was like being chased by a pack of wild hunting dogs, the terrifying inevitability of the ending slowing her pace.
Was it better to run and be caught from behind? Or better to turn and face the enemy?
She wanted to see what was happening—she didn’t want to be blinded.
And then she slammed into something solid and a pair of strong hands caught her and stopped her flight.
Oh, God, somehow one of them had got around her. She was trapped.
It was all over.
For a single moment she froze, like a frightened bird caught in the talons of a hawk, and then the sound of shouts and running feet grew louder and she knew she had only moments.
Survival instincts took over.
Jessie lifted her knee to deliver a blow to his manhood but this man was quicker than her, anticipating the movement with a swift shift of his body. Without uttering a sound, he slid a strong arm around her waist and yanked her against him, ensuring that she had no room for manoeuvre.
Pressed against rock-hard muscle and powerful thighs, Jessie searched desperately for weakness and found none. At least, not in him. But being held against that powerful male body triggered an altogether different reaction inside her. Panic, yes. And something more intimate and twice as frightening. As her pelvis burned and melted Jessie struggled against his grip, shocked and appalled by the sudden flare of sexual awareness that gripped her. It must be something to do with adrenaline, she thought wildly. Something about the final moments before death making your senses more acute. Death was thundering down on her and she was aroused.
She was still trying to find an explanation for her inexplicable response when she became aware of the sudden change in the hard male body pressed against her.
So it was the same for him, she thought with a bitter smile. He did have a weakness after all—the same one all men had.
Turning that to her advantage, Jessie slid her hand down his powerful body and covered him with the flat of her hand.
His shock was only marginally greater than hers, and she heard the breath hiss through his teeth a fraction of a second before he slackened his hold. It was all she needed. Her fist landed against the side of his face and she was running again.
She took fewer than three steps before the arms closed over her again and he hauled her back like a rag doll.
‘Maledezione, don’t ever pull a stunt like that again!’ The cold, furious voice penetrated her terror and Jessie felt a flicker of fear far, far deeper than anything she’d experienced before because she finally recognised who it was who held her.
Stunned, she stared into the face she’d just punched. ‘Silvio—?’
‘Stai zitto! Be quiet! Don’t say a word,’ he commanded, his fingers tightening on her wrists as the men finally caught up with them.
Jessie’s mind went blank with shock.
Silvio Brianza.
Images exploded in her head. Images of the last time she’d seen him. Images she’d banished from her brain.
‘Hey—thanks for catching her.’ This was a different man from the one she’d injured with her shoe and Jessie wondered numbly whether his friend was still lying in the alley, clutching himself.
She didn’t even care.
She was no longer worried about them.
The air was suddenly choked with an entirely different sort of tension and her emotions were focused on the man whose powerful body was pressed against every contour of hers.
Jessie tested his hold but it was like being held in a vice and her attempt to free herself drew a hiss of anger from him. She wished it had been anyone but Silvio who had come to her rescue.
‘Let me go. I don’t want your help.’
‘Of course you don’t—you’re doing fine by yourself.’ His scathing tone brought the colour rushing to her cheeks and Jessie felt a flash of humiliation that he should find her in this state.
‘I can handle it,’ she muttered, but she knew there was no chance he was going to let her go. Silvio Brianza was too much a man to let a woman fight for him.
Thinking about him as a man was a mistake and the colour bloomed in her cheeks as she remembered how he’d felt against her hand.
Grateful for the darkness, Jessie gave a hysterical laugh.
She was about to be killed and she was thinking about sex again. Only this man could have that effect on her. He’d always made her think things she wasn’t supposed to be thinking.
‘You’re going to be killed, Silvio.’
‘I thought that was what you wanted.’
His reference to the last time they’d met made her shiver.
How many lonely nights had she spent planning his fate when the rest of the world had been sleeping? A thousand ways to kill Silvio Brianza.
Was that what she wanted? She couldn’t think straight with the dangerous thrill of awareness gripping her shivering body.
All she knew was that the terrible fear had gone. Locked against his muscular frame, she felt safe. Which was ridiculous. She’d never been less safe in her life.
‘Back off. She’s ours.’ The rough voice was thick with menace. ‘You can hand her over and get back in your fancy car. We’ve got no quarrel with you.’
Fancy car?
Jessie turned her head, saw the low, sleek Ferrari parked at the end of the seedy alleyway. It was like a portal to another life. A reminder of how far Silvio had come.
He’d left all this behind. This wasn’t his world any more.
So what was he doing here?
Why had he picked tonight to step back into his past?
The man she’d stabbed with her shoe finally joined the rest of his friends, his eyes burning with anger and resentment as he focused on Jessie.
She looked into those dull, drug glazed eyes and saw her own death.
Her thoughts were oddly detached as she prepared herself for the end. With Silvio by her side, there would be a fight, she knew that. But it was a fight they couldn’t possibly win.
Would the end be quick?
Would it be a knife? A gun?
Suddenly she realised that she didn’t want Silvio to die. Not for her.
She drew breath to speak but before she could utter a sound Silvio brought his mouth down on hers in a brief, scorching kiss.
Jessie was too shocked to protest, or perhaps her lack of resistance had something to do with the fact that her thoughts had
