The Duke's Willful Wife (5 page)

Robert laughed heartily.  “
Sasha
, dear, you have no idea who that man is!”
  He was too delighted with the sale to even tease her but wrapped his arm around her shoulders and hugged her stiff body. 

She pushed his arms off her, refusing to be buttered up by the shmoosy man who was going to charge a
handsome, interesting
stranger too much for paintings he probably didn’t even understand. 
“I don’t care who he is.  He probably doesn’t know the first thing about art and won’t know how much you’re going to charge him.  You be nice!” she ordered, pointing a stern finger at him.  “And only send him the second one.  He probably can’t afford all three.”

Sasha
turned on her heel and left, fuming that Robert was laughing so hard he couldn’t even voice a response.  He’d
often
accused her of being soft hearted, but
in this case,
she suspected that
Robert was
perhaps
being abusive. 

She stormed down the opposite way the stranger had taken and walked all the way to her loft apartment, uncaring about the length
or the painfully cold afternoon
.  After that encounter, she needed time to get
the man
out of her mind
and a punishing walk was exactly what she needed
. 

At eight o’clock that night, her doorbell rang.  She was so preoccupied with her latest painting, she almost didn’t answer it.  But after the second ring, she thought it might be faster to just answer i
t and get rid of the person than
to endure a third
, distracting
ring. 

“What?” she asked impatiently when the bell rang for a third time
because she wasn’t fast enough
. 

Dante looked down at the
gorgeous
woman
from this afternoon
with her soft hair piled on top of her head, held there by several pencils pointed at odd angles
.  T
here was a smudge of red paint on her left cheek and
something
he might describe as purple on her nose.  “I’m overdressed, aren’t I?” he asked, referring to his immaculate charcoal suit, while glancing at her paint spattered overalls and tank top underneath.  She wasn’t even wearing shoes!

“Overdressed?” she looked at her clothes, then back at him.  “Oh my goodness!  Dinner?
” she gasped, suddenly remembering his order that she accompany him for dinner tonight.  “
You were serious?”

“I never joke,” he replied dryly and stepped into her loft.  “But I’m very flexible.”  He turned to the man who had been standing behind him and said something
quickly
in Italian.  When the man disappeared, Dante shut the door.  “We’ll dine in since that’s obviously your intention.”

She stepped out of his way, wondering why she’d allowed him into her loft.  She usually hated visitors, especially when she was in the middle of a painting. 
“How did you find out where I live?” she asked, grabbing a rag that had definitely seen
its
way around a painting
studio
and tried to rub the paint off her fingers. 

Dante watched for a moment before taking a relatively cleaner rag from a different table and gently wiping her face.  Once her nose and cheek were cleared of the paint, he said, “I told Robert to send your address to my secretary.  He follows instructions more carefully than you do.  I wanted all three paintings.  You only allowed Robert to send me one.  Why?”

She could barely think with him this close.  All she could do was stare at his mouth, wondering what it would be like to be kissed by this man.  Raw, she thought. 
Several other adjectives came to mind and she had to clear her throat before she could answer him.  “
Um…because Robert charges too much for my paintings.”

“I never overpay for anything.  I want the other two paintings,” he said softly, his eyes roving over her features.  “You’re very beautiful,” he commented.  “Tell Robert to send the other two to my office tomorrow.”

She thought about just letting him pay what Robert charged him, but
an innate sense of honesty and fairness stopped her.  “No.”

Instantly an eyebrow went up.  “No?”

She licked her lips and stepped back.  “No.  I’m sorry but…”

He chuckled and shook his head.  “You really did say no to me, didn’t you?”

His hand reached up and touched her cheeks, leaving a streak of fire on her skin.  As he tucked a strand of hair back behind one of the pencils, he ran his thumb along her lower lip.  “I’m going to kiss you,” he said softly.

Again, her heart rate increased.  At this rate, she’d be falling on the floor with a heart attack.  Reaching behind her, she took a step backwards, only to have him follow her.  “No,” she whispered and shook her head for emphasis. 

“You need to understand something about me,” he replied as his fingers traced a path down to her jaw.

“
W
hat’s that?” she could barely get the words past her lips, so terrified of what she was feeling now.  She thought she would die if he kissed her but so powerful was her need to be kissed by him, she thought she might melt into a pool
of fizzling water
at his feet if he didn’t.

“I never take ‘no’ for an answer.”  With that, his lips touched hers, his fingers moved to her neck and tilted her head slightly so he could deepen the kiss and Sasha instantly complied, moving closer, her hands resting on his chest, the
n
fisting as his tongue moved against hers, his hands pulling her closer while his mouth plundered hers, tasting, taking, testing her as they both learned what it was like to explode into fire. 

She pulled back and looked up at him, her body suddenly on fire.  She started to shake her head, but he stopped her with his hand, bringing her head forward for another kiss.  Sasha didn’t hesitate, bringing her head up to meet him halfway.  She was on her toes trying to get closer to him, her body pressing against his and she was stunned when his hand slipped down her arm, leaving a trail of fire in its wake while he moved towards her waist. 

She didn’t care when his hand slipped underneath the denim of her overalls.  Quite the opposite actually.  She turned her body so that his hand didn’t just touch her waist, but trailed down her side, almost touching her breast which was swollen and aching, ready f
or his touch.  Her hand went for
his chest to his shoulders, initially gripping his broad shoulders but then moved up higher, her fingers tangling in his hair, then skimming down to touch the skin of his neck.   She was fascinated by his skin and her hand moved downward, her fingers exploring his chest and her head reared backwards when he did the same. 

When his fingers touched her nipple, she imitated him and she whimpered with need as his fingers excited her beyond anything she’d ever experienced. 
She found his nipple and did the same to him, her knees giving out when his touch became rougher, more insistent.  She tried to imitate his movement, but she could barely stand and had to grip the lapels of his jacket to hold herself  up. 

She felt him lift her but she didn’t understand until she was suddenly at eye level with him.  As she sat on the counter behind her, her legs came up and wrapped around his waist, bringing him closer to her, to the core of her that needed to feel him so powerfully. 

With clumsy movement, she unbuttoned his dress shirt, uncaring that his tie was still knotted and his jacket was still on his shoulders.  She wanted skin, and the peripherals were outside her range of consciousness at the moment. 

With a growl, Dante whipped his tie off and tossed his jacket to the side.  He didn’t care where it landed but he quickly flicked the buttons on her overalls, then lifted her tank top, growling with approval as he discovered that she wasn’t wearing a bra. 

He took her hands and held her arms out to the side, giving him freer access to her beautiful breasts.  Her legs clenched around his waist when he took her right nipple in his mouth, sucking and laving against the friction, loving the way the lovely breast peaked in his mouth.  He paid equal attention to the other one and then made his way downward.  When she moved her body against his, he couldn’t think any longer.  He wanted this woman and he couldn’t wait. 

With swift movemen
ts, he whipped his shirt off, then grabbed her around her waist, swinging around and lowering her to the floor.  He took less than fifteen seconds to divest himself of his slacks and the rest of her clothes and thankfully, he took a moment to find protection, but the rest he couldn’t have remembered as he sheathed himself in her warmth, only vaguely aware that she cringed a moment during his entrance. 

Sasha couldn’t think, couldn’t move as her fingernails scraped down his back, her hands gripping his shoulders and his back in an effort to make him move faster.  She arched against him,
gasping slightly with the pain as he took her virginity but her overwhelming need was driving her now.  She pulled him closer, her legs wrapping around his waist, her body arching against his and moving to gain that small amount of friction that drove her crazy with need. 

He wasn’t slow.  He wasn’t graceful.  He didn’t care because she was beneath him, driving him crazy with need.  He’d never felt like this before, even as a teenager.  This woman touched something so deep inside him he wasn’t aware of anything except her body moving against his own. 

And when he glanced down, mildly aware that she was climaxing, he continued to push against her softness in an effort to give her as much pleasure as she was giving him.  And in the end, he couldn’t even speak as his orgasm overtook him.  He thought he might have groaned or growled or something.  But all he was aware of was her soft, silky body and her arms gently wrapping around his shoulders as he fell against her. 

A long time later, t
he doorbell rang and Sasha
opened her eyes
, a horrified expression forming on her face as she realized what she’d just done
. 
Sitting up, she knocked his hand off her
nakedness
and looked around.  “What….?”
her clothes were off to the side and she’d just had sex on the hardwood floor.  With a stranger!

She stood up, gathering her clothes and fighting the tears that were now streaming down her face.  “Get out!” she hiccupped and almost slapped him when he
lithely
stood and looked down at her.  “Please, just leave,” she cried, hiding her face as she tried to pull her clothes back on. 

“Sasha, stop it!” he commanded and took her wrists, stopping her from pushing him
away
any longer. “Look at me,” he ordered and waited until she complied.  “That’s just my body guard bringing our dinner.  I told him to go to the restaurant
I’d selected to take you tonight
and pick up something so we could dine in since you obviously had forgotten about our date.”  She tried to jerk her hands out of his, but he tightened his grip and pulled her closer.  “Listen to me.  We’re going to have some dinner and talk, okay?  There’s nothing to be ashamed of here.  We’re both consenting adults and what we did was not wrong.”

She didn’t answer him, too ashamed of having sex with a man she didn’t know on the floor
of her studio
.  It was a common joke that women paid for dinner with sex but she hadn’t even gotten him to take her out!  Not that she would have had sex with him afterwards.  Obviously, she wasn’t the type who was that promiscuous.  Or maybe she was, she thought with a horrible thought.  She turned away when she caught him sliding on his slacks.  He was about to answer the door when she tossed him his shirt.  “Please put this on.  Don’t let whoever
that
is know that we just did…this…in the amount of time it took for him to go get dinner!”

Dante caught the shirt with one hand and almost chuckled at the idea that his guard wouldn’t know what had just happened.  He slipped the shirt on his arms, but left it open, not wanting to take the time to button it when he needed to get back to her, to calm her down. 

She was a virgin…or had been less than fifteen minutes ago…and she obviously wasn’t used to the aftermath of a sexual encounter. 

He opened the door and took the two large bags, slamming it shut a moment later and turning back t
o
see that his gorgeous companion was rapidly dressing, in more clothes than she’d had before he’d arrived.  In addition to her overalls and tank top,
was now wearing
a flannel shirt that came down to the middle of her thighs, plus a sweatshirt just for good measure. 

“Please, can you just tell me your name?” she asked in a voice that cracked with the emotions she was dealing with. 

Dante turned around and watched her carefully.  There was no guise to her, just embarrassment and self loathing.  He reacted instinctively to both and stopped emptying the bags on to the kitchen counter.  He walked over to her and pulled her into his arms, ignoring her resistance and resting his chin against the top of her head.  “Believe it or not, this is not the way I’d planned tonight.”