Page 4 of The Virgin Temptation (Caprice Langden)

Chapter Two

-Dante-

IDIDN’T HAVE A CLUEwhat to say to her. I think I understood how she felt, but empathy wasn’t one of my strong points. I wanted Noemi to feel secure.Fuck!I killed five people to make sure she was safe. If she knew that, she wouldn’t point out to me how scared she was. She’d know that I had her best interests at heart. She’d know that every decision I made in the last six hours was based around her safety.

I needed some way to reassure her. We had eight days at sea. I didn’t want her to spend that time feeling anxious, but I’d be damned if I knew what to do. No matter how important words were to me, my verbal reassurances didn’t seem to help her. She needed more and for the first time ever with a woman, I felt compelled to deliver her expectations.

I should have been able to say, “you’re safe, don’t worry about it” and have her trust in that. But she’d been with me on our adventure for less than forty-eight hours. She watched me kill a man and had almost been cut to ribbons in an explosion. I considered the possibility that she needed more than words to convince her to put her faith in me and believe that Iwouldcontrol the situation.

“This isn’t what you imagined it would be,” I stated, trying to open a dialogue I loathed to have. I couldn’t look at her but kept my gaze on the water below us as it lapped against the side of the yacht.

“Considering that I didn’t know you were flying me to a tropical paradise then taking me aboard a luxury yacht suitable for a billionaire? This was all a surprise. No, I didn’t expect to watch a man get killed in our bungalow, and I didn’t expect to have a boat almost blow a hole in your yacht. Nope. Didn’t expect any of that.”

She tried to make light of it, but I could feel the razor edge of her tension in the night air. “But you expected something, Noemi. It’s natural. You had some thoughts as to how you wanted our contract fulfilled, didn’t you?”

“Of course, I did. Your mantra, ‘No expectations?’ Sorry, I’ve failed. If I said no, you’d know I was lying. You’re just going to have to be disappointed in me because I’m not a robot that doesn’t have dreams.”

“Tell me,bambina,” I urged. She needed to fuckinghelpme helpher. “Tell me what you wanted. What you fantasized about.”

I ran my fingertip over her lower lip, trying to pull the words from her with my touch. I saw the hesitation in her eyes. She wanted to answer me, but she held back. This wasn’t the same as meeting a physical need. I lacked the intuition to be able to instinctively know what more she wanted.

“Tell me,” I demanded hoarsely, my lips hovering above hers. I could give her anything,anythingshe needed, she just had to tell me what the fuck that was. I could give her the world if she asked me for it.

Her continued reluctance to share reminded me who I was talking to. Noemi’s shyness, her ability to come out of her shell, was always there, hiding behind her soft walls. She revealed herself when she needed to be strong, but she wasn’t brave enough to show her deepest desires. If I needed her to speak to me, I had to give her the confidence to do so. My hand wandered to her hip and smoothing the fabric of her sundress over her curves. When she didn’t answer me, I applied pressure.

“Noemi,” I growled as I ran my lips from her jawline to her ear. “If you could have anything, have me anyway you wanted me, what would you want?”

My heart rate sped up.

Control. It was an illusion. I gave her a glimpse of it. She held all the power now. I’d do whatever she said. It would be my interpretation of her words, but she had the power to make me into any man she wanted because I was that lost, that desperate to make this easier on her. Yet, she remained silent, shaking her head as I pressed her.

“No words, Noemi?”

I gripped her thigh as my hand circled her ponytail. Fine. She wouldn’t talk to that man when he tried to be nice to her, then she’d have to talk to the other one.

I gripped her hair, angling her head to the side as my lips roamed her neck.

“You need to tell me what you want, baby girl.” I nipped her earlobe and she jumped, her hands reaching for my shoulders. “Or you get nothing.”

Her mouth parted as the protest leaped into her eyes. Her tongue darted out to moisten her lower lip. Temptation filled her eyes along with indignation. I kneaded the curve of her hip, pushing her lower body against mine, grinding her against me, teasing both of us.

“I won’t fuck you,” I grated against her mouth, “unless you tell me how you want to be fucked.”

She swallowed, her body slackening in my grasp. The harsher I was with her, the more she needed me, relied on me.

And used her power to slay me.

I lifted my head to look at her as she finally started to speak.

“But I don’t want you to fuck me,” she whispered as our eyes met.

“Liar,” I accused as I started pulling the length of her dress up to her waist.

“Dante—”

My hand dipped past the edge of her panties. I could tell from the feel of the lace that her denial was a lie.

One corner of my mouth ticked upward with satisfaction. She squirmed as I drew one finger over the fabric covering her pussy, already damp and moist for me. I stroked her, watching her eyes close and her mouth part.

---