Page 42 of Lies like Rubies, Part One

“Why dinner?” I asked.

“Have you eaten this evening, kitten?” he asked, his eyebrow raised in a sharp arch.

My answering smile was wry. “No, I haven’t. Thank you.”

He nodded to someone behind me, and a moment later, a waiter dropped a platter with cured meats, cheeses, and olives between us. I reached my hand forward to serve myself, only for Dante to slap it hard enough to sting. Rubbing the tender flesh with confusion, I scanned his face, looking for a hint as to what he might have planned in such a public venue.

“You eat what I give you, slut,” he said, his voice grave. I pressed my lips into a thin line and nodded. He slathered a thin slice of baguette with whipped cheese and then held it in his fingers, waiting with an eyebrow raised.

I closed my eyes, veiling my frustration. Dinner with Dante was already a public declaration. To allow him an act so intimate as feeding me, the entire goddamned community would have wedding bells in their daydreams. One more humiliation for me to suffer when he left, though I supposed that was his goal.

I leaned forward and parted my lips, biting the crostini in half, then sitting back in my seat, never taking my eyes from him.

“Good girl,” he rumbled, and I laughed.

“Good girl, like I have any choice in any of this.”

“Don’t you?”

Lord, Dante was breathtaking when he smiled.

He held the other half of the crostini, waiting for me to lean forward and eat it out of his hand. I did, taking the tips of his fingers between my lips and sucking as he pulled the bread away. He hummed and then prepared another for me.

We ate like that, saying little through theantipastoand theprimo. He fed me as we stared into each other’s eyes, as if this were a romantic date, and I weren’t there under duress. Fire raced through me each time our hands brushed and every time I licked his fingers, each touch stoking my desire, despite my nerves and my anger. The puddle between my thighs grew as his gently degrading care melted away my resentment and fear.

Halfway through thesecondo, I shook my head. “Enough. I’m full.”

Dante narrowed his eyes and looked at the remaining food on the plate. “You’ve barely eaten.”

“Appetizers, a first course, and now a second? Dante, I’m stuffed.”

He put his fork down and raked his eyes over me. “How can you be full?”

My breathing sped as a tendril of panic worked its way through me. I might have escaped the gilded cage my family wanted to lock me in, but if Dante wanted to control what I ate, was the sexual bargain I’d struck any better?

“Let’s compromise on dessert,” he said, his voice sliding over me like rough velvet.

“Why are you taking care of me, Dante?” I asked him.

“Because it’ll hurt that much more when I’m cruel to you later.” He waved down the waiter to take our plates away, and soon, a plate of cannoli sat in front of me.

I tried not to see the symbolism in the creamy filling surrounded by a crisp round shell.

“Eat,” Dante ordered, handing me a spoon.

I dipped it into the dessert, surprised he wasn’t feeding me. As I raised the spoon to my lips, he leaned forward. “Imagine your lips wrapping around my cock instead of that spoon, your lipstick smeared and tears streaming down your face.”

I gasped. When I would have set the spoon down, he wrapped his fingers around it. “Take another bite, kitten.”

He kept his voice low, but anyone passing by could hear the filthy words he muttered to me as I licked the thick cream off the spoon.

“Imagine the bite of my belt across your ass, stinging and burning, as you lay tied up on my couch, your wet pussy glistening and exposed, aching with a desire you’re too humiliated to admit.”

I shuddered and swallowed, my nipples hardening as his words washed over me. I closed my eyes against the embarrassment of his words, and how easily my body responded to him.

“Imagine my cock hot and hard, nudging into you, rubbing up and down your clit, teasing you, never quite giving you what you need.”

I shifted in my seat, the ache between my thighs growing unbearable, my lack of panties heightening my arousal.

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