Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 40015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40015 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 133(@300wpm)
Dante had been silent for too long, studying Luca and me. My heart twisted. I might be asking too much of my dark protector.
After what felt like agonizingly long minutes, he finally stepped toward me, closing the distance between us. Two fingers touched beneath my chin, lifting my face to his.
“I would do anything for a chance to touch you one more time,” he said with the weight of an oath. He looked to Luca. “She belongs to you. If we do this, know that I don’t have any right to claim her. I understand that.”
My heart ached for him. Dante had done terrible things, but he wanted to atone. He deserved to be loved.
I placed my hands over both their hearts, connecting all three of us. “We do this as equals, or not at all,” I insisted. “Everyone has to consent. No more violations. Never again.”
Luca placed his hand over mine. “I love you far more than I hate him,” he promised.
“I don’t hate you at all,” Dante told Luca, his green gaze steady and shockingly earnest. “I wasted years loathing you, all for the sake of my revenge. I’m paying for my sins now with my broken marriage: the union I destroyed before it could even begin.”
My eyes burned. All Dante ever wanted was a family of his own, someone who loved him. Someone he could protect, the way he couldn’t protect his brother. I understood him now: the depth of his loss and his anguish.
Drawn to ease his pain, I went up onto my toes and pressed a kiss to his lips. He didn’t respond to my tenderness. Instead, he grasped my shoulders and forced me to turn to Luca.
“Hold her.” His command was cold and clipped, and he immediately stepped away from us.
“Where are you going?” I tried to reach for him.
He narrowed his eyes at Luca. “I should’ve expressed myself more clearly: restrain her.”
“Dante!” I protested, even as Luca grabbed my wrists, shackling them in one hand and pinning them at the small of my back.
“You wanted to play a game, little bird,” he said, still cool and aloof. “And I make the rules.”
Luca pulled me close and nuzzled my neck. His rough stubble lightly scraped my sensitized skin, making my nerves crackle and dance.
“I’ve got you, kitten,” he murmured, a threat rather than a reassurance. He nipped at the shell of my ear. “You’re at my mercy now. Isn’t this what you wanted?” he crooned. “To be helpless? To be used by two men?”
“No,” I countered breathlessly. “Not just by two men. By you and Dante. You’re the ones I need.”
“You like how he makes you suffer,” Luca said, the words heated with lust rather than jealousy. “I could never hurt you like that, but watching you come apart is the most breathtaking thing I’ve ever seen. That’s what you need from him, isn’t it?”
I bit my lip and nodded. There was so much more to it than simple physical connection, but now wasn’t the time to confess my intense feelings for my men. They’d agreed to share me, and I wouldn’t risk shattering this chance for us to be together as equals, even if I would be forced to submit in the end.
I craved the release that only Dante’s sadism could give me, and I needed Luca’s unconditional, fiercely possessive love more than I needed my next breath.
Dante tossed something on the bed and returned to us. I tried to crane my neck to see what he’d retrieved from his closet, but his hulking body blocked my view.
“Give me her wrists.”
Luca didn’t flinch at the order. He released me from his firm hold, and Dante immediately grasped my hands in both of his. He directed me to twine my arms behind Luca’s neck, and I happily leaned into my husband’s sculpted chest.
Something soft and silky wrapped around my wrists, drawing them together and binding them in place. Shocked, I tried to pull away, but I was shackled to Luca, locked in an embrace.
“What are you doing?” I demanded, but there was no force behind the words. My voice shook slightly, and my knees grew weak at my predicament. Lust began to pulse through me, tightening my nipples so that they peaked against the thin cotton shirt that had provided me with modesty before my men had started toying with me.
Dante ignored my question and addressed Luca again, cold and utterly composed. Unfeeling.
“Hold her hips. Don’t let her feel your cock. She hasn’t earned it yet.”
My belly flipped, torn between alarm and desire.
I hated the emotional distance between us, but I was just as helpless as Luca had said. I was powerless against them, and they’d barely begun to torment me.
A shudder of trepidation raced through me, an erotic anticipation that made my fingers flex and my toes curl.