Dante lifted the camisole over Adrianna’s head until all she was left wearing was her satin bra and panties. Adrianna had a beautiful body and Dante groaned deep in his throat. He wanted her completely naked.
“I want you so much,” Dante murmured, his voice raw with need. He ripped open his shirt, sending buttons flying in every direction, and tossed it away.
“I want you, too,” Adrianna whispered. She could see the deep longing in his gaze. She unzipped his pants and helped ease them down his muscular thighs, exposing a pair of sexy, black briefs, briefs that could do little to cover the hard length of his aroused member. He stepped out of his underwear and what she saw took her breath away. He was magnificent and so much more than she remembered. She reached out to caress his chest just as he unhooked the clasp at the front of the bra, freeing her firm breasts to his appreciative gaze. He massaged her breasts, caressing each dark nipple, until he finally lowered his head for a taste.
Adrianna moaned aloud when his mouth closed around each breast, branding it with his hot, wet tongue. She felt his hands move lower to the area between her thighs. He paused for a moment over her and he could feel her pulse quicken underneath his hand. He eased the panties down her thighs and before Adrianna could step out of them, he’d slid his finger inside her.
Dante found her wet with her own juices. He stroked her gently at first, then slowly began quickening the pace, bringing her to a fever pitch. Adrianna began making whimpering noises that told Dante she was enjoying what he was doing. Then he crouched to his knees to kiss the soft flesh of her inner thigh and then went farther to the apex at the center of her thighs. He teased it with his lips before penetrating the slick folds with his tongue. Adrianna shuddered and he knew he had her. He grabbed her hips and laved her womanly nub with slow and then fast flicks of his tongue.
“Oh yes, oh yes,” Adrianna cried aloud, encouraging Dante on his quest as pleasure radiated through her core.
Dante rose quickly and reached for his pants. He always kept a condom, just in case. He quickly sheathed himself before returning to Adrianna. She was leaning weak-kneed against the door with a longing gaze and he intended to give her everything he had. He recaptured her lips, parting them with his tongue to invade her mouth. His hands tightened around her waist to bring her closer to him. He positioned himself, rubbing his member against her and Adrianna purred. She parted her legs and he grabbed her hips and dove inside her. Adrianna wrapped her legs around his waist as he began thrusting inside her. It felt so good and so sweet.
Delicious sensations took over Dante as he found a slow rhythmic motion. Their bodies moved in sync as if they instantly remembered what it was like to be joined as one. A spasm shook through his entire body when Adrianna’s body began convulsing. He held on tight, bracing them both against the wall as they both rode an orgasmic wave of seismic proportions. When it was over, Dante gently lowered her back to her feet.
Adrianna felt hot and light-headed and before she could speak, Dante swept her up in his arms and carried her off to his bedroom.
Chapter 4
Adrianna awoke to the feel of a male hand splayed possessively across her midsection and soreness in between her thighs. She was startled at first until the memory of the night she’d spent in Dante’s arms came flooding back.
Making love to him had been as good as she remembered. No, better. There was no hesitancy in his touch; he was a man confident in his ability to please her. And please her he had—she’d come twice. Dante had released a passion in her that had been buried. For the past ten years, she’d rarely dated and had buried her sexuality under a mound of regrets.
Her eyes traveled to the empty condom packets on the nightstand. There would be no pregnancies this time around; Dante had made sure to take precautions. But how would he feel if he found out the real reason she’d left him all those years ago? What if he found she’d been pregnant and had never told him? He would never forgive her for having knowingly kept his child from him after he’d grown up as an orphan.
She should have never allowed herself to get carried away last night, but it had felt so great to be kissed and touched again and not just by any man, but by Dante. Despite her marriage and a couple of failed relationships, she’d never truly gotten over Dante, her first love. At nineteen, somehow he’d gotten under her skin and she’d never been free since.
But it was best now that she keep this one beautiful memory and quickly get out of dodge, before the truth came out. Adrianna couldn’t bear it if he looked at her with the same contempt she’d seen when he’d walked into her office at Foodies.
Slowly, she slid his hand away and crept out of bed to retrieve her clothes that had been strewn across his bedroom and the hallway. She was nearly dressed and searching for her purse, when she glanced up to find Dante standing in his boxer-briefs glaring at her with her purse in his hand.
“Looking for this?” He held up her purse.
“Thanks.” Adrianna went to reach for it, but he drew back.
“Was last night one for the road? Were you planning on running away again without a word?” he asked.
“It… It’s late and I’ve got to get to work,” Adrianna murmured. “I was just getting out of your way.”
“No, what you were doing was running. What you do best, Adrianna. And I don’t why I should be surprised.” He tossed the purse to her and headed down the hall.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Adrianna didn’t know where he was going so she followed behind him. She found him in the kitchen rummaging through his cabinets.
When he produced a canister of coffee and filters, Adrianna watched as he measured out several large tablespoons and added water to the coffee machine.
“It means you’re a coward,” Dante finally said, turning around. His eyes flashed with outrage as they bore down on her. “When something gets too tough for you, Adrianna, you turn around and run for safety. When are you finally going to live and take a risk?”
“How can you say that? I took a risk by coming with you last night.” Had she thought with her mind and not her body, she would have taken a cab home from the bar.
“And in the morning light, your first thought was to hightail it out of my bed. Why? Had you already tired of slumming it again?”
“Of course not. I’ve never looked down on you, Dante. I’ve always thought of you as my equal.” From the moment they’d met in cooking class, Adrianna had been enthralled with Dante. She hadn’t cared that he shared an apartment in Brooklyn with his friends and she’d grown up with a silver spoon in her mouth. She’d just wanted him and last night had been no different.
“Didn’t you?” he asked indignantly. “Isn’t that the reason you slinked off and married someone from a prominent family when you claimed you loved me?”
“I married him because I had to.”
“Because you had to be perfect Adrianna Wright, fit nice and neatly into a box, am I right? Well, listen, I’m not going to go down this path with you. I made that mistake once and I’m not doing it again. Last night was great. Clearly the passion is still there, but let’s just call it one for old time’s sake and move on.”
Adrianna felt as if he’d punched her. Had last night and the intimacy they’d shared meant nothing to him? “Is that really what you want?”
Dante turned his back. “Yes.”
“Then fine.” He was right. It was for the best. Why open old wounds? They’d merely started to take off the bandage. Had they ripped it off entirely, the bleeding would never stop. “Thanks for the memories.”
And with those final words, she left. When Dante turned back around, she was gone and all he was left with was the scent of her perfume on his skin.
Adrianna crept into her father’s house just before 8:00 a.m. She thought she’d make it up to her room and shower before anyone noticed, but their butler, Nigel, caught her on the staircase on the way up to her room.
“Good morning, Ms. Adrianna.”
Adria
nna colored. She was completely embarrassed at having been caught coming in the house after spending the night out. “Good morning, Nigel,” she said slowly, turning around to face him.
“Would you care for some breakfast?”
“Uh, no.” Adrianna lowered her head, shielding her eyes from his gaze. “Just coffee would be great.”
“I’ll bring it up right away.”
Nigel stepped away to do her bidding, but Adrianna called after him. “Nigel, how was Father’s night?”
“Not so great, I’m afraid. He tossed and turned all night and the nurse could not get him comfortable. He asked for you.”
Adrianna felt horrible for not being at his side. She’d come back to New York to care for her father, but instead what was she doing? She was off sleeping with Dante and going after television hosting jobs she was never going to get. “I’m so sorry, Nigel. I promise I will be here tonight to make sure he’s comfortable.”
“If you don’t mind my saying, Mr. Howard is so happy to have you back, Ms. Adrianna. You have no idea how lonely he’s been since Ms. Vanessa passed away two years ago.”
Adrianna had some idea, because she’d felt the same way. Her mother had been the glue that had held their family together and once she’d gone, it had been hard for Adrianna to act like her father hadn’t changed the entire course of her life. In a way, she’d hated him for it and now she would have to make her peace with him before he left this earth. “Well, I’m here now.”
“I’ll go get the carafe of coffee,” Nigel said as he left.
“Thank you, Nigel.” Adrianna quickly rushed up the stairs.
Dante was pounding out several chicken cutlets for the chicken cordon bleu bites on the dinner menu at his namesake restaurant that night when Malik, Quentin and Sage walked into his kitchen.
“What are you guys doing here?” Dante asked as he proceeded to pound another chicken breast within an inch of its life.
“Hold up a sec, lumberjack.” Quentin grabbed the mallet out of Dante’s hand. “It’s time we had a talk.”
“Talk about what?” Dante continued to the next task of grating the Gruyère cheese that would go inside the bites since Quentin had taken his mallet away. He had to keep moving, otherwise he was going to go insane with thinking about beautiful, lying, passionate, deceitful Adrianna.
“Talk about the fact that the love of your life suddenly reappeared,” Sage said, getting right to the point. “And how you feel about that.” She remembered the damage Adrianna Wright had done to Dante the first time around and intended to make sure she didn’t get another shot. She’d contacted Malik and Quentin so they could have a no-nonsense chat with Dante, especially since Malik had revealed that Dante might still have feelings for her.
“That’s exactly what I don’t want to talk about.”
“C’mon, man, Sage is right,” Malik added. “That woman broke your heart.”
Dante rolled his eyes. “Thanks a lot.”
“Well, she did.” Malik was unapologetic about being honest. “And you haven’t been right since.”
“And now suddenly she’s back out of the blue? You’ve gotta be confused,” Quentin said.
“She’s not back out of the blue,” Dante replied. “Her father is dying and she’s here to take care of him.”
“So that’s why she showed her face in Manhattan after ten years,” Sage responded derisively, rolling her eyes upward. “Well, at least there’s a heart somewhere in that block of ice.”
“Sage, I really don’t want to talk about this,” Dante reiterated and started slicing prosciutto.
“Why not?” Malik asked. “Do you have something to hide?”
Dante stopped slicing, long enough to turn around to face his family. “How about the fact that we slept together last night?” He swirled around to return to his task.
“You did what?” Sage was floored and fell back against the counter.
“You heard right. The woman got under my skin.”
“I thought you were upset that she could take the hosting gig away from you. How did…” As soon as Sage said the words, she paused. She knew exactly how anger could lead to passion. She and Ian had had a few such moments in the early stages of their relationship.
“Well, I’m glad I don’t have to explain the birds and the bees or that the opposite of hate is love, Sage,” Quentin said with a sigh. “That talk hadn’t been fun when you were a kid and I have no desire to repeat it.”
Sage chuckled. She’d remembered all too well. She’d been nine when she’d gone to the fellas and asked them to explain the birds and the bees. Sure, she’d read the books and one of the headmothers of the orphanage had tried to explain, too, but how else to understand why a boy in the third grade pulled her hair one day and brought her a cupcake the next.
“As much as you protest, Dante,” Quentin replied, “you’re still hung up on this woman.”
“I’m not hung up on Adrianna,” Dante responded sharply. He began assembling layers of prosciutto and Gruyère cheese over the chicken and rolling them into a pinwheel.
“But you fell into bed with her after you’d vowed to hate her. Where does this leave your relationship now?” Malik wondered aloud.
“Nowhere,” Dante stated emphatically. “All Adrianna knows how to do is run and I refuse to be stepped on for a second time. I told her as much this morning.”
“I’m sure that didn’t go over well,” Quentin said. “No woman wants to be considered a one-night stand.”
That was usually Dante’s experience as well, but Adrianna had been different. “The exact opposite,” he responded. “She seemed relieved that I was letting her off the hook, that I wasn’t expecting anything other than the evening we shared.”
Quentin frowned. “That doesn’t seem right.”
“No, it doesn’t. Clearly, she has something to hide.” As an attorney, Sage could read between the lines of what the men were failing to consider. “Something she doesn’t want you to uncover. If she’s been divorced for years, why did she stay away so long? She could have come back to New York before now, before her father became ill. Something just isn’t right.” Sage was determined to find exactly what that was. She may not have had the resources ten years ago, but she sure had them now. She wouldn’t let Adrianna get away with hurting Dante again.
“What could she possibly be hiding that would have any effect on Dante at this late date?” Malik asked.
Sage shrugged. “Call me crazy, but it’s only my opinion.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Dante replied, “because last night was a temporary lapse in judgment. Adrianna and I ended nearly a decade ago and the situation hasn’t changed.”
“So, I came looking for you the other night at Uncle Howard’s,” Madison said to Adrianna when her cousin met her at a local cappuccino bar on Friday afternoon in Soho. They’d come to search the galleries for some paintings to add to Madison’s loft. Madison had claimed she needed help selecting some prints, but Adrianna suspected Madison wanted to dish on gossip. “But you weren’t home.”
Adrianna lowered her head as images of her and Dante making love in his king-sized bed flashed in her mind.
“So where were you?” Madison asked. When Adrianna looked down and didn’t answer right away, Madison shouted, “No, no, no!”
Adrianna nodded. She wasn’t in the mood to be coy. If she couldn’t talk to Madison about being intimate with Dante, who could she talk to? “Oh yes…”
“How?”
“You don’t need me to tell you how we ended up in bed.”
“Of course not. It’s just a shock seeing as how the man swore he’d hate you forever. You hadn’t seen how upset he’d been when he’d shown up at our apartment back then looking for you. He was absolutely furious with you.”
Adrianna didn’t know how to explain it, either. She hadn’t seen Dante in years, but yet one look, one word, one touch from him and she was nineteen again, enthralled with the chef with the expressive brown
eyes that could whip her into a frenzy with a single kiss.
“Madison. This took me by surprise as well. I never expected to fall back into old patterns with Dante, but last night something just ignited between us.” She sipped on her hazelnut cappuccino.
“Something? Girl, I call that passion and apparently you guys have it in spades.”
“One minute we’re bickering about fighting for the same hosting gig.”
“The one you told me about for Lawrence Enterprises?”
“The very one.”
“Dante is up for the same position and on top of that his oldest and dearest friend is dating Ian Lawrence.” Madison tore off a piece of the scone she’d ordered and plopped it in her mouth. “Sage Anderson was Dante’s friend. Why I didn’t put the two pieces together sooner?”
“Well, it has been quite a while,” Adrianna replied. “Anyway, once I found out about it, I bombed my taping.”
“I thought you were just going for an interview?”
“That’s what I thought, too,” Adrianna said with a humorless chuckle. “So imagine my surprise when the interviewer told me I had to cook my signature truffle macaroni and cheese in my new red Dior suit.”
“You cooked mac-and-cheese in couture?”
Adrianna laughed. “I sure did. I wanted to prove that I could do anything that Dante could do. But what was even more surprising was when I ended the taping, Dante was waiting for me. We went out for cocktails and before I knew it…”
“One thing led to another,” Madison finished. “So, what now? Are you guys going to pick up where you left off?”
Adrianna shook her head. “Like it would be that easy. In the cold light of day, we both realized it was a mistake, a lapse in judgment and that we should both go our separate ways.”
Two to Tango Page 5