AllFreeNovel
Share Us
No, quite the contrary, she had avoided it.
Hadn’t wanted anything to do with that.
But she could see now that it was because she did want something to do with it that she had avoided it quite so studiously.
These revelations about herself were coming too fast and on the heels of physical sensations that were far too new for her to fully understand them.
Why did she avoid the things she wanted most? Why did she bury them?
Why did she think she couldn’t have these things?
She didn’t know. Except that everyone had been so shocked by the fact that Dante was the father of her baby, that he wanted to marry her, that she knew on some level they all thought it too. That it was an accepted truth about Minerva to an extent.
Even though they loved her. Even though they supported her.
She was not now, nor had she ever been, considered a great and wonderful beauty.
And she had decided that meant she couldn’t have things.
Had decided it meant she shouldn’t try.
Even the way that she had been made up for the engagement party and the wedding had made her uncomfortable because she knew that people would compare her with Violet. She didn’t want it.
But Dante wanted her. He was spreading her out on his large bed, and staring down at her with dark, keen eyes.
Then he stood back and stripped his shirt off, as he’d done the day before.
But the day before she hadn’t been about to touch him. Hadn’t been about to...
“Now you don’t have to pretend that you aren’t looking,” he said.
“I would never pretend,” Minerva said. “I don’t have the kind of capacity to play games that many do. I’m honest.”
But that was a lie. She wasn’t honest. Of course Dante believed that she had experience with men. And she didn’t.
But she wasn’t about to tell him. It made the whole situation that much more precarious, made her connection to Isabella so much more tenuous.
“Well, then let me return your honesty with the same,” he said.
He leaned over, grabbed the hem of her top and jerked it up over her head. Her nipples beaded in the cool air, a blush warming her against the chill. No man had ever seen her like this, and that this perfect specimen of one was staring at her now was more than a little bit embarrassing. But he looked... Well, he looked as entranced as she felt. And it made her feel... Something. Something so deep and intense, it made her want to cry. Made her want to turn away from him and turn toward him all at the same time.
She began to shake as he lowered himself down onto the bed, stretching his body over her.
His lips were a whisper away from hers, and all she wanted was for him to taste her again.
Because when his mouth was on hers, she couldn’t think quite so well. And not being able to think was a gift.
She wanted to be carried away in the fantasy. She craved a little bit more gauze, a little bit of protection from this hard, physical reality. But she didn’t know if she was going to be able to get any.
Not with him. Not with him so hard and real and large above her. Not with her heart threatening to pound out of her chest.
With her breath eluding her lungs.
A smile tilted up the corner of his mouth. That smile was... Wicked.
And she realized that she had never seen Dante like this before.
She had always found him beautiful. Formidable.
