Chapter 8 #3
His mother had abandoned him. He was afraid that would happen again. He was afraid that I wanted to leave him.
And I did.
Didn’t I?
I loved Luca, but I couldn’t deny being drawn to Dante from the very beginning. He’d poisoned what could’ve been between us by using me for his revenge, but I could see the depth of his regret shining from his eyes.
Dante had become my dark savior, and I couldn’t hate him anymore. If I escaped the cage that he’d built for me and Luca, he’d be utterly alone again.
You’re not my prisoner; you’re my wife.
That was the marriage I wanted with you. It’s the happiness we could’ve had if Luca had never stolen you away from me and turned you against me. All I ever wanted was to make you safe and content.
In another world, under other circumstances, could I have been happy with Dante?
He’d described me as his perfect partner, not simply a submissive wife, a woman to be left at home to quietly raise his children without a will of her own.
He wanted me to challenge him; he liked my defiant spirit, my strength of character.
He’d seen it in me before we’d even been engaged.
How long had this beautiful fallen angel wanted me?
Dante was capable of monstrous things, but he wasn’t my monster.
“Dante, I—”
“I can be a better man for you,” he forestalled me, something like longing roughening his tone. “I’ll prove to you that I will be a good husband, a good match. The right one for you. Because I can’t let you go, Nora. I need you to be mine.”
But I wasn’t his. I belonged to Luca. My heart belonged to my husband.
Even as I thought it, my head tipped back, and my lips parted. Dante’s raw vulnerability called to something deep inside me. He didn’t want to be alone anymore. He wanted me to be his companion, his wife. No one else.
His lips brushed mine, and I didn’t turn my face away.
With the first spark between our bodies, desire ignited in my soul—more than simple physical lust. Dante knew how to make my blood sing in my veins, but this time, my heart tugged toward his.
My arms twined around his shoulders, and I went up on my toes as I surged closer to his masculine heat, his intoxicating scent.
I’d never offered him a kiss before; he’d taken them from my lips, stealing them in moments of agonized ecstasy.
Now, we came together as equals for the first time.
Desire crackled along my skin, lighting me up with awareness everywhere his body touched mine.
His tongue plundered my mouth, and I met him with frantic, hungry strokes.
He stepped toward me, his strong arms bracing my waist as he guided me back to the piano.
His hands cupped my bottom, and he suddenly lifted me, setting me down on the polished black surface.
He leaned over me, urging me to lay back with his hand tugging at my hair.
He tore his lips from mine, and a soft keening sound burst from my chest at the loss.
He soothed me with primal, hot kisses down the column of my throat before nipping at my shoulder.
My flesh tingled at the small bite of pain, and I arched into him.
He made his way down to my breasts, sucking the tight peaks through the thin silk nightgown that barely covered me.
“Dante…” I moaned his name, half protest, half plea for more.
He growled and bit my nipple hard enough to make me shriek. Hot lines of pleasure sizzled down to my clit, and my sex pulsed with the need to be filled.
An echo of fear shuddered down my spine as my body responded to the sexual stimulation.
He seemed to understand what was happening before I did.
“No,” he rumbled, savage and possessive. “Stay with me, Nora.” He kissed my neck again and reached between my legs, clever fingers stimulating my needy clit. “No one can touch you here. No one but me. This pussy is mine.”
I jolted at the words, and Luca’s blazing ochre eyes flashed across my mind.
“When he touches you, it’s my hand,” Dante snarled against my skin and slid a thick finger inside me.
“When he holds you, it’s only because I command it.
I’ll give you anything you need, Nora. Even if that means allowing him to think you’re his.
We both know the truth. You’re mine, little bird.
Your body responds to me. You were made for all the dark things I need to do to you. He can never fulfil you like I can.”
He curled his finger against my g-spot and rubbed my clit with his thumb while he nipped at my breasts. I arched toward him on a rough shout, writhing in his cruel, demanding grip.
“He can’t make you scream like I can. He doesn’t know how to do this to you.
He wouldn’t even want to. You would spend your life knowing that you could have what I offer, and he’d never be able to give it to you.
” His voice was guttural, savage. “You want me to break your careful control. You want to be free from that burden. I am the only one who’s strong enough to shatter you. To set you free, little bird.”
He kissed a tear from my cheek, and I tried to babble a protest as another shockwave of pleasure wracked my body.
This was wrong. I belonged to Luca.
But Dante was playing me like his favorite instrument. He knew exactly how to make me whimper and writhe.
“Don’t be afraid, darling,” he crooned, his emerald eyes burning into me. “I’ll always put you back together again. You know I will.” He rubbed the sensitive spot inside me with ruthless pressure, hard enough to force my back to bow with aching pleasure. “Shatter for me, Nora.”
I came apart on a scream, releasing my guilt and shame on a riptide of ecstasy. Nothing existed but Dante: his hands on me, his fiercely beautiful eyes consuming my soul.
He crushed his lips to mine, savoring the flavor of my blissful cry. As my body began to shake, he didn’t relent. He continued to stimulate me until I became overly sensitive. I bucked beneath him, but he pinned me down, teeth sinking into my lower lip as he rubbed me in a demanding rhythm.
Another violent orgasm tore from my body, bursting from my core to ravage my entire being.
He stroked me through the aftershocks of my second peak, and he kissed more tears from my cheeks as he coaxed the last sparks of painful pleasure from my sex.
“You are so beautiful,” he murmured, lavishing me with praise and more tender caresses. “So perfect for me. My Nora.”
Mine! Luca’s possessive roar thundered through my mind, and a soft sob wracked my chest.
Dante shushed me and held me close, cradling my shaking body in his brawny arms. “Don’t worry, pet. You did nothing wrong.”
He read me so easily. He saw me so clearly.
There was a familiarity between us that couldn’t be denied. He’d always peered straight into my soul, and today, he’d allowed me to glimpse his in return. He’d shared his pain with me, his deepest fear: that I would abandon him.
My heart ached at the thought of causing him so much pain.
But Luca was my husband, and in the end, I had to choose him.
If Dante would ever let him go.
Even though I knew Luca was still his prisoner, Dante’s strong arms no longer felt like a cage around me. I felt…free.
And that terrified me.