Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 54055 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54055 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 270(@200wpm)___ 216(@250wpm)___ 180(@300wpm)
“You afraid of me, Lucy?”
“Ha! You wish. I’m not afraid, it’s called being smart, and one of us has to be.”
I took two more steps forward and Lucy took three steps backwards. “Do we?”
She nodded. “Yes. There’re all kinds of reasons…” she began and I half-listened as she listed them off, closing the gap between us.
“Lucy?”
She stopped talking and stared at me. “What?”
“Shut up.”
She sucked in a breath and her nostrils flared. “Of all the ignorant, pig-headed things…,” she began, but she couldn’t continue because my mouth was on hers, my hands roamed her body and I smiled to myself because I figured out the perfect way to get Lucy to shut the hell up for a few minutes.
She wasn’t exactly quiet, but she wasn’t talking, instead she moaned into my kiss and groaned when she pushed her body against mine. Those were sounds I could get behind. Then there was the little whimper she let out when my palm brushed over her hard nipple.
I cupped her ass with both hands and I lifted her in the air easily. Her lush legs wrapped around me automatically, the warmth between her thighs was so fucking perfect I growled at the rightness of it. Lucy’s ankles locked behind me and then tightened as her hands fisted in my hair and she deepened the kiss. She was determined to drive me wild, and I couldn’t walk away, couldn’t end the kiss.
“Dante.” She looked at me through lust heavy lids and licked her lips.
I blinked away the fog of desire and frowned. “Shit.” I gripped her ass again and lifted her in the air before I set her on her feet. “That shouldn’t have happened.”
Anger flared in her eyes and she gave my chest a shove, a hard shove. And then another and another. She pushed me until I stood in the hall, still frowning.
“Don’t worry, it won’t happen again!” She slammed the door in my face which was no less than what I deserved.
I knocked and whispered against the door. “What about dinner?”
Lucy’s answer was a loud thud as if she’d tossed something at the door.
“So not coming then?”
A low grunt sounded, followed by another thud.
“More for me,” I mumbled to myself and made my way back downstairs to join my daughter for dinner. No sexy nanny distractions involved.
Chapter 17
Lucy
Dammit, that’s what I got for being stubborn.
My mom would have said that I was cutting off my nose to spite my face, and I would very likely have stuck out my tongue behind her back because she was right. I was a master at making myself suffer just to prove a point, or worse, to make someone else feel guilty for slighting me. It didn’t matter if I had to pay for it later, I never regretted it.
Not even now as my stomach growled furiously with hunger, did I regret not taking Dante’s dinner invitation. It was well after ten o’clock and I was so hungry that if I didn’t get eat something now, I might not be able to sleep properly. I took one last glance at the small fridge in my suite stacked with soda, water and ice cream sandwiches and decided that I was too old to eat ice cream for dinner, which meant I had to venture out of my room and into the kitchen. Sustenance is what my body needed, no, my body craved it at this point, so I snuck down the stairs and hoped like hell that the growling monster in my belly didn’t wake up the whole house.
I glanced around the kitchen, checking the oven to see if anything was left warming inside, and then the microwave. Nothing. Of course Dante hadn’t saved me any food.
“Last time I do him a solid,” I grumbled to myself and headed over to the fridge. It was fine that he hadn’t thought of me, because a sweet gesture like that might have made it difficult to stay angry and annoyed with him.
Yep, it was aa very good thing, in fact. I smiled as I pulled out everything I would need to make a killer deli style sandwich. Dotty had onion Kaiser rolls in the bread box that were almost the size of my head and I took my time cutting into it and slathering mustard on one side and tapenade on the other, before I stacked it with turkey, salami, pickles, tomatoes and alfalfa sprouts. I took the first bite before I put everything back in the fridge and groaned loud enough that it echoed around the giant kitchen.
“Thought you said you weren’t hungry.” Dante’s deep voice startled me and I choked on a gasp, but then the honeyed sound sent a shiver straight down my spine.
I refused to acknowledge the shiver was from anything more than my skills as a sandwich maker and dove in for another bite. I felt his eyes on me, and since my stupid traitorous body refused to ignore him the way the rest of me was determined to, I turned slowly and stared at him while I chewed. Why did he have to look so damn good? Even now dressed in his expensive flannel pajama pants and nothing else, he made my mouth water even more than the sandwich, which honestly tasted a little worse at the sight of Dante’s abs and pecs, and goodness gracious, that trail of dark hair that disappeared behind his waistband.