I wrinkle my nose. “I’ve got you fooled, then.”
He chuckles and leans in for another taste, but I stop him with a firm hand. “Not until I’m done baking.”
He could easily overpower me, but he lets me push him back. He leans against a cabinet with his arms folded, and watches me. He’s lost his cufflinks but he’s still in his dress shirt, his sleeves rolled up to reveal his strong forearms. I’m tempted to put him to work chopping almonds or measuring cocoa but he’s so pretty standing there.
“So how long have you lived here?” I ask when I’ve mostly finished making the batter. All that’s left is rolling the cookies into shape.
“My father bought this place some time ago. It’s close to our territory.”
“So you grew up here?”
“I grew up in the Old Country, raised by my aunt. Italian was my first language. You can tell, by the way I talk.”
“Not your accent,” I say, dividing the dough in half. It’s easier to talk to someone so beautiful when my hands are occupied with my favorite thing. “But yes, from the way you sometimes construct your sentences. And, of course, you speak Italian.”
“You recognize the language?”
“Mr. Rossi says things in Italian all the time.”
Royal reaches for a newly shaped cookie and I swat his hand. “There’s raw egg in the dough.”
A smile plays over his lips but he allows me to fend him off. He does move around the island to stand directly behind me. I’m short and petite enough he can rest his arms on the counter on either side of me. Neither his fine black slacks or the voluminous dressing robe I’m wearing disguise the hard probe of his cock.
Is that a rolling pin in your pocket?I’m half tempted to ask, but I keep making cookies. I’ve made another sixstrazzatewhen a light finger comes to play with one of the curls at the napeof my neck. I ignore it, and the way his cock is firmly pressed against my bottom. It’s almost a game.
“So your father lives here?” I ask.
“No. Not anymore. No one but me.” Royal keeps toying with my hair. It feels like he’s smoothing out a curl, and letting it spring back into place.
I want to ask more, but his touch is making my hands shake. Under the robe, my bare pussy is dripping. I squeeze my thighs together, but it doesn’t help.
The last row of cookies is turning out to be kind of a mess.
“My father didn’t approve of me,” Royal says out of nowhere.
“Why not?”
“He thought I was weak. Unworthy. He didn’t understand the way my mind worked. Butmia ziasaw something in me.”
I’m done making the rows ofstrazzate. I dip my fingers in a warm bowl of water, rinsing them.
Royal’s warm breath puffs against my nape. “Turns out my father was wrong, and she was right. I’m very close to fulfilling my destiny. I see the pieces of the puzzle, laid out before me.” He splays his hands on the counter as if showing me a picture in the sugar-dusted marble. “That’s how my mind works. The puzzle is almost complete. I just need one more piece.”
Royal’s trying to tell me something and I don’t know what. I turn, still in the circle of his arms. I’m trapped between the island and his taut frame. “Royal, I don’t know what’s going on here.”
He tilts his head in that assessing way of his. His hair falls into his face, but otherwise he might as well be a statue, carved from marble by a master sculptor. “My aunt was something of a witch.Una Bennedetta.Do you know it?”
I shake my head.
“She's gifted a little, in the Sight. The gift of prophecy. She said, ‘When you meet a woman who makesle strazzatedi materalike I do, you must take her and marry her.’ You understand?”
Do I understand? The words—sure, I understand. But what he’s telling me? Not a clue. “No,” I whisper.
“Don’t worry. You will.” He tugs the lapel of his robe down my shoulder. “You’re covered in sugar again.”
He dips his head and closes his mouth over my smooth skin, under the pretense of lapping up the sugar. My head falls back, allowing him full access. His tongue seems to have a direct line to my pussy, no matter where it touches. He licks and sucks his way up to my neck, holding me still with his hand around my throat. I’ve never had a guy take charge of me like Royal. I’ve also never had a guy so confident in the ins and outs of my body. My ex barely cared if I got off. Royal seems to have made it his mission in life.
My eyes are half closed by the time he raises his head.
