22. Renato
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
RENATO
Isat in the employee lounge, bored and restless, while waiting for my next client. The quiet left me craving distraction in the form of a certain blue-eyed sex worker who haunted my thoughts.
Dante appeared in the doorway. The sight of him in a tailored black suit with his white shirt unbuttoned drew my full attention.
“You clean up nice, don’t you?” I let my gaze travel down his body, making sure he noticed how much I appreciated the view. I patted the space beside me on the leather couch. “Come join me, gorgeous.”
To my surprise, instead of his usual protests about fraternization rules, he sat down next to me. “I’m surprised you’re alone down here.”
I stretched my arm across the back of the couch, my fingers almost but not quite touching his shoulder. “It’s a sign from the universe we were meant to be together.”
He snorted, but I caught the way his gaze dropped to my mouth before he looked away. “I’d hardly go that far.”
I brushed my fingers against the nape of his neck, gratified when he shivered. His body never lied, unlike his mouth. “Even though I just had you, I already want you again.” I moved closer until our thighs pressed together. “The taste of you is addictive. Once isn’t enough.”
When I leaned in to capture his lips, he placed a firm hand on my chest. “We can’t.”
I covered his hand with mine, pressing it harder against me so he could feel my heartbeat. “The forbidden nature only makes me want you more.” I moved in again, my lips a breath away from his.
Dante turned his cheek, denying me access to his mouth. “Unless someone’s paying to watch or join us, it’s not happening.”
His resistance only made me more determined. I traced my finger along his jawline, tilting his face back toward mine. “You say that, but your body betrays you every time I touch you.”
“What I want doesn’t matter.” The resignation in his voice stoked a sudden fire in my chest.
I cupped his face between my palms, forcing him to look into my eyes. “It matters to me.” I watched his expression carefully, noting the flicker of vulnerability before he tried to mask it. “You matter to me.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” He moved my hands away, but not before I felt the slight tremor in his fingers. “You don’t know me.”
“I’m a man who knows what he wants and will do anything to get it. I want you, Dante. More than anything else.”
“Dragon,” he corrected sharply, glancing toward the security camera in the corner. “Remember where we are.”
“Him, too. But I want the man behind the mask even more.” I traced my tongue along the shell of his ear before whispering, “I want all the parts of you that Daddy doesn’t own.”
A soft gasp escaped him. “You wouldn’t know what to do with me.” He tried to sound tough, but I heard the waver in his voice.
Laughing low in my throat, I nipped at his earlobe. “I think I showed you earlier how well I can handle you.” My hand slid higher on his thigh.
“Stop,” he said, but there was no conviction in his tone as my lips pressed against his neck.
“I don’t want to,” I breathed the words against his skin. “And neither do you.”
He pushed me back with both hands on my chest, creating some distance between us. His cheeks flushed, his breathing uneven. “You’re not a very good listener.”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong.” My hand slipped between his legs again, fingers finding the bruise left on his inner thigh during our earlier encounter.
Pressing against it, my eyes locked on his widening gaze as pleasure and pain merged.
“I’m such a good listener that I can hear what you aren’t saying.
Like right now, I can hear your body begging me for more. ”
I increased the pressure, watching him fight not to squirm beneath my touch. “Does it hurt?” I asked, my voice dropping to a seductive whisper. “Or does it turn you on to remember how I put it there? How I sucked that bruise into your skin before making you come twice?”
“Fuck,” he whispered, but his thighs still parted for me.
I leaned closer, my breath hot against his ear as I massaged the mark through his expensive suit pants.
“This belongs to me now,” I murmured, keeping my voice low enough that the cameras could never hear.
I circled my thumb over the hidden bruise.
“I’ve marked territory that men would kill to claim as their own.
Every time you sit down for the next week, whenever you cross your legs, or walk, you’ll feel me there.
You’ll remember how I marked you, claimed you, made you mine despite who thinks they own you. ”
Dante’s breathing became labored as I continued to manipulate the tender flesh. “You have no idea how dangerous what you did is,” he hissed, but he didn’t stop me. “If Salvatore sees that mark—”
“Let him see it,” I interrupted, my voice hardening with a darkness I usually kept hidden. “I’ve played these games before. I’m aware of what I’m doing.”
“No one plays a game with him and wins.”
I slid my fingers higher, tracing the crease where thigh met groin. “I’ve danced with devils more terrifying than Don Salvatore Gennaro.”
His eyes widened at my admission. “No, you haven’t.”
I smiled, the same smile that had made men tremble in Rome’s darkest corners. “Trust me, I understand better than most what world we’re in. But I’m not afraid.”
“You should be.” While he protested with his words, he shifted to increase the pressure of my fingers against my brand on his skin.
“The trouble began the moment I decided you were mine,” I replied, dragging my nails across the bruise.
“And I don’t intend to stop until you’re screaming my real name while I fuck you somewhere Daddy dearest can’t interrupt.
This mark is only the beginning of how I plan to claim every inch of you. ”
“Stop before you get us both in trouble, Lorenzo.” His voice cracked on my brothel name, but his thighs parted further, giving me better access.
I moved my hand higher, cupping his growing erection through his pants.
His stamina impressed the hell out of me.
“If I had known my interview was going to be the only time I’d hear you moaning my real name, I would have savored the experience more.
” I squeezed gently, feeling him harden further under my touch.
“I’m sure I’ll have you shouting it again someday, though.
Preferably while I’m buried deep inside you. ”
He stared at me with a mixture of desire and fear. “You have no idea who you’re playing with.”
“On the contrary.” I kept one hand on his cock while the other returned to the bruise, applying dual pressure that made him suppress a groan.
“You’re a man caught between worlds, wearing masks so convincing that he’s forgotten which one is real.
But I see you, Dante. The real you that belongs neither to Salvatore nor to the clients who pay for your body. ”
“And you think that version of me belongs to you?”
I smiled against his skin. “Not yet. But he will.” I traced the outline of his cock through his pants. “I want the real you who survives in a world designed to break him. You’ll be mine.”
He swallowed hard. “What makes you so sure?”
“Because I know you want me as much as I want you.” I stroked him through the fabric, watching his resolve crumble. “Your mouth says no, but this tells me yes in ways words never could.”
His breathing quickened as I manipulated the sensitive flesh. “You’re risking certain death.”
“Don’t worry about me. I can handle men like Don Salvatore without a problem.”
His eyes narrowed. “Who are you really?”
“Someone who knows the taste of danger and finds it sweeter than fear.”
He grabbed my wrist, pulling my hand away from his erection. “Don’t mistake my appreciation for your skill as actual interest.”
“Oh, this goes far beyond appreciation.” I twisted free with ease, then traced his jaw to tilt his face more toward me. “I’ve fucked enough men to understand the difference between someone who enjoys my skills and someone who craves me. You’re the latter, whether you admit it or not.”
“You’re wrong.”
I smirked, undeterred. “Yeah, sure. You keep telling yourself that, Dragon.” The work name rolled off my tongue mockingly.
“You don’t know shit about me.”
“We both know if there weren’t security cameras in here, you’d already be riding me hard and moaning in ecstasy.” I adjusted my position, making sure he could see how erect I was beneath my satin robe. “You’d be begging me to fill you up.”
He drew a shaky breath, his gaze dropping to my obvious arousal before snapping back up to my face. “Only in your dreams.”
I touched myself through the thin fabric, letting out a deliberate moan.
“Oh, you feature prominently in those. Last night, I dreamed about bending you over right here.” I gestured to the arm of the couch.
“Your pants around your ankles, my hand in your hair, pulling back just enough to arch your spine while I fuck into you so deep you feel me in your throat.”
A flush crept up his neck. “Do you think that mouth of yours is going to get you what you want?”
“You mean this mouth that left that bite mark on your thigh?”
His breath caught, his hand moving to touch the spot that lay hidden beneath the expensive fabric. The involuntary gesture told me everything his words wouldn’t.
“Remember how much your cock leaked when I sank my teeth into that tender flesh?”
His fingers dug harder into the bruise, pressing, circling, recreating the pressure in small, unconscious movements.
“Fuck you,” he snarled, but he never stopped his subtle massage of the mark.
“Didn’t it feel good when I pressed my thumb into it with each thrust?” I continued, watching him mimic the action I described. “You came from having my cock inside you and my fingers claiming that bruise.”
A soft groan escaped his throat as he pushed hard, his erection jerking. He bit his lip, furious at the sound he couldn’t smother.
“Your body remembers,” I whispered, savoring his struggle between desire and dignity. “Even if your pride wants to forget.”