Wicked Surrender (Regency Sinners)(19)

“My most immediate sin was to spend the night in bed with a man who is not my husband,” she came back impatiently.

Dante’s mouth tightened. “A night you indicated you had every reason to regret even while it was happening.”

That was not how Bella remembered it. Yes, the passion had been raw, even primal, and definitely overwhelming. But she had also felt more alive than she ever had before. So aware of every inch of her own body. Of the pleasure so generously given to her by Dante’s mouth and hands.

It was not until Dante had returned to the adjoining bedchamber that she came back to her senses enough to realize he had not taken his own pleasure. Nor, shamefully, had she offered to give it to him.

That she did regret. Not only would it have pleased her for Dante to have reached a climax, but she would very much have enjoyed seeing Dante less controlled and controlling as he writhed in the throes of ecstasy. Knowing she was the one who had taken him there would have been exhilarating. Instead of which, he had remained in the adjoining bedchamber until he believed she had fallen asleep.

“You cried.”

Bella frowned. “I cried for many reasons, Dante, some of which you could not possibly understand. But none of those reasons was regret for what we had done together.”

“No?” he challenged.

“No.”

“Explain.”

Bella turned to stare out of the window of the carriage, but she did not see any of the surrounding countryside, her thoughts and vision all inwards.

She told the truth when she claimed to have been happily married to Jeremy. She had not only learned to love her husband, but she had also liked him. Jeremy had been all that was amiable and kind. Always.

And last night, Bella had realized the love she had felt for her husband had been more that of a sister for a brother rather than the deep and exciting love she had always felt toward Dante. He was certainly not amiable or kind, or comfortable and companionable to be with. Dante was ruthless and demanding. And yet she felt more alive in his arms than she ever had in Jeremy’s. Had felt more passion in a single night with Dante than she had in the six years of marriage to Jeremy.

The disloyalty of that, the realization that by being with Dante at all she was in effect saying goodbye to Jeremy and her marriage, was one of the reasons she had cried during their lovemaking last night.

Another had been her wild and uncontrolled response to that lovemaking. At that moment in time, Dante could have done anything with and to her. He had done exactly as he wished with her.

She had not been tied or restrained in any way, and yet Dante had held her in place, on her back, her arms raised above her head, her legs parted to the pleasure of his mouth. He had done so by the sheer force of his will alone.

The mild explosions of passion she had occasionally experienced during lovemaking with Jeremy did not compare to the ecstasy she had known last night with Dante.

“You will answer me.” Dante moved so that he was seated next to her, his hand curling about her jaw as he forced her head to turn so that he might look at her. “You will answer, Bella.” His green gaze glowered into hers.

Bella ran the tip of her tongue across her lips. “This domination you exhibit was…exciting when we were making love last night, but I will not be ordered about in the same way during the hours of daylight.”

Dante studied her through narrowed lids. “You thought my method of lovemaking exciting?”

A frown creased her brow. “How can you doubt it?” She had been as pliable as silk to his every demand, had allowed him liberties no other man had ever taken.

“You cried,” he repeated harshly.

“And you did not take your own pleasure.” She felt her cheeks warm as she voiced her disappointment.

Dante released her to lean back against the seat, lids once again narrowed. “That displeased you?”

“I should have thought it might have displeased you more than it did me,” she snapped her exasperation.

Dante felt some of the tension ease from his body. But not all: his already engorged cock had grown even harder. “You could always rectify that omission now.”

She blinked. “That would please you?”

He felt the dampness of pre-cum leaking from the slit of his cock. “It would please me very much.” He held his breath as he waited for her to answer.





Chapter 7


His breath left him in a hiss when Bella gave an abrupt nod before removing her bonnet and cloak and then sliding from the seat to kneel on the floor of the carriage in front of him.

“Place your hands on the seat beside you,” she instructed huskily. “There will be punishment if you do not do as I ask when I ask it,” she added with uncharacteristic sternness.

Dante had wondered if her first instruction had merely been an accidental parody of his own the night before. Bella’s second command, exactly the same as his own, word for word, confirmed it was not an accident at all. “What sort of punishment?”

She glanced at him from beneath lowered lashes. “I shall squeeze a certain delicate part of your anatomy until you do as I ask.”

Good God, Bella really was playing him at his own game. A game, a power, he chose to exert over another because it increased his own pleasure as well as their own. It was not a dominion he had ever allowed a woman to have over him.