Page 11 of Twisted Obsession

As her unusual hazel eyes found me staring at her, I took all of her in. Her cheeks were burning hot and showing off the scattering of freckles across her cheekbones left from childhood, but all I could see was the sheer beauty of the woman. Confusingly, I felt she was destined to be more than my plaything for the afternoon. I cleared my throat a couple of times to erase my last thought. Then I closed the remaining distance between us, meaning to introduce myself and to snap myself out of whatever the hell it was that was going on.

Instead, as I took her hand in mine to gently brush my lips against her smooth skin, she spoke first.

‘Dante.’ She smiled as she whispered my name.

Being caught off guard was completely out of character and, without thinking, I allowed my gaze to travel slowly up the length of her bare arm and as our eyes met again, I spoke the question which had appeared without thought onto the tip of my tongue.

‘Where have you been?’ I shook my head, not knowing if it was at her beauty or in disbelief at my mistake.

‘Growing up,’ she replied.

‘You did it really,reallywell, Giovanna.’ My own honesty floored me.

‘Dante, stop playing with her.’ Mia smacked her hand into my shoulder to drive her words home and brought me back to reality.

Thank fuck for siblings.

Ignoring my sister, I tucked the hand I was still holding inside the crook of my arm. Although, my hand now felt bereft, the warmth of her skin seeped through the material of the fine cotton shirt I was wearing, and making sure it stayed just where I wanted it, I placed my other hand over hers, and interlinked my fingers where possible with hers.

‘Shall we get a drink?’ I questioned her, watching as her eyes left mine and looked down at our conjoined fingers.

‘Gabe is already getting you one,’ Mia interjected.

‘I’m sure you can drink it, Mia… after all, with all the talking you’re doing you must be thirsty,’ I quipped.

I’ll give my younger sister her due, even she laughed at my rudeness.

‘It’s okay, I’ll find you later, Mia.’ With a beautiful smile spreading across her face, Giovanna defused the situation with my sister, complied and started to walk alongside me.

‘Don’t listen to anything he has to say, Gi. I know he’s my brother, but his tongue is far too smooth for any sensible woman to listen to.’

‘Shhhh.’ Playfully, I looked back at my sister, shaking my head a little, and then directed my full attention to the woman on my arm. ‘Now, where were we?’

‘You were getting me a drink, and I was just taking in that you’re too smooth for me to believe anything that falls out of those full-looking, heart shaped lips of yours.’

‘Mmmm… well, Giovanna De Luca, the fact you’ve noticed I have full-looking lips,’ I deliberately pouted and leant a little closer for effect, ‘has just changed how I’m looking at this whole afternoon. I bet, before the afternoon’s over, I’ll be placing these lips against yours.’

‘What?’ Suddenly looking worried, she tried to pull her hand away from my arm. Instinctively, I firmed up my grip, making sure it wasn’t enough to hurt her, but would be enough to stop her pulling away.

‘And you’ll want me to,’ I added, before winking at her. Her eyes opened wider in fear, and I wanted to smack myself over the back of the head for being such a bloody idiot. Sometimes, I needed to remind myself that all decent women in Calabria were innocent until marriage. Most of the time I lived in Soho; apart of London that had shrugged off its innocence many, many decades before.

‘I won’t,’ she uttered indignantly.

Shit.

In answer to her flight response, I stopped leading us away to the bar area, released her hand from my arm and turned to face her. With our arms hanging loosely to the sides of our bodies, I lifted my hands and gently brushed the tips of my fingers against hers encouragingly. I needed to save what I had singlehandedly nearly ruined.

In my peripheral view, I could see Salvatore starting to smile at the obvious brush off I was getting. So, I doubled down, and carried on.

‘How old are you, Giovanna?’

‘Twenty… why?’ Panic still laced her tone.

‘I’m twenty-one, but we could be a decade apart in life experience. It’s okay to want to feel my mouth on yours.’

‘But I don’t.’ She shook her head at me, trying to convince me.

‘With that decade of extra life experience… I know you do.’ I looked at her more intently. ‘Your pupils dilate when you look at me, and you flick your eyes between mine and my mouth.’ Her eyes opened wider in shock.

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