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“I didn’t do it for you … I did it for me.”

Her heart melted into a puddle, much like she was becoming in his arms with each word he spoke.

Dante’s ice-blue eyes seemed to slowly defrost. “I can’t bury another woman in my life because of my choices. I will not allow it.”

“Oh. That changes things,” Nadia said breathlessly when he lifted her up and walked them to her room. She felt his strength with the ease he carried her. Dante Caruso was an indomitable man. He was used to wielding his power in Kansas City, and Nadia had seen people cower when his name was mentioned.

Had she been swayed with the attraction she was feeling to accept him so easily into her life just because he said he was letting his son take over for him?

“I don’t like that look on your face.”

Nadia didn’t try to hide her trepidation.

“You’re lucky Haley likes you, or I wouldn’t have let you in the door. I would have made you at least take me out to dinner a couple of times. I don’t want you to think I’m easy because I slept with you so quickly.”

Putting her down, Dante started rolling her pants and thong over her hips until they puddled at her feet. Removing her top, he let it drop carelessly to the floor onto the growing pile. Placing a hand on her waist, he then started pushing her backward. “There is nothing easy about what you do to me,” he said, giving her another push so she toppled to the bed.

Languidly, Nadia watched as Dante divested himself of his clothes until there was nothing for them to hide behind. Normally, the times she had sex, she had felt self-conscious with her nudity. For some unexplainable reason, she didn’t with Dante. The male appreciation in his gaze brought a warm heat to her groin without him having to lay so much as a finger on her.

“Mr. Caruso, surely you don’t think I’m naïve enough to believe that you don’t have women trying to get your attention regularly.” She remembered the unanswered text message he had received and doubted it had been his first.

Dante grinned, running a finger from her collarbone to the valley between her breasts, riding the swell to the rosy patch of color. He used the pad of his thumb to trace the areola, bringing it to a pert tip.

“Striving and getting are two different horses. I prefer thoroughbreds, and I don’t come in contact with those frequently.”

Ah, so that was why he didn’t care if she gambled in his casino. He was a horse-betting guy.

Leaning over her, Dante licked the tip he had awakened.

“Are you comparing me to a horse?” She laughed.

“Oh, darling … there are worse things to complain about than being compared to a thoroughbred. I should know. I can spot a winner a mile away.”

Goose bumps broke out on her skin when Dante blew a small puff of air on the wet tip.

“Uh, I wasn’t complaining … believe me.” She gave a small moan when he moved his mouth to her other nipple.

“You taste like sunlight.” He traveled back to the valley between her breasts to move upward to her chin, then hovered over her lips. Nadia caught conflicting emotions cross his face before he lowered his mouth over hers.

Shamelessly, she pulled him down over her. She had never wanted to become lost in a man the way she did with Dante. There was a darkness about him that made her believe the dangerous reputation he had earned had been based on fact and not overblown gossip.

His mouth clung to hers like a leaf floating down a river to see where it would go. There was something both vulnerable and earnest about the way he was kissing her that it sowed a seed of a possible future between them.

He wasn’t treating her like a one-night stand, like he had the first time. No, he was treating her with the care and attention of a man who wanted to protect something precious.

Their kiss went from exploring to passionate when Dante’s hips sank harder on hers. Every movement he made heightened her awareness of what he was doing to her body.

Reaching out a hand, he took hers to lift it over her head, stretching her body taut under him. Nadia licked her bottom lip to taste him on the silky skin. Moving with a natural sexiness that showed his raw masculinity, Dante plunged his cock inside her. He didn’t have to check to see if she was wet for him. He knew.

As he seated himself to the hilt in one long, smooth motion, she cried out in ecstasy at the feelings he was creating. There wasn’t anything magical or dreamlike about what Dante was doing to her. His more dominate personality claiming her in a sensuous glide of flesh meeting flesh in the endeavor to achieve the fleeting moment of rapture, he wanted to give to her and take for himself.