And while his castle might have been cold and bare, there was nothing about the bed they shared that was anything but hot.
So hot, so blisteringly good, that Hannah often wondered if she was even the same woman she’d been before.
Because it had never occurred to her that the night they’d shared in New York City could be anything but an anomaly. She’d even felt smug about that, pleased because then there were no other, less transformative facts about him or them to concern herself with. There was nomundanewhen it came to one transformative night that she hadn’t expected to repeat.
She had assumed that they would fall into a routine now that they were married, but they didn’t.
He had not outdone himself in New York. It turned out. If anything, that night had only been the start. The faintest hint of what he could do and how they could come together and make that magic, that wildfire rush.
Within three days, Hannah understood things about her body that she’d never believed possible before, and Antonluca already knew each and every one of them.
In the morning, she would stand in the shower while he went to get Dominic up, and sometimes she even sobbed—but not because she was sad. But because she’d had no idea that it was possible to love another grown adult human this much, with her body as well as her heart.
And if she wasn’t mistaken, the better part of her soul as well.
Hannah wasn’t a complete fool. She was keenly aware that they were on a fast track toward building out their family, though they had never discussed it. But did it require discussion? They both knew how Dominic had come into the world. Yet neither one of them protested when birth control wasn’t used.
Again and again and again.
But then, she was just as capable of saying something as he was, and she wasn’t a virgin any longer. Hannah knew exactly what could happen and likely would.
In not talking about it, they were both speaking pretty loudly, she thought.
The truth was, she was glad.
Maybe she’d spend her life regretting these dark outside, brightly lit within weeks in this rush to Christmas, but she doubted it.
Because he could have locked her away in a tower, as kings with castles were wont to do, but he hadn’t. They were almost certainly making a future in these long nights, and Hannah thought he had to be as aware of it as she was.
And even if she did end up regretting this—this wild abandon, this glorious immolation—she found herself thinking that it would only be by the light of day. Come nightfall, when she was tucked up in her bed, locked away or not, she knew exactly what she would be dreaming about.
The slide of that huge, beautiful cock of his, deep inside her. The way he held her hips in his hands and guided her when he wanted to control the pace, the depth, and her reaction.
He was a demon, and he was some kind of archangel, and the contrast between their crisp and deliberate professionalism at work and the abandoned way they both succumbed to this fire between them in bed—
Mayberegretwas the wrong thing to worry about. Maybe surviving this was going to be the challenge.
In many ways, she counseled herself each day,nothing has changed.Everything is more or less the same.
Mostly, she knew, because Antonluca had gone to great lengths to make certain that her transition from cottage to castle was easy as possible.
It was, once again, an indication that he was more thoughtful than she expected him to be. Or than anyone else ever had been. It made her heart ache a bit every time.
“And how goes this loveless marriage of yours?” Cinzia asked one morning.
The older woman came every day to the castle, conveyed by one of the largely invisible staff members that Antonluca had informed Hannah—stiffly—were there for her use.
I have long maintained a skeleton staff, if that, he had told her.But you and Dominic deserve more care. They will be only too happy to do your bidding.
Hannah had not known how to tell him that she did not know the first thing aboutstaff. Not when it was to attend to her own needs. If they had been staff that she could direct to take care of hotel guests, that would have made sense to her. Staff for just…living?
Maybe she was more Nebraskan than she’d ever dreamed.
This morning, Cinzia had found them all in the kitchen, where Dominic had been eating his breakfast while Antonluca drank the bitter coffee he preferred and Hannah had a bit of toast. Because she liked toast, but also because it was something that she could prepare for herself, since it made her feel strange to ask staff members to wait on her like that.
Not to mention that the other adult who lived in this place was a world-renowned chef, though he acted as if he had never been inside a kitchen in all of his life. But that was a different issue—and one that felt like a minefield.
Hannah had decided that she was better off staying firmly anti-minefield for as long as she could.
