Page 14 of His Two Hidden Masks

James took my hand. His fingers were long, his grip strong and firm. He pulled me close with a sudden move that took my breath away. “Good God, who are you, woman?” he said, his voice low and raspy, his muscular arms strong.

“My name is Bella. I was born in this city, and tonight, I am your lover.”

He kissed me. I moaned softly. His kiss was firm, and our lips parted hungrily. He pressed his body against me. I responded, my mouth opening to his as I cuddled into him closer.

His body felt firm against my softness. I opened up, melting with our heat, and I felt his cock harden between us. The idea that this man was engorged and craving me after just one kiss made me feel beautiful and powerful in his arms. I sighed and rocked my hips against his body.

“You are magic,” he said, between kisses.

I broke away for a moment to look up at him. He was radiant in the moonlight. I had never met a man I wanted this much.

Before I could take a step, he lifted me into the air, my legs locking around him as if we had done this a thousand times. He throbbed between my legs and my release almost escaped me.

“Easy, lover,” I said, as my mouth danced across his lips. “We have all night. Where should we go?”

“Let’s go to my hotel,” he said. “I’m staying at the Mia Sorella.”

3

“The Mia Sorella?” My eyes snapped open, although my lips still pressed against his. What the actual fuck?

I glanced skyward at the moon while his delicious lips continued to explore my mouth. Of course, the one time I decide to let desire drive me, I pick the gorgeous man staying at my family’s hotel in the piazza where I grew up.

I invited pleasure into my life after a long dry spell, and fate decided to complicate things by reminding me that every damn thing in my life led me back to my family.

“Do you know the hotel?” James murmured between kisses.

My legs wrapped around his middle, his arms supported my backside so I hovered just above his hard cock, my pussy brushing against it with every breath. It was a sexy and erotic sensation.

“Of course,” I said, my tongue moving down his neck. His stubble tickled my lips. “I know every hotel in Venice.”

James leaned back to look at me, taking a break from our kisses. With a free hand, he brushed a stray hair off my forehead.The tenderness of his touch sent shivers down my spine. He lifted my chin with his finger and gazed at me.

“You are the best tour guide ever,” he said.

He leaned in, giving me a slow, hard kiss, and the energy in my core begin to swirl and build. I had not had an orgasm in six months, and he was going to make me come without taking off a single piece of my clothes.

There was no way I was missing a no-strings-attached night in the arms of this man. I had to find a way to get in and out of that hotel.

James sighed and lowered me to the ground. I resisted the urge to groan in disappointment. Wrapping my legs around his hard body had made me feel high. Standing in front of him, my body ached to be close again.

“I do have one serious problem,” he said, his brow wrinkling.

My heartbeat quickened. Was this where it all fell apart? Was he about to confess he had a girlfriend or a wife at home? “You do?”

“I have no fucking idea how to get back to my hotel.”

“Of course, you don’t.” I laughed with relief. “I know the way.”

I held out my hand as an invitation. James nodded and took my hand in his. I could feel the heat of his skin through the thin leather of my gloves. We exited San Marco Square through the same corridor, passing the jewelry store where we crashed into each other.

I couldn’t tell him my family owned the Mia Sorella, not now. The moment had passed. If I brought up my family connection to the hotel now, it would be awkward, or worse suspicious. Besides, this was a one-night-stand, nothing more.

We agreed to first names and James all but told me he didn’t want us to know too much about each other. I hadn’t lied when I told him I knew the Mia Sorella.

I just failed to tell him that my family had owned and operated the hotel for twenty years, that my family lived next door, and that the church where I’d almost married six months before was across the campo. It was just a slight omission.

We stopped walking just outside of the turn to Campo Polo. James tugged my hand and I turned to look at him as he stood beneath a flickering gas lamp. He lowered his gaze and looked down at me with a crooked, and now familiar, smile. My knees threatened to buckle. I breathed in slowly and hoped he hadn’t changed his mind.

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