Page 19 of Reckless Sinner

“Delaney—”

I could hear the protest in his voice and I shook my head. “If you think I’m some… some naïve girl, then we can end this right now. I’ve seen what you can do in court. I wantallof you. Don’t hold back on me.”

Dante stared at me, some deep inner struggle warring in his eyes. “You’re a lamb asking for the wolf to bite you,” he warned, his voice rough.

“Notbiteme.” I wasn’t going to be satisfied with just a bite. “Consume me.”

Dante glanced upward, like his Italian Catholic upbringing was coming back to haunt him and he was asking for forgiveness, before slamming his mouth against mine.

Yes.

This was not the careful first kiss he had just given me. This was the passion and power I knew he was capable of giving—and I reveled in it. I wrapped my arms around his neck, clinging to him, eagerly kissing him back. I didn’t want him to doubt for even a moment that I wanted him this way.

The elevator doors opened and Dante pulled back like he was on fire. I could see him struggling to keep his breathing under control—still looking to hold himself back in some way, even after what I had said.

He didn’t say a word as he took my hand and led me to his front door. I could see the tenseness in the line of his back and shoulders. Was he having second thoughts about this?

He opened the door and turned to me. I felt like a fly with a spider.Come into my parlor…

“Are you really sure?” he asked. As if I hadn’t just asked him for this.

I stepped up to him. Out of all the things I doubted—myself, my role in this, my father’s plan—this was the one thing that I knew for certain. “I said consume me, Mr. Wolf.”

Dante pushed the door shut behind me, and I was in the den.

CHAPTER9

Dante

Itried to hold back with Delaney. I really fucking did.

The things I wanted to do to her—I wanted to pin her down andfuckher. I wanted her screaming my name and coming so hard she couldn’t even move afterwards. I wanted to bury myself into that sweet softness.

But I had always held back when it came to my sexual partners (few and far between though they were). I had fought for years against the more… base instincts that were inside me. I was a gentleman and I would be that way in every aspect. I wasn’t going to be that mafia son who just took what he wanted. There was a reason I didn’t sleep with women who just wanted that bad boy experience.

But Delaney wasn’t like those women. She thought I was good. She liked to listen to me ramble about my hobbies. And the way she looked at me the entire way to my apartment—it was like she’d been bowled over by her own lust. Like she couldn’t even handle the desire that raged inside of her. I’d never seen someone so completely at the mercy of their own want, like her lust was a wave crashing over her and dragging her under.

Honestly, it only made me want her even more. I wanted to manage her lust, mold it, help her to give it over to me. I could handle it, I could handleher,and fulfill everything she wanted. If she couldn’t even think straight, then I’d do the thinking for her.

Consume me. Did she even know how needy she sounded? How she trembled and shook, how pleading her eyes were? I had never let myself go and given into the fantasies I’d had—the fantasies of power and control, of domination—because I refused to be a fucking cliché. But Delaney wanted itso badly.

How could I refuse her?

I pulled her into the apartment and closed the door behind her. Delaney looked seconds away from begging, her hands shaking. God, when was the last time she’d been with someone? Had anyone ever touched her the way she wanted to be touched? Given her the firm hand she clearly craved?

I circled her, stripping as I did so—my tie and jacket, then undoing my cufflinks and rolling up my sleeves. “What do you want?” I asked.

Delaney jumped a little. Like she hadn’t been expecting me to ask her that. “I… whatever you want.”

“That’s a dangerous statement.” I pressed myself up against her back and slid an arm around her waist. Delaney inhaled sharply. “I could want a lot ofverybad things.”

“I’m not going to break,” she snapped, apparently offended that I thought her weak.

I liked when she dropped the demure side of herself and would just snap at me or get sassy. “This isn’t about my fear of you breaking. This is about not wanting to do anything that you’ll actually hate me for later.”

I pressed my nose into her throat and inhaled deeply. I could smell her arousal all the way from here, could lick the sweat off her warm skin if I wanted to. She was coiled so tightly, her breaths coming in tiny little gasps instead of steady inhales and exhales.

“Tell me what you want,” I repeated, my voice a low growl.

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