CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

When they walked around the corner, down a long corridor, and then into a bedroom at the end of the hall, she knew it had to be the master bedroom. "Isn't this your room?"

"Yes. And as you can see it has many windows."

It had floor to ceiling windows all around it, that was true. But Vivian didn't understand. Was he planning on sleeping with her ?

"Where are you going to sleep?"

"Not with you if that's what you're worried about. Go get on the bed. See how that mattress feels."

Vivian felt as if she was being ordered about, but she also remembered how that was just how he was. He was so accustomed to people jumping at his commands that he didn't realize how dictatorial he sounded. But she did as he said.

As she walked to his bed, he glanced down at the silk pajama short-shorts she wore and her smooth, shapely legs beneath them. His penis, that had been dormant for months, came alive when he saw the full sweep of her body. He was aroused.

Vivian sat on the bed and bounced on it.

"How does it feel?"

"Not like a brick."

He nearly smiled. She could tell he almost smiled. But she also could tell that smiling wasn't his thing.

"I'll get out of your way," he said as he walked over to the bed. As he reached beside her to grab the pillow on the opposite side of the bed, his penis was once again exposed to her. It was right in her face. And unlike before, it wasn't dangling in front of her. It was stiff as a board. He was having an erection. And it was turning her on.

When he glanced down as he grabbed the pillow and saw her staring at his midsection, it was only then did he remember that his robe was untied. But instead of quickly tying it up and apologizing, he didn't touch it. Because he saw that look in her eyes. He was arousing her almost as much as she was arousing him. And for some insane reason, he was pleased that he still had it in him to turn her on.

But when she felt him taking longer than necessary to grab a pillow, she looked up at him. And saw that he was staring down at her. They both quickly looked away.

After he had grabbed the pillow, he looked at her again. "Get some sleep."

"Where are you going to sleep?" she asked him.

He knew she couldn't possibly be concerned about him. Nobody was. "I'll be in the parlor. That's the room right over there. Adjacent to this one. Good night."

But she wasn't ready for him to just leave her there. They had so much to talk about! And as he was nearing the parlor door, she blurted it out. "I remember you," she said.

And when she said those words, Giorgio stopped in his tracks. But he didn't turn around.

"Do you remember me?"

There was a long pause as he stood still. Then he turned and faced her. "Yes," he said. "I remember you."

That seemed to relax her more, but he could tell by her emotional eyes that she had far more questions.

"Is that why you helped me?" she asked him.

He didn't say anything. But his face said enough to Vivian to know that he was hearing her. That he was going to answer her.

He walked over to the arch-top chair that faced the side of the bed and sat down. But instead of answering her right away, he crossed his legs and sat there studying her. She was still an enigma to him.He still couldn't figure it out. It was nine years ago when he first met her, but she still tugged at something deep within him as if they had never parted ways. And she wanted to know if that history was the reason he helped her. I don't know was the easy answer. "Yes," was the truth.

When he admitted to Vivian that he helped her because of their past, she felt even more at ease with him. Even more at home. But she needed more. "Why?" she asked him. "We almost came to blows in your office."

That was curious to Giorgio. "When did you first know who I was? In my office?"

She nodded."Yes."

"You didn't know it was me when I was in your office?"

" No." He was too heated that she had invaded his office to worry about what she looked like.

"Then when did you recognize me?"

" When I saw you, on monitor, in the ballroom over at HOJ."

It was shortly after she had left his office. "I didn't get a chance to say thank you for the contract. And the lawyer that helped me and my brother too. Thank you."

"What was the outcome?"

"I got time served. Which was seven months. My brother got probation." She looked at him. "Just so you know: I had no idea Kirby was involved with all that illegal activity, and how he was using my apartment to store that stuff and my baby brother to help him steal. He told me he bought all that stuff. And I believed him."

"Who's Kirby?"

"He was this guy I was dating. He's in prison now. They gave him forty years." Then she smiled. "You. Then Kirby." She shook her head. "I have a great taste in men."

When she smiled and made that joke, absolutely nothing about Giorgio's outer expression changed. But inwardly, it did something profound to him. He was captivated. It was as if that smile, her smile, reignited what he thought all along when he first met her: That she belonged to him. That he made the mistake of his life not pursuing her nine years ago. Everything would have been so different. He would have never asked Pen to marry him. He would have never been in that hotel with Effie Ross. Pen would be alive. Effie would be alive. And he would have had a reason to live.

And in that moment when she thought her little joke had fallen flat, he made up his mind. He stood up, walked over to the bed and tossed the pillow he had only minutes before removed from the bed, back onto the bed. He was standing directly in front of Vivian. "Get in and scoot over," he said to her.

Vivian's natural instinct was to question a direct order like that. But not with Jonni. She got in under the covers and moved over. And even when Giorgio removed his robe, rendering him naked, and got in that bed decide her, it felt normal and natural to Vivian.

It felt natural to Giorgio, too. It felt as if he was right where he was supposed to be. Where he should have been all along.

It took mere seconds of lying there before he pulled her into his arms.

Vivian was careful to look into his eyes when he touched her. He seemed so distant when he saw her on that floor - as if his body was there, but he was still checked out. But when she saw that softness in his eyes, and that kindness she somehow knew was in there too, she relaxed. She was in good hands.

When Giorgio lifted her chin and looked into her eyes, and then began kissing her, it was as if they were picking up where they left off nearly a decade ago. And all those once-in-a-lifetime feelings he felt when he first kissed her years ago, came flooding back. And when he removed her blouse, and then her shorts, and she was glad he did, there was no doubt. They were back.

Giorgio pulled her on top of him, still kissing her mouth and her breasts and massaging her down below. For nearly fifteen minutes, that groaned and moaned and kissed and caressed. It was as desperate as it was ferocious. They couldn't get enough of each other.

Then Giorgio laid her on her back again, moved his mouth down below, and did her with so much vigor that she could hardly contain her elation. Her feet were on his shoulders, his hands were beneath her butt, and she was screaming out with joy.

You ain't seen nothing yet , he thought to himself as he moved up the length of her body he adored, and then he entered her. And as soon as he thrust deep inside of her, she felt the slam. And they were at it. First fast and furious. It had been too long for them to take it easy.

But Giorgio did slow it down. He couldn't keep up that frenetic pace even if he wanted to. And he didn't want to. He didn't want this to end.

He took it nice and easy.

And soon he was doing her with a steadiness that she was amazed he could control. Because she was having orgasm after orgasm. As soon as she thought it was done, he hit her in that perfect spot again, and she was at it again. And when he came, and she came with him, it was her best orgasm ever.

Giorgio had never had it that good either. It was so good that he couldn't force himself to stop. It was so good that he was still moving inside of her. Still wanting more. Still searching for the strength to continue.

But his strength failed him. There was nothing left in the tank. And they both collapsed.

While her eyes were closed and she was still coming down from their enormous high, Giorgio stared at her with an anguished look in his eyes. That one decision to not pursue her nine years ago was the single worst decision of his entire life. He knew it now. Tears stained his eyes at just how profoundly he knew it.

He pulled out of her and moved off of her before she could see any sign, any inkling, of his wreckage.