Page 30 of Rescued By the Mafia

What she’d seen as a dragon crawling in over his shoulder, with a portion she couldn’t understand across his abdomen, was in fact only half of it. The dragon was whole, starting at his lower back and curving slowly up and around his entire torso. It circled his back twice, the second time spanning most of his shoulder blades, with curling claws positioned at the curves of his body. It was amazing, and beautiful.

“Dante…”

“Not what you expected?”

Iris reached out and trailed her fingertips over the spine of the dragon, beneath one of Dante’s shoulder blades. “It’s … amazing.” She had no other word for it. A small laugh bubbled out of her. “You really do like dragons.”

He chuckled. “I am the Dragon, honey.”

She really couldn’t argue that at this point. “Did it hurt?” She brought the loofa back to his skin, belatedly remembering her task.

“I suppose.” He was quiet for a moment. The muscles on his back seemed to ripple beneath her touch. “Yeah,” he said on an exhale. “Like a bitch. But it was worth every second.”

Something about him being open with her in that way made her chest feel warm. Iris leaned in and placed a kiss to the tattoo where the dragon’s spine crossed with Dante’s own.

“Iris.”

“Almost done.” She stepped back, let him rinse his backside, then rinsed the loofa again before setting it aside. She picked up the soap once more, this time lathered her hands, and moved back up to him. “One last thing.” She smiled as she reached down and wrapped her soapy hands around his length.

This time he cursed. “Someone’s feeling feisty today.” He reached behind her and braced himself on the wall, blue eyes burning into hers. “I like it.”

Feisty was not a word that generally described her, but as her hands worked him toward one more release, she mulled it over. She let herself get lost in the sensation of Dante washing her hair after, his fingers massaging her scalp and carefully sliding through the wet strands to untangle them. And she realized, she did feel good, in a way she wasn’t at all used to. She wasn’t even sure she had a word for it, but it was there. And in her heart, she was absolutely certain this new feeling was because of Dante. It was something he’d given to her.

Dante suspected he could have spent the entire weekend locked in his room with Iris. Naked, of course. Because he’d finally gotten her out of her clothes and in his arms and still he hadn’t fucked her. He was a little disappointed in himself for that, yet at the same time, what they had shared had been unexpectedly beautiful.

And not without pleasure.

The morning filled him with a sense of optimism and warmth he hadn’t felt in years. So, to capitalize on whatever sense of closeness he’d captured, Dante moved Iris’s place setting at the dining table from across from him to beside him. She had been comfortable facing him the day before. She would learn to be comfortable at his side, if she wasn’t yet. She didn’t bat an eye at the change, at least, so Dante made a point not to address it.

Instead, he said, “I’ll have to go into the office for a few hours today.” He paused to be sure she was listening, watching her from his peripheral vision. “You’re safe at the house and you have free reign of it, if you want to just stay home. But if you want to go out, I need you to take security with you.”

She lowered her fork. “Security?”

“Carlo volunteered, but until your ex is off the board, I’d prefer you have a two-man team. And if you don’t like Carlo, you don’t have to accept.” He watched her chew her lip before scooping up another bite of food and chewing on that instead. He took another gulp of his coffee while he waited for her answer.

“Carlo was there yesterday, right?”

“He was.”

Iris nodded. “I didn’t have a problem with him.” She gave a little shrug and turned her head enough to flash him a look of uncertainty. “I don’t really know anyone else, though.”

Dante brushed a finger over a loose strand of faintly wavy hair, tucking it behind her ear. “Do you trust me to find you a second man for the job?” Considering the way Jarrod had fucked it up, he wouldn’t have blamed her for hesitating.

Instead, she smiled. “You’re the only one I trust right now.”

Pride filled his chest and Dante pulled her closer, leaning over to press a kiss to her temple. “Carlo will be here within the hour. I’ll have a second man here before noon. If you have to leave the house before then, pull someone from perimeter duty.”

Iris nodded. “Okay.”

It was a struggle to remember that he needed to let her eat her breakfast. She hadn’t eaten dinner, after all. But all he wanted to do was pull her into his lap and take advantage of the dress she’d opted to wear that day.

Dante eased his grip and put some energy into finishing his own meal. “Also, today I want you to think about safe words.”

Iris paused with her glass of orange juice at her lips, then slowly set it down again. “Safe words? Do you mean, like, ‘red’ and ‘yellow’?”

His lips twitched. “As a concept, that’s close.” He pushed back his plate, grabbed his coffee, and turned in his chair to see her fully. The one downside of keeping her at his side was that he had to move to see her as easily. “I’m not a hardcore Dom,” he said, “and I’m not asking you for your ultimate submission. That’s not what I want.” A little play in bed was fun, but he knew people who carried the roles beyond the bedroom, and that wasn’t something he wanted for Iris. He wanted the opposite. He wanted her to blossom, to find her strength and the confidence to plant her feet and speak her mind. She would be ruling his empire at his side, she needed those things.

Instead of explaining all that, he skipped to the point. “You’re growing, inside, but you’re also stepping into a new world. So you need to understand your own boundaries. The point of safe words is trust—a mutual trust between you and me. Because I’m going to push you, this life is going to push you, and I need to be able to trust that when you reach your hard limits, you’ll tell me.” He held her gaze, making sure she could see that he was serious. “These are words you can and should use outside the bedroom if the situation requires it, so they need to be words you won’t likely say in conversation and words you’re capable of saying. Especially if you feel yourself shutting down.”

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