Fearless to Love (Written in the Stars Book 7)

by Harlow Layne

  I couldn’t respond. His head ducked down while simultaneously pulling down the neck of my t-shirt to lick and suck at my breasts.

  “You’re amazing,” he groaned.

  His other hand found the button and zipper of my jeans and made quick work of them. Breaking his mouth away from lavishing my breasts, Dante tugged my jeans and panties down in one quick movement. My hands undid his belt as his went to my shirt. Our arms and hands tangled, fumbling.

  Dante’s deep chuckle brought my head up. His eyes twinkled. “I’m happy to have you undress me any time, siren, but let’s not kill each other in the attempt.”

  We stripped each other hastily without knocking each other out. The moment our clothes were strewn all over the cool hardwood floor, our mouths collided. Our tongues dueled; teeth gnashed. My hand trailed down each ridge of his six-pack. My fingertips smoothed down his happy trail leading down to the promised land, wrapping around his base.

  “Fuck me.” He bucked into my hand.

  His hand skimmed up my inner thigh. My body heating the closer he got to where I needed him most. Dipping one finger inside my core, Dante moaned. “Your sweet fucking pussy is drenched for me.”

  Withdrawing, his hands went to the backs of my thighs where he hoisted me up against the front door. On instinct, my arms and legs wrapped around his trim waist. Rubbing his shaft through my slick folds, we both groaned at the sensation.

  I never knew one man’s touch could feel so good.

  Placing his tip to my aching core, Dante pushed inside in one breathtaking thrust.

  His pace was hurried, almost frantic, and I loved that I caused Dante to lose control in this way.

  Clawing at his back, I clenched around him. Fireworks detonated around us. My eyes rolled back into my head as one ripple of ecstasy followed another.

  Dante’s movements became jerky before he all but collapsed on top of me. With one last thrust of his hips, he groaned out something in Italian.

  It was sexy as hell and if I hadn’t just been fucked within an inch of my life, I would have tackled him to the ground and started the whole thing over again. Instead, I rested my head against his as my breath heaved, my legs falling until the tips of my toes touched the floor.

  Turning his head, Dante kissed my temple. “How does it keep getting better and better?” he murmured.

  I had no idea, but I’d enjoy it while it lasted.

  Scooping me up in his arms, Dante carried me upstairs gently laying me down on my bed. I watched as he moved into the bathroom. The muscles in his legs and back as he moved made my sex start to throb all over again. He came back out with a warm, wet washcloth and cleaned between my legs with reverent care.

  Closing my eyes, I pushed back the stinging tears. Never had anyone cared for me this way. I knew then, if Dante wasn’t in my life, I’d never be the same.

  Feeling the dip of the bed, I smiled as strong arms pulled me against Dante’s long and lean body. Curling around me, he kissed my shoulder. “Goodnight, my siren.”

  I woke up to Dante rushing around the room trying to pull his pants over his delectable ass. Where was the fire? Slowly sitting up to lean on my elbow, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. “What’s going on?”

  “Shit.” Dante zipped up his jeans, rushed over to the bed, and planted a hot wet kiss on my lips before he searched the room for his t-shirt. “I’m incredibly late. I need to be at Flux in…” he looked at his watch and then up at me, “twenty minutes for a delivery.”

  Jumping out of bed, I slipped on a robe and ran downstairs. “I’ll get a travel mug of coffee and some breakfast to go.” Once Dante left, I would probably end up falling asleep. We’d stayed up too late last night. No wonder he’d slept in.

  “You don’t need to do that,” he said as he sat at the table to put on his shoes.

  I added the scrambled egg, sausage with peppers and onions to the grilled tortilla and wrapped it up. “I work from home and I don’t plan to write today, anyway. You’ve thoroughly exhausted me and all I want to do is laze about and read all snuggled up in my library. Plus, I love to cook and it’s nice to take care of you after you took care of me.”

  Long arms wrapped around me as lips met the juncture between my neck and shoulder. “I like you taking care of me too. If I wasn’t already late, I’d be happy to exhaust you more, but sadly that’s going to have to wait. I have to work tonight, and I won’t get out of there until late.”

  Even with him behind me, I could feel he hated the idea of leaving. Turning around in his arms, I wrapped my arms around his trim waist. “If you’re not too busy later, I could bring you dinner and you could give me a tour of your place.” I bit my bottom lip, hating that I’d been in such a funk since Tommy and I stayed home most nights except for working at Rocco’s and my once a month dinner with the gang. Was it too forward of me to invite myself over to his place?

  “I’d love nothing more than for you to come by and see me. Maybe I can even convince you to stay the night.” He raised his eyebrow in question.

  He didn’t have to ask me twice. I was dying to see where Dante called home. “I would love nothing more.” As much as I hated it, I slipped out of his arms and wrapped the burrito in aluminum foil. I handed it over to Dante along with a travel mug full of coffee. Reaching up on my tippy-toes, I leaned my body into his as I kissed him. “Have a good day at work.”

  I watched out the kitchen window as he pulled out of the driveway and onto the road. Damn, did I have it bad. At least now that I knew I was going to see him tonight, I had a little more pep in my step. Tonight I was going to put on my sexiest lingerie and have delicious sex with my boyfriend.

  I squealed and ran up the stairs to find the perfect outfit.

  Chapter Nine

  DANTE

  When I arrived at Flux, Franca was standing outside with her hands on her hips, tapping the toe of her lethal heels. The moment I got out of the car, she started in on me. “You’re lucky that I assumed you wouldn’t be making it in this morning, so someone was here to meet the smelly delivery men.” Her deep frown showed just how much she enjoyed said delivery men. “You didn’t even bother to change your clothes. What are you, a barbarian?”

  I snorted before I went to my closet and pulled out a new outfit. Working at a nightclub you never knew what was going to happen and more than once I’d had entire trays of drinks spilled on me. There wasn’t much worse than having a group of women’s fruity drinks causing your clothes to stick to you for the entire night.

  “I guess last night was a success?” She pried as she sat down on the couch in my office.

  A grin spread across my face as I leaned my elbows on my desk and rested my chin on top of my hands. “A huge success, and if you play your cards right, you might meet her tonight when she brings me dinner.”

  “Did you tell her to bring me dinner as well?” When I only shook my head, Franca looked affronted. “You better call your little plaything and tell her I deserve dinner after watching this place for two fucking nights.”

  My eyes narrowed at her. “Don’t call her that. Lily’s my girlfriend and you’ll be nice to her or else you’ll be working every night.” It was an empty threat, but I didn’t want her to be a bitch to Lily or she’d never come back to Riverside to see me. Now that I’d spent two nights in Lily’s bed, I was desperate to find a night manager so I wasn’t here all hours of the night and could have my little siren next to me each night.

  Franca’s eyes widened as she sat back. “I’ve never seen you like this, big brother. Are you finally ready to settle down? Is this Lily the one?”

  Since the moment I met her, I’d felt something instantly with her and wasn’t willing to let my opportunity with her pass me by. I did believe she was ‘my one,’ but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to admit it out loud yet.

  “Oh my God, Dante,” Franca shrieked in her seat. “You love her. How is that possible?”

  Lifting a shoulder, I picked up one of many stacks of pa
pers in front of me. “When you find the right person, it only takes a moment.”

  “Well, now I can’t wait to meet her.” She stood, walking to the door. “I’m going to go home and sleep for the next few hours, but I’ll be back. If she comes before I’m here, call me so I can get my eyes on her.” Giving me a wave, she left without a goodbye.

  For the rest of the day, I sorted through the delivery Franca had accepted and read through more unqualified resumes that left me thinking I’d be spending the rest of my life here instead of with Lily. It wasn’t until there was a knock on my door and one of the waitresses peeked inside that I stopped. I’d been trying to get as much done as possible so I could visit with Lily when she arrived.

  “Mr. Ricci, there’s a woman here to see you. She said you’re expecting her.” The redhead looked nervous. I had lost my temper the other day when she kept fucking up every order that she took, but I didn’t think I’d been that bad.

  “Thanks for showing her back. Lily is always welcome here.” I couldn’t remember her name and I’d have to rectify that soon. We’d had a lot of turnover since my business partner left.

  Lily stepped into my office like a hurricane. She wore dark skinny jeans with black heels that accentuated her legs in the best possible way. I wanted to wrap them around my head and have her for dinner. Not only that, but the halter top she had on made her breasts seem fuller, begging for my hands to squeeze them and for my teeth to nip at her beautiful nipples.

  Spinning around in a circle, Lily licked her red lips. Fuck, she was unbelievably hot tonight. “I take it you like what you see?”

  “I more than like what I see. I’m not sure how I’m going to be able to finish working tonight with an erection that won’t go away until I sink into your sweet heat,” I growled out as I stepped out from behind my desk and prowled toward her. “Let me taste those lips before I go crazy.” I crashed my mouth to hers, uncaring that I would most likely smear her lipstick all over her and me. I couldn’t wait another moment to have her in my arms, for us to be connected, and to taste her. Our teeth gnashed as we dove into each other. We were all lips, teeth, and tongues as we tried to forget about the hours we’d been away from each other.

  The office door swung open and hit the wall. “Are we now allowed to have sex at work?” Pulling apart, I scowled at my sister. Franca stood at the door with her gaze laser locked on Lily as she looked over every inch of her. “She’s not bad, but I don’t see why you’ve lost your head over her.”

  Moving to the door, I slowly started to close it. Right before I closed and locked it, I let my irritation show. “I’m taking my dinner break now. Don’t bother me unless there’s an emergency.”

  I stood with my forehead against the door for a moment trying to rain in my anger. I knew that Lily had some self-esteem issues because of her ex, and I hoped to all that was holy that she didn’t let my sister’s remark cause her to start questioning my motives. When I heard rustling behind me, I turned to find Lily pulling out multiple containers of Chinese.

  Making my way toward her, I pulled her back to my front and wrapped my arms around her. “I’m sorry about that. My sister is anti-love, and she’s never seen me like this before, so she doesn’t know what to think.” I kissed the top of her head. “Thank you for bringing dinner.”

  Tilting her head back to look at me, Lily smiled and what Franca said was forgotten. “You’ve got nothing to be sorry for. Now, let’s eat before our food gets cold then I want you to give me a tour.”

  Pulling out a chair for her to sit in, I sat in the chair next to hers. I couldn’t stand to have my desk between us.

  “I have to say as I walked back here, I was impressed. Your club is fancy. It’s like we’ve got a piece of Vegas here.”

  “It might be too fancy. I’m not sure how much people appreciate it.”

  Placing her warm hand on my arm, Lily looked at me with understanding. “I think it’s more than you realize. You heard Alex and the other girls. They love it here.”

  That was true.

  “We’ll have to invite them here soon. I could set up a VIP area for them if they’re worried about being bothered.”

  “I don’t think that’s the problem. It’s more finding someone to watch all the kids.” Leaning forward, Lily snagged a fortune cookie and broke it open to pull out the strip of paper. I thought she was going to read it, but instead, she tossed it in the trash and started to nibble on it.

  “Are you not going to read your fortune?”

  Lily waved a hand. “No point. I’m not going to let what a little piece of paper says sway my life. I think the last one I read said I was going to be alone for the rest of my life.”

  “What?” I spluttered out. What kind of fortune was that? “I thought they were all supposed to be positive.”

  “Me too! Anyway, I wasn’t sure what you liked, so I got a little of everything from my favorite Chinese place in town. What we don’t finish you can either take home or put in a fridge here. Perfect leftovers.”

  “You’re the best.” I leaned over and kissed her cheek. I knew if our lips met, we would get lost in each other and that couldn’t happen.

  Lily set about opening up all the containers, making my office smell amazing and my stomach growl. I hadn’t eaten anything since the burrito she’d made me this morning. Picking up a container of sesame noodles, I slipped a pair of chopsticks out of their paper and dug in.

  “Did you have a good day?” I asked, picking up some Moo Shu pork.

  “I did. I thought I would laze about, but knowing I’d see you later invigorated me, and I ended up writing two chapters and talked to my agent on the phone. She was letting me know the plan for my next book coming out.”

  “I’m sorry, but I know nothing about the book world. Do you go on book tours?”

  “No, I like my privacy and if I did then people could find out who I am.”

  “Are you hiding from someone?” I laughed.

  Lily laughed along with me. “No, but I’ve heard some horror stories and I don’t need some crazy stalker trying to find me and knowing what I look like. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but my books are pretty popular.”

  “I’m not going to ask what your writing name is, but can you tell me what kind of books you write?”

  Sitting her food down, she cleared her throat. “I write mysteries with a dash of romance.”

  “Maybe I’ve read one of your books. I love mysteries and sci-fi.” Now I was dying to know what name she used.

  “Maybe,” she blushed. “If I see one of my books at your house, I’ll let you know.”

  Lily told me more about her writing process and how there are days when she forgets to eat or get out of her pajamas while she writes. She said all of this while we ate more than half our weight in Chinese food.

  We cleaned up the food and put the containers back in the bags. The thump of music started as I held my hand out to Lily. “Are you ready for your tour?”

  “More than ready.”

  Fitting Lily’s hand in the crook of my arm, I led her out of my office and downstairs to the dance floor. The lights were still bright until we were close to opening, but the DJ was testing out the sound system. “That’s Todd. If you ever want to hear a song, he’ll hook you up.”

  I noticed Lily tense as we passed by a group of waitresses who didn’t think I caught them glaring at her. When they looked at me, they all had hearts in their eyes. They all seemed to think they’d be the one to land me even though they knew there was a no dating rule. It was already hard enough to keep staff without them fucking each other and then getting pissed off when the other person fucked someone else. I didn’t need that drama.

  “Girls,” I nodded to them. “This is Lily, my girlfriend. Whenever she’s here I want you to treat her like a VIP. Give her anything she wants.”

  They all nodded before turning around and whispering to each other. I wouldn’t tolerate anyone of them giving Lily a hard time. If they did
, I wouldn’t hesitate to fire them.

  “Are they always that friendly?” Lily asked after we were a few feet away from the girls.

  Stopping by the bar, my hands found her hips and tugged her close to me. “They feel threatened, but you don’t have anything to worry about. You’re the only woman I want.”

  Lily’s face lit up before she wrapped her arms around my neck and crushed her lips to mine. When her tongue slid along the seam of my mouth, I opened for her forgetting about everyone that was around us. Moaning into her mouth, I pulled her tighter against me so she could feel just what she did to me. Before we could get too carried away, Lily pulled back with a dazed smile on her face. Wrapping her arm around my waist, she claimed me for anyone who hadn’t seen our kiss.

  I signaled for the three bartenders who were working tonight to come over. They were good and made up different specialty cocktails each week that the regulars loved to try. “Mark, Leo, and Stacy, this is my girlfriend, Lily. Make sure when you see her to get to her quickly and everything is on the house.”

  “You got it, boss,” all three said in unison.

  Lily rested her head on my arm and looked up at me with her beautiful grey eyes. “Really, Dante, you don’t have to do that. I’m perfectly capable of paying for my own drinks and waiting in line like everyone else.”

  “It’s one of the perks of being with me.” I already hated how much we’d be apart due to my job and didn’t want her to have to wait around when she was here.

  “Oh, I like all the perks of being with you. How long until you open?”

  “Not long enough to do anything fun, but I promise later I’ll reward you for having to wait.” Leaning down I kissed her forehead. “Did you bring an overnight bag?”

  Pushing up, she brushed her lips against mine. “Of course, I did. I can’t wait to see where you live.”

  I had a sneaking suspicion that she was going to be disappointed with what she found. While my place was nice, it wasn’t homey like her house. It felt unlived in, to me, and I was the one living there. That was one of the reasons I didn’t want to go home the night I’d met Lily, and I was glad I trusted my instincts and went for that drive. If I hadn’t, who knows if I would have ever met her?