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Her mouth was pink and moist, slightly swollen even from that brief touch, and his body throbbed to wonder how those lips would look if he had kissed her as he’d wanted to.
Someone laughed nearby, a high unattractive sound, and a cooler breeze wafted in from the water. Daniel could see her blink beneath the mask, as if waking up. She swallowed and looked into the room. Whatever she saw there made her go pale, when seconds before she’d bee
n flushed. Their bodies were still so close that he could feel the rise and fall of her breasts against him. If she were to move ever so slightly, she would feel just how much he wanted her.
She looked back at him and he frowned. Suddenly she looked hunted. She stepped back and immediately his body protested at the lack of contact. Daniel didn’t like the tendril of panic in his gut that she was about to flee. No.
He put a hand around her slender arm. ‘You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.’
Analia felt as if she had. The ghost of her future. That woman’s laugh had brought her back to reality with a bump. It lurked in the wings like a malevolent force, ready to break this spell. If it was discovered that she’d left—a sense of urgency infused her blood and panic gripped her making her clammy.
As if sensing her turmoil Sasha asked, ‘What is it?’
Analia willed down her panic, but what had she been thinking? ‘I should—I need to go. I shouldn’t be here.’
Both his hands went to her arms now and he impelled her to look at him. His jaw was tight. ‘What is it you’re running from?
My future! Analia wanted to blurt out. But how could anyone understand? She shook her head and tried to pull free. ‘Look, I can’t explain, I just...have to go.’
His hands were like steel brands on her arms. ‘Do you? Really? Right now?’
Analia stopped struggling and looked up, mesmerized all over again by this compelling stranger. Sasha. An intense yearning filled her with desire. His kiss made her want to experience more. Wicked and decadent things which as the Queen she would never be allowed to do. But things which as Alexandra, incognito...her whole body seemed to ignite at the very audacious thought of the possibility.
She recalled thinking of how she so desperately wanted something, anything, for herself. Could this night be it? This man? Desire thickened the air around them. She wanted more than a kiss...much more.
As if sensing her hesitation he repeated his question, ‘What is it you’re running from?’
Analia whispered through a pounding heart, ‘I don’t want to run.’ She wanted this man to take her away from here, from this place. Take her somewhere where she could feel in control of her own destiny, even for just a few hours. Give her back something of herself. Something she could treasure in the months and years to come...
‘Then don’t run. Come with me.’
Yes. It was the craziest thing she felt, this recognition. The answer reverberated through her body again before her mind could catch up. ‘Yes.’
She wasn’t aware she’d spoken out loud until he took her glass from her hand and put it down on a nearby table. She was dimly amazed that it hadn’t splintered into pieces in her hand before now.
With her hand firmly in his, he led her back into the palazzo and towards the main door. It felt unnacountably right that she was leaving with him. There was no fear. On some very deep and instinctive level she felt as if she’d known this man forever. Sasha.
Little fires raced up her arm from where their hands were joined. He led her down dark passageways lit only by flaming lanterns and out to an entrance where a speedboat was waiting. Only another passing boat along the canal broke the peace.
He turned to her then in the shadowy arched entrance and cupped her face with two large hands, making the blood rush to her head. He looked fierce but it was intoxicating. This time Analia was ready for his kiss and when his hard mouth settled over hers, she responded eagerly, opening up to him.
Her hands clung to his shirt. Her legs were wobbly. She could feel the steely strength of his chest against the backs of her fingers. The wicked stroke of his tongue along hers sucked her into a vortex of need and desire.
He tore his mouth away abruptly and Analia realized they were both breathing raggedly. She couldn’t focus, couldn’t find her footing. She was floating in a heat haze. Everything tingled. She wanted him. More than anything she’d ever wanted.
‘You’re sure you want to come with me?’ His scent wound around her, binding her to him as inexorably as if he’d chained her to him. She had the sudden compulsion that she wanted him not just for tonight but forever. Which was beyond crazy. She’d only just met him. But the thought of this moment, this night ending now was more terrifying to her than the emotionally sterile future she faced.
‘Yes.’
It was just one word but Analia was giving everything over to this man without hesitation. Her trust and her most fragile secret dreams. Herself. Because she knew that this would be her most selfish act.
He led her to where the small sleek boat bobbed gently on the water. He stepped in and turned back, placing his hands around her waist to lift her in. Analia placed her hands on his wide shoulders and looked down into a face she couldn’t see, eyes she couldn’t read and yet...something throbbed between them, deeper than lust. And then his hands tightened and he lifted her into the boat.
Leading her to a place to sit, he placed a luxurious throw around her shoulders and legs, and then turned to put the boat in motion. They moved out into the canal and it felt like a dream Analia never wanted to wake from. Everything was made more surreal by the black lace which obscured her vision.
The small boat scythed through the water leaving a spray in their wake. She thought of how she’d envied the couple on the boat earlier...and here she was now in her own fantasy. The glorious crumbling grandeur of Venice passing them by as night fell over the jewel of a city.
Her eyes drifted back to where Sasha stood at the controls, his wide-legged stance. For the first time in her life she was handing over control to someone else, trusting someone else. She realized in that moment, how utterly self-contained and strong she’d had to be for so long. She’d never even allowed herself to indulge in the fantasy of leaning on someone else. Allowing someone else to make decisions...it made her ache for something she’d never really acknowledged wanting before. A soul mate. And to be thinking of that now, with this stranger...and even more disturbingly, she felt protected in a way that a hundred bodyguards couldn’t make her feel. As if nothing could harm her as long as he was close to her.
