by Katee Robert
He did tense, though. Even that small response was enough to boost her confidence. She could do this. Rose had planned and executed raids and a number of shady operations over the years. She might not have had to play the undercover role—not when everyone in the NYC underworld knew her on sight—but surely she could pull this off.
“Have you eaten?” He didn’t even sound out of breath.
She shrugged. “I’m not hungry.”
Finally, a response from him. He stopped with the weight halfway to his chest. “You don’t take care of yourself.” The way he said it. As if he actually had her health and well-being in mind at any point of the time they’d known each other.
She didn’t know what to think of that, so she didn’t think about it at all. Rose leaned forward to put her hands on the bar inside his. “I could crush you like this.”
“Careful, Rosa, or I might start mistaking your violent threats as flirting.”
She didn’t smile at him. She couldn’t. But she did lower herself a little closer to his chest. Dante’s dark gaze lingered where her breasts pressed against the thin fabric of her tank top. The room was cold. That was the only reason her nipples were pebbled and achy. It certainly wasn’t because of the dangerous man between her thighs.
He hefted the bar up, lifting it and the small pressure she put on it to easily drop it into the rack. Dante sat up, the move sliding her down his stomach to land in his lap. He set his hands on her hips, squeezing lightly. His hard cock pressed against her, and she couldn’t help but shiver. Even that little movement made Dante’s eyes narrow. “What’s going on?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She rocked her hips ever so slightly against him. It didn’t matter that she’d had sex with this exact man a few months ago. He felt different. She ran her hands up his chest, ignoring the temptation to linger on his new scars. Definitely ignoring the strange possessive feeling that arose when she looked at them, knowing she put them on his body. “You know I wake up needy in the morning.”
“Need your orgasms before you need your breakfast,” he murmured. In that moment, he sounded so much like Jackson, her heart twisted painfully in her chest. Dante kept staring at her as if he could divine the thoughts right out of her head. “What changed between last night and this morning?”
Damn it, he really was too smart for this to work. And she was too foolish to think she could do this without her traitorous heart getting fucked up in the process. “You don’t want to play? Fine. I’ll go take care of myself with that pulse shower head. It’ll get me there faster, anyway.” She rolled her eyes and started to stand.
He tightened his grip on her hips and jerked her back down. “You’re not serious.”
“I am.” She tried to stand again, mostly because it thrilled a dark, reckless part of her to have him holding her in place. He wasn’t overly rough, but the thought of wearing his fingerprints on her hips… She didn’t know what it said about it that she shivered at the thought and then shivered again when the little motion had her rubbing against his hard cock. “I’m angry and I’m frustrated and, while I still kind of want to kill you, my normal outlets are closed to me. I have to settle for you.” Strong words. Bold words. Her tone didn’t quite pull it off, though. She sounded needy.
“Your normal outlets,” he repeated slowly. He flexed his fingers on her hips, urging her to rock against him again, just the tiniest bit. “Tell me something, Rosa.”
“I don’t want to tell you anything.” The ridge of his cock lined up perfectly with her clit, and each stroke sent little zings of pleasure through her. What was he doing to her? They were barely touching. Even when she was more than ready to go, it usually took her a lot longer with Jackson to get to this point.
Except this wasn’t Jackson, was it? This was Dante.
Desire wound through her, thick as honey, and Rose knew her body well enough to recognize it wouldn’t take much to get her there. He hadn’t even kissed her. Hadn’t gone down on her. Hadn’t fingered her. Their movement could barely be called dry humping because it was so constrained.
He leaned forward until his lips brushed her ear. “You were so angry when I got away. Did you fuck someone to work out that rage?”
“I already told you. I fucked Romeo. Repeatedly. I went straight from shooting you to riding his cock.” Lies. All lies. Romeo hadn’t so much as touched her, and she certainly hadn’t pressed the issue. Romeo Capparelli was attractive enough from a distance, but once a person got close enough, only a fool would be convinced they saw something in his soulless eyes. Rose fully intended to do her duty and marry him to smooth over things, but she hadn’t been looking forward to consummating the relationship.
“I remember now. He fucked you everywhere, right?” He said it so casually. His tone gave her no warning. One moment he gripped her hips and the next he jerked her tighter against him and ran his hand down the center of her ass, his fingers delving between her cheeks. “Your ass.” Dante kept going until he cupped her roughly from behind. “Pussy.” He used his free hand to grip her chin and dragged his thumb over her bottom lip. “Mouth.”
“Da,” she finally managed. Rose licked her lips, her tongue sliding along his thumb and making his eyes go even darker. She was playing with fire, but she couldn’t stop. She didn’t want to stop. “He made it good for me with his long, thick cock and clever fingers. And he ate my pussy for hours, until I lost count of orgasms. Nothing mediocre about it.”
Dante tightened his grip on her chin until it was just shy of painful. “Bugiarda.”
“What does that mean?” She’d fully intended to learn passable Italian at some point since the Capparellis had continued to be an issue, but Rose didn’t have the same skill with languages that Lorelei did, so she’d found reasons to put it off again and again. She wished she’d learned now.
“Do you want to know what I think?”
“Nyet.” She didn’t exactly mean to switch to Russian, but she was having trouble thinking straight with his hands on her. He held her up away from his cock and too tightly to rock against his fingers. Frustration loosened her tongue. “Ya nikogo ne trogal, krome tebya, ublyudok.” Something she didn’t mean to admit, even if he didn’t understand.
I haven’t touched anyone but you, you bastard.
Not out of any loyalty. She didn’t feel it for him. But it just hadn’t happened. Romeo didn’t push her on anything remotely sexual, and she wasn’t foolish enough to touch anyone else in the meantime, not while negotiating their pending marriage and what it would mean for both families. Rose could be reckless, but even she wasn’t that selfish.
And… There was her foolish heart to consider. It hadn’t felt right with anyone else and so it was easier to blame her pending marriage on her celibacy. Better that than admit she missed the man who’d lied to her, betrayed her. The enemy.
He stared hard. “What does that mean?”
“It means I fucked Romeo on every surface.”
“No… I don’t think so.” He tilted his head to the side, surveying her face. “If you’re going to use that mouth to lie to me, I’ll put it to better use.”
She expected him to shove her to her knees, to guide her to suck his cock, but Dante simply shifted his grip on her chin and pressed two fingers into her mouth. She was so shocked, she forgot to fight. Or that was what she told herself as he held her gaze and fucked her mouth with his fingers. Not fast. Not even hard. But so damn thoroughly that she’d never felt so owned in her life.
The rough pads of his fingers dragged through her lips and over her tongue, so deep, she gagged. Dante didn’t stop. He wasn’t touching her nose, so it wasn’t like she couldn’t breathe if she concentrated, but it was so damn hard to concentrate with him thrusting back down her tongue and giving her no time to recover.
And still, he watched her as if she were the most interesting thing in the world, a piece of art to be surveyed and purchased and owned. “I was so very careful with you, Rosa. Never t
oo rough. Never too possessive. Safe. I let you set the pace when you sucked my cock, when we fucked. No longer.”
She tried to question him, but he gagged her again. Dante’s brows slammed down. “No, you will not lie to me anymore. I’m going to ask you a question, and you will give me the honest answer. Do you understand?” He didn’t remove his fingers, but he stopped fucking her mouth long enough for her to nod. “Bene.”
Dante eased his other hand off her pussy, reversing its journey in dragging his fingers over her ass and up to the small of her back. The rough handling had pulled her panties partly to the side, and the slick fabric of his shorts felt obscene against her throbbing center. “Let there be no misunderstanding between us. You can provoke me as much as you like, but I will not force you.” He held her gaze until she had to fight not to look away. “Do you want this cock?”
Her pride demanded she say no, but she’d already decided on this plan for reasons she couldn’t really drag into the light right now. It didn’t matter. She wanted this. Rose nodded slowly.
Dante slid his fingers from her mouth. “With your words, Rosa.” She started to wipe at her mouth, but he shook his head sharply. “No, I like you a mess. Now, stop stalling and tell me what you want.”
If she did this, there was no going back. Oh, she could change her mind later and she sincerely believed Dante would respect that choice even if he’d continue trying to seduce her. But there’d be no going back for her, and she’d have to answer some truly uncomfortable questions when she finally got back to the city.
It doesn’t matter. I’ll deal with the fallout later. I want this. I simply do.
“Da. Yes.” When he didn’t move, she gave him more. “I want your cock, Dante. Fuck me. Make me come. Please.”
He pressed a little circle to the small of her back, expression going contemplative. “If you change your mind, this stops. I will not have impatience on my part getting in the way of our future.”
They didn’t have a fucking future, but she managed to keep that to herself. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Bene.” He stood, lifting her as he did and setting her on her feet. “Sit on the bench, spread your legs, and pull your panties to the side. Now.”
Chapter 11
Dante knew a trap when he saw it, and this was most definitely a trap. Rose had come into the gym with the intention of letting this escalate, and it wasn’t simply because she wanted him too much to resist. She planned to use sex to cloud his judgment to further her end goal of escaping. A worthy plan, and it suited his purposes to allow this to play out. Sex was a double-edged sword, and he and Rose would continue to play this game of chicken until one of them faltered.
This close to having what he wanted most? It wouldn’t be him that missed a step.
But when she followed his order and sat on the bench, slowly spreading her thighs wide, and hooked the front of her panties to pull them to the side?
It took everything he had to stay on his feet and not fall to his knees before her. Best she not realize the power she had over him. She was ruthless enough that she wouldn’t hesitate to use it against him. He liked that about her, but he wasn’t going to hand her a weapon freely. He couldn’t help moving closer, though. “I fully intend to reclaim every part of you, Rosa. Starting with that aching little pussy practically begging for my tongue.”
She sucked in a breath. “Stop talking and put your money where your mouth is.”
“In a moment.” He didn’t trust himself to touch her yet. Not until they got one last order of business out of the way. “We didn’t use condoms before.” Oh, they had used them when they first started dating, but after a shared trip to the clinic to get tested, they’d forgone rubbers. He would go back to it if required, but he’d prefer to sink into Rose’s tight pussy without anything between them.
A small frown pulled her brows together. “I just got done telling you Romeo Capparelli fucked me seven ways to Sunday and you want to have sex without condoms?” Before he could answer, she charged on. “Beyond that, when we were together, you fucked me like three times a day to make up for the gaps when we couldn’t see each other, and you honestly expect me to believe you’ve gone three months without being with anyone else. Please.”
As if anyone but Rose would do once he’d decided on her. “In my defense, I did spend nearly an entire month recovering from my gunshot wounds.” He liked the way she blushed but refused to look away at that. Dante wasn’t usually one to give information freely, but she still believed it was all fake between them. If he had to continue to share the truth to combat that belief, it was a small price to pay. “Once I decided on you, it was only ever you, Rosa. No one else can compare.”
“And when was that?” She glared, but there was something almost vulnerable lingering in her eyes. “Don’t try to tell me it was when I shot you.”
It might be easier to believe than the truth. He shrugged. “It was at that art festival you dragged me to.”
She jolted. “What?”
At the time, he hadn’t been able to decide if her determination to hit all the random events that cropped up around New York were part of the mask or something she legitimately enjoyed. Dante had been half sure she was doing it to test him, to see when he’d finally put his foot down about going. She’d showed up that day with mirth in her hazel eyes and he’d known he was in for a day of being surrounded by too many people. “You had us each pick a painting.” A silly little game that he’d indulged because he was curious; would she pick as his girlfriend Rose or as Rose Romanov.
“We chose the same one,” she whispered. “I thought you were fucking with me.”
“I let you believe it.” The truth was he’d been strangely drawn to the abstract painting. It felt like violence and sex, and staring at it had made something go funny in his chest. The same something that went a little funny when he was around Rose. “It was real.”
“Stop it.”
He shook his head slowly. “We were both pretending in different ways, but that proved something to me. Down at our cores, we’re the same, Rosa.”
“Liar. Don’t try to use our shared history to manipulate me.”
“It’s the truth.” He leaned down slowly until their faces were even. “There’s only one liar in this room.”
“But—”
He pressed two fingers to her lips. Not pushing inside. Just silencing her. “But nothing. You forget, amata. I know Romeo Capparelli easily as well as you do. You weren’t dating. It was a business deal in the form of a marriage. He wouldn’t have fucked you and risked someone’s messy emotions ruining things. I bet he never even kissed you.” Dante waited, but she didn’t rush to throw more infuriating words at him. Good. “With all that said, the moment you were married, he would have claimed every part of you.” The very thought of the wedding night, of Romeo laying so much as a finger on Dante’s woman, of… “He would have wanted you pregnant as quickly as possible.”
Rose sucked in a breath. “It was in the negotiations, but that’s irrelevant.”
Unsurprising, but that didn’t make it easier to hear. Dante lowered his hand slowly. “It’s not irrelevant. Your pussy is mine, Rosa. And I’ll be reclaiming her now, so stop arguing semantics and tell me what you want. Condom or no?”
“We shouldn’t.”
“I don’t give a fuck about should or shouldn’t. Those words aren’t for us. Yes or no?”
He found himself holding his breath as she fought some internal battle. Saying yes would be a huge step in showing that, regardless of what she thought she should do, she actually trusted him. At least to keep her safe.
Finally, Rose shook her head. “We can’t.”
“What did I just say about—”
“We can’t, Dante. You didn’t snatch my birth control pills when you snatched me. It’s only been a little over twenty-four hours, I think, but it’s not worth the risk.”
For a moment, the temptation to press her on it nearly overwhelmed hi
m. If there were a baby involved… No. Damn it, no. He hadn’t thought about kids, to be perfectly honest. It had never really occurred to him to worry about it overmuch. Breeding heirs was Matteo’s job once he finally settled down and married someone suitable. With Dante’s history, he was more suited to being a warrior rather than a caretaker. If…when…he and Rose had children, they would want for nothing and fear nothing because he would stand between them and whatever threats arose. Hell, he’d go one step further and ensure there were no threats to rise.
Apparently he did want kids.
With Rose.
But not yet.
He frowned. “Where can we get birth control pills?”
“Easy answer; take me home.”
“No.” He shook his head. “Enough talking. We’ll use rubbers.” He bent down and picked her up, ignoring her protests, and stalked out of the gym and into the main living room. He’d fuck her in the gym later. Right now, he wanted to take his time. He dumped her on the couch and moved to flick the fireplace back on. It wasn’t overly cold, but she had on next to nothing, and he didn’t want her getting chilled. “Take off your shirt, Rosa.”
“Condoms.”
“Si.” He yanked open the drawer in the center of the coffee table and grabbed a handful of them. “Good enough?”
She stared. “How long have those been in there?”
“They’re replaced monthly.”
She narrowed her eyes. “This isn’t your murder-cabin, then. It’s your fuck-cabin.”
“This is my cabin, and sometimes that means I bring people here I want to fuck, si.” He dropped the condoms on the coffee table and planted his hands on either side of the pile. “Are you feeling jealous, amata? None of them compared to you.”
“I’m not jealous.” She grabbed the hem of her shirt and dragged it up and over her head. Rose tossed the shirt away and leaned back a bit on her elbows. The move arched her back and put her tits on full display. They were perfect and she knew it. She lifted a brow, silently challenging him.