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One, Dante was going to be my fiancé. Two, we might kill each other before we ever made it to the altar.
I sent Vivian the information she needed for her move at precisely noon on Sunday.
Like I was the one who’d showed up uninvited at her party wearing an outfit that could send a man to his fucking knees.
A week later, the image of that black dress clinging to her curves was still ingrained in my mind, as was the fire in her eyes when she’d laid into me.
The sweet, slightly tart scent of apples stole into my lungs as I enunciated my next words with crisp precision.
Even at this close a distance, her skin was flawless, like cream poured over silk. Long dark lashes framed deep brown eyes, and a tiny beauty mark, so small one would have to be as close as I was to see it, dotted the area above her lush lips.
But even though I’d closed the door and was sequestered on the opposite side of the house from Vivian’s room, I still smelled the faint, maddening scent of apples.
“One hundred thousand dollars charged to my Amex in one day, including ten grand on flowers. Care to explain?”
Translation: You were an asshole before you left, and I took it out on your bank account.
“Here I thought you only ate caviar and human hearts.” “Don’t be ridiculous. Caviar tastes awful with human hearts.”
Vivian’s laugh evoked a strange sensation in my chest. Heartburn? Investigate later.
“Kai pretends to like Greek mythology to pick up women,”
real
I’d walked the halls of Valhalla countless times, but every interaction with Vivian was like our first. I noticed something new about her every day—the tiny beauty mark above her upper lip, the way she slid her pendant along its chain when she was uncomfortable, and the mildly crooked slant of her smile when she was genuinely amused.
KILL ME
I didn’t want to notice these things about her, yet I inadvertently hoarded them the way dragons hoarded jewels.
She was still the daughter of the enemy.
very different from the earlier "the enemy"
“I’m not hung up,” I said. “I’m simply curious as to what he said that was so funny. The last time I checked, neither work, the weather, nor the news is particularly hilarious.”
ok i love him
I hated the sound of Kai’s name on her tongue. I hated the way she laughed so easily in his presence. And I hated how much I cared about either of those things.
“You forget.” I pressed my fingers against her nape, forcing her to look up at me. “You’re my fiancée. Not Kai’s. Not anyone else’s. I don’t give a fuck how handsome they are or what type of accent they have. You’re mine, and no one…” I dipped my head, my lips brushing hers with each word. “Touches what’s mine.”
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
“I’m an asshole, yet you’re dripping all over my hand.”
“It says you’re mine. Puoi negarlo quanto vuoi, ma è la verità.”
“Give into it, sweetheart. Let me feel you come all over my hand.”
“Make no mistake, mia cara.” I grasped her chin and tilted it up. I pulled her bottom lip down with my thumb, letting her taste her own arousal. “This is business. And if there’s one thing I take seriously, it’s my investments.”
“The first hour was for trying to rob one of my stores. The second…” I held out my hand. Giulio placed something cold and heavy in my palm, his face impassive. “Is for threatening my wife.”
She wasn’t my wife yet, but she was mine. No one threatened what was mine.
An hour ago, I was beating the hell out of a six-foot-two criminal. Now, I was incoherent over fucking soup and bread.
It suddenly hit me that this would be our first time sharing a room. Sharing a bed.
FUCK YES
“How does he look at me?” Janis smiled. “Like he never wants to look away.”
“That’s a good girl.”
“Please eat out this pretty little cunt of yours?” I taunted, my voice soft but the words rough. “Tongue fuck you until you beg me to let you come? You have such a smart mouth, mia cara. Use it.”
“Hai un sapore divino,”
“Some fucker is sending you flowers, and you want to tell me it’s harmless?” He picked up the card again. “Thought of you at midnight. Hope you’re doing well. Love, Heath.” Sarcasm weighed heavy on the recitation. “It doesn’t take a genius to know what he was doing while he was thinking of you at midnight.”
“I hate the idea of you touching anyone else, or anyone else touching you. I hate that other people can make you laugh in a way I can’t. I hate how I feel around you, like you’re the only person that can make me lose control when I. Don’t. Lose. Control.”
“Because you’re mine.” His teeth scored my neck. “You wear my ring. You’ve come on my face and hand. You live in my head all the fucking time, even if I don’t want you to...” His palm slid to my hip, where his fingers dug grooves into my skin. “And God, I want to punish you for driving me so damn crazy. Every. Single. Day.”
“Open your eyes,” Dante growled. “Look in the mirror when I’m fucking you.”
“You like this?” he taunted. “Watching me wreck your pussy while you make a mess all over my cock?”
“I’m the only one who gets to see you like this.” His voice turned harsh. “You”—thrust—”are”—thrust—”my”—thrust—”wife.”
“But you are mine. You asked if it was still just business…” He dragged his cock out slowly, letting me feel every inch of him, before slamming it back in. Electric sensations shot through me, turning my body into a live wire. “Does this feel like business?”
“You don’t know what you do to me.” The rawness of his voice matched the desire in his eyes—dark and fathomless and so visceral I felt it in my bones.
“Business would be staying in California and celebrating a deal I’d worked a year on instead of rushing back to see you,” he finally said, his voice low and loaded with gravel. “Business would be completing my D.C. trip instead of waking my pilot up for a last-minute flight home. In all my years as CEO, I’ve only cut a work trip short twice, Vivian, and both those instances were because of you.” A wry twist of his lips. “So no, it’s not just fucking business anymore.”
“Fuck, baby.” His groan curled low in my stomach. “That feels so good.”
“Ride my cock like a good girl.”
“You’re making a mess, sweetheart.” He turned his attention to my other nipple and tugged on it with his teeth. “Should I make you clean it up, hmm? Have you lick your own cum off the seat while I fuck you from behind?”
“Spread your legs for me. That’s it.” Dante’s approval rumbled over me when I obeyed. “Let me see how wet that pretty little pussy is.”
“Clean up your mess first, Vivian,”
“Good girl.”
“Shh,” Dante murmured. “You don’t want people to hear how much you love being fucked like this, do you? On all fours in the backseat of a car, taking every inch of my cock like you’re fucking made for it.”
“Might want to fix your lipstick, mia cara. As beautiful as you look freshly fucked, I would hate to ruin our evening by having to kill every other man who sees you like this.”
“You can’t see the stars in New York,” Dante said. “So I brought the stars to you.”
“Se sapessi il potere che hai su di me,”
Non mi piace parlare male dei morti, ma grazie al cielo non è più qui con noi.”
