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CHAPTER TWELVE

TORTURE BEGAN TO take on a new personalfor Raphael over the next ness to let hiive them both what they desperately needed

If he had thought Pia biddable, she had proved he was utterly wrong Dio , ready-to-please demeanor was a core of steely stubbornness

When she’d said she wanted to spend time with him, she’d meant it And not in his ex-wife or mama and sisters kind of here what they wanted was for hiowns, the latest of Milan’s haute couture fashion, at parties, and theaters Where they could show off their connection with Raphael Mastrantino, CEO of Vito Automobiles, a man with powerful friends

With thelitter he could add to their standing in society It was the veneer of power that spread to them when they could claim a connection to hi else

But with Pia, Dio, when she’d said she wanted to spend ti about hi out with each other

It had becoe

She had insisted that he show her the vintage car he was restoring currently So Raphael had taken her to his house in Como one afternoon What he’d expected was for her to ooh and aah over it, and then expect hi the lake she hadn’t seen

Instead, driven by Emilio, Pia had arrived in the cutest overalls he had ever seen Uncaring of the fact that her hands could get greasy or that her hair would be h Pia’s hair was always messy and he loved it like that—she had crawled under the hood with hi hi

Talking about the chassis and suspension while the scent of her curled in his muscles, her hot breath stroked his cheeks—he had never had a

They had ended it with a glass of Chianti andinformed him that that was the extent of her culinary abilities

Having never spoken to another soul at such length about his passion, Raphael had spentneed to peel the overalls off her lithe body To kiss and lick every inch of her silky curves