Nexus

by C. L. Parker

  “You do realize I still won, right? And I do intend to collect my winnings, but I suppose you can have the night off.”

  Tori laughed and elbowed him in the ribs before resting her head on his shoulder. If only he knew what a freak she really was, he’d stay as far away from her as he could get.

  She almost told Dante she didn’t want him to sleep with her that night so that she could dream and confront him for the threat he made toward Dante. No way was she about to let him get away with that. But she knew that dream would also come with a nightmare, and then she’d have to deal with the demons as well. Besides, all she really wanted was to crawl into bed, lay her head on Dante’s chest, and let the cadence of his heartbeat lull her off to a nice, safe, and restful sleep.

  By the looks of it, she’d have other opportunities to confront him, and when she did, he was in for one hell of an asskicking.

  When Dante woke the next morning, Tori was lying on her side with her ass pressed against him, just like she had been the morning before. His hand was cupping her breast, just like it had been the morning before as well. She had great breasts with just the right amount of firmness, perk, and shape, and they fit perfectly into the palm of his hand. And she wasn’t wearing a bra.

  But feeling up her breasts wasn’t the reward he had been playing for last night in the cemetery.

  Dante kissed along the top of her bare shoulder as his hand slid over her ribs and under the blanket to travel down her stomach. Tori stirred, a quiet purr of satisfaction breaking the silence of the room, but he knew the moment she was truly awake when the tips of his fingers slipped under the waistband of her sleep shorts and she froze. What she didn’t do, however, was make a move to stop him.

  “Dante . . . what are you doing?”

  He nuzzled her ear, nibbling at the shell. “Collecting my reward.”

  “Which is?”

  “I think you know . . .”

  He kissed the sensitive spot just below her ear and slid his hand further into her pants and under her panties. She was well-groomed with a landing strip of soft curls that he was tempted to pet like a cat, hoping to hear her purr in response. But there wasn’t going to be enough room for him to maneuver his hand in her current position, so he pulled back a bit and nudged her onto her back.

  Tori’s eyes were closed tightly and she lay straight as a board with her arms folded up to her chest and her hands fisted under her chin. That would never do.

  “Relax, Angel. I’m going to make you feel good.”

  When she showed no signs of being any more at ease, he kissed her lips softly. She kissed him back, but there was tension in her lips. Dante stilled his hand and fingers, going no further, until he felt her mouth soften beneath his. Gradually, her body began to relax as well, her arms unfolding until one lay across her stomach and a hand was pressed to his chest. He kept kissing her, hopefully distracting from what he was about to do until he was sure she would be receptive.

  Stroking Tori’s soft curls, he applied just enough pressure to let her know he was there without freaking her out. With each downward stroke, he inched closer and closer to the apex of her folds, increasing the intensity of the pressure in his fingers bit by bit to tease her. When she lifted her hips minutely, he knew she was ready for more, so he slipped the tip of his finger into her wetness.

  Tori whimpered and arched her back while sucking his bottom lip into her mouth. Good Lord, the woman had no idea what that did to him. She was soft as silk beneath his fingers. So warm and inviting. He moved back and forth in long strokes, eliciting a soft moan from the innocent vixen lying beneath him, willing and open to his manipulations.

  Dante broke the kiss and nuzzled her ear again. “Mustn’t wake the house, Angel. Daddy might not approve of what I’m doing to his little girl.”

  “Don’t stop,” she whispered.

  “Oh, I have no intention of stopping until you ask me to.” With that, he pushed his fingertip into her opening, causing her to voluntarily spread her legs for him and eliciting a twitch in his pants.

  Anticipating yet another moan, he covered her mouth with his, taking the sound into himself as he pushed deeper. She was so tight, so warm, so wet as he moved in and out of her that he couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to be inside her. That drove him crazy. He couldn’t take it anymore. He broke the kiss again and buried his face into her neck, breathing in and out deeply.

  Tori answered with another soft moan to his ear and a seductive roll of her body.

  “Bloody hell, Angel . . . You have no idea what it’s doing to me to hear those sounds coming from you because of my touch.”

  He moved in and out of her slowly, loving that she picked up on his rhythm and moved her hips in time with his strokes. His palm massaged the bud at the apex of her folds, and she pulled his shoulder toward her so that she could kiss it with an opened mouth. When she had worked her way to his neck, she sucked lightly, her hot breath fanning out across his skin.

  Dante increased his paced, delving deeper until he found the roughened patch inside her and began to stroke it.

  “Oh, God . . .” Her fingers gripped the top of his arm, her words muffled against his skin as she rolled her hips toward him. “Don’t stop . . . Don’t . . . stop . . .”

  Jesus, not only did he not want to stop, but he wanted to strip them both of their clothes, spread her legs wide, and thrust his cock inside her. But this wasn’t about him, and they weren’t ready for that yet. Not to mention it was obvious by her tightness that she had never been with a man before. Dante didn’t know if that made him want to go slower or faster with her to ensure he was able to claim her as his own before any other man could.

  He wanted her. He wanted her so bad it literally hurt. It suddenly became imperative that he bring her to orgasm sooner than he had intended so that he could jump in the shower and relieve his own aching need. Dipping his head, he took the peak of her breast into his mouth through her thin shirt. She arched her back, but he wasn’t satisfied. He wanted the whole thing.

  “Pull your shirt down for me, Angel.”

  Tori did as he asked, yanking her top down to expose her breast to him. He sucked the tip into his mouth and pushed another finger inside her, stroking her sweet spot with even more purpose. Her nails dug into the skin of his arm, and she writhed beneath him, her breathing becoming heavier and heavier, until finally, she let out a moan that he covered once again with his mouth. Tori went stiff and her inner walls pulsed as a gush of warmth rushed forward. Dante kept moving back and forth inside of her as she rode out her orgasm, wanting to prolong it and refusing to stop until it had abated and her body relaxed.

  He pulled back and looked down into Tori’s flushed face. The satisfied smile she wore was more beautiful than any he had seen on any other woman, and her teal eyes were shining so bright it made his chest swell with something unfamiliar. Oh, God, he wanted her for his own. But would she want him, too?

  “That was so . . . incredible.” She let out an exaggerated breath as her head lulled to the side to look at him.

  Dante pulled his hand out of her panties, tempted to taste his fingers, but not wanting to embarrass her, either. He covered her breast with her top and dipped his head to kiss her sweetly on the lips.

  “Every morning of every day, you could wake up to that. All you need to do is ask.”

  Tori giggled, not taking him seriously. “How, exactly, was that a reward for you?”

  “Bringing you pleasure is my reward, Angel, but I seriously need a cold shower now before we head to the training room for our morning session. Not really the workout I’d prefer, but it’ll be enough to exorcise some . . . frustrations.”

  Dante kissed the tip of her nose and then pulled the cover back to climb out of bed. Yeah, he was raging hard all right. Best not to let her see that.

  “Dante?”

  He looked over his shoulder at her. “Hmm?”

  “Thank you.”

  “No need to thank
me, Angel. Like I said, every morning of every day. Just ask.”

  He winked at her and then headed for the bathroom.

  Shortly after lunch, Dante had suggested Tori decide what they would do for the day. He had been noticeably exhausted and maybe even a tad bit sore after their morning training session—even with her bruised ankle, she’d still managed to kick his ass—so she had chosen a relaxing day in the park. Tori thought he might have even looked relieved when she had suggested it, the poor baby, but she had managed to keep her giggle to herself and had hidden her smile well enough that she hadn’t bruised his ego any more than what it had been. Although she couldn’t understand how on Earth his ego could be damaged in any way, shape, or form after what he had done for her before the training session.

  So, she found herself sitting on a blanket under a beautifully aged London plane tree with her back against its flaking trunk while Dante’s long, very masculine body was sprawled out on his back with his eyes closed. The sun was high in the sky, and his skin glowed like a shiny surface reflecting solar rays. Her Guardian eyes had become used to seeing his brightness and were unaffected, but it made him no less stellar by definition. He really was a gorgeous man. How in the world could he have still been single?

  On several occasions, she caught herself staring at his long fingers, and blood rushed to her cheeks as well as to other parts of her body with a yearning to feel them on her again.

  Dante was the first man who had ever made her really feel sensual. There was no denying the urge Tori felt to run her fingers along the strong line of his jaw, the corded muscles of his neck, over the hard peaks of his chest, and down the punctuated divots of his abdomen, but she managed to keep her mind and her hands preoccupied. The gamut of emotions that overwhelmed her when she thought about all she had learned over the past couple of days, including the night before at the cemetery, needed to be recorded in the pages of her journal. Purging them from her system was the only way to maintain an element of control over the intensity of her thoughts.

  Tori wrote about her excitement that she and Dante had found the key to keeping her nightmares at bay. She also expressed how pissed she still was at her parents for the secrets they had kept, when they had always preached to her about the ramifications of doing so. And then there was her confusion over the feelings she was having for Dante, and how miffed she was about the way he had treated her when she last saw him.

  With Dante in the picture, she couldn’t even see him anymore. That was just fine with her after his behavior, but was that the cause of his outburst? Did he think she’d betrayed him? She decided it didn’t matter because whether that was the reason or not; he’d had no right to threaten Dante. It wasn’t like any of this was his fault. Hell, Dante didn’t even know he existed. And how had he appeared to her when she hadn’t been asleep in the first place?

  As she thought about the man from her dreams, she couldn’t help but feel like she was being watched. Like he was out there hiding behind some tree or bush, studying her with accusing eyes. It was all in her head. Logically, she knew that it wasn’t possible, but he had never really seemed like a figment of her imagination. Still, he had only ever been in her dreams, so it didn’t make sense that he was literally there. Had last night only been a delusional mishap as well?

  Dante sighed and turned toward her. “I’m going to fall asleep if we don’t do something.”

  “What would you like to do, Dante?”

  His signature smirk came out and she knew he was about to suggest something inappropriate. “We could snog . . .”

  Tori laughed to herself and shook her head. She knew him too well already. “You’re so predictable.”

  Dante grabbed her by her good ankle and pulled her until her back was to the ground and he was hovering over her. “Is this spontaneous enough for you?” he whispered into her ear and flicked his tongue across her lobe before sucking it into his mouth.

  She giggled and shoved at his chest, but he held her close, nuzzling her neck and peppering her skin with tickling kisses.

  “Stop it, Dante,” she said, laughing even harder while smacking at his back with her journal.

  “Mmm . . . yeah, baby. I like it rough.”

  He growled and attacked her neck again. Tori managed to push him off while still laughing, and sat up again, straightening her clothes. Dante reached for the journal she had laid beside her.

  “Are you drawing me again? Let me see.”

  She stopped him before he could take it, and his hand recoiled with a pitiful pout on his lips.

  “Yes, but I have no intention of you ever seeing the drawings.”

  “Aw, come on, Angel. Why can’t I see them?”

  “Because this journal belongs to me, Dante. Which means it’s off limits to you. My personal thoughts are inside here, and they’re not meant for anyone else to read.”

  Dante grinned. “I think you write about the dirty thoughts you have about me in there. I hope you at least mentioned the amazing orgasm I gave you this morning, because that definitely bears repeating.”

  Tori wrapped the leather strap around the journal to seal it shut and leaned forward, placing a chaste kiss to his lips.

  “That’s for me to know and you to never find out,” she told him, and then stood.

  He flopped onto his back with an exasperated huff. “You don’t play fair.”

  “Oh, and you do?”

  He bit his lip and shrugged. He knew damn well what she was talking about. He took liberties with her that no other man ever had or ever would get away with. And he hadn’t an ounce of remorse for it.

  Tori offered her hand to help him get up. “Come on, Romeo, let’s go for a walk. Maybe that will ease the temptation.”

  Instead of accepting her help, Dante folded his arms until his hands were pointing toward his shoulders on the ground and then kicked out, landing on his feet to stand before her.

  Tori pulled her hand back and rolled her eyes. “You’re such a show-off.”

  “That was nothing, Angel. I do my best stunts in the bedroom.” He waggled his brows. “I believe you experienced one of them firsthand. This hand, as a matter of fact,” he said, holding up said hand and wiggling his fingers. “Maybe if you play fair you’ll get to see the rest of the amazing feats I can accomplish.”

  Tori threw her hands up into the air and let them fall back down to her sides. “Okay, tell you what . . . why don’t we just skip the walk and go back to your bedroom instead where you can have your way with me and steal my virtue so that we can go ahead and get that out of the way.”

  Dante cocked an eyebrow. “Steal your virtue? You’re a virgin?”

  Tori scoffed and crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh, as if you didn’t already know that.”

  He hooked his finger through one of the belt loops on her pants and pulled her against his chest.

  His voice was low enough for only her to hear, seductive enough to drive his words home. “If I were to ever be fortunate enough to be your first, it would not be in my bedroom. I couldn’t bear stifling those sounds of ecstasy ripping through your body, and I’d rather prefer to keep them to myself without the whole house hearing them. It would be somewhere much more secluded so that I can make love to you without reservation. And I can personally guarantee it would be the most memorable experience of your lifetime.”

  Dante took her hand. Angling his body to shield his movements from any onlookers in the park, he placed her palm over the bulge in his pants, watching her to gauge her reaction. She wore a poker face, but only on the outside. On the inside, her stomach fluttered and her mouth went dry.

  “This is what the thought of being inside you does to me. Just the thought.”

  Tori wanted to pull away because that was what she should’ve done, but she didn’t. Instead, she allowed him to move her hand back and forth over his length, marveling at his size while knowing the thought of making love to her had caused that effect. The world around them melted away and her h
ead swam with his words, wondering what it might be like to be with him in that way.

  He leaned in and nuzzled her ear. “Does that sound like something you might like, Angel?”

  His breath was hot against her neck, his masculine scent potent and intoxicating. His body was hard and deliciously warm as he flattened his other hand against her lower back and drew her closer. She wanted to turn into him, to offer her mouth to his until he kissed her so hard she was drunk from the taste of him, but that nagging sensation that they were being watched tugged at the corner of her mind, so she pulled away instead. The second she broke contact, she looked over her shoulder, feeling like he was out there somewhere taking note and plotting ways to avenge his jealousy.

  “I guess not. My apologies.” Dante hung his head in either embarrassment or shame, probably a little of both.

  Tori couldn’t stand to see him that way. “Dante, don’t apologize. It’s just that . . . well, we’re in a public park, and I’m not all that big on PDA. I feel like someone’s watching, that’s all.”

  “Right then. Why don’t we just take that walk and forget all about it for the time being?”

  Tori giggled when he turned his back on the rest of the park patrons and adjusted himself in his pants.

  “If you had any idea how painful it is to walk with an erection the size of Italy, you wouldn’t be laughing.”

  Picturing someone trying to fold Italy in half and stuffing it down their pants made Tori laugh even harder, but Dante draped his arm over her shoulder and nudged her along until they were finally walking. After a moment or two, Tori finally caught her breath and her giggle fit subsided.

  “Quite finished now, are you?” Dante asked, and Tori nodded. “Good. I’m glad to know my uncomfortable predicament amuses you so.”

  “I’m sorry, but you brought it on yourself.”

  “I’ll have you know that since I first laid eyes on you, my cock has been in a permanent state of arousal. I’m sure that has nothing at all to do with the way you tease me.”