Dante hummed.
For a moment she couldn’t think straight. Just looking at him was enough, though his strength went a lot further than power and muscle. He was a good man. He was an exciting man. He was a gaucho. He was a working man, who was entirely the opposite from the glamorous playboy the press liked to portray.
‘You wore my earrings,’ he said, viewing her through narrowed eyes as he straightened up.
‘For you... For good luck.’
Leaving the stall, he bolted the door and turned to face her.
‘And I brought you this.’ She tossed the stone he’d given her and with whip-fast reflexes Dante caught it in his fist as it spun through the air.
‘Now what?’ he murmured, staring at her darkly as he tightened his big hand around it.
‘Now you kiss me.’
They came together like a force of nature. This was where she wanted to be. She belonged in Dante’s arms. He laughed deep down in his chest, as if the same feeling had hit him in the same moment, and then he backed her steadily towards a bed of hay.
‘At last,’ he ground out. ‘Though this wasn’t quite the setting I had in mind.’
‘Where better than here?’ she argued, breathlessly stripping off his clothes.
It was like a race to remove the last barrier between them, and Dante devoured her mouth as he lowered her onto the hay. There was no need to say anything. A look conveyed all they needed to know. This was the man she knew and remembered. This was her friend, the man she had always trusted, always loved. This was redemption. This was the end of a very long journey. This was coming home. Stroking her hair, Dante brought her close to drop a kiss on her collarbone and then her neck. He laughed softly when she whimpered with pleasure.
Karina was the only woman who could tame him. She was his equal in every way. She was the only woman he could think of spending his life with. There was only one question remaining now. ‘I love you,’ he whispered.
She stared into his eyes as if she needed to be absolutely sure, but then she smiled. ‘I love you too.’
He brought her into his arms to promise her that he would give her babies, and instead of flinching from him in doubt and fear she looked into his eyes with trust and laughter. ‘Right now?’ she asked him, smiling into his eyes.
‘Why not now? Whatever fate and Dante Baracca dictates,’ he teased her gently, and then, kissing her, he soothed her as he led her at his pace into an erotic world.
He was determined that everything would be perfect for Karina. She deserved nothing less. She’d known violence and grief, and had no reason to trust a man. It was up to him to prove that he was different. There was still a glimmer of fear in her eyes. Until she tried it, she didn’t know how it would work out. He understood her concerns, and was going to prove that she was normal in every way. Even now, when passion had never run higher between them, he was going to give her all the time she needed to discover that he was right. She tensed a little when he moved over her, and again when his hand found her. She was ready in every sense, and that was all he needed to know.
She flinched when Dante eased her legs over his shoulders. She felt so exposed, so vulnerable, and was worried that she might still disappoint him, but he was endlessly patient, and so sexy that she couldn’t overlook the fact that her body was entirely on his side. Positioning her, he cupped her buttocks and when he dipped his head it was to give her pleasure on a scale that didn’t allow for rational thought. She could only feel—wave after wave of incredible sensation.
Lifting his head, he said wryly, ‘Why are you waiting?’
‘I’ve got no idea,’ she admitted, realising she was clutching handfuls of hay in her fists, as if that could stop her falling off the edge.
‘Then don’t,’ he advised.
Dante didn’t give her a chance to argue, and she cried out with shock at the intensity of feeling. He had to hold her firmly. She was wild with pleasure. She was exultant. She was free. She was also breathless and moaning out her approval of everything he did, as Dante made sure she enjoyed every last second of release. But it was more than that, she reasoned as he brushed kisses over her face and neck to soothe her down. They were well on the way to rebuilding everything they’d lost.
She made no pretence of holding back a second time. Dante had taught her something else about her body today. The deeper he led her into his sensual world, the more she wanted him, and the more sensitive she became. Lowering her legs from his shoulders, he drew her into his arms and lay with her in silence for a while, but the instant his hand found her, she closed her thighs around it to increase the pressure and the pleasure, as she worked with him, moving rhythmically and steadily towards her goal.