Wicked Surrender (Regency Sinners)(10)

“To prove to you how inaccurate your previous statement was,” he said calmly

Bella felt anything but calm. How could she have possibly fallen asleep when this whole situation was so out of her control? More so than she had realized, if Huntley believed the two of them would be sharing a bedchamber at this inn. And she had every reason to know that he rarely said things he did not mean.

“I am sure there were other ways you could have proven your point without—without—”

“Placing your hand on my cock?” he finished for her lightly. “But none of them would have been quite so enjoyable for me. Besides, it was the best way to disprove your doubt as to the involvement of my emotions.”

Bella despised utterly the sudden tears that stung her eyes. She was tired, confused as to what was happening to her, and most of all disturbed by seeing and being with Dante again. None of it was helped by the fact she was now so physically aware of him.

All the things she had once felt for this man, but mainly attraction and desire, had all returned and awoken her slumbering senses. She was totally aware of everything about him. Sight. Smell. Touch.

The palm of her hand actually tingled from resting against the swollen length of his cock, even though it had been through the lace of her glove and the material of his pantaloons. She had felt the heat of him. The throb of him. She could still breathe in the scent of him, that elusive sandalwood and male musk.

Emotions, sensations, she did not want to feel again for this man.

Dante had hurt her once to the very core of her being, and she did not intend to give him that opportunity a second time. She had never forgotten the words he had spoken to her that day seven years ago. They were seared into her soul.

“You are nothing but a silly child playing at being an adult. Come back and see me when you have grown up.”

Bella straightened. “I am sure the landlord will be only too happy to provide a second bedchamber if asked.”

Dante had watched the expressions flitting across Bella’s face. The glisten of tears in her eyes. The flush of unwanted awareness in her cheeks. The rapid rise and fall of her breasts beneath her cloak. The tight grasping together of her hands once she had removed the one from resting on his cock.

All succeeded in making him feel guilty for having been the cause of them.

He hardened his heart even as he acknowledgement that guilt. Yes, this was Bella, someone he had known from when she was thirteen years old, but that did not exclude her from also being a traitor to her adopted country.

“I do not intend to ask,” he bit out firmly. “And neither will you,” he added as she would have spoken.

Her eyes narrowed. “I most certainly will—”

Dante cut off her words by lowering his head and taking possession of her lips with his own. If she had emotion to spare, and it seemed that she did, then she might as well channel it into kissing him.

The first touch of her lips beneath his and Dante knew he was the one in danger of allowing his emotions to get the better of him.

She tasted delicious, and her lips were so soft and pliable beneath his. They parted without protest as his tongue slid along the seam of them before entering the moist heat of her mouth beyond. The kiss immediately became hot, devouring, as Bella’s hands moved to grasp his shoulders.

Bella had never experienced anything like being kissed by Dante. It was demanding, overwhelming, utterly intoxicating. His shoulders felt so strong and muscular beneath her fingers. She wanted to rub herself against him, to feel that strength overwhelming her, taking her, giving her unimagined pleasure.

She had imagined being kissed by him, touched by him, claimed by him.

So many times.

Her imagination hadn’t prepared her for this. The certainty of his lips as they possessed hers. That marauding tongue seeking out and claiming every part of her mouth, and igniting want and need with every touch. For the taste of him, a unique blend of heat and addictive nectar.

Bella moved closer still, pressing her aching breasts against the hardness of his chest as Dante’s lips left hers and trailed an arousing path down the length of her throat.

His hands moved to unfasten her cloak, pushing it off her shoulders impatiently as his head lowered farther still and his lips sucked on the naked swell of her breasts above her gown. His breath was a hot caress against her sensitized flesh, his beard a pleasurable rasp.

Bella’s eyes were closed. Her breathing sounded labored in the quiet interior of the carriage. Her heart was pounding, her body trembling with urgent need.

“I suggest we continue this in our bedchamber inside the inn,” Dante murmured throatily, “where we can be more comfortable.”

Bella could not have emerged from her sensual haze any more quickly than if a bucket of ice cold water had been thrown over her.





Chapter 4


What was she doing?

Dante St. Just had spirited her away into the night against her will.

He was taking her to God knew where.

To do God knew what with her.

And she was letting him kiss and caress her while the two of them were sitting in his carriage outside a public inn.

Bella pushed against his chest at the same time as she pulled back, seeing from the slightly dazed expression in those dark green eyes that Dante was as aroused as she was. There was some consolation in knowing that, at least.

But she was fully aware the kissing had begun because Dante wanted to stop her from protesting any further about the two of them sharing a bedchamber tonight.