22. Dante
Chapter 22
Dante
I shouldn’t be here, and I damn sure shouldn’t be doing what I’m about to do.
No matter how many times those words played in my mind on a loop, my feet wouldn’t move, wouldn’t turn away from the nanny’s door and lock myself in my room. I tried. For the past four days I’ve kept my distance from Lucy by bringing home enough work to get me through to bedtime. I was short and dismissive with her, and I left each morning without breakfast just to give myself some damn breathing room.
Nothing has worked so far.
So here I was, standing right in front of Lucy’s door with my fist perched in the air, prepared to knock. Only good sense stopped me, but I knew that wouldn’t last for too much longer. I’d gone as long as I could without a taste of her, and now I was craving and desperate for sweetness, and with that thought my fist landed on the door in three sharp knocks. My heart banged around in my chest as I waited, half hoping she was already asleep, or too smart to open up for me, and half wishing I was already inside the room with her.
The door flung open and Lucy stared up at me with sexy, slightly mussed hair, in another one of those damn near see-through tank tops that did wonderful things for her big breasts. The pajama shorts skimmed the tops of her thighs, leaving more leg on display than hidden, and my hands fisted at my sides at the sight of them.
“Dante?” She asked breathlessly.
“What are you doing?” My words came out harsher than I intended, but dammit, why in the hell did she have to be so enticing? So unintentionally appealing?
Her blue eyes widened slightly and she blinked slowly before she hit me with a killer smile. “Reading. What are you doing?”
“Losing my mind,” I growled and stepped forward into her room until my bare feet sank into the carpet of Lucy’s suite. I kicked the door shut behind me without tearing my gaze from her big blue eyes. “I can’t stop thinking about you,” I growled.
For the first time in our brief acquaintance, Lucy was speechless. My words had stolen whatever smart comeback she’d been poised to make, and I smiled as a sense of deep satisfaction wormed through me, along with a healthy dose of desire. “Um, okay.”
“Eloquent,” I snorted and took advantage of her sharp intake of breath, her slightly flared nostrils. One hand snaked around her waist and I yanked her flush against me before my mouth crashed down over hers. I kissed her like a man starved for affection, delved deep into her hot mouth as her arms flung around my shoulders and her body molded to mine.
My hands wandered her curves slowly and sensually as Lucy took a step back and then another. I didn’t know if she was trying to end the kiss or slow things down and a few seconds later it didn’t matter as we crashed onto her bed. I rolled to the side to avoid crushing her smaller frame and brought her with me. Lucy’s eyes widened in shock. “Somebody is happy to see me.”
“Always,” I growled honestly, not even embarrassed by my admission.
Lucy was so gorgeous as she sat stride me and rolled her hips against my erection. Her head fell back and long blond hair brushed against the tops of my thighs, making me wish I was naked so I could feel the soft swish of her pale blond locks. “Dante,” she moaned and her hips moved faster and faster.
“I’m right here, Lucy.”
She smiled and licked her lips as her hands moved from my chest to the hem of her tank top, which she quickly removed and revealed pale breasts with dark pink nipples, hard and mouthwatering. Her hands went to her breasts and I growled, moved her hands out of the way and replaced them with my mouth. “Yessss!” she hissed the word out on four long syllables.
I sucked one nipple into my mouth and then the other while sounds of her moans and cries tore through the air. She moved against me faster and firm, her pleasure rising quickly to the surface. “Ah, fuck Lucy.”
She laughed and thrust her fingers in my hair, and held me exactly where she wanted me. “Crazy good mouth,” she mumbled before she pushed me back and stood over me on the bed and shucked her tiny pajama shorts and a small cotton thong. “Show me,” she purred and hovered over my mouth with a sexy, playful smile.
I sat up and flicked my tongue over her clit until her legs trembled under the force of her ecstasy and she grabbed my hair. “Lucy,” I growled.
“Such a good grump.” She stepped back and dropped to her knees between my legs, tugging on my pants until they were past my knees and then ankles before she tossed them behind her. “Perfect.” She fisted my erection in her hand, giving me hard strokes that made my eyes roll back in my head.
“Fuck!” Her mouth wrapped around the head of my cock and she took me deeper and deeper in her mouth until I hit the back of her throat. “Lucy,” I panted and pushed up on my elbows so that I could watch those plump lips rub against my cock. She paused and looked up at me with a smile in her eyes as she took me deep again. It was so fucking hot, and when my hips jerked, she didn’t flinch, she swallowed around me. “No more, Lucy. I need to be inside you. Now.”
She took her time, sucking me off for another few minutes before she released me with a pop. “Inside me?”
I nodded.
She gripped me in one hand and pushed onto her feet until I was perched so close that I could feel the heat of her body before she took me in and slowly lowered onto my cock. “Ah, yes. So. So. Good.” When I was as deep as I could go, Lucy paused and shivered. “Yes.”
My hips bucked up and another cry escaped. My fingertips sank into her hips, urging her to move.
Lucy took her time, a sexy smile lit her face as she slowly began to ride me. “Better?”
“Much better,” I growled.
She laughed. “I think we can do better,” she shot back in a husky tone as she picked up her speed, sliding up and down in long deep strokes that drove me crazy. “Oh!”
I was mesmerized, hypnotized by the jiggle of her gorgeous tits and the way she nibbled on her bottom lip as pleasure quaked her thighs. The small shuddery sighs that escaped her made me impossibly harder, and my fingers dug even deeper into her soft flesh. “Lucy.” I gripped her tightly and fucked up into her, the sight of her bouncing breasts and the wide-eyed stare she hit me with brought me even closer to the edge.
She leaned back and rested her hands on my thighs, arching her back as she took me deeper with every stroke. “Yes!” She muttered the word over and over until it had lost all meaning, her body shook violently but she kept moving, desperate for the orgasm that was just out of reach. “Dante,” she cried out on a sigh as her body shook and trembled for several long seconds.
I rolled us over so that I was on top and gripped the inside of her thighs in my hands as I pounded in hard, fast strokes that hit her perfect spot with every pass of my hips. “Ah, Lucy. Babe.” I rested my head on her chest and thrust hard and deep, again and again until another orgasm erupted out of her on a low wail.
“Fuck, Dante. Yes! Yes!” Her hips bucked wildly and she pulsed around me so tightly, that in mere seconds my own orgasm ripped through me.
Her name escaped on a roar and I collapsed on top of her soft form. “Sorry,” I muttered against her shoulder.
“Don’t be,” she sighed. “You feel nice. And that was really hot.”
I laughed. “So fucking hot.” Eventually I regained feeling in my muscles and rolled to the side with a long sigh. I watched Lucy as she turned to face me, a sleepy smile on her face. “Was that okay? I mean, not too rough or anything?”
She rolled her eyes. “Did you miss the really hot part?”
“No,” I laughed and shook my head because she deserved an explanation. “I tried to stay away from you. For days you’ve been on my mind, my every fucking waking thought, and I made myself stay away.”
“I noticed,” she said softly.
“I had to,” I said almost frantic. “I figured that coming here and seeing you would remind me of why we shouldn’t be doing this.” It was a shitty thing to say considering our bodies were still coated with each other, but it was the truth.
Her smile dimmed, but she nodded as if she understood. “Did it remind you?”
“No,” I growled.
Lucy laughed and pushed away from me. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
I sighed and rested a hand on her thigh. “The last thing I am is disappointed, Lucy. Watching you ride my cock was so incredibly sexy, I don’t know how I’ll stay away now.”
She sighed and turned away, giving me her back. “It’s not like I was looking for this either, Dante. Whatever else you might think of me.” Her tone was almost defeated and I frowned.
“What did I say?”
“Nothing,” she answered and shrugged off my touch. She stood and faced me. “I know I’m not what you want Dante, not for real. But I don’t need to hear it when your sweat is still dripping off my skin.”
I sighed and reached out to her, pulling her back until she was half on top of me. “That’s not what I meant, Lucy. I want you, more than I should considering that you’re here for Lena. I don’t like feeling out of control and being unable to stay away from you is a form of losing control.”
“And the world will end if you lose control?”
“No.” I huffed out a laugh. “It won’t end, but I was so angry during my divorce, and the fact that my ex refused to even fight for Lena…, well, I lost my shit more than a few times.” I hated to even think about that time in my life. “If not for the fact that she didn’t want Lena, I might have lost my child, I’d gotten so crazy and out of control.”
Her blue eyes widened and I waited for the fear or the judgment, but her lips curled into a small, sympathetic smile. “I can’t picture you losing control like that. You’re so self-contained, but maybe that’s why you’re so gloomy. Holding everything in like that would piss me off too.”
I squeezed her tightly and she squealed. “I’m not that grumpy.”
“You are, and if you weren’t so hot people would totally hold it against you.”
“You mean if I wasn’t so rich,” I corrected her, because that’s what most people saw first.
Lucy snorted. “Rich people just have a lot of money, and that’s pretty easy to hate no matter what. But you’re so stupidly good looking that I’m sure you get away with a lot more than you should.”
I frowned at her words. “You’re telling me my face is more appealing than my wealth?”
She shrugged. “It wasn’t your wealth that stopped me in my tracks on the road that day. It was the tall, dark and handsome part of the equation. Otherwise, you would have been just another rich jerk.”
I couldn’t help but laugh at her assessment. “That’s definitely a first for me.”
She turned to me earnestly, her expression had changed from playful to serious. “You’re a grumpy ass most of the time Dante.”
“Thanks?”
She giggled. “It’s the truth, but you’re very sweet with your daughter, and despite your grouchy attitude, you make sure Dotty doesn’t work too hard and you ask your employees about their private lives. You’re not a total ass, but this is…new to me. I don’t, ah, I don’t get this close to the men I work with, or for. Not ever.”
I’d heard that before, too many times to count. “Never?”
“No, never. I can’t deny there’s something about you even beyond that pretty face, a chemistry that surprised me. But if you don’t want this, then neither do I. You can go back to your room right now and this will be it. No harm, no foul.”
Her words surprised me. She was the first woman, other than my ex-wife, who had willingly walked away from me, and Bethany had still taken a few million dollars for her troubles. Was this offer too good to be true?
I must have waited too long to respond, because Lucy slowly pulled out of my hold and slid away until she was all the way on the other side of the bed. “I get it, Dante. We’ll just pretend that this night, and the other night, never happened. It’ll make things easier,” she said softly. “For both of us.”
“Lucy,” I called after her as she started towards her private bathroom.
She turned just inside the bathroom and tried for a smile that didn’t reach her blue eyes. “I like working with Lena, and I’m a professional Dante, I promise things will go back to normal.”
I frowned and sat up, unhappy with every single fucking word she just said to me. “What if I can’t let this go?”
She sighed. “Then I guess you’ll replace me and we’ll both move on with our lives.” She gave me one long look that felt suspiciously like goodbye before she slipped inside the bathroom and closed the door.
I don’t know how long I sat there on her bed and listened to her in the shower, wondering if I should join her or leave her the hell alone. I knew I couldn’t leave her alone, not yet. I hadn’t had enough of her and I wasn’t ready to walk away from her yet, but she worked for me.
I got to my feet slowly and stared at the two doors, one led out of this room and back to life as usual, and the other led to Lucy and her lush curves and easy smile.
Left or right.
Normal life, or Lucy in full vibrant colors.
The choice was easy.
I turned left and slipped inside the bathroom and into the shower, spending the rest of the evening losing myself in Lucy, in her laugh and her sweetness.