“You’re a challenge, Dante Condellaire.”
The vulnerable woman he’d seen seconds ago was gone, but the change was no less potent. She leaned back against the bench and folded her arms, which pushed her breasts up higher. His mouth went dry as he remembered touching and suckling her. He forced himself to meet her amused gaze.
“Am I?” He wanted to groan at the cryptic reply. It was almost a blatant invitation for her to probe deeper.
“Oh, most definitely,” she said in a voice that had suddenly become a soft, sultry caress. Her confidence was alarming. “And I do love a challenge.”
“Then I think you’re about to be disappointed, as I’m anything but.”
“Really?” She arched her eyebrow at him in the moonlight. “Then explain to me why you keep dancing around the elephant in the room?”
The question made his muscles go taut with tension. Fotte. That direct, to-the-point mannerism of hers had a way of making him squirm under the microscope—not a pleasant feeling. Irritated by the amused expression on her face, he glared at her. He was a Tribune, heir to the Sicari Lord title. He’d faced down more Praetorians than he could count, and he’d be damned if he was going to let this woman intimidate him. He shrugged with an indifference he didn’t feel.
“Are you referring to what happened in your room?” He breathed easier at the disconcerted look on her face. Good. He’d thrown her off balance. She hesitated, but from her scowl of irritation, he was far from out of the woods in terms of explaining himself.
“Yes, I’m referring to what happened,” she said fiercely. What he’d thought was forgiveness might have simply been the eye of the storm. “One minute it was . . . it was incredible, and the next minute you were running for cover.”
He didn’t know how to answer her. What he’d experienced had been a hell of a lot more than incredible. It had been mind-blowing and scary as hell. She’d been hot and sweet on his tongue, and even now he could still breathe in the soft freshness of her skin.
And sweet mother of Juno, the memory of suckling her was enough to make his cock stir in his trousers. The direct look she sent him didn’t surprise him. But he tensed at the determination in her gaze. Somehow he was certain he wasn’t going to like what was coming.
“Did you read my mind earlier? Just when things were getting hot?”
How in Jupiter’s name was he supposed to answer that? He flinched. The connection he’d had with her from the moment they’d met was something he had no way of explaining. As for earlier today, he wasn’t sure if he’d read her mind or if the images he’d seen were his. It didn’t matter; she’d obviously been thinking about it at the same time he was. He flinched as he considered telling her the truth. Why was it so hard for him to tell her? The immediate answer that came to him wasn’t the one he wanted to admit to.
“You know it’s forbidden for a Sicari to read the minds of other Sicari without permission.”
“Forbidden. Right,” she mused as she studied him with a look of puzzlement. “What I don’t get is just when we were about to have some incredible sex, you ran for cover.”
He coughed at her blunt honesty. That hadn’t been just direct— that had been a blow to the gut. His throat tightened, making it difficult to get air into his lungs. There was a hint of triumph in the way she leaned forward and wrapped her fingers around the edge of the bench once more. Jupiter help the Praetorian who came up against her in a fight. The woman was relentless.
“You’re mistaken.” Jaw tight with tension, he stared at her for a long moment before he turned his back on her and moved toward the altar, putting several feet between them. “I was not running for—”
“You know, I really hate it when people lie to me, and you’re lying to me right now,” she bit out in a fierce voice behind him. “If I made you uncomfortable because I made the first move instead of waiting for you to do it, fine. Just say so. Don’t lie about it.”
“No,” he growled as he whirled around to face her. “I . . .”
His voice died in his throat as she left the bench and closed the distance between them until mere inches separated them. The air left his lungs as the scent of her soft, exotic perfume filled his nostrils. The woman was temptation personified. Desperately, he struggled to hang on to his presence of mind.
“You’re trembling,” she whispered, a puzzled frown furrowing her lovely brow.
Unable to speak, he didn’t move as she ran her fingertips along his cheek. He knew he should be grabbing her hand and pushing her away, but he was powerless to move. The minute she went up on her tiptoes and kissed him softly, he knew he’d lost his resolve. Another shudder wracked his frame at the sweetness of her touch.
It was like a warm breeze off the ocean, and his mind reeled at the desire rising inside him like a tidal wave that he couldn’t control or run from. With a groan, his hands gripped her waist and tugged her against him. As his mouth captured hers, he heard her gasp with surprise before she wrapped her arms around his neck.
The warmth of her forced its way through his clothes until he was hot with need. It was as if someone had dropped him into the desert and she was the only water for miles around. Tentatively, his tongue probed against her lips, and she opened her mouth to give him access to its sweet fire. A second later, her tongue was dancing with his.
Somewhere in the back of his mind a battle raged between the dark and light of his soul as he pulled Cleopatra snug into his body. It was as if the gods had made her just for him. She retreated slightly from him, her mouth blazing a trail of searing pleasure down the side of his neck. Her arms were no longer around his neck, and he heard a soft rustle just before her hand guided his toward her bare bottom.
He drew in a sharp breath and shuddered as his fingers stroked the soft curve of pure flesh. His senses reeled. Was she naked underneath her dress? He slid a hand upward to her waist but found not even a wisp of silk or satin. Fotte. She wasn’t wearing a thing. A second later, he heard the soft sound of a zipper just before her mouth was sliding over his again.
She tasted good enough to eat. Even sweeter than the chocolate cake served at supper. His hands slid downward along the soft curve of her bottom as her tongue swirled around his. The image of his mouth exploring every inch of her made him groan as she pressed her body closer to his until they were as one.
In the next breath, he went rigid with shock as her fingers slipped into his trousers and found his cock. Stunned by the intense pleasure her touch gave him, he didn’t move as his brain tried to comprehend the sensations pounding their way through his body. Damn, he loved what she was doing to him.
He growled quietly and thrust his hips forward as her thumb circled around the tip of him then rubbed over the sensitive spot just below the mushroomed cap of his erection. Her mouth grazed his cheek as her lips tugged at his ear.
“I want you, Dante,” she whispered.
Numbed and reeling from her caresses, Dante heard the words but didn’t comprehend them at first. His body was a slave to her every touch. She caught his other hand in hers then guided his fingers to her hot center. Alarm bells went off in his head as his fingers acted of their own accord and slipped between her wet folds.
The sweet cry she uttered at what he was certain was an awkward caress sent a shock wave through him. She liked what he was doing. The thought made him even hotter than he already was. A moment later, her hand tightened around him and stroked his cock harder. He jerked against her touch. Fotte, if she kept this up, he was going to make love to her right here and now.
He froze as an icy cold engulfed him. The sensation was no different than if he’d stepped out into the Arctic air without wearing any clothes. Fuck, what was he doing? How in the name of the gods had he forgotten his oath so easily? Shame blasted its way through him. He quickly retreated from her, his body protesting viciously as he put several feet between them. The look of surprise and humiliation on her face made him flinch. He turned away from her, and with a grimace, he awkwardly adjusted his erection in his trousers and tugged clumsily at his zipper.
He’d rejected her again, and there was no excuse for it. He could have pushed her away the moment her mouth had brushed lightly across his, but he hadn’t. This time it had been him escalating their kiss. He was a bastardo, and the fact that he was the cause of her dismay lashed at his conscience with a relentless fury. What was he supposed to say to her?
The truth.
“Do you mind telling me what the hell just happened?” she said with a restrained fury that didn’t surprise him. He swallowed hard as he faced her. She’d already straightened her dress, and the disappointment it stirred in him made him wince.
“I made a mistake—”
“You bet your ass you did. This is the second time now that you’ve run hot and cold on me, and I want to know why. If this is about me always making the first move then say so, damn it,” she said in a fierce tone as she closed the distance between them in a flash and jabbed at his chest. “You’re attracted to me, and don’t say you’re not, because you were so into that amazing foreplay just now. So what’s the problem? Are you worried about me being the boss’s daughter?”
“Your relationship to Marcus has nothing to do with us,” he snapped with a shake of his head.
“Then what’s the problem? Is it something I said? Did?” She glared at him in frustration before her expression became a cold mask of marble. “Oh, I get it. It’s not something I did—it’s what I am.”
She shot him an icy look of contempt then stalked over to the bench and retrieved her shoes. The abrupt change in her demeanor left him staring at her back in stunned silence. Despite his confusion, he couldn’t help but notice the way her dress bared the edge of her bottom once more as she bent over to pick up her shoes. His hands immediately tingled at the memory of caressing her bare skin. In a split second, he was hard again and was forced to suppress a groan.
Fotte, the woman was twisting him into knots. Still confused at the way his body continuously betrayed him where she was concerned, he struggled to grasp the full meaning behind her comment. Not about to let her leave without an explanation, he almost reached out with his hand to hold her back, then thought better of it. Instead, he mentally grasped her arm and spun her around.
“What you are? What the hell are you talking about?”
“You’re attracted to me, but you hate yourself for wanting to fuck me,” she said in a bitter tone. “You just can’t stomach the thought of sleeping with a freak. Fine by me. Now let me go.”
Beneath the bitterness in her voice was the stark sound of humiliation and a deeper pain. It surprised him that the connection he’d felt with her had hidden this particular emotion from him. As her emotions mingled with his, he realized this pain was something that ran deep beneath the layers of everything else that had shaped her life in recent years. It was a dull ache that he’d only just now experienced.
The idea of her hurting filled him with an urge to pull her close and ease the suffering he sensed in her. He didn’t have a clue as to what she was talking about, but rejecting her was one of the hardest things he’d ever done in his entire life. Even now he wanted to drag her off to his bedroom and spend the night kissing every inch of her. Exploring every delicate curve of her body while she taught him exactly how he could please her.
“I don’t know where you got that idea, but I don’t think you’re a freak.”
“Sure you do. You’re like a lot of the Sicari men I know. The minute they find out I don’t have any abilities, they run away as fast as they can. I’m not really Sicari. I’m one of nature’s mistakes. And you know what’s really funny? My real father is a fucking Sicari Lord. How’s that for irony?
The pain in her voice was poignant. It was an emotion he understood well. His mother had given him up to the Absconditus, and it was always there in the back of his mind. Without thinking clearly, he used his ability to drag her into his arms. It probably wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but all he cared about at the moment was making her realize she wasn’t the problem.
He was.
She struggled fiercely, but he easily overpowered her. The logical side of his brain assumed command and effectively shut down most of his sensory receptors, but he knew it was only temporary. He needed to make her understand as quickly as possible, but she was obviously not in the mood to listen.
“Let me go, you son of a bitch.”
“Stop struggling, Cleopatra, and listen to me.”
“I don’t want to hear you ease your conscience.”
“Damn it, woman, shut up and listen to me,” he said harshly. She froze in his arms as he glared down at her. “I don’t give a damn whether you have Sicari abilities or not.”
“Right,” she sneered. “I’ve had too many men walk away from me for just that reason. So you’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
“Believe what you will, but I know for a fact that every man who’s ever walked away from you was a fool,” Dante said quietly. Surprise flashed across her face as he swallowed hard. “Who or what you are has nothing to do with me pushing you away. I’m the problem. Not you. When I was fifteen, I swore allegiance to the Absconditus.”
“I’m listening,” she said. Her tone said he had a short time frame to convince her.
“I took an oath to dedicate my life to the Absconditus.”
She didn’t say anything. She just looked at him with an expression of exasperated puzzlement. He frowned, realizing it would be difficult making her understand what he was trying to say. Already he was feeling like that fifteen-year-old boy he’d been the day Placido had sent him into that bedroom for what he’d thought was another test.
“You mean like one of the Carpenter’s priests?” she asked softly, her eyes narrowing at him.
“Yes.” He drew in a deep breath then released it slowly.
“As in a celibate priest?” Her voice was just a little bit louder.
“Yes.”
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” she exclaimed. “You’re a virgin?”
He winced at the way the word rolled off her lips. Guilt slashed at him as she broke free of his hold for a second time. Embarrassment, shock, and dismay darkened her face as she took two steps back from him.
“I should have—” He didn’t get a chance to finish.
“And all this time you allowed me—and you kissed me. Touched me. Hell, you almost made love to me. And this whole time you didn’t say a goddamn word to me? Not one fucking word!”
“I should never have let it get as far as it did.” He bit down on the inside of his cheek at the humiliation and anger he heard in her voice.
“You think?” she said tightly. “What kind of a man are you? Was it some sort of game? To test yourself?”
“No.” Dante shook his head. “It wasn’t like that. You’re a beautiful woman. I couldn’t—”
“Don’t say another fucking word. I’ve heard more than enough. Just do me a favor. Stay the hell away from me. Period.” With a final glare of contempt in his direction, she whirled around and stalked away from him and out of the gazebo.
