The room becomes very quiet. Dante looks at me steadily, but says nothing.
“You … er … don’t happen to know the owner of the magazine, do you?”
“Not really,” he says evasively.
My eyes narrow. “Not really? What the hell does that mean? Do you or don’t you know him?” I demand.
“We met at a party once,” he admits.
“I see. Hmmm … so you didn’t recommend me for the job?”
“Not to him.”
I blink, then my jaw drops. “Oh my God! Oh, my God.”
“I just mentioned your name, Rosa.”
“You big asshole. You asked his granddaughter, didn’t you?” I jump up and begin pacing. “Oh, gross! Just gross.”
“You seem very upset. Why?”
I whirl around and face him. “Why? How can you even ask me that? You asked your ex-girlfriend to hire the woman carrying your child. Can you not see how fucked up that is?”
He shrugs. “No. It’s not fucked up at all. I want you and my child close to me and believe me, this is nothing. I would have done anything to get both of you here.”
I start pacing again. “You’re mad. I’m shocked she agreed. What kind of woman does that?”
“Why wouldn’t she? Yes, we were lovers once, but we aren’t anymore. It’s simply an exchange of favors. She does this for me and another day I might be able to do something for her.”
I stop pacing and glare at him. “So she has never even read my work, has she?”
“Well, yes. After I spoke to her, she read your work. Obviously, you wouldn’t have got the job if you had been useless.”
I run my hands through my hair. “Oh, shit. This is so embarrassing. And I thought I got the job on merit alone.”
“Does it really matter? You have the job.”
“Yes, it matters,” I howl. “I have this dream job that I thought I got because of my ability, but now I find out I snagged it because someone I had sex with asked the owner to hire me! Do you realize how sleazy that makes me feel?”
“Okay, I pulled some strings to land you the job. You should be thanking me instead of getting angry.”
“Thanking you. I am going to have to go into the office every day and face people who probably know I got the job only because I slept with Dante, the playboy!”
“Grow up, Rosa. When you accepted that job you did so because you believed in yourself and your ability to do it. That has not changed. The reality is life is a series of unfair advantages. You had a lot more advantages than a girl growing up in an African village, for example. What is important is how you handle the fate you’re given!”
I can’t believe he’s saying this. I stare at him incredulously. He sits gazing back at me. Totally sexy, masculine, confident, without a care in the world, and utterly unaware of the rage he has ignited in me.
“God, you’re the first man who’s made me feel like slapping you really hard,” I mutter.
He arches one eyebrow as his mouth tilts with amusement. “Really?”
“Absolutely,” I say between clenched teeth
“It is a sexual thing?”
I throw my hands up in the air. How do you deal with a man like this? “No, it is not a sexual thing.”
He starts walking towards me. “Are you sure?”
“Of course, I’m sure. It’s pure fury.”
He stops in front of me. “Ah. What a shame.”
Even though I am bursting with anger, his nearness has a strange effect on me so I turn away. My plan is to put as much distance as possible between us. But as I start walking toward the window, my hand gets caught by his. I whirl around and the words on my tongue die at the look in his eyes.
Smug bastard. He is so sure he is going to bed me.
I don’t know why he always has this effect on me, but I stop thinking. Either I go weak at the knees, or I become a bitter shrew. At that moment, red hot rage slams into my head. I do what I have never done before. I wrench my hand out of his grasp, take a few steps away from him and charge, using my head like a battering ram.
I crash into his abs.
Fuck! It is like crashing my head into a brick wall. It’s possible I broke my neck or did it lasting injury, but that doesn’t stop me. Fueled by frustration, rage, and a hidden sadness. I kick his shin so hard with the sharp end of my shoes he stumbles backwards.
But I’m not finished.
With a cry of fury, I launch myself at him. His hands come around me. It’s almost a protective gesture, but I register only the fact of falling on him is turning me on. I can feel his cock hard and thick against my stomach. With all my might, I try to pull away from him, but suddenly, he has me trapped between him and the wall. I lift my hand to slap him. He catches it easily.
“Bastard,” I yell, and swing the other one wildly towards his face, but he catches that one just as effortlessly. He grips both my wrists in his hand and takes them over my head.
We stare at each other. I’m panting hard.
“I hate you,” I snarl.
“No, you don’t. You just hate that you cannot control the way you feel about me.”
“Yes, I do. You smug, selfish, shallow, arrogant, womanizing jerk.”
He leans down so that his face is very close to mine. “Yes, I am all those things, but you are also carrying my child. It will be a cold day in hell before I walk away from that responsibility. Neither of us are free agents anymore, Rosa. We owe it to the life we created to get on.”
“If your idea of getting on is having sex with me whenever you feel like it, you can forget it right now, because I am never having sex with you again.”
“I want our child to have all the advantages we can give him. I say ‘we’ because I want to marry you and give the child my name.”
“Again with that? Don’t you get it? I don’t want to marry you.”
“Why not?”
“Because of all the reasons I mentioned earlier. I don’t want a selfish bastard for a husband who cheats on me. I’ve been around your type in London. They go from one girl to the next, never leaving their wives but constantly cheating on those sad women. I don’t want that type of marriage. Sooner or later, you’ll break my heart. To put it nicely you are too gorgeous a man to marry.”
He looks deep into my eyes. “Sometimes what you see on the outside is not what is really on the inside. Sometimes the men who seem to be good and loyal are the ones who secretly need the high of cheating on their wives. I’m an open book. I slept with many women, but never cheated on anyone. I was a free agent. When we marry I will no longer be one.”
“Exactly. You will get bored and you’ll be itching to try new flesh.”
“Have you ever thought that maybe I’ve had all the flesh I want? You don’t crave for something that has been plentiful. You crave for the rare thing.”
I stare at him, mesmerized by his words. I so much want to believe it. “Talk is cheap,” I whisper.
“Then let me prove it to you.”
“That sounds like a win-win situation for you. If you make it because you like being married you win, if you decide it’s not for you, which is the more likely scenario, you say sorry and walk away. But I get my heart broken.”
“You never struck me as a coward, Rosa. What’s the point of living if you are never going to take a chance on anything that looks like it might bring you hurt?”
“I don’t care. I am not marrying you.”
“Do you want me to get down on one knee like they do in those corny movies?”
“No.”
“No, you don’t want me to get down on one knee? Or no you don’t want to marry?”
“Both. Please, don’t ask me again! You are not marriage material … not for me, anyway.”
Suddenly I feel Dante’s lips pressing against mine. I feel my resistance melting. He stops kissing me and raises his head to look into my eyes. Immediately I push my hands against his chest. He kisses me again. This time his tongue slips into my m
outh. His kiss saps all the strength out of my arms. I stop pushing against him and give in to the tremendous passion of his kiss.
I find myself clutching and pulling him closer to my breasts instead of pushing him away. I feel him responding to my hard nipples nudging his chest.
He raises his head.
“We shouldn’t,” I mumble weakly as I attempt one last effort to resist him when we break our embrace.
“Oh, yes we should,” Dante says as he reaches behind me and grabs the tab of my dress’ zipper. “Let me see this beautiful body that drives me wild,” he adds as he pulls down the zipper.
I hold the front of my dress over my breasts as Dante zips it all the way down.
He shakes his head. “Don’t hide your candy from me.”
“You are such a pervert,” I say even as I let go of the front of my dress. It drops to the floor to form a pool of black shimmering silk in front of my black high heels.
Dante takes a step back. “Lovely. I love all your body, but your breasts are perfection,” he says as he leans his head down and takes one of my hard nipples into his mouth.
I sigh loudly as he runs his tongue around my nipple before caressing the top of it with the tip of his warm, wet tongue.
“You are a very wicked man, Dante,” I mutter, as I run my fingers through his thick dark hair.
Chapter 12
Dante
Tennessee Whiskey
I’ve had to pretend to be unaffected all this time. To banter with her as if she is just another sexual conquest when all I want to do is open her thighs and consume her. In the taxi, I had the fucking devil on my shoulder tempting and urging me to grab her ankles, open her up, and take her right there on Salvatore’s back seat.
But I clenched my hands into fists and held back.
No, the last thing I want to do is frighten her with the kind of intensity I feel. When you land a very big fish you reel it in slowly and steadily. You resist its thrashes, while you continue to pull it in. Tiring it, making it understand you are the greater force. She can struggle as much as she likes, but I will endure. Nothing can turn me away from my purpose.
This woman is mine, and no man will ever touch her again.
I feast my eyes on her naked body. It feels like years since I touched and tasted her. Her body is exactly as I remembered. Every plane, every creamy curve. Perfect.
I pull a pink nipple into my mouth and she moans. The sound drives me wild. I suck the hard pebble and she arches her back and pushes into me. I smell the sweet thick scent of her arousal. Uncontrollable lust rips through me. Like a caveman I want to mate. I want my cock inside her.
But I’m here for the long haul.
I pull my mouth away from her nipple and look into her face. Her big, beautiful eyes are glazed with desire. “These breasts are mine,” I growl, grabbing them both and pinching the nipples. “I never want another man’s hands to touch them. Do you understand?”
She inhales sharply, but she nods.
I bend my head and lick her soft skin. Slowly, I travel downwards. I can’t wait to get between her legs, but I try not to race there. I take my time. Kissing, licking, caressing on my way downwards. “One day when I do this I will hear our child’s heartbeat,” I say as I pause at her belly.
I lick her belly button with the tip of my tongue and her whole body tenses. Yes, she is exactly as I remember her to be. I place both my hands on the insides of her thighs, pull them apart, and look at the cleft between her legs. Her clit is swollen and sticking out from her lips. The tip is white. The whole area is wet and glistening. She’s been like this for a long time.
“Oh God!” she cries out as I push my tongue between her lips and taste her sweet honey again. She grabs handfuls of my hair and pulls my face against her crotch.
I lose it then. I start eating her like a starving man.
“Yes, yes. Oh yes!” she groans as her body jerks with the waves of pleasure that sweep through her. Her body starts trembling. I know the signs. She’s about to climax. I tongue fuck her as she hunches into my face. When I feel her about to go over, I suck her clit hard. She screams and gushes her juices into my mouth, onto my face, and throat. I lap her juices hungrily.
She is still panting hard when I stand and lift her into my arms.
“Dante,” she protests.
I don’t respond. I can’t. I am so hard and horny I can’t talk. I turn and carry my property from the kitchen towards the door that obviously leads to her bedroom. I lay her on top of the bed, kick off my shoes, and start to undo my belt. She watches me drag down my pants, and rip away my shirt.
I’m engulfed by a sense of possession. I have never felt such a thing before. As I watch her laid out naked, her legs askew, waiting for me, I feel pride. This is my woman. All mine. The sooner she understands it the better.
I press down on top of her soft curves. Her eyes gaze into mine. Open and vulnerable.
“Tell me you want me,” I tell her.
“No,” she says.
I kiss her. I kiss her passionately until her fingers rise up to wind into my hair, until she is breathless.
“Tell me you want me. Say it,” I order.
“I want you,” she mutters, but reluctantly.
I plunder her mouth again. This time I hook her tongue with mine, take it into my mouth, and suck it hard until her body feels boneless beneath mine.
I lift my head. Her eyes are half-closed and her pupils are almost as large as her irises.
“Tell me you want me,” I command again.
“I want you,” she says breathlessly, eagerly.
“Tell me you need my cock inside your pretty pussy.”
“I need your cock inside my pretty pussy,” she repeats, and wriggles her hips to encourage me.
“Good. Now tell me you’re mine. You belong to me.”
She stares into my eyes, like a rabbit hypnotized by headlights. “I’m yours. I belong to you.”
Her words spoken without shame are music to my ears. Now I just have to claim her.
I hold her face. “You ready?” I ask.
Biting her bottom lip, she nods.
Without another word, I push the thick mushroom-shaped head of my cock into her tight pussy.
Her eyes widen at the size of the intrusion. “Oh fuck!” she gasps, and I drive my cock deeper inside her. She’s so hot and wet, I nearly come.
“That’s right, baby, oh fuck! This is what you are going to take inside you every day for the rest of your life,” I growl in her ear as I drive my aching dick all the way in.
“Oh, God,” she cries as I ram my cock all the way in. But it’s not enough for me. I want deeper.
“You like me to be rough with you, baby?”
Her eyes snap up to mine. A greedy, wicked smile spreads on her face. “I want it all,” she whispers.
I grab one of her thighs, throw it over my shoulder, and slam all the way in. She screams then. The sound drives me crazy. I’ve been wanting to hear it ever since that first night. I look down and she is spread open wide and taking all of me inside her. I pull out a little, and reaching between us, rub her beautiful engorged clit.
She shudders with pleasure.
Buried deep inside her I circle that swollen bud relentlessly. Her hips buck as her cream seeps out and flows down to her puckered ass. Yeah, I’ll have that too. Not today. But soon. That’s mine to claim as well.
Her pussy starts clenching tightly around me, squeezing my cock. She jerks her hips restlessly. “Don’t stop, please,” she begs.
I start slamming into her, slapping her little clit, making her cry out. Her little pussy milks my cock with its clenching movements, and I completely lose track of time. It could have been a minute, or an hour later when I hear her scream and feel her wrap her other leg around my waist as she experiences her second orgasm. This one is wild. The force of it makes her eyes roll back.
Watching it is too mu
ch for me. I lose my fucking mind. No longer able to hold back, I come with a roar. I continue to pump my cock violently into her, spewing hot cum inside her sweet cunt.
“That was heaven,” she says.
I lazily move my cock in and out of her as I caress her soft skin. I want to carry on. I could fuck her all night, but I won’t. I know she has had a long day. I pull out of her, and watch my cum drip out of her. I move to climb out of bed.
“Where are you going?” she asks, her hand rising up to stop me.
“Sleep. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
“I’m not your fuck toy,” she says angrily.
I smear my cum all over her pussy and her stomach. It’s my way of marking her. “Yes you are. You are my fuck toy, my woman, my lover, the receptacle of my cum. I want to stay here and fuck you all night, but you have a new job, and tomorrow is your first day at work. You need the rest.”
“Stay. I only need to close my eyes for a second,” she mumbles. Her eyelids are already drooping as fatigue takes over. It’s been a long day for her and she’s pregnant.
“I will not let you go, Rosa. You, or my child.”
She smiles softly in her sleep when I kiss her mouth.
Chapter 13
Rosa
I wake up before my alarm clock rings. One moment I’m fast asleep and dead to the world, and the next I’ve jerked bolt upright like something from a horror movie, leapt out of bed, and sprinting toward the bathroom. All kinds of images from last night of Dante and I come to me as I brush my teeth, but I push them away ruthlessly.
After my shower, I dress quickly in my red power suit. I stand in front of the mirror and look at myself. Especially, now that I know the route by which this job became mine, I am more determined than ever to prove how good I can be at this job. I check my phone and see that Cindy has already left me a good luck message with a funny GIF of a baby blowing kisses.