Page 74 of Savage Ambition

“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.”