I nod.
“Dante.” Placing a hand on my bicep, she implores me with that mesmerizing, expressive green gaze. “You have to be careful.”
I chuckle. “He caught me off guard. Don’t worry. He’s a lot worse off than me.”
“Did you disinfect it?”
“Ulysses drenched it with a bottle of saline water. Does that count?”
She slaps my chest. “Don’t joke. This is serious.”
“I hardly feel it.”
She frowns. “You don’t have other scars. How can you be used to that kind of pain?”
“Not scars like that, but I’ve had broken bones and bruises.”
“I’m going to forbid you from getting into fights.”
I cup her face, staring down at her beautiful features. “Worrying about me again?”
“You have no idea,” she chastises.
I press a chaste kiss on her lips. “Don’t.” My voice is hoarse from holding back when I want so much more than a peck and a pretty lie. “It’s late. I didn’t mean to wake you. You should go back to bed.”
She goes on tiptoes and defies me by kissing me back with meaning. Her tongue teases my lips and shatters my self-control. I take what she offers, parting her lips with mine and exploring the soft, warm depths of her mouth.
I shouldn’t take what she gives when she doesn’t know what she’s giving. The Tatiana I found in Denver wouldn’t want this. A better man would’ve stopped her. But I’m not a good man. And for all my famed control, I’m too weak to resist her.
Grabbing the tight globes of her ass, I yank her against me and return her kiss without keeping myself in check. The coppery taste in my mouth tells me I cut her lip with my teeth, but it’s all I can do not to lose my mind as I knead her ass in one hand and fist the other in the long, silky locks of her hair, holding her in the unbreakable vise of my arms as I bend her backward and plunder her mouth.
She moans into the kiss, urging me on. I’m so hard it’s painful. I only break the kiss so that I can look at her stunning face. God knows, I’ve never seen anything more beautiful. The woman staring back at me, giving herself to me so freely, is the woman from my past. Yet somewhere inside her broken mind hides the woman who hates me. When that woman finds her way back to her memories, which one of them will win? Will the old Tatiana making these new memories forgive me, or will she hate me even more?
The truth is I want both of them. I wanted her when she loved me, I wanted her when she hated me, and I want her now. I want all of her. Everything.
Her warm breath feathers over my chest. “Dante.”
My name on her lips is a question. What the fuck are we doing? It’s a plea. I’m not sure if she’s asking me to still the fire raging between us the only way I can, but she’s definitely not asking me to stop. The Tatiana I found in Denver would’ve asked me to fuck her ass, to make it hurt. She liked the pain. Maybe it burned away her guilt for letting her family’s killer touch her. The Tatiana of now is stuck in the past, knowing only the soft side I reserved for her.
This is a dangerous game.
Too dangerous.
The stakes are getting too high. I can’t give her up, but I can’t rest until I’ve found the necklace. Kent was right. I’ve been slacking in my search, turning my attention to keeping Tatiana safe. I’m losing focus.
“Dante,” she says again, uncertainty slipping into her tone.
Dangerous.
But part of her has never been enough. It has to be everything.
Slowly, I release her. “Go to my desk and bend over it.”
Her lips part in surprise or maybe in shock. As far as she can recall, I’ve never taken her like that, bent over my desk like a naughty girl who needed to be punished with my hand and cock.
Despite her reaction, curiosity sparks in her eyes. “Why?”
My tone is even, my mind made up. “I’m going to spank your ass. Do you think you’ll like it?”
