My body was limp, my legs wrapped around his hips. Dante was still inside me, his cock already getting hard again, stretching out my swollen core with a delicious pressure I probably shouldn’t like as much as I did. He started to move again, sliding in and out, a sensual glide smoother than velvet.
And gods, I was so wet, and he was so big, this felt sublime.
“Dante, what is going on?” I closed my eyes, drifting on this tide of pleasure, the way we fit together so perfectly. “You can talk to me, you know.”
“Later,” he murmured. “I’m taking you upstairs and filling you up again. Then it’s my turn to give you a bath.” He nipped my throat. “And once I have you at my mercy,tesoro, you’re going to forget all your questions.”
43
EMBERLINE
Breaking into Rocco Demente’s snow-covered mountain stronghold was, without question, one of the worst ideas I’d ever had. Or rather, the worst one of mine that Nico had ever gone along with.
Which was really saying something.
Two days had passed since Dante ravished me in the garden—and twice in the bedroom—and I still didn’t have any answers. He’d deflected every question, shut down my theories, and I was currently entertaining about twenty of them, none of which were even close to sane.
Maybe…I didn’t see what I thought I saw.
Maybe my husband didn’t have a big, scary alter ego that was made of fire.
“This is a terrible plan,” I whispered, crouched behind a jagged outcrop of rock as the fortress loomed above us, all black stone and razor angles carved into the mountainside like a threat. “I just feel like I should be proactive and point out the obvious before everything goes to shit.”
Nico adjusted his gloves and gave me the side eye. “You’re just saying that so you can pin the blame on me when this goes south. I know how your mind works,principessa. But blame away, I’m always happy to be your whipping boy.”
Yeah, I wasn’t touching that comment with a ten-foot pole.
“That’s because all the bad ideasareyour ideas, Nico.” Ibatted my eyes for emphasis. “I only have the verybestideas.”
“And yet,” he said lightly, indicating the snow-covered mountains, “here we are.”
“Here we are,” I agreed, peering up at those insurmountable walls again through a sheet of snowflakes. Guards patrolled the upper parapets, every movement disciplined, timed to the second. Red, blinking lights shone from the gargoyle’s eyes, watching every last square inch of the rocky terrain.
“Gabriel is going to kill us,” I muttered.
“Nah. Dante will first,” Nico corrected.
Wisps of dark shadows spilling out around us like ink over the snow. One of these days, I’d work up the courage to ask him what they were. Why I could see them, but no one else could. Why he had been inside my dream.Unless that had only been my dream and a figment of my imagination?
“Gabriel will just finish the job.”
Despite my nerves, a faint smile tugged at my mouth. “Well, at least we won’t have to listen to his boring lecture.”
“Gabriel does like to talk,” he observed, never taking his eyes off that façade. Then he huffed a quiet laugh, his gaze sharpening as he scanned the perimeter. “Which is how he’ll keep Rocco busy for three hours. Should give us plenty of time.”
“Looking at the size of this place, we’re going to need every minute.”
He picked snow out of my hair, fingers brushing across my temple with the gentlest of touches. “Come on, Em, don’t lose faith now. Think of this like a date. You. Me. Fifty armed guards, instructed to kill on sight. Should be fun.”
Yeah, not touching that one either.
After that, we fell into silence, both of us watching,counting, waiting for the guard to change at the turn of the hour. Once we slipped inside, there would be more guards and…
“Tell me why we ever thought this was a good idea?”
“Because after we blew it at Emilia’s, Rocco is the next logical suspect.” He slanted me a look, “Are you going to be like this the entire time? Because you’re starting to freak me out. Once the Basin is in our possession, and your uncle is shit out of options, he’ll blame Rocco for losing it, and while they spend their energy fighting, we position ourselves to bring them down. Simple.”
“Simple,right.” I rolled my eyes. “That meeting you saw between my uncle and Rocco. They could have been planning this.”
