“I’m not yours.”
He gripped her head and pulled her up. She could have attacked him at any minute but as his lips crushed against hers, she didn’t want him to stop. She’d been forced to know and understand sex, but no man had ever touched her. Heat spread between her thighs, traveling up her body, and as he nibbled on the corner of her mouth, she couldn’t help but moan. The pleasure was instant as it worked through her entire body.
He pressed her against the table and within seconds, he had her lifted up, legs spread.
“We shouldn’t be doing this,” she said.
“I don’t care. You’re mine, Isabella.” His hand dropped from her neck, going to the curve of her breast. The tips of his fingers lightly stroked over her nipple. It wasn’t like she needed much assistance as pleasure rushed through her.
She couldn’t help but spread her thighs a little wider, wanting him to take her. What would it be like to finally feel a man’s dick between her spread thighs?
As he explored her mouth, his hands drove her crazy. They only stayed on her breasts, but it was enough. Just as she was about to beg him to do more, a sound of a throat being cleared filled the air.
In her sudden jolt of awareness of Henrietta, she spilled some food onto the floor.
“I think I need to take a walk out in the garden,” she said.
Without looking at her fiancé or her cook, she quickly rushed outside, needing the fresh air on her skin to cool her down. Damon shouldn’t be able to get to her like this. Small touches shouldn’t make her lose herself and yet, that was exactly what they were doing.
As she made it to the gardens, she quickly removed her shoes and closed her eyes, feeling the grass beneath her feet.
The weather was set to be another scorcher and it wouldn’t be long before the ground was as hot as the day. She’d enjoy the peace now, even if her body was a mess with need.
****
“You’re not going to scold me?” Damon asked.
“Why on earth would I do that? You forget, boy, I’m a grown woman. I know lust when I see it. I have also been with Isabella Drago since she was a little girl. For the longest time, her only responsibility was to be said girl. Then her brother died after they took her mother, and she was thrust into a world that few can survive. I’ve seen the cruelties of men, and to know she is still one of the sweetest people around, that takes a lot.”
“Sweet?”
“You only see what Isabella wants you to see. Her training says for her to keep a great deal locked up inside, and I can’t say I blame her. This is a horrible world. She deserves to have happiness and to have a man who’ll help to guide her now that her father is gone.”
“Do you agree with what Philip Drago did?” he asked.
Her lips were pursed. “I know it made Isabella grow up. I will see if what he did was for the good of his daughter, or if it will kill her faster.” Henrietta started to clean away the dishes.
His cell phone rang, giving him the perfect opportunity to leave.
“Tell me what you found out,” he said.
He listened to his man detail everything little thing about Randy and Isabella’s secrecy. After hearing what she kept secret, he was a little surprised, but Henrietta’s words came back to him. His betrothed was sweet. With how sore his body was from last night, he’d beg to differ, but then again, she was putting on a show for him.
Disconnecting the call, he made his way into the garden, remembering Randy’s hiding spots and indeed, found her near the rose bushes.
She stood, stroking the petal of a red rose.
“Be careful with the thorns.”
She smiled. “I am. Do you like roses?”
“I don’t give flowers much of a thought,” he said.
“No. Killing. Maiming. That kind of thing?”
“All the time.”
“Is that what you had to grow up with? I know my brother did but Dad always tried to give it a mix so he wasn’t completely overwhelmed with the job and responsibility of taking over as capo.”
“Considering your father was a capo and had a fierce reputation, he raised you both differently.”
“He only did what he did because he loved my mom. She was his very reason for breathing some days. Not long after she died, he became … someone else. It was a short time, but it was like he suddenly realized the monster still lived within him, and her children wouldn’t want to see that side of him.”
Damon vaguely recalled a massacre at the hands of Philip Drago Sr. It showed that even as he was grieving, and how he didn’t always follow in the Family’s footsteps, he still was a force to be reckoned with.