fingers then lifted her gaze to his again. And he was sure he saw her mouth curve very slightly. “Okay.”

  He gave her a smile, because it was clear she needed one, and gestured with his fingers toward the elevator. “You’d better get in. I don’t want to have to shoot you.”

  Her mouth curved a little more and this time she didn’t look toward the restaurant, getting into the elevator instead. He joined her, hitting the button to close the doors.

  Okay, the clock was going to start ticking right now, which meant he had to move fast if he was to get her away without anyone following them.

  The past couple of days he’d debated a lot about where to take her, whether to go back to that hotel or find a place outside of New York City. But the hotel had been compromised when she’d escaped, and if he was out of New York, he couldn’t keep tabs on de Santis. Which left him with little choice.

  There was the Tate mansion that was currently vacated since Van was in Wyoming, but the place was a giant target and the last place he wanted to hide Olivia away in. He could call Lucas and hit up his brother for the keys to his apartment, but involving his brothers in this mission wasn’t what he wanted either.

  Which left him with only one option. He’d have to take her to his secret bolt-hole.

  The 79th Street Boat Basin.

  The elevator doors opened and Wolf grabbed her hand, hustling her out of the building and onto the sidewalk. The cab was waiting for him just as the driver had promised—Wolf had paid him extra—and when he opened the door, she got into without a protest.

  As he got in after her and closed the door, settling himself in the seat, she said, “Are you angry at me for escaping?”

  The taxi pulled away into the lunchtime traffic, the driver already knowing where to take them.

  “I wasn’t exactly thrilled.” He glanced at her. “How did you guess my code?”

  “I didn’t guess.” She folded her hands in her lap. The blue dress she wore, with a lot of little buttons down the front and a narrow belt around her waist, made the color of her eyes look more intense. “I thought about what kind of code would be relevant to you and that date just … popped into my head.”

  He still didn’t know how he felt about the fact that she’d remembered. “Uh-huh. And all that alcohol was to get me drunk enough to pass out?”

  She colored and looked down at her delicate hands. “It worked.”

  Another thought occurred to him. Had her offer of a blow job been part of that too? Because if it had …

  His earlier anger, still simmering, boiled up again, though he had no idea why. He’d been telling himself all along that he didn’t want her. So it shouldn’t matter to him why she’d offered to suck his dick. Yet … all he could think about was what if it had been a lie? What if it had all been part of her escape plan?

  That kiss doesn’t lie.

  He could still feel her lips against his, hot and soft, the sweet taste of her mouth and the way it had opened up beneath his. No, fuck, that hadn’t been a lie. Or the way her fingers had curled into his shirt as if she hadn’t wanted to let him go.

  But he couldn’t resist asking her all the same. “So was that blow job all part of your escape plan too?”

  The flush in her cheeks deepened and she glanced toward the driver then back at him. “I…” She faltered. “I’d heard that it can make some men sleepy … afterward.”

  Holy shit.

  Wolf stared at her, inexplicably pissed but also kind of impressed. Because it was a decent plan. She couldn’t physically fight him, so her only option had been to render him unconscious. Which she had, without even the aid of an orgasm.

  Still …

  “Did you lie?” he asked even though none of that should matter. “About wanting me then?”

  Her eyes widened as if the question surprised her. Then she looked down at her hands again, her lashes veiling her gaze, and no matter what he’d tasted in her kiss, he wanted to hear the words. He wanted to know whether she’d lied to him or not.

  No, it shouldn’t matter what she felt about it. It shouldn’t matter whether she was into him or not, because it wasn’t like there could be anything between them. He’d pretty much destroyed their friendship when he’d told her about being a double agent, and despite those kisses and her response, he didn’t think a physical relationship was likely either. Not given how quickly she’d leapt off him when the moment to get down and dirty with him had come.

  So why he wanted to know whether she’d lied was anyone’s guess. That didn’t make him any less desperate to know.

  Her gaze stayed on her hands, and he thought she wasn’t going to answer. And he was debating grabbing her stubborn little chin and turning her to face him again, making her answer anyway, when she said, very quietly, “No. I didn’t lie.”

  A jolt of electricity shot straight down his spine.

  Well, okay then. Good to know.

  Not that you’re going to do anything about it. Not after the way you used her.

  His jaw clenched. He wasn’t going to do anything about it anyway. Olivia had once been his friend, not to mention that he was pretty sure she wouldn’t be on board with his assassination plans for her father. And then there was the fact that once he’d dealt with de Santis, he had to go get his mother.

  He wasn’t looking for any kind of relationship now even if she still wanted him after all of that.

  He shifted in the seat next to her, conscious that her thigh was very close to his and all he’d have to do was move slightly and it would be pressed up against him.

  Jesus.

  “So you lost your nerve then,” he said. “That’s why you pulled away.”

  She looked at him finally, her gaze guarded. “Yes, I did.”

  “Why?” He should drop the subject, he really should.

  “Because … I’d never done it before.”

  “No. That’s not the reason.” Because why would she have offered it in the first place? No, she’d looked … upset. And then she wouldn’t tell him what was wrong.

  Why are you pushing?

  Christ he didn’t know.

  Lifting a hand, he scrubbed it through his hair. “Look, you don’t have to answer that—”

  “Because you matter to me, Wolf.” The words were very quiet, cutting through his statement and blowing everything else he’d been going to say clean out of his head.

  It didn’t make any sense. He’d lied to her. For years, he’d lied to her. About everything. About the reason he’d been friends with her in the first place, and yet, here she was, telling him that he mattered to her?

  “What do you mean I matter?” He could feel his chest getting tight again, the way it seemed to lately whenever she was around, and he didn’t like it. “How can you say that after everything I said to you?”

  She’d gone pink, but she didn’t avoid his gaze this time, staring back at him, a glint of defiance in her eyes. “Yes, it hurt to find out that you only got close to me to get to my father. And yes, I’m really angry with you. But you were my friend for ten years and I can’t turn my feelings off just like that.”

  He found himself rubbing at his hair yet again, a nervous tic he’d never grown out of. “That’s got nothing to do with the BJ, Liv.”

  “Yes, it has. You matter to me and I…” She stopped, her hands twisting in her lap. “I knew that if I went ahead with it, I might not ever be able to get you out of my head.”

  But he didn
’t understand. “What does that mean?”

  “Nothing will ever happen between us, Wolf. I know that. But I didn’t want to start anything that would make living without you even more difficult than it is already.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Olivia knew she shouldn’t have said it, shouldn’t have given away so much. But she’d had to give him the truth. In letting Wolf take her out of the restaurant, she’d walked away from her father, and once she’d crossed that line there was no crossing back.

  Wolf had sown the seeds of doubt inside her about her father’s motives and even if she’d gone back to her awkward lunch with Daniel, those seeds would still have been there. And they would have continued to grow.

  But she hadn’t stayed. She’d gone with Wolf and, in doing so, she’d chosen him.

  She still wasn’t sure why she had. Maybe it had been that desperate, sweet, overwhelming kiss he’d given her against the wall. Caging her with the heat and the strength of his body, giving her something to lean against and hold onto. And she had held onto him. Because not only had that kiss had made her legs feel like rubber, it had also stripped away her cozy blanket of self-denial. Simply torn it out of her grip. Leaving her with nothing but the bare truth.

  That all the justifications in the world about how she was doing this for her father didn’t make her want to go back and sit down with Daniel May. Didn’t make the thought of going out with him, marrying him, sleeping with him any easier. Didn’t make the revulsion she felt at the thought of him touching her go away.

  She didn’t want to do it. The only man she wanted was Wolf, and he’d proved it to her.

  She’d protested having to go with him, because she felt she had to, but when he’d told her she didn’t have a choice, that he was going to take her anyway whether she wanted to go or not, something inside her had been so relieved. She hadn’t wanted to make the decision herself, and he’d taken it out of her hands.

  That had added another layer of complication to her already complicated feelings for him, but maybe a bit of truth would make things less complicated. Not the truth that she actually loved him and still did, despite everything, but he had to know that she cared about him.