by Virna DePaul
Thankfully, she managed to walk away without Dante trying to stop her again. She told herself she wasn’t disappointed. And in truth, she wasn’t terribly surprised. Dante was a flirt, and he’d made it clear on more than one occasion how badly he wanted her, at least physically. But he never pushed too far. Moreover, he was always scrupulously professional in any meeting they had.
She didn’t mind the attention he paid her. Just like she didn’t mind his eyes on her ass as she strode away. She just couldn’t give in to him—even when she was devastated by the knowledge that Gio was at this very moment with the redheaded woman of his dreams.
Aurora melted into the crowd and immediately let herself get sucked into a conversation. Ten more minutes and she was out of here.
With nothing but a weekend of eating ice cream and thinking about Gio. Oh joy.
She was just ducking away from the party, time obligations completely fulfilled, when a hand tapped her shoulder.
Aurora schooled her face into a friendly expression and turned right into Gio’s chest.
“Leaving so soon?” he asked in a friendly way, no censure in his tone at all.
He looked happy, Aurora realized with both a sinking and a rising in her gut. She wanted him to be happy. She was just still reeling from the fact that he was happy with another woman.
“Headache,” she said, knowing full well she was taking the coward’s way out.
Gio’s eyes instantly narrowed in concern. “Are you sick?”
“No, no,” she hurried, feeling bad for lying. “Just a little tired is all.”
“Well, do you have it in you to make small talk for five more minutes? There’s someone I’ve been wanting you to meet.”
“Sure,” Aurora said weakly, knowing full well who he wanted her to meet. Her chest tightened and her pulse kicked up like a storm off the water. She followed Gio in a daze through the crowd.
And then, there she was, the lovely redheaded woman. Standing right there. Looking perfect and petite and saying something to Aurora that she could barely hear over the roaring in her own ears.
Aurora shook hands, nodded her head, laughed politely in the right places. And then three minutes later she was drifting away from them, having said her goodnights.
She found herself in the back hallway toward the coat check, staring at a blank spot in the air. What the hell had just happened? She’d just met the woman that Gio was going to take home and make love to tonight. More than that, she’d just met Gio’s future wife. She just knew it. She felt it in her bones. She was no psychic, not like her mother, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have above-average intuition.
Aurora felt a nauseous panic race through her. Gio’s woman was so pretty. Sweet and kind. Rose. The prettiest flower there was.
“Aurora?”
She gritted her teeth at the gravelly voice that instantly sent shivers down her spine.
“What?” she couldn’t help herself from snapping as she turned and faced Dante in the dim light of the back hallway.
He raised his hands in surrender. “I didn’t come back here to irritate you. Are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Aurora studied him in the bluish light, her blurry vision suddenly painfully clear. The noise of the party faded away as shadows cut across his face, accenting his sharp jaw, bottomless blue eyes, and dark brows. He was so big he damn near took up the entire hallway. He was so big, in fact, that he made Aurora feel small. Which was saying something, because she’d never been delicate or petite, even as a child.
The scent of him—soap and detergent and whiskey—drifted toward her in the small space and her pulse started racing. In that moment, for the first time ever, she willingly opened herself up to the attraction he made her feel and considered the possibilities…
She cocked her head to one side, studying him, and his brow furrowed like he was trying to figure out her mood.
A thought was uncurling inside her. A dangerous thought. But an interesting one nonetheless. Why should Gio be the only one getting busy tonight? She could damn well do with some good old fashioned sweaty sin. It had been long enough.
And maybe it would help. But only if it was hot. She needed something hot enough to burn these feelings of jealousy and loss right out of her.
So, the question was whether or not Dante Callaghan would fumble in the end zone or if he’d give it to her right. Her eyes dropped to his large hands tucked halfway into his pants pockets. They moved to the confident width of his shoulders. And lastly, they focused on the noticeable bulge behind his zipper.
Her eyebrows raised. Well, even if he was terrible in bed, she could work with that.
“Was it all talk?” she asked him, her voice husky and seductive even to her own ears.
He frowned and cocked a brow. “Excuse me?”
She took a step toward him. “All the pretty words you’ve had for me over the years. Was it talk? Were you ever going to do something about it?”
Dante’s eyes immediately narrowed in comprehension while the rest of him remained perfectly still. “Are you asking me to do something about it?”
Aurora slowly shrugged one shoulder, feeling the fabric of her dress tighten around her breasts. She was feeling reckless and needy and like her soul might just dry up tonight if she didn’t feed it something. And right now, what she wanted to feed it most was Dante Callaghan.
“For some reason, yes. I am. So what do you say?”
Chapter Two
Dante was about half a second away from dropping to his knees and thanking the ever-loving universe that he’d talked himself into coming to this party tonight. Even as he’d driven over here, he’d known it was going to be just another exercise in futility. He’d get to see Aurora, flirt with her for as long as she could possibly stand his presence, and then he’d leave. He knew the routine at this point. He’d been doing it for four years.
She was the one woman that he couldn’t get out of his head. She’d steadily rejected him with exactly zero holes in her armor and it wasn’t difficult to guess why. It wasn’t because she wasn’t attracted to him—he saw the flare of desire in her eyes even when she tried to hide it. And it wasn’t because she found him unlikable or dull—another thing she was bad at hiding was the smile she couldn’t quite bite back at times. He suspected Aurora’s refusal to entertain any possibility of dating Dante was because of his reputation for being a ladies man. God knows he’d earned it. But most of that was in his past. Once his little sister, Michelle, had come to live with him, he hadn’t exactly been in a position to carry on as he had been. And the truth was, the lifestyle had already started to bore him. Now, there were plenty of nights when Dante found himself kicked back, watching Inside Out with a little girl at home. Or, unfortunately, sometimes watching it with her in a hospital, since Michelle had a rare blood disease called Von Willebrand disease, which required quite a few trips to the doctor’s office and even a live-in nurse at times. He found a woman when he needed one, but it wasn’t often. His life was a far cry from the clubs and bars that he used to frequent.
But he didn’t miss his old life much at all.
He did, however, miss Aurora when they were apart. And that was just his bad luck.
He wasn’t pining for her, wasn’t in love. He didn’t know her well enough to love her. But he knew they would be good together if she ever gave him a shot. When his aunt had invited Michelle to stay the night with her tonight, Dante had thought, what the hell? Why not go and get rejected by Aurora again.
Funny how getting rejected by her was far more appealing to him than dating any other woman.
Now here Aurora was, the dim light of the hallway wrapped around her like a blanket, her huge, gorgeous hazel eyes blinking up at him through the dark, the red silk dress she wore making Dante certain she’d taste like cherries.
All the blood in his body rushed south at the exact same time his breath left his chest. He felt as if he were standing on the edge of a cliff, tryi
ng to time the ocean waves so he wouldn’t hit the shore when he took the leap of his life.
His body screamed for him to close the distance between them. It was two steps. They’d stood two steps apart plenty of times in his life. But tonight, for some reason, it was two steps with the knowledge that she wanted him and was finally ready to do something about it.
He found himself leaning toward her but then his brain wrapped a leash around his dick and yanked himself backward. The phrase for some reason echoed in his head as he crossed his arms over his chest and surveyed Aurora. He hadn’t been lying when he’d told her that she was the most beautiful woman in any room she ever walked into. Dante often found himself with a racing heart and sweaty palms when he sat across from her at business meetings.
And here she was, those gorgeous, plump lips parted, just a peek of her pearly teeth. Her eyes looking up at him like, touch me. But there was something else there, too.
For some reason, she’d said. For some reason she was considering being with him.
“Mind if I ask what the hell happened to change your mind after four years of turning me down flat?” He heard the words leave his mouth and could barely even believe it. Why the holy fuck was he questioning her?
Aurora’s expression immediately flattened. Her hand came to her lush hip as she tossed her mane of glossy blonde hair back over one shoulder. “Look, Callaghan. Either you want me or you don’t. This offer expires in about five seconds.”
Welp. He’d tried. And when she put it like that…
Dante’s body yanked the leash back away from his brain and he closed the distance between them in one giant step. He had her backed up against the wall, her eyes wide, and her arms pinned up over her head in two seconds flat.
The heat kicking off of her skin was insane. Almost feverish. She was searing him even through their clothes. He circled her wrists in one of his hands and the other one trailed down the outside of one of her pinned arms. His hand stuttered as he dragged it down her side. Jesus. Her skin was literally softer than the silk of her dress.
Dante leaned forward, crowding her. He was deeply obliged to see heat flare in her eyes, to feel her panting breath wash over him. His eyes dropped to her lips, and then he was leaning forward, wanting nothing more than to suck on that lower lip that had haunted him for half a decade.
Aurora quickly turned her head to one side, giving him access to her long, sleek neck, but avoiding his mouth.
It wasn’t lost on Dante. So that’s how it was going to be, huh? No affection at all? Not even kissing. Well, that was fine by him. He’d take however much he could get. That was the story of his life, actually. And he didn’t see why tonight would be any different.
He ran his nose from her collarbone up to her ear. Her smell was completely natural, bare. Nothing manufactured or sprayed on. It was just woman, earthy, raw, somehow delicate, like a leaf unfurling in the first weeks of May.
He couldn’t restrain the groan that her scent tore out of his throat. The sound of it was desperate, even to his own ears. Time to get things moving. He took a step back from her and her eyes fluttered open in surprise.
“My car’s out front.”
He started to tug her toward the coat check but she stumbled behind him, yanking at his hand.
“Wait,” she said and then tugged that fucking lip between her white teeth. “There’s a perfectly good coat closet right here.”
She looked up at him from beneath her thick fringe of lashes, her dark eyes like a black hole sucking him in. Dante considered the option for all of two seconds before he dismissed it.
“I’m not going to fuck you within 100 feet of George fucking Junior.”
Aurora laughed, obviously surprised by his words. He turned just in time to see the light of humor dance over her face. It made his chest tight to see it.
“Besides,” he continued. “Coat closets are for a fast fuck with clothes on. If we’re doing this, Aurora, I’m not going to be interrupted while somebody looks for their other glove. Fuck no.” He stepped back and took her chin in his hand, staring her right in the eyes. “If we’re doing this, it’s not going to be some discreet close-your-eyes-and-think-of-England. If we’re doing this, then it’s going to be absolutely indecent. You and me. Destroying each other. Understood?”
He thought, for one terrifying second, that his words had been too much. That he’d lost her. But then her little, pink tongue peeked out to wet her lip and she nodded.
“My coat is that one there,” she whispered, pointing.
Dante reached back and ripped it off the hanger. He held it up for her to slip into and for the first time in living memory, didn’t inwardly groan when she covered up her body in a coat. Because now that he knew he was going to see the rest of her, he wanted her to be zipped up throat to ankle. No other man got to look at her tonight. Tonight she was all his.
She quickly did the buttons on her coat and looked up at him. “Get your car. I’ll meet you outside.”
Something twisted in his stomach; she didn’t want to be seen leaving with him. For some reason, it annoyed the shit out of him. He was usually a very live-and-let-live sort of guy. Whatever made it work for a woman, he was game for. But it had been a long time since a woman straight up didn’t want to be seen with him. These days he was used to having the opposite problem. He was used to women wanting to be seen everywhere with him.
Considering he’d basically been begging for this for four years, Dante was not going to question or push her any further. Still… He couldn’t just leave like this either. The thin string that was pulling them both along tonight was liable to snap if he left her side.
So Dante stepped forward again and took her chin in his hand. He let his thumb grip her tightly while the rest of his fingers fanned out softly along her jaw. “Fine. But you are not going to talk to anyone else. You’re not going to look at your phone. You’re not going to do anything but imagine what it’ll feel like to have me ten inches deep. You understand?”
Her eyes widened and he could have sworn she was pressing her legs together beneath her dress. Time for the final nail in the coffin. “And if you’re not outside in four minutes, I will come back in here and drag you out over my shoulder. In front of anyone and everyone. Understood?”
Aurora nodded and she looked so sincere, so honest, so unbelievably turned on, that Dante felt his chest get tight again. He turned away from her, jogging out toward his car. He didn’t care if that looked overeager. He didn’t give a flying fuck. All he cared about was getting the hell away from this party and getting a second of time alone with her.
He pulled his Mercedes up to the curb in two minutes and he was deeply pleased when she immediately came walking out. If he wasn’t mistaken, she looked a little nervous, a little turned on, and a little sad. Funky combination. Dante wanted nothing more than to make this night a hell of a lot simpler for her. All he wanted was to make her feel good as hell.
The light spring breeze played with the ends of her golden hair and made Dante’s fingers itch to do the same thing. She slid into the passenger seat as he pulled smoothly from the curb.
“Rihanna?” she asked, a small smile playing on her full lips.
“Girl’s got pipes,” Dante said, cracking the windows just a bit. He wanted her hair to float around again.
She laughed, just a small, husky note. And it made Dante rock hard against his zipper. He’d made her laugh twice tonight and it was doing something to him. He’d never heard her laugh before. She was always so serious, so professional, so perfect. He was deeply looking forward to getting her messy.
“Can I ask you a question?”
Her eyes shuttered immediately. “Maybe.”
Dante cleared his throat and turned to look at her bathed in the red light of the intersection. He didn’t want to miss her reaction. “What’s a fuck boy?”
He was not disappointed. Aurora threw her head back and laughed with abandon. “Excuse me?”
He gr
inned at her. “You said you were a magnet for fuck boys. What did you mean?”
“It’s something us younger folks say.”
“Rude. I can’t be that much older than you, can I?”
“What’re you, forty?”
“Ouch. Thirty-eight.”
“You’ve got a decade on me.”
She was younger than he’d thought, but as he looked at her, a ghost of a smile on her lips, the swell of her breasts pushing against her thin coat, Dante didn’t give a flying fuck how old she was long as she was legal. He shrugged. “So what did you mean?”
Aurora tilted her head, thinking. “Well, it has a few meanings. But it’s somebody who only wants to fuck. Who’ll do whatever he can to make it happen. And then he disappears. But he kind of messes with your head in the process.”
Wow. Christ. “You said I was a fuck boy when you thought I’d called you ‘Jessica’.”
She shrugged. “Well, maybe you’re a fuck man.”
He eyed her, one hand on the wheel. “You think I’m being a fuck boy right now?”
Aurora studied him, turning in her seat to face him. He got the strange feeling that she was looking straight through him, at some part of him that even he didn’t know about, and it was pumping blood straight to his cock, even as he waited for her answer.
“No. I don’t think you’re messing with my head.”
“I’m not,” he responded instantly. “I won’t.”
She shrugged before turning back to face the road.
“Do you live far?” Aurora asked, and then for some reason, her cheeks went a little pink and she cast her eyes down. “Um, I mean, is wherever we’re going far?”
She thought he was taking her to a hotel? Hell to the absolute no. “I live about five minutes from here. And my bed is about twenty seconds beyond that.”
She looked up at him and he thought he detected relief in her gaze.
“Alright.”
Some of the intensity from the hallway had started to ebb away from them. In its absence, Dante was starting to sense her nervousness, her vague unease. Well, fuck that. The only thing she was going to feel tonight was good, if he had anything to do with it. Wanting to distract her from whatever thoughts were haunting her, Dante took her hand and brought it up to his mouth.