11. Dante
11
DANTE
I watch her eyes widen in fear, but I’m beyond clemency. She could cry, beg, and scream, and it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference. The demons that I fight with everyday have taken over, and they’re calling all the shots. I can only see in colors of her pain and my power.
Something broke inside when she said my name. It was too much to hear her soft, husky voice delivering something so tainted. It crossed an invisible line, more so than her job, or her personal vendetta against my family.
Joseph didn’t hold back on the details earlier. He showed me a couple of her articles. Every sentence is laced with contempt and hostility for our world. And I forced her into my inner sanctum. The one woman who will do everything and anything to bring us down.
I’m not immune to it. I know exactly what the fuck we do, but my past dictates my decisions and my future. I’m a Santiago: A wanted man with a voracious bloodlust, which means there is no neat diversion or easy way out for me.
Once she figures out who I am, the deceit will destroy us. Until then, I need to distance myself and erect some fucking barriers. This is sex for my own gratification, not hers. She’s mine to do whatever the hell I want with.
I lasted five minutes in sector six. I was too impatient to get back to her. I barely glanced at the two snitch DEA agents we’d brought back as trophies from Miami. Strung up and worked over, one had actually pissed himself when he saw me, making Joseph unleash his fists on him again. The other stayed silent and resigned to his fate. Hoping for a quick death which, under the circumstances, I was prepared to give him.
Picking up the knife, I’d calmly appeased my anger until their blood ran in crimson streams around my feet, and the familiar metallic tang in the air soothed my senses.
“Clean up this mess,” I’d ordered, ripping off my ruined shirt. “Then I want everyone gone from this side of the compound. Go put some fucking target practice in on the range.”
I wanted to be left alone to deal with her.
I know my own rules. I don’t let them close. I take what I want and then I leave, so why not her? What makes her so special? Why turn my back on a way of life that’s been good to me for the last fifteen years?
She needs to suffer for putting me in this position. For testing my limits and making me feel things I haven’t felt in a long time. I’m craving the oblivion that fucking her brings me, but today I’ll have it in an unpalatable way. I’m going to inflict pain, break her spirit, and bring her round to my way of thinking. It’s just the way things have to be.
“Don’t move.”
I force her wrists above her head and finger the neckline of her white dress, testing the durability of the material. She flinches away, which only irritates me more.
I yank hard, the fabric disintegrating in my hands—ripping and tearing all the way down to her navel and exposing those fuckable full breasts with their dusky-pink nipples. A deep, guttural noise erupts from my throat, and I don’t stop until the whole of the front of her dress is ruined.
My fists clench around the bunched material. Her bare skin is calling to me—so soft and treacherous. She’s shaking all over, but the aroma of her body makes me pause. I smell fear on her, but there’s something else as well…
I glance at her face. The look that greets me is like a sucker punch to the gut. She’s staring straight at me and breathing hard. Her clear blue eyes are dilated with lust, and my senses are being consumed by the sweet, sweet scent of her arousal.
Son of a… She’s enjoying this.
And, just like that, the sharpest edges of my depravity disappear.
She deserves better.
She deserves everything.
I come for her, burying my fists in her hair, and crushing her mouth with my own. She kisses me back with the same fierceness as I drag her arms down to form a chain around my neck. She tightens her hold on me, pressing her body against mine, as I groan long and deep into her mouth.
“Do you like that, mi alma ?” I demand. “Do you like it when I play rough?”
“Yes,” she whispers. “Give me more, show me everything, take me with you.”
Take you? Jesus Christ. I don’t need to be told twice.
Cupping her ass, she reads the cue and wraps her long legs around my waist as I slam her back against the palm tree. The loose ends of her ruined dress get trapped between us and I yank them out of the way impatiently. I need to bury my dick inside her before I explode.
Pinning her between the tree and my hips, I tear open the front of my jeans, wrench her panties to one side, and impale her in one rough thrust. I nearly lose my mind when her wetness and warmth envelop me, drawing me deeper and deeper into her body. At the same time, I hear her cry out with a jagged chorus of pain and surprise.
“Say my name.” My order is harsh and needy. “Let me hear you scream it.”
“Dante! Dante! Dante!” she moans out, each new intone timing perfectly with my next assault.
“That’s right, my angel.” I seek out her lips again and force my tongue between her teeth, fucking her mouth and her pussy at the same time. This is so much more than oblivion. It’s fiercer and stronger than anything I’ve ever known.
I fuck her like I haven’t fucked her in a year, like I haven’t fucked her all last night, or this afternoon.
This is what she does to me. Every time is fresh and different. She whips me up into a frenzy and makes me want her more and more.
I’m so violent with my lust that she chokes on my kiss. I can’t help myself. She tastes too good, and I want to savor everything. I can’t temper my pace, and my self-control is in pieces. I can feel her inner muscles squeezing my dick as her own restraint detonates around me.
“Come for me!” I roar, tearing my mouth away.
She tenses and then slackens in my arms, and I feel like a fucking god. At the same time, my own orgasm spirals me into a temporary void where nothing else exists except us.
A strange peace settles over me afterward as we stay locked together until our pulses steady and slow. She’s limp in my arms, but she’s so slim I can support her weight easily.
The quietude transforms into a deep, satisfying ache. Sliding out of her, I lower her feet to the ground. Her wrists are still bound around my neck. I remove her arms and set about untying her, running my thumbs over the red weals where my rope has chafed her skin. They’re a symbol of our lust. A brand that I want to leave on her body every time we fuck.
Once freed, she turns away and tries to cover herself with what’s left of her dress.
“Don’t,” I tell her, unfurling her fingers and sliding the ruined dress off her shoulders until she’s naked except for her white panties. She doesn’t stop me; she just stares at me, an unreadable expression on her face.
I take a step back and remove my T-shirt in one fluid movement. I watch her gaze lingering on my stomach, at the tight web of muscles there. My angel likes what she sees, but doesn’t she know? She’s staked a claim over me already—from the dark soul lurking beneath these muscles to this God-given face.
I place my T-shirt over her head and tug it down into position. It’s so large on her that it falls to her knees. It’s a shame to cover up those breasts, but I’ll kill any man who lays his eyes on them. Fuck doubt. Fuck all the reasons we shouldn’t be together. This pull between us is stronger than all of that.
“I preferred the dress,” she says, offering up a small smile.
I find myself wanting to make her smile like that more often.
“I believe that’s the first thing we’ve agreed on.” Bending down, I scoop her up into my arms. She squeals in shock and tries to squirm away. “Settle in for the ride, my angel,” I say with a growl, tightening my grip as I walk us down to the water’s edge to wash the sin from our bodies.
I’m never letting you go.
She falls asleep in my arms as I carry her back to the house, clean and replete, her head resting lightly against my shoulder.
Kicking the front door shut, I hear the laughter coming from the kitchen as the girls prepare dinner. I imagine we caused quite a scene earlier. Eve and her delicate, ethereal beauty have been the subject of much gossip in my household over the past few days. They won’t open their mouths to anyone else, though. I surround myself with loyalty. If I suspect the alternative, that person is dealt with swiftly and decisively. There’s too much at stake, and even more so now.
It’s been this way ever since I was forced back into the family fold, and the day my own flesh and blood betrayed me. Joseph runs detailed checks on every single person that sets foot in my compound—from the maids in the house to the commanders and captains in my army .
I pause when I reach my bedroom door, and then I walk straight past it, choosing to enter the next room instead. There are too many bad memories for Eve in there; too many knives to slice at these fragile strands that bind us. Something shifted between us this afternoon, and I find myself wanting to protect it at all costs.
She stirs as I lay her down on the bed. I watch her eyelids flit open. When she realizes she’s back inside the house, she sits up with a cry.
“Shhh,” I croon, brushing away a strand of dark silk from her face. “I will never lock you away again… You have my word.”
I’m encouraged when she doesn’t flinch away, though her eyes are wide and wary. She wants to trust me, but she can’t. Not yet. It’s no more than I deserve after the way I’ve treated her.
“What is this room?” she says, glancing around.
“One of my spares. I’ll have your things brought here.” I move to stand, but she grabs my arm to stop me. A second later, she’s flat on her back, her hands pinned above her head. “No sudden movements, remember?” I chide, seeing the terror on her face and releasing her right away.
She rubs her wrists and winces.
“Did I hurt you?”
She shakes her head and bites her lower lip. She’s a bad liar.
Fuck.
We stare at each other for a beat—me, full of something perilously close to regret, and her, just thoughtful. I watch her formulating questions in her mind, drinking everything in with those dangerous blue sapphires.
“You mentioned my things? I didn’t think—”
“I had clothes flown over from the main island this morning,” I say brusquely, rising to my feet again. “Plus, some toiletries and make-up.”
“Thank you, I guess.”
No, thank you. This woman has no idea she’s just given me the fuck of my life. “The bathroom’s through there,” I say, gesturing to an archway in the corner. “I need to make a few calls, and then I’ll be back.”
I walk over to the balcony doors and take a key from my pocket. They open easily, the incoming breeze catching at the white muslin drapes. All my bedrooms have balconies that face the ocean. I like to prettify the true immorality of this place with minor details such as these.
“Can I go out there?”
I see the spark of hope in her eyes. Keeping her locked away in my bedroom was the cruelest thing I could have done.
I grit my teeth as an unfamiliar emotion claws at my guts. “Of course.” I move toward the door and watch her glance around the room again.
“There are no mosquito nets in here.”
“No. That reminds me…” I walk back over to the nightstand, open the top drawer and take out a pack of antimalarial medication. “Here.” I hand her the silver blister pack, growing impatient when I watch the fear re-emerging in her eyes. “I’m not trying to poison you, my angel. Quite the opposite. They’re prophylactics.”
She takes the blister pack and examines it closely, her exquisite face folding into a frown. “Antimalarials? But shouldn’t I have been taking them—?”
“I was having them crushed up and put in your food.”
“Of course, you were,” she says, a trace of bitterness souring that sweet, melodious voice. “But these would mean I’m in—”
“Africa.”
“ Africa? ” She looks stunned. “But I’ve never even left America before. How can I be in Africa?” She pulls her knees up to her chest and hugs them close to her body. She looks like a child again with my T-shirt swamping her slender frame.
“It’s quite simple. I flew you here.”
She gives me a barely perceptible roll of her eyes, and I feel my cock stirring. “Well, I figured that out for myself, smartass.”
Smartass? I’ve been called many things in my lifetime, but never that.
“Sarcasm doesn’t suit you,” I say, sounding disapproving.
“And captivity does?”
That’s my sign to leave. “Enjoy the view. I’ll be back in an hour. We’ll have dinner and I’ll introduce you to some of my staff.”
I’m not sure if she’ll agree to this, but it’s a pleasant surprise when she nods.
“I’d like that. It won’t make me feel like such a…”
“Prisoner?” I offer up, coolly.
“Yes, prisoner,” she says, fixing her gaze on me. I see reproach there and my semi hardens into something else entirely. Oh, my angel, was that another flash of defiance?
I need to get out of here before my craving takes a hold of me. Joseph is downstairs pacing. We need to sign off on this new merchandise.
“I’ll get one of the girls to send you up some champagne,” I say, pausing in the doorway.
“Champagne?” She raises her eyebrows at me.
“Your drink of choice. You were holding a bottle when I introduced myself to you that night.”
Her mouth falls open. “ Introduced yourself? More like barged on in and totally screwed up my life!” Her soft voice rises to an indignant screech.
Seeing the hurt flaring in her eyes, I make my way back over to the bed. I want to appease her. I have no desire to fight.
“It’s certainly been one of my more impulsive decisions.” I lean over and deliver a hard kiss to her lips. “But I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
“Then I’ll make sure to avoid that particular liquor store in the future!”
They’re just words. She doesn’t mean them. This blazing intensity between us does all the talking we need.
“Anyway, I don’t drink… I only buy it for friends and for special occasions.”
I smirk. “Like meeting me.”
There’s a pause. “Like my birthday.”
Shit.
“Well, wasn’t I the perfect fucking present,” I grit out, heading for the door.