Temporarily His Princess - By Olivia Gates Page 0,61

again now. I don’t only love Glory, I know her.”

Brandon pinned him with a conflicted gaze before he finally squared his shoulders and held out the dossier he had with him. It had the Steele Security insignia on it. Vincenzo knew from experience those were only used for final reports and verified evidence.

Trepidation overwhelmed Vincenzo as he looked at it. He snatched his gaze back to Brandon’s, as if to escape an image that would sear his retinas if he gazed at it a second more.

Brandon looked at him like someone would look at a patient before amputating a limb. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Vincenzo, but this is a compilation of all emails and text messages leaking the info. The originating addresses were expertly hidden, just not expertly enough to hide them from me. Everything was traced back to Glory’s phone and computer.”

Eleven

Vincenzo had no idea what he’d said to Brandon or when the man had left.

He found himself sitting in the bedroom he had only ever used with Glory. He’d bought this place six years ago when she’d consented to be his. He’d left it when he sent her away, but hadn’t been able to sell it off. He’d only come back when he’d decided to have her back in his life.

The life that was falling apart all over again.

This couldn’t be happening. Not again.

And he refused to believe it was. There had to be some explanation other than the obvious, other than what Brandon sanctioned. But Vincenzo couldn’t think what it was. So he wouldn’t even try to think. He’d stop everything, his very heartbeat if need be, until she told him what to think.

He sat there for what might have been hours until he heard her coming into the penthouse. The sense of déjà vu almost overwhelmed him, of that day more than six years ago when he’d waited for her in this room, listening to her advance and feeling that every step was inching toward the end of everything worth living for.

Then she entered the room. For the moment she didn’t notice him as he sat to her far right on the couch by the floor-to-ceiling windows, her expression was subdued, pensive. Suddenly she started, her head jerking around, as if his presence electrified her.

Her uncensored reaction the split second she saw him was a smile that felt like a flare of light and warmth in the cold darkness that was spreading inside him.

Her rush toward him felt as if life itself was rushing back into his veins. Her eagerness flooded him, submerged him as she straddled him on the couch.

He let her deluge him in her sweetness, drink him dry in the desperation of her need.

Her kisses grew wrenching, her gasps labored. “I missed you…missed you, darling…Vincenzo…”

And how he’d missed her. Three days and nights without losing himself in the depths of her and drinking deep of her pleasures had him raving mad with starvation.

Her hands fumbled with his clothes, and he knew. The moment she touched his flesh he’d go up in flames, and he owed it to her to settle this before he let her drag him into their realm of delirium. His hands covered hers, stopping her.

She stiffened. Then slowly, as if afraid something would shatter if she moved too fast, she took her lips away from his neck. After a harsh intake of breath, she turned her head away and her rigidity increased as her gaze fixed on a spot on the couch. The security report file lay close to him. He knew she’d recognize it for what it was. But her gaze was fixed farther away, on the prenup.

She spilled off him, staggering up only to take two steps before slumping down on the opposite armchair. She looked at him as if waiting for a blow.

He had to hear her reasons from her own lips. “Why did you put this on my desk today, Glory?”

“Today?” Her eyes rounded. “I—I put it there over a week ago. I thought you’d long seen it, and when you didn’t mention it I thought…”

“What did you think?”

A spasm seized her face. “I didn’t know what to think.”

“What did you want me to think when I saw it? What were you telling me?”

The pained look deepened; her voice sounded strangled. “I was offering you my answer to what I thought you were telling me, when you… When you…”

“When I what?”

“When you stopped taking me to your functions and started canceling our