Ruthless Touch

RUTHLESS TOUCH BORN VILLAINS BOOK TWO ABBI COOK CONTENTS BLURB Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 About the Author Books by Abbi Gideon Rule, the consummate gentleman who runs the Villa Aurelia, has everyone fooled. They think he’s simply a businessman catering to the wealthiest of the Amalfi Coast. But I know what hides behind that mask of civility. The younger son of Helix Rule has mastered the art of pretending to be that perfect gentleman while behind the scenes he’s as ruthless as any of the villains in his family. He claims he took me from my ex-boyfriend for my own safety, but it’s him I need protection from once we’re alone. The man whose job it is to gather intel for his father knows my deepest thoughts and desires. And he intends on using them for his own pleasure. Ruthless Touch is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and events are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to events, locations, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental. 2023 Dark Vine Media LLC Copyright © 2023 Dark Vine Media LLC All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. ISBN: 979-8-9863912-2-9 Published in the United States Cover design by Clarise Tan at CT Cover Creations Contains themes that may upset some readers. CHAPTER ONE Gideon I take a drink of scotch and let it sit in my mouth for a few moments, warming the inside of my cheek before I let the liquid slowly slide down my throat. I’ve been avoiding the inevitable with Aria, hoping she’d be settled by the time I got back to the penthouse, but if security is telling Sasha there’s a problem, it seems my time ignoring the issue is over. For some reason, I feel the need to clear up my assistant’s misunderstanding regarding Aria, so I swallow another mouthful of scotch and say, “There’s nothing crazy about what’s going on upstairs.” Sasha looks back at me and shrugs. “Okay. It just seems distinctly odd for you to keep a woman prisoner in your penthouse. That’s all I meant.” She can be so melodramatic sometimes. Rolling my eyes, I say, “She isn’t a prisoner. Think of her as more like an investment.” I get no response to that, which is fine with me. I have little interest in explaining that I paid two hundred thousand euros for Aria. That’s between me and the man she used to call her boyfriend, a lovely soul who sold her to save his own skin. On her way out of my office, Sasha says, “Well, your investment is threatening her security guard. Not that she could actually do much to him, but they thought you should know.” She leaves before I can thank her, no doubt in a hurry to get to her time off. I take another gulp of scotch and a deep breath in before heading upstairs to deal with the problem. I arrive at my penthouse door to see Raphael standing guard as he’s supposed to. Solemn looking with a giant head that fits with his giant body, he stares straight ahead as I approach him. “Good evening, Raphael. Everything okay in there?” I ask with a smile. I don’t necessarily think Aria is lying in wait to attack me when I walk inside my home, but the thought has occurred to me since she’s been threatening a man who towers over her by more than a foot. My prisoner, as Sasha likes to call her, isn’t violent. At least not so far. Then again, it’s only been one day since she’s been here. Raphael turns to look at me, breaking his somber appearance with a look of worry. “Your guest seems unhappy, sir. I told her she had to stay inside, and she threatened to jump off the balcony. So I had Luca lock those doors from the outside.” I smile, imagining the two security guards worried what their boss’s guest leaping to her death would do to their jobs. “Thank you, Raphael. I appreciate your quick thinking. We wouldn’t want her to jump, now would we.” He doesn’t respond, returning to his stoic self and staring straight ahead. If Aria has given him that much trouble, he very well might want her to take a leap off my balcony. As soon as I open the door, she rushes toward me, green eyes full of blazing fury and her long, dark hair flying behind her. I must be out of my mind thinking I should keep this woman. “I want you to release me! You have no right to keep me here like some prisoner.” That’s the second time tonight some woman has termed this my keeping her prisoner. I push past her as she stands at the door with her hands on her hips. “Nobody is a prisoner here. You’re my guest, so why don’t you try acting like it?” I say as I shrug out of my suit jacket and drape it over the back of the black leather couch. “Let me free. You do nothing with me, and I’m stuck here all day alone with that behemoth you have watching over me,” Aria complains. I close my eyes and hope to God my head doesn’t start pounding. Maybe if I have another drink. As I make my way to the bar in the corner of the room, I look over at her to