by Katee Robert
Her mouth worked, but no words emerged. Rose stumbled back a step and sank onto the couch. “You’re lying.”
“I have no reason to lie, and it’s easily verifiable.”
She shook her head slowly as if trying to clear a ringing in her ears. “Did you know? On the day of the wedding, did you know?”
If he said he did, if he told her that he’d taken her to save her life, it would rewrite everything that happened between them in a soft light. He’d be the hero who swept in and saved her from certain death. He’d also be a fucking liar.
“No.” No lies between them. No masks. Never again. “You’re mine, Rose, and I wasn’t about to let you marry that motherfucker.”
Her smile was faint but present. “That’s weirdly reassuring. I’d hate to have been wrong about you.”
“I’m not a good man. No one in this life is. If they tell you that, they’re lying, and that I won’t do. We’re starting fresh, and that means only honesty between us, no matter how fucked up.” He finally gave in to the pull of her presence and crossed to sit on the couch next to her. “I will kill the Mad Wolf for you.”
“I’m afraid that will only make things worse.” She slouched and laid her head on his shoulder. Dante’s heart gave a strange little lurch, and he froze. Rose continued, oblivious. “We have to make ourselves too strong to fuck with.”
“You’re the heir to one of the most stable dynasties in the States. How do you make that stronger?”
“I don’t know.” She sighed, settling in more firmly against him. “I just don’t fucking know.”
There was one last element of business to take care of before he could ask her the question that had lingered since she didn’t shoot him in the parking lot last week. Dante leaned back against the couch, taking Rose with him, and wrapped an arm around her. “My father ordered me to kill your youngest sister.”
“What?” She started to jump up, but he tightened his grip on her, holding her in place. Rose elbowed him in the stomach. “You’ve got to be kidding me. Is this why I’m here?”
“Use your fucking head.”
She stopped fighting, though only so she could twist and glare at him. “Excuse me?”
“What strategic value would I have in telling you if that was what I planned?” When she just glared harder, he resisted the urge to give her a shake. “Think, amata. If I’m the enemy you’ve painted me, I have no fucking reason to tell you. Not a single one.”
She pressed her lips together and finally cursed. “Okay, that makes sense, but why drop it on me like this?” She shook her head again, harder this time. “I still don’t understand why your uncle sent you here to begin with. There’s no strategic value in you fucking with me and my family. It’s not like the Verduccis are going to make the jump to expanding territory over here, and we don’t even deal in the same areas of influence.”
Irritation rose, but not at her. They were all logical questions, but logic and his uncle weren’t on the same page. They were hardly in the same universe. “He wanted to kill two birds with one stone.”
“I understand holding a grudge, but it’s still strange that he chose to target us instead of the Capparellis.”
Dante stroked his fingers over her bare shoulder, part of him thrilled that she allowed the casual touch. She even leaned into it. “You weren’t supposed to find out who I was. I’m sure he had some kind of plan for once things had progressed past a certain point.” Likely to order Dante to kill Rose and frame the Capparellis. “I would have died tragically in the fallout, of course. I’m good, but not even I can take on both Romanovs and Capparellis without support.”
“He’s not going to be happy you’re disobeying orders,” she finally said. “Or you still being alive when this is all finished.”
He shrugged. “He’s going to have bigger things to worry about before too long.” When she shot him a curious look, he allowed himself a smile. “My cousin is an ambitious man. War with the Romanovs isn’t profitable. It’s better to pursue peace in the face of combined interests.”
“You’re still a Verducci, Dante. Neither of us can change that.” She searched his face. “If I choose you, I put my sister in danger. I put my family in danger.”
“Rose. Amata.” He caught her chin and tilted her face up. “Do you trust me?”
“I shouldn’t. I have absolutely no reason to.”
She wasn’t wrong and yet… “That’s not an answer.”
Rose closed her eyes. “Yes. Damn you to hell, but yes, I trust you.”
“Marry me.”
She gave a choked laugh. “Just like that?”
“Marry me and I’ll fix this.”
At that, she opened her eyes and gave him an arch look. “You mean you’ll fix the thing you broke to begin with?” She pulled away and he released her. Rose smoothed her hair back. “And don’t come at me with that shit about the threat from Jovan. That might have existed outside of you, but the fault for escalating things with the Capperellis, and the marriage to Romeo lands squarely at your feet.”
“Si.” He shrugged. “I make no apologies for it. Not when I got you in the bargain.”
“Dante, you don’t have me.”
That was about enough of that. “Don’t I?” He caught her around her waist and lifted her to straddle him. She immediately scooted forward to close the last little bit of distance between them, pressing against his hardening cock. “You’re here, at my mercy. I could do anything I want to you.”
“Mmm.” Rose ran her hands up his chest. “It’s my security standing outside the door right. One word and Vasily will break down the door.” She leaned down and ran her mouth along his throat. “But I don’t need Vasily to fight my battles. I can take care of you myself.”
Dante caught her hips. Fuck, she was sexy like this, playful and sweet. Then again, he had yet to see a side of Rose that wasn’t sexy. “Very well, amata. You have me at your mercy. What will you do with me?”
“I have a few ideas.” She brushed a light, teasing kiss to his lips, retreating before he could deepen it. Rose moved, slipping off his lap and down to the floor to settle between his thighs.
Dante’s mouth went dry as she undid the button and dragged down the zipper. He lifted his hips so she could work the pants down his hips. She licked her lips at the sight of his cock, and Dante nearly lost it right then and there. “Amata.”
She wrapped a fist around his cock and gave him a slow pump. “Amata.” Rose repeated it back with a nearly flawless accent. “What does it mean?”
His breath, his words, his fucking soul, caught in his chest as she descended to take his cock into her mouth. They’d done this before, of course, but it felt different. Everything about this felt different. Rose took him slowly, teasing and licking down his length until her lips sealed around his base. In this moment, he could deny her nothing. The truth slipped free. “Beloved. Amata means beloved.”
Rose moaned and sucked him harder, moving nearly off his cock before descending again. Dante sank his hands into her hair, but he wasn’t interested in guiding her movements. She’d chosen this. She would maintain control… For a little while, at least.
It didn’t take long before his balls tightened and he had to fight the rising surge of need. “Amata,” he said sharply. A warning.
Rose opened her eyes and held his gaze as she descended on his cock again. The challenge in those hazel depths… Fuck, it undid him. Dante tightened his grip on her hair and lost it. He came hard, cursing as he did. Rose drank him down with little moans and whimpers, but she didn’t stop, sucking at him as he went soft. “Rosa.” He dragged her off him gently and pulled her up his body to kiss her deeply. Dante nipped her bottom lip. “Take off your pants before I rip them to pieces.”
“Promises, promises.” But she was already slipping out of his grasp to shimmy out of her jeans. She didn’t stop there, thank fuck, skimming off her panties and top. Her bra followed, leaving her gloriously naked.
Dante
yanked off his shirt and slid off the couch to the floor. “Come here.” He guided her to stand over him and put one knee on the couch. She was so wet, he could see it, and he parted her pussy with two fingers as he looked up her body to her face. “I’ll take care of you, amata.”
“I can take care of myself.”
“Si,” he agreed easily. “All the same, I will also be taking care of you.”
Her lips curved. “I suppose you mean to start with orgasms.”
“Everything should start with orgasms.”
She laughed. It was the first time he’d heard her sound so free. He liked it. He craved it. Dante decided right then and there that he’d do whatever it took to make a life with this woman where she laughed like that on the daily.
Even if he had to bring three crime families to their knees to do it.
Chapter 22
There were a thousand reasons this wouldn’t work. It wasn’t as if Dante had declared his undying love, even if he called Rose beloved. She wasn’t sure a man like him was capable of love at all. But as he leaned forward and licked her clit, she decided that it didn’t fucking matter. She’d never felt for another person the way she felt for Dante Verducci.
This would undoubtedly blow up in her face, but everything was already exploding. Why not light another match?
He bit her thigh. “You’re thinking too hard.”
“Do something about it, then.”
Something flickered through his dark eyes, something like wonder, and he dragged her down to straddle him, dug his hands into her hair, and claimed her mouth. All her thoughts and worries were swept away in an avalanche of lust. She ground down against him, but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough with Dante. He was a fire in her blood, consuming everything. Maybe she should worry about that, but she couldn’t bring herself to care, not with him pressing against her entrance.
“Amata—”
But it was too late. She was already working herself onto his cock. The blow job had turned her on, and his tongue had only heightened her pleasure, but she still wasn’t quite ready for his size. She didn’t care. If anything, the near-painful stretch just grounded her further in the moment. Rose braced her hands on Dante’s shoulders and swiveled her hips, sinking another inch. “Do I feel good, d’yavol? Tight and wet and made just for you?”
His grip spasmed on her hips, but he didn’t drag her the rest of the way down his cock like she expected. “You are made just for me.” His low voice made her pussy tighten, and she moaned. He didn’t stop there, though. “Beautiful. Cunning. Brutal. Violent. You’re my match, Rosa Romanov. You’re mine.” He surged forward and dragged his mouth over her throat and up to her ear. “And I’m yours.”
She couldn’t breathe. She wasn’t sure she even needed to with his words buoying her. “You’re madder than the Mad Wolf.”
“Si.” He thrust up a little, spearing her another few inches. “You know that for the asset it is.”
She did. Dear god, she did. He would never balk at doing what needed to be done. She’d never have to explain her reasonings or justify the lengths she’d go to protect her family and her people. Rose slammed the rest of the way onto him, moaning at the feeling of them being sealed together fully. “We do this, there’s no going back, Dante. No changing your mind. No betraying me.”
“Never.” He used his hold on her hair to bend her back and lavish her breasts with rough kisses. “I’ve made up my mind.”
Rose was terrified that she had as well.
She slid a hand between them to stroke her clit, and Dante growled against her skin and set his teeth against the underside of her right breast. “I fucking love when you do that.” He looped an arm around her lower back and held her tight to him as he bore her to the floor.
She expected… She wasn’t sure what she expected because he kissed her and slowed them down, fucking her with a ruthless gentleness that had her toes curling. It didn’t matter how much she squirmed or tried to move, she was helpless to do more than take what he gave her. Slow, pleasurable waves that edged her closer and closer to orgasm. Every stroke had her clit grinding against him, a steady beat… “Don’t stop, d’yavol.”
“Never.” He traced the shell of her ear with his tongue. “You’re mine, amata. I’ll always give you what you need.”
A promise she had no business believing, and yet she couldn’t stop the surge in her chest in response to it. “Give me what I need now.”
He didn’t pick up his pace, didn’t change his stroke, just kept fucking her in exactly the way she needed. Rose tried to hold out, but her body was too primed for him, and he was hitting all her spots too perfectly. She clutched his back and buried her face in his neck as she orgasmed.
Dante shifted back just enough to claim her mouth, to swallow her sobs and moans, and he got rougher, chasing his own pleasure. He broke the kiss with a gasp. “In or out, Rose?”
No misunderstanding his meaning. This, too, was symbolic in its own way. “Come in me, d’yavol. Fill me up.”
“Ti amo così fottutamente tanto, amata.” He kissed her, making her head spin even as his thrusts lost their rhythm and he ground into her, coming hard. “I love you, Rose Romanov.”
I love you, too.
She couldn’t say it aloud. Not yet. It felt like promising something she wasn’t sure she should promise. Admitting she’d fallen for Dante even harder than she’d fallen for Jackson wasn’t the same as agreeing to marry him, but it wasn’t far off, either.
They lay there, entangled in the most perfect way possible, as the sweat on their bodies cooled and their heartbeats returned to normal. Rose turned her head and pressed a kiss to Dante’s jaw. “Let me up. I need to shower before I go home.” The longer she stayed here, the harder it would be to leave.
“Stay.”
“I can’t.” If her family woke up and she was gone, there’d be hell to pay. She needed to play things correctly, to break this news to her parents in the most favorable way possible, and it wouldn’t be by sneaking around, acting like a foolish teenager.
Dante eased off her and took her hand, tugging her to her feet. “I am not spending the next few months sneaking around while you work up the courage to tell your family. You have a week.”
She blinked. “You don’t get to decide that timeline.”
“Rosa.” He held her gaze. “Either you choose this, or you don’t. If you do, then straddling the line only gives your enemies longer to prepare and catch you unawares. Decisive action is required.”
Her stomach dropped out. He wasn’t wrong, but… “Easy for you to say. You’ve already made your choice. When your cousin takes over, he’ll give you carte blanche to do whatever the fuck you want. You don’t have the same responsibilities that I do.”
Dante didn’t move. “Do you think that would make a single fucking difference to me if I did?”
She opened her mouth to say yes but couldn’t quite get the answer out. He was so single-minded when it came to her. Even if he’d been heir instead of the muscle, would that have changed any of the events that led them here? “I’m not like you. Not when it comes to my family.”
“Si.” He finally released her from his intense look and headed into the bathroom, leaving her to trail behind. “But that doesn’t change the fact that you know attempting to avoid what comes next will only make it worse.”
He was right, and she hated that he was right. “We need to figure out a way around Romeo Capparelli. That’s the biggest hurdle right now, aside from your uncle.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
She stared up into his face and waited for doubt to come. This thing between them wasn’t rational. It wasn’t a good idea from the outside looking in. Anyone from their respective lives would agree… “What does your cousin think of all this?”
“He’s not happy with me.” Dante turned on the shower and held his hand under the spray, testing the temperature. “He’ll get over it.”
“What if he doesn�
�t?”
He shrugged. “When I marry you, I get excommunicated from the family on all official channels.”
Rose jolted. “What? Dante, they’re your family. You can’t do that. Not for me.”
“I’m more than capable of making those decisions and weighing the cost on my own, amata.” He grabbed her hand and stepped into the shower, tugging her after him. “My relationship with my cousin is separate from family business.”
“I don’t understand that,” she said faintly. “How can you separate family and Family?” She loved her various aunts and uncles and cousins. But she never stopped being aware that while they were connected by blood and marriage, there was a marked difference between Romanov and O’Malley and Sheridan. A part of her always watched what she said around extended family.
And her parents? Her sisters? No matter the bonds that held them, it was understood that their first responsibility was to their power base and territory. Toward the greater good, as it related to their goals. It was why her parents had laid out exactly one option once they discovered her boyfriend was actually Dante Verducci. It was why she hadn’t flinched at marrying a man who was basically an enemy. It was why Lorelei hadn’t hesitated to do whatever it took to prevent their peace talks from being derailed—even marrying the man Rose was supposed to.
If the choice came down to her family or literally anything else, she would choose family.
“No one’s asking you to make that choice.” He pressed a quick kiss to her lips and stepped away to start soaping himself up. “The Verducci family kicked my mother out when she needed them the most because they didn’t want their reputation tarnished. I have exactly as much loyalty as my history with them requires.”
“But—”
“You don’t have to understand it. Matteo and I do. It’s enough.”