by Alexx Andria
“Fresh fruits, bread and cheese, and a little wine.”
“Perfect.”
Yes, you are. I smiled, already itching to pull the robe from her luscious body, but I followed her lead and put on the other robe. I supposed I couldn’t answer the door with my dick hanging out, so concessions had to be made. I joined her on the bed, lying on my side. “Do we commence with the awkward chitchat or how do we handle this?” I asked.
“I despise small talk.”
“Me, too.”
She graced me with an approving smile. “So tell me something of value...something of interest about you.”
“Hmm...okay, I’ll do my best to sound interesting.”
“Of that, I have no doubt.”
I settled more comfortably, my gaze drawn to the shadow of her breast peeking out from the slightly open robe. I dragged my stare away and tried to focus but my cock was already priming for round two and the food hadn’t even arrived yet. “Well, I’m the middle son of a wealthy family. My oldest brother, Luca, runs the family company after forcing our father into retirement, and my younger brother, Nico, just got married so he’s playing husband and father. Honestly, I can’t imagine why he’d want to do that, but to each his own.”
“I agreed with you there,” she said.
“I knew there was a reason I liked you.”
She laughed, the sound tickling my insides. “And it couldn’t have had anything to do with these?” Alessandra opened her robe, revealing those glorious breasts, and I nearly swallowed my tongue. It was difficult to play the part of the suave, aloof gentleman when my cock was throbbing like a motherfucker.
My own grin widened as I answered, “They don’t hurt.”
“Are you and your brothers close?”
I paused, not quite sure how to answer that question truthfully. I didn’t want to seem like an asshole but I wasn’t that close to either of my brothers. We got along to a point, but I didn’t understand or agree with half their decisions in life, so that often created friction.
As if sensing my turmoil, she shrugged and said, “Don’t waste time thinking of a suitable lie. Be honest. Your truth doesn’t affect me so there’s no reason to play with your answer.”
“I don’t want anything bad to happen to either of them,” I supplied with a short grin, but she knew I was dancing around the question. “Damn, hardballing me out of the gate. Okay, the truth? We’re not close but we’re not enemies. For a long time there was friction between me and Luca. My father had always groomed Luca to take over the business, even when I was better suited to run the company, and it created some resentment between us.”
“Why? It’s not your brother’s fault that your father chose him over you,” Alessandra spoke plainly, pulling no punches. “If anyone deserves your resentment, it’s your father.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s one way to look at it.” But I’d never felt that way.
Alessandra shook her head. “I see no other way to look at the situation. How can you see it differently?”
The urge to go on the defensive was strong. I didn’t like that she saw through to my deepest insecurity. I admired my father’s shrewd sense of business, that shark mentality that I emulated in my own business dealings, but he’d been a less than stellar father. It wasn’t as if he passed out hugs on the regular. Not that I needed them—I wasn’t twelve anymore.
“I admire my father’s business sense and I’ve always looked up to him. He must’ve seen something in Luca that he didn’t see in me.” Ouch, that hurt even to let the words leave my mouth. Was this part of the act or did I actually feel that way? I wasn’t sure. In my attempt to emulate my father, had I become too much like him? Cold and distant, even with my own brothers, like our father was with his sons? I mentally shook the thought away. “It’s fine, though. I’m still part of the business and I don’t have to deal with the headaches that the CEO does.”
“So let me see if I have this correct—you came to Italy to deliver my winery to your father in the hopes of impressing him because you are always searching for his approval?”
When she put it like that, it sounded pathetic. I forced a grin even as I denied her assessment. “I was just trying to help the old man out and it involved a trip to Italy. In my book, that’s never a bad thing.”
Alessandra sighed, digesting the information before she said, “It seems silly to chase after a dream created in the clouds. If your father hasn’t recognized your worth by now, he never will.”
There was a slight sadness pulling on her words, as if she were speaking to her own situation... I wondered what that was about.
“What’s your story, beautiful?” I asked, drawing the topic back to her. I needed to know what made her tick. I knew how to make her come like a banshee, but I couldn’t exactly use that information to my advantage to press for a sale. “I can already tell your story is five times more interesting than mine.”
But before she could answer, a polite rap at the door signaled the food had arrived. I jumped up to handle the details and returned with a cart laden with delicious fruits, bread, cheese and fragrant olive oil, as well as a nice white wine. We didn’t bother sitting at the small table in the suite, just continued to lie in the bed like old lovers, comfortable in our skin and with each other.
Which, to be honest, was out of character for me. Sex was a physical need I didn’t deny myself, but I didn’t encourage hanging around and shooting the breeze, much less delving into deep, personal conversations. But with Alessandra, it was as if she’d kicked open the gates and strode right in as if she owned the place.
I didn’t have time to question the situation. My actions at this point were reactive.
After sopping up a piece of sourdough bread with oil and crushed garlic, I said, “Don’t think for a second that I’ve forgotten my question to you. It’s your turn. Tell me about yourself and your family.”
“I’ve already told you everything of importance,” she said with a coy smile. “What else is there to know?”
“If your brother hadn’t died...where would you be today?”
Her smile faded and she drew a deep breath as if she hadn’t expected me to go there so quickly. “I don’t know,” she finally answered. Maybe she’d given this question some thought on her own and still came up with the same troubling answer. “I was different before Enzo died. He was the responsible one, I’d been carefree. His love for the business and our family’s place in the history of winemaking was far deeper than mine. If he were still alive, I don’t know, maybe I’d be working the business by his side or maybe I would’ve walked my own path.”
Alessandra’s brow dipped slightly and I regretted bringing up something that made her sad. The mood between us had shifted and I needed to bring it back to a manageable, lighthearted tone...even though I wanted to know more about her.
For now, it could wait.
CHAPTER TEN
Alessandra
HOW DID DANTE know to ask the one question that nagged at me in my quiet moments—the moments when my reflections had a tendency to turn to melancholy?
Enzo’s death had been a cataclysmic event in our family, a nuclear bomb that’d shattered us into a million pieces in our grief. My mother never recovered. She died with a sad heart. My father tried to soldier on but I saw the echo of pain in his eyes every time he looked at me. Enzo and I shared too many features to ignore. Although my father would never say, sometimes I feared he wished it’d been me in that car that night instead of Enzo.
The luscious cheese soured in my mouth. I chased the bitter taste with a sip of wine, allowing the dry white to cleanse my palate. “Perhaps it was better to stick to small talk,” I said, allowing a brief smile as I settled into the bed, my belly satisfied even if my mind was wandering down sad roads.
I never showed this side of myself, least of all allowed a stranger into my p
rivate theater, but I felt oddly safe in this space with Dante.
I didn’t believe in love at first sight, even though my grandparents’ love story had always been a favorite, but there was something about Dante that drew me in, despite all the reasons I should steer clear. Perhaps it was the stress of launching Uva Persa beneath my father’s nose that made me reckless or needy, but I was acting in ways that were out of character.
Dante cleared our food and returned to the bed. It was late. I should go but I didn’t move. I watched with unabashed appreciation for the tease of his solid male form beneath the robe. His body was just how I liked my men—rough, hard, thick and muscular—just enough savagery beneath that civilized veneer to hint at danger. Yes, Dante was all that and more. This was how obsessions started.
As if sensing my mood had shifted, Dante slowly dropped his robe, his cock already hard and ready. I sucked in a tight breath as my heart rate kicked up. He was something of an enigma. He wore a tailored suit like an aristocrat but he had the touch of a blue-collar man who didn’t mind getting dirty.
The dichotomy of the two was a wild, heady combination that ate at my ability to think rationally.
He slowly pushed my robe down to reveal my shoulder, where he pressed a soft kiss that sent tendrils of tickling sensation tripping down my flesh. His lips blazed a sensual trail down my arm as he relieved me of my robe until I was naked like him.
Our bodies fit together perfectly, as if we were made for each other. I didn’t subscribe to that nonsense but how else could I explain how easily he twisted me into a panting she-beast as pleasure ripped through me?
This time I wanted to be in control. I wanted Dante groaning and losing himself as I pleasured him at my leisure. I rose and pulled the belt free from my discarded robe. Dante arched his brow in question but his mouth curved in a sensual grin. “Get on the bed, spread eagle,” I ordered as I took the belt from his robe, as well. I straddled his prone body, enjoying the warm press of his hard cock against the cleft of my ass as I tied his arms to the bedposts.
This was more what I was accustomed to—my calling the shots.
“Are you going to have your wicked way with me?” he said.
I grinned. “Something like that.”
“I’m all yours. Do your worst.”
“Oh, I will.”
Instead of immediately sliding down his torso to suck his cock down my throat, I slowly ground my wet pussy along his shaft, coating his cock, giving him a nice preview of what he wanted most. He groaned immediately, his hips thrusting against me, trying to slide it in, but I just laughed at his eagerness. He wasn’t going to get off that easily, not when he’d kept me on the edge for so long.
I rubbed the head of his cock against my slit, moaning a little as the tiny flickers of pleasure licked at my insides. He surged against me but I kept him just on the outside, close but not where he wanted to be, driving him crazy. I climbed his body and bracketed his face with my breasts. He reacted like a happy puppy, lapping at my nipples, trying to get as much of his mouth on my tits as possible. He groaned with frustration when I kept the hard tips just out of reach, giggling when he growled.
“You’re killing me, woman,” he said, and I graced him with a knowing smile. Oh yes, and I was about to make it worse. I kissed him hard, our tongues tangling and dancing as he strained against the belts holding him in place. The wooden bedposts protested as he pulled but I had no doubt they would hold even someone of Dante’s size and strength. Then I slowly slid down to his hard and ready cock. I teased it with the dart of my tongue and he sucked in a ragged breath. “Oh God, Alessandra...” he moaned as I took the head into my mouth, using my tongue and hands to work his shaft.
The slight salty tang of him was like a rare delicacy. I lapped it up, sucking and swirling my tongue beneath the mushroomed ridge where all the nerve endings were bundled, reveling in the low moans and subtle jerks of his thighs.
I worked him mercilessly, driving him to the edge and then pulling back, leaving him frustrated and groaning, only to push him further, going to that utmost precipice and then slowing down so his orgasm danced out of reach.
“Sweet Lord, woman, my heart is going to explode,” he warned breathlessly, sweat dampening his hairline as he practically begged me to let him come. I laughed and lapped at his balls, gently suckling the tender flesh until I finally took mercy on him and began moving on his shaft with purpose, knowing he would blow a load so hard I might choke on it.
“Ohhhh fuckkkkkk!”
Right at the moment I knew his climax was coming, I slipped my finger inside his ass and his hips rocketed, thrusting as he came, shooting down my throat in great salty gobs, leaving him bone-dry as he finished with a shudder.
I wiped my mouth and finished my wine as Dante went boneless on the bed, all energy sapped from his body. I gently lapped at the remaining liquid on his cock and he jerked with a moan. I climbed his body and untied him, then he promptly curled his arms around me, tucking me into the cove of his arms and cuddling me like I was a rare treasure.
“I’m fucking tired,” he said with an exhaustion that couldn’t be faked. I took pride in the fact that I’d worn out such a virile man.
I hated cuddling but...in Dante’s arms, I’d make an exception.
Just this once.
But I wasn’t spending the night.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Dante
I AWOKE TO the sound of fabric rustling with a hurried quality. My eyes popped open and I found Alessandra dressing, scooping up her clothes with an air of distress. I rose and rubbed the sleep from eyes, still trying to wake up.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
Alessandra shimmied into her jeans and buckled her belt before answering with exasperation, “I overslept. I never oversleep. I have to go.”
“Is Daddy going to ground you for missing curfew?” I teased but she didn’t find the humor. I threw the covers free and strode past her naked to the bathroom, where I noticed with pride that her gaze skidded straight to my ass before she managed to drag it free. I took a piss, washed my hands, then went to last night’s room service cart and grabbed a few leftover grapes before falling into a soft chair, naked as a jaybird. “So who’s going to bust your ass for being late? Aren’t you the boss?”
She stiffened. “Of course.”
“Then who are you trying to impress?”
“It sets a bad example.”
“Are you in a habit of showing up late?” I asked, popping a grape into my mouth.
“Of course not.”
“Then let it go. Aren’t you entitled to a little leeway?”
She cast a sardonic look my way as she grabbed her purse. “I don’t know how they do things in America, but here laziness isn’t celebrated. Thank you for the nice evening.”
A nice evening.
It was then I realized she was going to leave without so much as a kiss goodbye after I’d rocked her world and she’d rocked mine. I couldn’t let that happen.
Hell no. She was going to remember how good our bodies were together and that memory would stay with her all day long, which would set me up nicely for our plans tonight.
I caught her before her fingers could twist the doorknob, pulling her into my arms.
“What are you doing? I don’t have time for this.”
“You were going to leave without a kiss?” I asked, my gaze riveted by the plump pout of her lips, my brain stuttering for a moment on how exquisite those lips had felt wrapped around my cock.
She opened her mouth to respond but my lips found hers and she automatically leaned into me, her body melding to mine. She could play all she wanted but her body’s response was pure honesty.
As was mine.
I wanted her in ways I’d never desired a woman. I’d been around the world and never found a woman as intoxicating as Alessandr
a. It was a game but it was also the most genuine emotion I’d felt in a long time, and I didn’t want it to end. At least not until I was declared the winner.
Boldly, my erection rose front and center and I purposefully ground myself against her. The tiny moan that slipped from her lips was like a shot of heroin straight to my veins. I pushed her against the wall, where she connected with a sharp inhale as I quickly unbuckled her jeans and shoved them to her ankles. I lifted one foot free as she watched, her eyes wide and her breath shallow. I rose and rubbed her slit, seeking that sweet heat and damp core. “You thought you were going to leave before I could enjoy my favorite breakfast?” I growled against the column of her neck as she groaned. I slipped a finger inside her and her knees wobbled as she clutched at my shoulders. “Bad girl,” I tsked before withdrawing my digit to rub her own wetness along her bottom lip. I leaned in to inhale her own musk as she trembled. “Now you have to be punished.”
I went to my knees and buried my face between her folds, sucking in the sweet musk as my tongue went straight for that tiny nub hiding from view. I wasted no time in destroying that clitoris until she was panting and her knees were threatening to give out.
But before she could climax, I rose. Her mewl of frustration hardened my cock to stone but I wanted her dripping and ready. Wrapping my fingers in her long, dark hair, I held her tight against me, exposing her neck for my lips. I kissed a trail down the column of her skin, then abruptly bent her over the thick rounded cushion of the chaise longue. Without releasing her hair, I drove myself into her. My steady thrusts caused a shock wave that rippled through her skin, each ass cheek bouncing as I rammed myself into her through her orgasm with a wild grunt.
Alessandra took each thrust and groaned, her tits likely abraded by the cushion fabric as I rode her hard.
God, the sweetness of that pussy was beyond anything I’d ever known. A man could get attached to this kind of sex.