“He’s what I thought I wanted.” I spread my hands up his chest and rose on the tips of my toes. I linked my fingers behind his neck. “Turns out, you’re what I need.”
I didn’t require him to stay clean, or to stop sleeping around. My craving for him went deeper than my attempts at self-medication. I needed him like air—needed the connection between us to live my life to the fullest, to be the Hannah I’d always wanted to be deep down inside. Dante saw me, the real me, the screwed-up me, the one with all the flaws. Despite all this, he wanted me anyway. His strong, safe state of being gave me the courage to become the person I’d always wanted to be.
I nipped his bottom lip with my teeth and soothed the sting with my mouth. Dante cupped the back of my head and sucked my tongue into his mouth with a low rumbling growl. He stepped into me, and my back hit the door. As he lifted me, I wrapped my legs around his waist. Hard and ready, his cock pressed against my core and I ground against him.
“Let’s go back to bed,” he said.
I reached down the front of his sweats, palmed his granite cock. “Let’s.”
Chapter Six
My head hurt. My muscles throbbed. When I opened my eyes, my vision blurred. Who knew I’d feel so horrible after a night—and morning—of amazing, mind-altering almost-but-not-quite-sex. I groaned into the soft pillow and wished for the first time in a very long time that the darkness would steal me away into dreamland.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
What was that sound? I shook my head and regretted it. My brain throbbed. My skin felt tight all over. The muscles in my jaw, thighs and for some strange reason, calves, screamed.
Dizzy and disoriented from lack of sleep, or maybe too many orgasms, I struggled to untangle myself from the blankets, arms and legs woven around me. Behind me, dead to the world and naked as the day he was born, Dante slept. Considering we’d finally fallen asleep around seven in the morning and it was only ten now, I didn’t blame him.
Damn, why was I awake?
Knock. Knock. Knock.
A familiar noise. The one that had roused me from sleep way before I was ready? Someone was apparently at the door and not going away. If it was Eli again, I swear I was going to kick his ass. I pressed a hand to my forehead in an attempt to contain the ache and swung my legs over the side of the bed.
Dante, as if sensing my absence, rolled over on top of the spot I’d just vacated and smothered it with his large body. I ran my gaze over the muscles in his back, the thick scars crisscrossing his skin and then lower to his high, firm ass. His thighs were slightly parted, giving me a glimpse of his testicles, the same ones I’d had in my hand only a few hours ago. Dante rubbed his face against my pillow, inhaled once, mumbled something and promptly fell back to sleep.
Sexy and cute. A damning combination to my fluttering heart.
I rose from the bed and when my inner thighs, the skin slightly abraded from the stubble on Dante’s jaw, rubbed together, stabs of pleasure moved through the center of my body. I replayed each delicious and arousing second he’d spent licking, nibbling and sucking on the tender flesh there.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Jeeze. Persistent much? “I’m coming, I’m coming.” I groaned and picked up Dante’s shirt off the floor.
I stumbled, more than walked, to the front door as I dressed. Sunlight streamed in through the windows and those little beams of light speared right through me. I blinked, lifted my arm over my eyes in a poor attempt to block the brightness. Jesus, I felt as if I had a hangover.
Through the small, round hole in the door I looked out to the other side and found a bored-looking guy in a tan uniform holding a box. The label affixed to his shirt read Express Delivery.
Knowing I looked like I’d just stuck my finger in a light socket and not really caring, I unlocked then opened the door. I squinted at the obnoxious rays of sunshine.
“Dude, when no one answers the door after the tenth knock, leave the package,” I grumbled.
Package boy, no longer shrunken and distorted by the peephole’s concaved glass, looked younger than I was. He stared slack-jawed at my mouth for a few seconds before his gaze almost comically dipped. Breasts. Legs. Breasts. You’d think he’d never seen an almost naked woman who’d spent the entire night being pleasured before.
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Eyes up here,” I chastised.
“Right, sorry.” He cleared his throat and thrust the box at me. “I didn’t mean to wake you, ma’am, but I was under strict orders not to leave the package on the doorstep. If I fuck up one more time, they’re gonna fire me. I need this job.”
I took the box, found it to be heavier than it looked and glanced at the printed label. Who was Kyle Maddox?
“Here’s a tip, don’t use the word ‘fuck’ when you deliver packages. Want another one?” I didn’t wait for his response, only shoved the package into his chest. “You’ve got the wrong house. No one named Kyle lives here.”
The man-boy, who had kind of a cute blush coloring his cheeks, shook his head. His shaggy black hair swept across his forehead. He stepped back and left me holding the stupid box. He unhooked an electronic tablet clipped to his belt and hit a few buttons.
“This is the right house, so this is where I’m leaving it. What’s your name so I can note who signed for it.”
I rolled my eyes. “Hannah Grey—that’s Grey with an ‘e’.”
“Got it, thanks.” He slipped his hands into his pockets and smiled up at me.
I felt like an Amazon compared to him.
“Ah…” I looked around the front yard, grass cut short. My gaze skittered over the blue and yellow van in the driveway before I turned to meet his eyes. “Is there something else you needed?”
He leaned against the wall outside of the door as if he were settling in for a while. “You got a boyfriend?”
I looked down at myself and shook my head. I was used to being hit on, just not when I looked so damn horrible. My hair was a mess, shadows ringed dark circles under my eyes, I had no makeup on and I was only wearing a shirt.
I frowned at the delivery guy. “Are you serious?”
“You’re like superhot. You a model or some shit? Can I get your number?”
Had I really used to date guys like this moron? I stepped back and slammed the door in his face. Still shaking my head, I wandered into the kitchen, set down the package and rummaged around in the refrigerator for something to eat.
Eggs, cheese, bacon and tortillas. A bag of potatoes sat on the counter. I smiled and decided to cook, something I hadn’t done since before Lizbeth. Thirty minutes later, I had breakfast burritos, hot sauce, toast and fresh-squeezed orange juice for two set out on a tray. I would have made coffee, but I’d known from my previous sleepover Dante didn’t operate on caffeine.
I placed my bounty of food items on the nightstand and leaned across the bed to press my lips against Dante’s ear.
I nipped his ear. “Time to wake up, sleepy head.”
He mumbled something into the pillow he slept face first against, hooked an arm around my waist and pulled me into bed. Omph. I was on my back with his large body looming over mine before I could blink. The thick ridge of his morning erection unerringly found its way between my legs I spread to accommodate his hips. Dante’s weight pressed into me, warming me from head to toe and I smiled up at his sleepy, relaxed face. I adored his immediate need to hold me.
He shifted his pelvis, rubbing first the tip, then the length of his cock against my pussy. The metal ball of his barbell applied just the right amount of pressure against my clit. Pleasure spread through my abdomen. I cupped his ass and rocked my hips against him, coaxing a moan from both of us.
We hadn’t had sex. Yet. In a way, I was kind of glad we’d waited. In another way, I really wanted him to fully claim me as his.
“Mornin’, darlin’.”
“Mornin’.” I pushed back the riot of curls falling in front of his eyes and tucked them behind his ears.
>
He drew his nose down my cheek, and when I curved my head to the side, Dante trailed his tongue across my jaw, throat and then collarbone. He nuzzled me. “Something smells good.”
I shivered and rubbed my leg against the soft, spongy hair on his calf. He gripped my thigh in his big strong hand and lifted my leg to wrap it around him. The cotton shirt I wore slithered across my skin and bunched around my waist. He slid his cock through the lips of my pussy, coating his thickness in my arousal. He didn’t enter me, only teased the opening with a slow back-and-forth rhythm.
I could hardly find the words to speak through the teasing pleasure coaxing me into a stupor. When I did, it came out hitched and uneven. “I made you breakfast in bed.” I barely heard my voice over my pounding heart. Would he press inside? Make me his?
“Yes,” he rumbled, opened his mouth against my neck and nibbled. “That also smells good, but not nearly as appetizing as you do.”
My pussy clenched and I scratched a hand down his spine. “Ummm…”
“‘Ummm’ is right. You’re so wet and warm.” He flexed the hand that held my hip, fingers digging into my skin. The crown of his cock bumped against the pearl of my clit and sent bolts of pleasure through me. “You have no idea how bad I want to slip inside you, feel your snug heat wrapping around me when you come.”
My stomach chose that exact moment to let out a hideous growling noise. My cheeks heated. Dante chuckled against my throat and pulled away to grin down at me.
“No!” I shouted and cupped his massive shoulders. “Come back. More sexy talk. More rubbing. Don’t listen to my belly.” In response, my stupid stomach gurgled.
“My woman needs to eat. My da, before he died, drilled in the basics. Women have three basics needs that need to be met—protection, pleasure and food.”
A smile, probably stupid and ten times too big, spread my lips. He referred to me as his woman. No one had ever claimed me before.
I spread my hands on his shoulders, down the thick, rippling muscles on his upper arms. “I hope you don’t mind I cooked. Breakfast burritos—bacon, egg, potatoes and cheese.”
He cupped the back of my neck, brought me forward and pressed his lips against mine for a slow, lingering kiss that stole my soul and tethered my heart to his.
“I don’t mind, not in the slightest. It’s the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me,” he said when he released my mouth.
Turning and settling next to me, he pulled the blanket across our laps and reached for the tray. He set it between us and handed me a plate. We both dug in as if we hadn’t eaten in days. For me, that might be accurate.
“This is really good.” He moaned, the same sound he made when he came unglued.
Pride filled me. I nodded, took another bite of my burrito. “Oh,” I said with a mouth half-full. “You got a package. Well, not you but someone.” I swallowed. “Do you know who Kyle Maddox is?”
Dante picked up his juice and downed the entire thing in one gulp. “That’d be me.”
I stared at him. “Huh?”
“More accurately, it’s who I used to be before the attack. I haven’t gone by Kyle in a really long time.”
“I should have guessed Dante wasn’t your real name.”
He grinned. “Castro started it. He liked to compare my journey through his dimension of hell to Dante’s Inferno. One day I was no longer Kyle, just Dante because that’s what he kept calling me. Kind of like how he calls you Kitten. One day, it’ll be your name.”
I laughed. “I’m not cut out to be Kitten. Dante suits you.” I sipped my orange juice. “Will you tell me about who you were, before the attack?”
“Not much to tell. I was boring, repressed and unhappy,” he said and it didn’t sound like he regretted the changes in his life. “I’d been going to school in Boston, working on my dissertation to get my PhD in Sociology because that was what my girlfriend at the time, Marisa, wanted.”
“What did you want?” I leaned my head on his shoulder and picked at my burrito. Whoever this Marisa girl was, I hated her already.
“Honestly, I had no idea. I met Marisa in college. She was ambitious, beautiful and cold as fucking ice. Once we settled into our relationship, we only had sex on Sundays. Even then, she had to control every single aspect. She hated oral sex, hated being on top, hated me coming up behind her. Got to the point I couldn’t even kiss her because she had all these rules.
“After six years, two living together, it was either time to propose or move on. Even though I knew she wasn’t the one, I bought the ring anyway and prepared for a lifetime of jacking off. I came home early one day—found her in bed with one of her professors. She’d been fucking him for months behind my back. Come to find out he wasn’t the first.”
What a bitch. I hoped he’d never think I would ever do that do him. “Ouch.”
“Didn’t hurt, not really. It was a relief. After that, things fell into perspective. I quit school, travelled the world,” he flashed me a naughty grin, “and set about fucking as many women as I could on any day of the week I wanted.”
“Charming.”
He shrugged. “One night my buddies and I decided to go camping in the Everglades. Even though we were all shitfaced, we somehow made it there. Not long after we set up camp, a naked man covered in blood attacked us. He was a damn maniac. Four on one and we got our asses kicked. Had no idea he was a shifter, not until his skin exploded and in its place a huge-ass lion took form. I was the only one who made it.” He stopped and drew in a deep breath, as if he still mourned the loss of his friends. After a moment, he shook his head. “I probably would have died if Castro hadn’t been after the man in the first place for a debt he was owed. He opened a portal, took me with him and patched me up.”
I laced our fingers together, giving him silent support. “That’s brutal,” I said.
He squeezed my hand. “The details are a bit fuzzy. My body resisted the change. Had a fever of one-oh-five for seven days. When I did wake up it still felt like I was in a dream. You grew up immersed in the shadows, knowing vampires, shifters and demons existed. Me, not so much. I was completely ignorant. To say it was a rough adjustment would be an understatement.”
I toyed with the hem on the blanket. “Just because I grew up in the life, doesn’t mean I was immersed in it. After my parents, first my mom then a few years later my dad, were murdered, my uncle and sister went to great lengths to shelter me. You have no idea how annoying it is to walk into a room and have everyone stop talking. They pretty much just silently stare at me until I turn around and leave. I’m twenty and they still do it.”
He cupped my cheek. “They just want to protect you, darlin’. There’s something about you, something innocent and fresh that brings out the protective instincts. I took one look at you, covered in blood and crying, and knew I was a goner.”
An involuntary smile tugged my lips up into a full grin. He’d wanted me. “I could help out if they’d let me.”
He brought our clasped hands to his mouth. His soft, warm breath washed across my skin before his lips pressed to flesh. His silent acceptance and support, something I’d never truly had until him, made my heart go all blubbery and vulnerable.
“Have you talked to Ella about this?”
“Only a million times,” I said in exasperation. “She keeps throwing the fact that I pass out at the sight of blood against me, as if it makes me weak. I drew the short straw with the family genetics, I guess. I never showed much interest in weapons, not like Ella. I remember this one time when I was three and she was eight, I had a nightmare. She ran into my room, two Silverstone blades at the ready. I never even saw her move. The next thing I knew, my stuffed penguin was ripped out of my arms and pinned to the wall with a knife. She was eight and she speared the thing right between the eyes! I cried for like, weeks.”
Dante chuckled.
I slapped his arm. “It’s not funny!”
He caught my wrist and pulled me into him. “It’s kind of
funny. I can totally see Ella as a little girl, all badass and sassy.”
I laid my head on his chest and listened to his pounding heart. “My father doted on her like the sun shone out of her ass. Me, not so much. Even though I was blonde and green-eyed, I was the black sheep in the family. Couldn’t throw a punch. Didn’t want to play with knives. Guns gave me hives. No matter what I did to compensate for those shortcomings, it wasn’t enough.” My voice lowered. “He’d pat me on the head, turn me away and tell me I’d make a good hunter’s wife one day. Eventually, I settled into that role and stopped trying.” I shook my head, hoping to rid myself of the memories. “Hey, you want your package?”
He searched my eyes and as if he knew I needed a distraction, nodded. “Sure. But please tell me you put on some clothes before you answered the door looking all sexy and rumpled in my shirt.”
I winked as I got out of bed. “What you see is what he got. The delivery guy asked for my number.”
Dante shook his head. “You’re evil.”
The moment I returned to the room with the heavy box, his entire demeanor changed. The soft lines around his mouth hardened. His nostrils flared. Something scary and dangerous filled his eyes.
“Put the box down, now.”
My smile fell and the tips of my fingers tingled. Panic nipped at my skin. “What is it?”
Dante ripped the covers off his lap and sprang out of bed, not caring in the slightest he was naked. I handed him the box and stepped away from the crazy, swirling energy radiating from his skin. I’d been wrong earlier when I’d said Eli’s otherness was feral. Dante, who must have a hell of a lot of control, blew feral into a new dimension.
“I smell blood,” he said, as if that explained everything.
I put my hand out behind me, searching for the wall I backed in to. “What do you mean?”
He studied the box from every angle. “Who dropped this off? There isn’t any postage on it, no return address.”
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