Page 92 of Promised to the Don of Naples
"I did leave it."
"Brava twice today."
He smiled quietly. He set the dagger on his nightstand, beside the pistol that was always there.
Ivory handle next to steel.
"Luca. Come here."
He came.
Not in a hurry. With that calm of a man who knows he has the whole night, and who knows that I know it too. He laid me back slowly, his big hand under the nape of my neck, and held himself over me without weight, propped on his elbows.
"Bella mia."
"Sì."
He kissed me. It wasn't the kiss from his room after the attack, with blood on his shoulder and adrenaline in both of us. It was a different kiss, a kiss with time in it.
His hand moved down my neck, along my collarbone, found the string of pearls I'd forgotten to take off before bed.
"Take them off," I murmured.
"No. Leave them."
Madonna, I thought. Leave them.
He drew the strap of my nightgown down off my shoulder with the tip of his finger. He kissed where the strap had been, then the other shoulder, then the curve of my breast through the fabric, slowly, his mouth warm through the white silk.
A shiver ran down my spine.
"Sit up. I want to be on top."
He looked at me, and did exactly what I asked—sat back against the leather headboard and brought me up onto him by the hips. The nightgown rode up on its own; he pulled it off over my head in one motion and tossed it somewhere on the floor.
His shirt had been open since before. The muscles of his chest, the Latin words over his heart. I pressed my palm there, felt the ink under his skin.
"Bella mia."
"Wait."
I stayed like that for a few seconds. My hand open on his chest, my knees on either side of his hips, the pearls still at my neck, my hair falling forward.
Four weeks until I become this man's wife on paper. And tonight I'm already becoming his in another way.
I kissed the tattoo. Right over the letter M.
He let out a breath. It was a short sound, held back, but it was him letting go of his control.
His hand moved up my back, slowly, found the clasp of the pearl necklace, and closed around it without opening it.
"I told you to leave them," he murmured.
"You did."
He pulled me down. Mouth on my mouth, with more weight now, with more hunger. His hands moved down my waist, found the curve of my hips, and settled me against him.
I swallowed hard. When he was inside me, I closed my eyes.
