Page 67 of Where Wild Hearts Dance
“You think? Where do I start? How about dressing like fucking catnip for every man in the city? How about wandering around a nightclub filled to the brim with firearms, on your own?”
I swallow.
“How about taking a photograph of yourself giving the bird dressed like that and sending it to me? And if all that wasn’t enough, you don’t even question why someone might want to see you in a VIP room, you just follow a stranger into an elevator? Contessa, you’re about to become a part of the Di Santo family and you are afucking liability. You need to learn a few things, and fast.”
“So, you’re going to ‘punish’ me?” I hook my fingers into quote marks.
He steps right up to me, flooding my senses with the scent of his aftershave.
His face is like thunder but his caress on the side of my face is soft.
“Yes, brat.”
His neck bends, bringing his face down, closing in on me. Everything goes dark as if he personally controls the lighting in this room.
I grip my purse defensively but still feel an unbridled urge to confront him. “Tell me, how did you get here so quickly? I only sent that message ten minutes ago. You were here within five.”
“I was in the basement having a business meeting.”
I blink. My instincts were right, this place is riddled with mafia.
“And it’smyclub.”
A shiver coasts across my shoulders. “You own a club?”
His mouth ticks up. “I own several. This one’s the best.”
“The other ones must be pretty poor.”
My sarcasm earns me a painful tug on my hair, and it’s only then I realize he’s grabbed a handful of it with one hand while now holding both my hands behind my back with his other. My purse has fallen to the floor.
“I was going to go easy on you, Castellano, but you just sealed your fate.”
I frown, not having a clue what he’s talking about and my head spinning from having him stand so close.
His face is still lowered over mine. It’s despairinglybeautiful. Without thinking, I rise up to my tiptoes and press my lips to his. At first, he’s like stone—solid and unyielding. I breathe against his mouth, willing it to open. I want to taste the bitterness on the edge of his tongue.
It happens slowly. His lips part and the tip of his tongue ventures forward on a moan. He gently sucks my bottom lip between his teeth.
Then he bites it.
I yelp and try to pull back but he’s holding me so tightly I can’t move.
“What did I say about putting your mouth on me, Contessa?” I can hardly make out the words because hegrowlsthem, like an animal.
The room starts to spin as his words fly at me.I won’t ever stop, and that’s a promise.
A frightening sense of foreboding creeps beneath my skin and his gaze devours the terror in my face.
The room stills as if awaiting his next move.
“There’s one thing you need to know about me, brat,” he says, his voice deep and otherworldly. “I don’t break promises.”
His mouth slams down on me so hard I can’t breathe. The force bends me backward and only his firm grip of my hands keep me from collapsing. He plunders my mouth, swiping his tongue across my mine with relentless force. His pelvis grinds against me, shocking me to my core.
“I warned you,” he snarls, and suddenly he’s carrying me across the room, his mouth melded to mine.I’m lowered to something hard and cold and his body presses down on me so I can’t move. His kiss alone is punishing, giving me no room to breathe. He kisses me like he’s been starved of oxygen and I’m his last breath. It’s disorienting and the force of it is tearing me apart.
When he releases the pressure on my ribs and stands, I still can’t move and it takes my brain a few seconds to realize I’m trapped. Somehow, while kissing the absolute life out of me, he’s managed to tie my wrists and ankles to the legs of a long glass coffee table. No wonder he’s so lethal in his line of work—nothing and no one can get past him.
