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Kennedy made sure SoSo knew where his litter box was housed, as well as food and water, and let him explore. SoSo sniffed cautiously around Dante’s stunning apartment, unimpressed with the wealth and luxury. His only concern was safety.
I’m with you on that one, kitty, Kennedy thought. She’d been so frightened when she found the note, certain it was a warning from Iniko.
She stood uncertainly next to one of Dante’s huge, comfortable chairs, eyeing her surroundings. She felt awkward, agreeing to stay with Dante. They’d only reconnected, what, a week? Two? Still, she already felt growing ease and familiarity with the guy she’d longed for since a teenager. And staying at her apartment was out of the question—not after finding the surprise in the bathroom.
Dante strode around the corner. He’d disappeared into the bathroom when they stepped in the apartment. “Relax. Make yourself at home. Mi casa es su casa, sweetheart. And I mean that.” He strode to where she stood and wrapped her in his arms. “Can I get you anything? Water? Soda? I don’t have any tea. Tell me all your preferences, and we’ll get them here, pronto.”
“You’re all I need at the moment.”
He squeezed her even harder. “Thank you, baby.” Releasing her, he leaned back and looked into her eyes. His gray-green eyes were back to pools of warm velvet. “We’ll get through this. You’re safe. Got it?”
She smiled at his frequent reassurance. “I’m sorry I lost it back at my place. I haven’t done that sort of thing in a while. It could have been Iniko making idle threats. I’m sure he’s too busy for the likes of me.” Her face reddened. “I...I’m not a head case. I’m working hard to get my life back. To restore me to health.”
“I know.”
“I refuse to be anyone’s victim, even Iniko’s. I don’t want to be known as the addict. Or the gold digger. I never knew Mosi was a prince or I probably would have run the other way. And I never liked you for your wealth, you know that.”
“I know.” He stroked her cheeks with this thumbs, then mantled her shoulders with his hands, gently massaging.
She wanted to yield to his caresses but couldn’t stop talking, as if she needed to assure herself she remained on the right track. “I don’t want to be known as that important, rich guy’s hookup. I want to be known for my accomplishments...for my work with tigers and wild animal recovery.”
“Sweetheart, don’t. Stop punishing yourself.”
“You don’t know what it’s like, Dante. I crossed the lines. I became someone loathsome. I hated who I became. It’s hard to recover from that.”
A curiously dark expression flitted across Dante’s face. He chewed his lower lip for the briefest of seconds.
Is he judging me? Reconsidering? “I promise you, I’m not the same person I was. You wouldn’t have liked me.”
“Shhh.” He brought his lips to hers and kissed her, slow and sweet.
When he pulled back, she said, “I don’t want you to feel crowded by my presence.”
“I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed by my schedule. It’s going to be hectic around here for a bit. The guys will be over here a lot practicing. My studio’s soundproofed, though. You can be anywhere in the apartment and not hear us at all.”
She nodded. Her gaze flitted around the space. “How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Live like this. In an apartment, floating like a cloud. I like Earth. I love to be among nature. You know...” She smiled. “I have a thing for wild things.”
“I’m extremely wild. And I soar up here in the clouds.” A feral smile washed across his handsome face.
“But...”
“Even a bird has to drop back to earth.” He pressed a finger to her lips. “Baby...I can show you how I do everything. You’ll get to see it firsthand. But right now, I want to take away your pain, your insecurities, your fear...” He slid his fingers under the collar of her shirt in slow tenderness. “And replace it with pleasure.” He took her hand, guided it across his taut, muscled body, and placed it over his bulging erection. “I believe you. You’re doing all you can. Now let me have my way with you. Let me melt away your doubts.”
She licked her lips, the pulse of arousal replacing her anxiety. Her fingers explored the heat emanating from Dante’s jeans, jerking against her palm.
Dante unbuttoned the top button of her soft linen shirt. He kissed her collarbone.
Her head fell back slightly. Her hand continued to stroke.
He unbuttoned the next, kissing a trail along the top of her breasts, focusing on her tiny spiral. “Mine,” he whispered.
She pushed her fingers underneath his T-shirt, his warmth spreading through her fingertips.
He continued unclasping her shirt, pressing kisses to her skin as he peeled away the fabric. “Also mine.”
She sank into the chair, her legs unwilling to keep her upright.
Dante knelt before her. His hands dropped to her skirt, tugging it from her hips. His eyes lit with desire. “God, you’re gorgeous. Let’s play a game, shall we?” A saucy, teasing expression danced along his face.
“What is it?” Kennedy asked.
“Kiss and tell.”
“How is it played?”
“Well,” Dante said, looking pleased. “I intend to know your body intimately. I want to learn what pleases you and not assume. Let’s start with kissing. Do you like this?” He gave her a soft, sweet lip lock, no tongue.
“Yes,” she breathed.
“This?” He added a little tongue.
“Absolutely.”
“This?” He plunged his tongue into her mouth.
“Not unless I’m really turned on.”
“Duly noted. How about this?” He nipped at her neck with his teeth.
“Mm-hmm,” she moaned.
Without speaking, he softly bit the juncture between neck and shoulder.
“Yes,” she whispered.
He proceeded with the game, moving along her body with both tenderness and rough play, until she writhed against him, wet with arousal.
“I need you inside me. This game is torture.”
He laughed, slid his pants down his legs and said, “Change positions. Sit on me.”
She got up and crouched between his legs. “My turn,” she said. “How’s this?” She lightly tickled his balls.
His head fell back along the back of the cushy chair. “Exquisite.”
“And this?” She ringed him with her fingers, stroking lightly.
“Too soft.”
“This?” She gripped him and stroked.
“God, yes.”
“How about this?” She mouthed him, while her hands continued stroking his hot, stiff erection.
He let out a moan and fisted a handful of her hair.
She kept sucking and licking until he let out a groan of protest.
“Enough! Sit on me, baby.”
After rolling on a condom, she straddled him, and they moaned in unison at the sweet sensation of Dante buried to the hilt inside her. Done with questions and answers, she brought her hungry lips to his, kissing him deeply as she undulated against him. The intensity grew inside her to volcanic proportions. She began to hum against his lips.
His fingers dug into her ass as he encouraged her movements.
Finally, her release came hard and fast. She tore her lips away from Dante, crying out his name, in the universal song of sexual satisfaction.
His hips bucked wildly until he, too, released inside her.
She collapsed on top of his warm body, sated, floating in a sea of bliss, as Dante caressed her back, her shoulders, her neck, and her hair.
After a time, he said, “Sweet mercy, you’re beautiful. You make me a happy man. But I’ve got to move. My leg’s falling asleep.”
“Oh!” she said, lifting her head from his shoulder. She gently slid free from him, the cool, slippery wetness of their release jolting her back to the room. She kissed his lips and said, “I’ll be right back,” stood, and headed for the bathroom adjoining Dante’s bedroom.
SoSo lay curled on the corner of the bed, perched in tentative surrender, not yet committed to rest.
“Hey, kitty.” She scratched his head. Spying her phone on top of her suitcase, she grabbed it, intending to text Jim and tell him where she was, as she attended to her bodily needs. She scanned the message from Dante.
Need you, baby.
An instant stab of guilt replaced the deep sense of satisfaction she carried. He needed me, and I was off in my own reality. She wanted to race into the living room and ask him what he needed, but her bladder insisted she took care of business first.
As she let herself out of the bathroom, having cleaned with a warm washcloth, she heard yelling. Dante yelling. Loudly.
She tiptoed to the living room and listened.
“I don’t want to hear your excuses, Dad. I told you, I’m done. No. You deal with it. I don’t care about the kind of scandal it brings. You pay her off. Handle your own responsibilities. No. I’m done. Hanging up now.” He disconnected and pitched the phone across the room. It landed on the carpet and spun to a stop. He ran his hand through his hair, a dark glower coloring his features.
“Dante?” she asked softly.
His gaze jerked in her direction.
“What’s going on?”
His head shook quickly back and forth. “It’s nothing. Family bullshit. I’m sorry you heard that. He sent me a flurry of text messages and called twice while you were in the bathroom. He’s insane.”
“Who’s insane?”
“My father.”
She stepped across the room, settling on the couch. “Care to tell me about it?”
He made huge, sweeping gestures with his head in the negation. “I’d rather hold you. Come here.”
She stood, made her way to him, and settled in his lap.
He enveloped her with his arms, resting his chin on the top of her head.
“Is this why you texted me earlier?”
“Maybe.”
“I’m sorry I was in my own world. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”
“Don’t be. Mine is lesser bullshit. Yours is real.”
“Let me be the judge.”
“Shhh. I don’t want to talk about it.”
She kept her comments to herself, as Dante idly stroked her skin. What’s his story? Why doesn’t he want to share? Finally, she said, “You can tell me anything. I won’t judge you.” Not knowing what he held back, she hoped that were true. She felt his jaw move back and forth along the top of her head.
As the summer sun began to set, the room grew dark, and her skin began to chill. She wondered how long she could remain in his lap without covering.
At last Dante said, “I had an affair while I was with Madeline. With Marquise. Maddy always lied. She told me she was clean and then she’d start using again. I tried to support her. When Marquise, her best friend, approached me for sex, I was lonely, confused, heartbroken. I consented. We only did it a couple times, but that doesn’t make what I did okay.”
“Why would Marquise be best friends with a pole dancer and groupie?”
“They grew up together. Marquise became successful. Maddy got lost in drugs. Marquise got her own drugs from Maddy. She used amphetamines to stay skinny. I’m so grateful you dared to get clean, Kennedy.” His words were laced with weariness. “I admire you.”
His sentiment added to her desire to stay clean. “Thank you. It’s a challenge, but it gets easier as time goes on.”
Dante continued, not acknowledging her statement. “I shouldn’t have worried. My father was fucking my girlfriend. He got her drugs. He got her pregnant.”
Kennedy stiffened. “I hate your father.”
“Me, too. But he’s family, and we do things for the family we’re not proud of.” His words emerged strained and sharp-edged. He pushed his fingers over and over through her hair as if soothing himself. “The night Maddy died, I took Marquise to my parents’ house. Not to screw, simply for a drink and some privacy. I wanted to tell her I couldn’t fuck her any longer. Too much guilt.
“My apartment was in the middle of a remodel, and I thought my parents’ had taken Damien on a trip somewhere. That’s what Damien had told me, but he gets dates mixed up. I have a key to the house. My mother likes me to have access. I let myself in and heard something strange. I should have turned around right then and there, but curiosity got to me. I strode into the front room, and there was my father, banging Maddy on the couch.”
“We got into an argument. A terrible argument. It was ugly. Maddy screamed and cried. Marquise probably schemed as she watched the scene unfold. My fucking father wanted to shut me up. He threatened me with all manner of insults, told me he’d take away my trust, things like that.
“None of them got to me. His money’s as evil as that procured from blood diamonds, as far as I’m concerned. Finally, he picked up a statue and hurled it at my head. Can you believe my brother had been left in the house to overhear everything? My brother. Dad probably thought he’d stay consumed with his video games in the den.”
A cold sweat broke out on Kennedy’s neck. “Did he...did the vase hit Damien? Is that how he got that wicked scar?”
“He...he never knew what hit him. Literally.” Dante let out a deep, sad sigh. “I took care of everything. I got Dami to the emergency room. Left the others behind to deal with the mess. As I waited at the hospital, I thought of how this kind of scandal would kill my mother.
“Meanwhile, my messed up girlfriend had procured more drugs, injecting them into her bloodstream. She’d only found out that day about her pregnancy. Told the Marquise. So that bitch knew Maddy was screwing my father. She might have even known they’d be at the apartment that night. Anyway...”
He ran a weary hand through his hair. “After I got Damien taken care of, I searched for her. I looked everywhere. Finally, I found one of her suppliers. He told me where she might be. She was still alive when I found her. She drifted away as I held her in my arms.” Dante spoke in a strangled whisper. “Just drifted away, lost in heroin dreams, staring at me from the afterlife with cold, dead eyes. I’ll never forget her eyes.
“Later, when I tried to break up with Marquise, she said she’d sell the story to the tabloids. I’ve been paying her off ever since, thinking I was protecting my mother. Only...” His voice cracked. “Only my mother knows, at least partially. I found out earlier today. I went from crazy to crazier when I found you in your apartment. I thought history repeated itself and I was in bed with an addict...again.”
“I’m so sorry,” Kennedy said. “I didn’t take the oxy, I swear I didn’t. I never want to use again. I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I...I don’t know what to say. I hate your father. Despise him. I hate Iniko.” When hot wetness dropped on her shoulder, she turned to see silent tears falling from Dante’s cheeks.
“Please don’t leave me. Please forgive me,” he whispered. “Please don’t find me despicable.”
“Oh, Dante,” Kennedy whispered. “That’s the last thing I would do. Let’s find a way to fix these things. If we don’t, they’ll tear us and each other to pieces. Lay your burden down.”
