Dante (14 page)

Dante’s brow lifted. “That’s a long time, Cat. I mean, I knew you were doing your business for quite a while, but fifteen?”

“The Queen Pin came after I left home, obviously. Long after. I don’t want to talk about it tonight. It’s a story I have no interest to tell, really.”

Because it was not a pretty one. Nothing about her life was, even if Cat looked the part.

Dante didn’t appear as if he wanted to give up on the topic, but he dropped it. Cat was grateful.

“The dress is daring, but you didn’t look like a whore, Cat. That is the very last impression a woman like you gives off, especially when you are as beautiful as you were today.”

Cat’s air caught in her chest, painfully so. “Thank you.”

“Actually, I should be the one thanking you,
Tesoro
.”

Treasure
.

Good God. Cat’s emotions were already confused enough and the last thing she needed to hear was this man calling her his treasure. They were not
something
. Not in that way. They shouldn’t be because it wouldn’t work, and Cat had to keep a distance to remind herself of why she had married Dante in the first damn place.

“Thank me for what?” Cat asked, wanting to get those thoughts out of her head as quickly as possible.

Dante chuckled, the sound reverberating straight down to the spot between Cat’s thighs. “For wearing this dress and making sure I didn’t see it until you walked down to meet me at the end of the aisle.”

Wasn’t that what all brides did? Or most?

“Why on earth would you thank me for that?”

“Because I hadn’t given the wedding much thought. It was just a duty for me. I did very little leading up to today other than hire the people you asked for and made sure I showed up on time. It was nothing more than something needing done in my life. After it was all said and done, I could move forward to take my birthright like I always needed to.”

“And my dress changed that idea of yours?” Cat asked, feeling more uncertain than ever.

“Yes, it did,” Dante said. “Because when I saw you, it made me stop and realize that I was actually getting married and I shouldn’t have tried to brush the entire event aside like it was just another day. Today wasn’t any other day, even if I wanted it to be. Because it’s the start of something for me, and I guess for you, too. It’s still a duty, but at least I’ll have good memories of it and not the heavy kind I thought would follow behind.”

Cat still didn’t quite believe him. “My dress, huh?”

Dante laughed deeply as he raked his gaze down Cat’s figure as if he were imprinting her body and curves to memory. Her body turned hot under his heady regard. “Yes, this very wicked dress, Cat.”

Cat’s palm smacked the middle of Dante’s chest lightly, making his stare snap up to meet hers. “Oh, stop with your charm. I’m not the kind of woman who can be seduced by a sexy voice and a few pretty words.”

“Who said I was trying to seduce you at all?”

He was a man with a cock. Of course, he was trying something.

“And a sexy voice, huh?” Dante asked huskily.

God, why did he have to sound like that? She knew he was only doing it to get a rise out of her, or try anyway.

“Stop it,” Cat snapped.

“If you say so, Cat.”

“
Mmhmm
.”

“Turn around and I’ll help you with your clasp,” Dante demanded with a twirl of his finger over her head.

“I’m not a ballerina, Dante.”

“Turn around, woman.”

Chapter Eight

Dante tried to undo the small metal clasp resting between Catrina’s shoulder blades only to figure out there was white thread sewn in around the hook to keep it in place. Why, he didn’t know.

“Who in the hell would sew this thing shut?” Dante asked, trying hard not to laugh and failing miserably.

“Kim,” Catrina said quietly. “She thought maybe the clasp would weaken when I danced and if it did …”

“There’s not much else holding it up around your shoulders but the thin lace sleeves.”

“It would have ruined the look of it. I wanted the dress to be nice,” Catrina explained.

“It was,
bella
. Very much so.” Dante sighed, knowing he couldn’t get the damn thread undone unless he ripped it down the small seam. That might tear the delicate lace as well. “I take it you don’t want me to ruin this gown, huh?”

“Not really. It took me a month to find it. Even if I won’t wear it again, it’ll be nice to keep.”

A month?

“It’s just a dress, Cat.”

“Yes, but it was mine. And I wanted you to like it, too. Nothing else really seemed to fit.”

Dane softened at her admission but he suspected she wouldn’t want him to tell her that he appreciated her efforts as it was probably too damn emotional for the woman.

“Wait a second, don’t move,” Dante said.

Catrina stayed still with her back facing Dante while he went in search of what he needed in his small duffle bag he packed for the week. Inside a leather toiletry bag, he found small silver scissors. Dante waved the tool at Catrina when she glanced over her shoulder. Her laughter was light.

“Didn’t Kim think of something like this?”

“I got angry, threw the scissors she gave me in the sink, and stormed over here.”

Dante laughed loudly. “Sometimes a man is just what you need, Cat, even if you don’t like to admit it.”

“Most men are useless; some men do have their good qualities,” she replied.

He chose to take that as a compliment as he went about carefully snipping the white thread away from the clasp. Once he had the centimetre long seam split, he pulled the pieces of thread out and unclasped the hook, baring Catrina’s shoulders.

Dante’s mouth turned dry at the feeling of her silky skin beneath his palms as he pushed the lace over the curves of her shoulders. “Do you need me to help you out of this or no?”

Catrina shook her head. “No, but it would be helpful if you could undo the zipper at the bottom.”

Oh, Christ.

Dante eyed the small ivory zipper starting at the swell of her ass that only looked to be about six-inches long. “This dress is terribly tight on you. Not that I’m saying it looks bad, or anything.”

“I know. I liked the style,” she explained. “It felt regal.”

“Sure.”

Quieter, Catrina added, “And despite being called a queen by many, I rarely ever feel like one on the inside. Wearing this dress made me feel like I was someone’s queen for a moment.”

Dante’s spine turned ramrod straight. “And now you don’t feel that way?”

“Well—”

He spun her around so she could face him. Catrina’s hand clutched at the bodice of her dress, making it stay up around her breasts. “Don’t you know what you have, now? Who you are?”

“I don’t understand what you mean.”

“Come with me,” Dante said, grabbing her wrist.

“My dress might get snagged—”

“Then take it off.”

Catrina stilled. “Are you telling me to get naked,
bello
?”

“Are you frightened I might see you without clothes, Cat? I seriously doubt you need to hide beneath that dress.” Dante gestured at his dress shirt on the bed. “Put that on.”

Dante left the room and not two minutes later, Catrina came out with his shirt on and nothing else. The hem of the shirt fell just below her ass but there was no hiding the fact she wore no bra. Lace peeked out at the junction of her thighs as she crossed her arms under her breasts, letting the shirt ride up.

“You can sleep in that, if you want,” Dante leered, lifting a brow.

Catrina didn’t respond but he didn’t miss the way she bit the inside of her cheek, either. “What do you want to show me, Dante?”

Walking across the room, Dante hit a switch on the side of the far wall. As the electronically controlled shades began to open, exposing a floor to ceiling wall of glass overlooking one of the busiest parts of the city, Dante came to stand at a tan leather chaise in front of the windows. Catrina was at his side in an instant.

“I didn’t notice this earlier.”

“Beautiful, huh?” Dante asked.

“It’s certainly a different look on the city.”

“Our city,” he corrected.

Catrina shot him a look. “Pardon?”

“All of those lights, this place, and those streets … they’re ours, Cat. So, I don’t want to hear that nonsense coming out of your pretty mouth again. There’s no need to feel like you’re hiding some kind of pauper beneath your clothes, not when you’re overlooking an empire.”

Slowly, Catrina walked forward until her hands pressed to the glass. Dante followed close behind. Without considering his actions, he held her waist as he stood behind her. It was probably the worst thing he could have done considering being close to Catrina always put him on edge and muddled up his mind.

Not to mention his cock.

“I’ve never thought of our marriage this way,” Catrina said.

Dante’s hands squeezed Catrina’s waist as she turned in his arms. “We run this city. You might have been a queen before, but I gave you the keys to the kingdom today. I think you’re more than worthy of it,
Amore
.”

Catrina’s breathing was shallow, her plump bottom lip caught between her teeth. Dante recognized that vulnerable glimmer in her eye because he worked his entire life to hide his own. It was just a part of being who he was.

It was a part of her, too.

Dante didn’t want to make her feel like she had to give it up, so he said, “I should get back—”

“Don’t go,” Catrina interjected in a whisper.

“What do you want from me?”

Because he sure as fuck didn’t know. 

Her next actions spoke volumes so she didn’t have to. Catrina’s nimble fingers began working the buttons on the shirt she wore out of the loops. When they were all undone, she shrugged his shirt off, baring her body for him. Dante kept his gaze locked on hers, his peripherals doing the work for him, taking in her smooth, creamy skin and the beautiful curves he had wondered about.

She was stunning. Incredibly so. Perfection in her naked skin.

And then Catrina kissed him. Grabbed his neck, pulled him in to her, and kissed him. Dante chose not to question her motives or let the protests in his mind take precedence. Instead, he reveled in the heat of her mouth and her tongue dancing alongside his.

Dante pulled away, pushing her back into the glass. “What are you doing?”

“Don’t overthink it,” Catrina said. “Just … don’t.”

“I don’t know if I can do that.”

“I don’t care.”

Dante couldn’t help but lean back and do a study of her body again. Holy Christ. His hands suddenly ached to explore the beauty offering herself to him and his cock throbbed.

“Oh, kitten …”

Catrina laughed softly. “There’s a pet name I didn’t expect to hear.”

“It’s perfect. A lioness on the outside and a kitten on the inside. People don’t get to see it, though, do they?”

She didn’t answer.

Forgive me Father …
was tattooed in scripture-styled lettering along her right rib beside her breast. For Catrina, it seemed fitting. It was the only ink on her skin he could find other than Queen on her finger. Wanting to taste the words she had so obviously carefully chosen to be permanently marked on her body, Dante did just that, kissing the black ink and letting his tongue sweep along the letters.

“Keep going,” he heard her say above. “Please.” 

Lowering to his knees, Dante snapped the inside of her thighs with his palms. Catrina widened her legs for him. Her skin and tattoo wasn’t the only thing he wanted to taste. Not now that he had the chance.

Dante’s hands hooked around the edges of her lace thong. “If you want me to stop, now would be the time to say so, Cat.”

“Don’t stop.”

He pulled the thong down her legs and tossed the article to the floor. Her fingers found his hair when he kissed the hood of her clit. Her hips jolted away from his mouth as if he’d burned her.

There was a look of hesitance coloring her gaze as she stared down at him. Dante suspected while Catrina was experienced with men, there were certain things she wouldn’t allow. Perhaps this was one of them, for whatever reason.

“Who has taken you like this?” Dante asked.

“No one,” Catrina answered, her words breathless.

“Why not?”

“Power. I don’t want a man to have it. Not over me.”

But he did and she was letting him.

Dante held her gaze as his tongue stuck out against her sex again, sliding between the folds of her pussy. He licked her slit, taking with it the arousal gathering. She was tart and hot on his tongue, making his mouth water.

“You taste sublime.”

Catrina’s fingers tightened, stinging his scalp, as she choked out an anxious sound.

“Do you like that, kitten?”

“So much.”

“More?” Dante asked.

“Yes.”

Dante didn’t need to ask again. He fucked her pussy with his tongue with hurried, harsh strokes to her clit, alternating down further to her entrance where he speared inside her channel to lap at the juices. She didn’t take long at all to reach her peak, and when she came around his tongue, her cries high and broken, he licked her clit tougher until a second release was clawing through her veins, too.

“Oh my God,” Catrina mumbled.

The moment she released her grip on him, Dante stood. He spun her body around, catching her wrists in his hand and putting them above her head. In this position, her chest pressed to the window, Catrina’s back curved inwards and her ass was on display for him. Rounded and perfect for the fit of his palm against it. He drove his hand down her spine, feeling her shiver under his touch. Those hazel eyes of hers watched him under a hooded gaze and thick lashes darkened with mascara.

“You are the most sinful fucking creature I have ever seen,” Dante murmured thickly.

Catrina squirmed in his hold, making her ass rub deliciously along the seam of his cotton pants where his erection was straining against the fabric. There was no hiding what having her naked and under his mercy was doing to him. Not that he wanted to hide it.

“So beautiful,” he said, his hand coming down to smack the side of her ass and punctuate his words.

“
Dante
… again, please.”

His hand cracked down again. “So sexy.”

Dante slipped his hand between his groin and her backside. His fingers sliding along the crack of her ass until he came to her sex. Spreading her fleshy folds, warm, slick arousal met the tips of his digits.

“Fuck, you’re so hot right now because of this, aren’t you, kitten?”

Catrina nodded, unashamed. For such a controlling, strong woman, she liked her men to have the power in the bedroom. He adored it and was more than willing to fill that need.

Dante’s fingers sunk into her waiting pussy, curling to find the spot to make her knees weak. It didn’t take him long to find it. Catrina pushed her chest firmer into the glass as he fucked her with his fingers slowly, taking the time to learn her body and sounds as he worked her to a precipice.

Oh, yes. Catrina was a screamer.

“Louder,” he murmured in her ear before nipping at the sensitive spot below.

She obliged in a beautiful fucking way.

Her cries were music. The perfect kind. Dante loved hearing what he did to a woman.

Slowing the rhythm of his fingers until he was just massaging her G-spot with his fingers, Dante watched Catrina’s expression in the window change to desperation as the muscles in her back clenched. He knew she was trying to hold it back. G-spot only stimulation was an entirely different orgasm.

“This is going to feel so fucking good for you, Cat. When you come on my fingers, you’re going to rain on them. Stop trying to keep it away and let it go,
mia
regina
.”

Catrina struggled in his hold but Dante held her wrists strong to the glass, refusing to let her go.

“Please, please, please …”

“What,
bella
? Tell me.”

“
I
can’t
.”

“Yes, you can.”

Dante pressed his fingers a little rougher into the spot overwhelming Catrina, and she didn’t have a choice. Just like he said, her juices flooded his fingers as her airless cry pierced the room when her orgasm took her under the current.