He was white. So very white, like snow. His hair, the thin, fine linen shirt he wore, the perfectly pressed slacks, all white except for his skin. It was all warm and tan. His face was all hard angles and sculpted planes, and she could detect the solid outline of his muscled body beneath the gauzy material of his shirt. There were lines around his eyes, deep grooves that were the wages of experience, age, and a seemingly hard won battle with time.
The sleeves of the shirt had been rolled up over his forearms in that casual GQ chic sort of way, revealing thick-veined and well-muscled forearms.
Her eyes were drawn to the gold watch at his wrist—heavy, obviously real gold, but understated.
His feet were bare and she found that endearing somehow.
The smile he had for her when he saw her, it was like turning on the sun.
He was richer than Midas, handsome, and powerful. Why had he picked her again? Not that Marchessa was unaware of her own charms, but he could literally have any wolf he wanted.
He looked so virile.
Maybe that was the problem.
All show and no go.
She remembered what Cassius said about him being impotent. That seemed like such a terrible shame and waste of beautiful male.
Cassius.
Guilt weighed heavy and ugly on her shoulders and she resolved that she wasn’t going to see Cassius again. Unless Antony turned out to be an Alphahole. But Marchessa didn’t think so.
While she knew it was wrong to judge a book by its cover and any other number of clichés, with wolves, they wore their inside beast on the outside.
He smelled like…hers.
She’d never scented anything like it. Warm, masculine, and something familiar. Something… much like Cassius. They had to share blood.
She knew there was something more here, but she couldn’t put her finger on what.
He swept her up in his arms and kissed both of her cheeks—very continental. Marchessa found that she didn’t mind the embrace. He was so strong, she liked the feel of him under her hands, the way his muscles bunched as he lifted her, the material of the shirt, the warm sun shining down on them.
She inhaled deeply, making sure that the scent was coming from him.
“Marchessa, it is good to see you at last.” The timbre of his voice was so deep, there was something so intimate about the way it reverberated through her.
Not good to meet you, good to see you. “Do we know each other?”
He smiled. “We do, although I doubt you’d remember.”
She scanned through her memories, fast forwarding, rewinding, trying to place him before he could tell her.
“You were very young. Ten or twelve, perhaps? You came with Vittorio to the Great Council when it was held in Kansas City.”
“I’m afraid I still don’t remember you. My mother had just been killed.” She didn’t want to remember anything about that time. She took her pain and heartache and locked it away, just as her father had taught her.
“I recall.” His eyes swept over her with a fondness. “You walked into the Council and proclaimed that when you were Alpha, all the wars would end.”
She blushed as the memory slammed home. “I can tell you exactly how many lashes I got for that when I was taken back to the hotel room. Twenty. My father was humiliated.”
“No Alpha wants to see his time end.”
“What do you mean?” As if Marchessa could ever be a threat to him as a child.
“Marchessa, you told our nation’s leaders that you had a plan, didn’t approve of the way your father was running things and how you were going to change it. That wouldn’t have been considered anything but precocious on a child who didn’t have it within them to do it. But you did. It was rather magnificent.”
She still didn’t understand. “I know I’m an Alpha bitch, but—”
He laughed. “No, Marchessa. I’ve waited a long time for someone like you. Your pack isn’t weak. That’s not why you could dominate them if you chose. It’s your birthright. Your father didn’t listen to me then and betrothed you to Stefan. The only males who would be a worthy mate for you, a true Alpha partnership would be from my pack or my brother’s—the Remus.”
Alpha partnership. That wasn’t something she’d ever heard of before and she wanted to ask him more, but she wasn’t sure this was the time.
“Partnership?” she repeated.
He smiled at her again. “Yes, partnership.” He repeated it as if it were a new word in a strange language. “I know it must seem foreign growing up as you did with everyone you met trying to crush that out of you. But it’s why I offered for you.”
“If I’m such an Alpha, why didn’t you seek my permission first, instead of my father’s?” Let him smooth-talk his way out of that one, if he could.
“Because I know your father. If he thought this was a match you’d made yourself, how likely would he be to dig his heels in? You said no more war. I, too, long for the days of no war. No more senseless loss of life among our nations.”
Oh, damn. He said all the right things. He was almost perfect.
Her eyes raking over his hard body, it made her sad that such a male was unable to partake in pleasures of the flesh.
This was the mate she’d been looking for. The kind of male who valued her strength, might even seek it out. Why, oh why was it a double-edged sword?
Or a no-edged sword, as the case happened to be.
She found a smile for him. “I will admit that when I found out I’d been traded for a diamond mine, I was less than pleased.”
“And now?”
“Now, maybe it won’t be so bad.”
Those damnably sexy lines around his eyes crinkled with his amusement. “A ringing endorsement from my bride. Not so bad. Meh.” He shrugged, his gestures exaggerated and very Italian.
She laughed again. No, this wasn’t at all like she’d thought it would be. Marchessa could build a life with him, a future where she might even find some joy.
Too bad she couldn’t stop thinking about Cassius and the way his tongue felt as he laved her flesh, his big cock thrusting in and out of her making her see stars even when her eyes were closed.
Damn, damn, damn.
“I can’t say I’d have been thrilled about the trade if I were you either.” He shrugged again.”
“Having met you in person, you seem so reasonable. You have to admit, purchasing one’s partner doesn’t really sound at all like a done thing in this day and age, you know?”
“The old ways have to be honored by those who keep them.”
“I don’t want to keep them.”
“Okay, we can work on that.”
“Really?” She arched a brow. She didn’t quite believe him, but on the plus side, it was obvious he wasn’t just saying that to get in her pants.
“Yes, really. Things change. Times change. Adapt or die, it’s a pretty basic survival of the fittest sort of ideology.”
“I don’t think I can process all of this.”
“Safer questions, then.” He grinned. “So have you been here before?”
“Bora Bora? No.” Marchessa was still smiling as she shook her head.
“What made you choose it then?” The way his eyes searched hers, he seemed genuinely interested.
“It was the most outlandish thing I could think of. The most exotic.” She shrugged. “I suppose that must seem very naïve to someone as worldly as you.”
He reached out and pushed a strand of her blond hair behind her ear. “There’s nothing wrong with naïveté and innocence. Whoever gave you that idea is sadly misinformed. It’s quite something to find wonder in the world around you, to keep seeking out new experiences boldly and without reservation.”
She was reminded of the way that Cassius spoke about watching the dawn. Why couldn’t she get him out of her head? So what if he was a good lay. That’s all he’d been. Her last rebellion.
If what Antony was selling was more than a bridge in Brooklyn, she had
nothing to rebel against any longer.
“And do you still find wonder in the world?”
“I do. I look for it. Otherwise, these long years would be more of a curse than a gift.”
“And how many years are there, Antony?” She got the impression it was more than what she could fathom.
His gaze met hers and he had the same eyes as Cassius—deep, dark, ancient pools that had seen the passing of centuries.
“That is something I will only tell you when we’re married.”
“It’s a secret?” Her brow furrowed.
“Very.”
“I’d like to ask you something personal.”
He nodded for her to continue. “That’s why I’m here. So we can do this on neutral territory.”
“This? Is it to be an interrogation?”
“Of sorts. For both of us,” he admitted.
“I’m good with that.” Again, what he wanted from her was completely reasonable.
“What was your question?”
“Have you taken a mate before?”
“I’ve been married before. Many times.”
She wanted to press him for details, but the eternity in his eyes was suddenly more stark and haunted. Marchessa noticed that he didn’t say mated, but married. She couldn’t stand that look, that pain. “Well, you should know I haven’t been married or mated, but I did practice a lot.”
Shit. She shouldn’t have said that. Not because of what she was admitting to, but because that brought up a topic she wasn’t ready to discuss. She liked him. She wasn’t trying to take jabs at him.
Of course, he was an Alpha grown. He didn’t need to be coddled by the likes of her, but she believed if they were going to have a partnership, that they should be “safe” with each other.
He laughed. “As any Alpha bitch worth her salt should. It would be expected of an Alpha male, why not an Alpha female?”
Marchessa liked that he laughed so easily. She thought that a male like him would carry the weight of the world on his strong shoulders, but he didn’t. She liked that about him too.
Suddenly, she remembered him from the day at the Great Council. He’d watched her with such amusement and she hadn’t been able to understand why what she said was funny to him. As the years had passed, she’d forgotten everything about the event except for the twenty lashes for her insolence that had torn open her back.
“That’s a question I’ve asked many times.” She looked down at her hands. “I remember you now. I remember how it seemed you were laughing at me.”
“I wasn’t laughing at you, but at them. At the handful I knew you’d become. I offered for you then.”
“It was right after that I was betrothed to Stefan.” She shook her head. “My father.” Marchesssa sighed. “But what’s done is done. Would you have given me the freedom I’ve had thus far? Such as it is.”
“Within reason.”
She arched a brow, waiting for the caveman Alpha bullshit, but it was different. He wasn’t trying to control her.
Instead, he explained, “Well, you have to understand. You’d have become a known part of my pack and my family. With my resources, it would make you a target for supes and naturals alike. So, you’d have had some restraints. Like bodyguards, security teams. That’s not negotiable. It wouldn’t have been then and it won’t be now.”
“See, you explained why to me. I understand that. I accept that. It’s logical. I don’t need to do the opposite of what you say just because you say it.”
“Tell you weren’t like that, say, six years ago?”
She laughed again. “Fine. You got me there.”
“And no amount of punishment could change your mind, could it?”
Marchessa pushed back the dark shadows that crept forward. “No. No it couldn’t. I wouldn’t let him master me.”
“That’s because he didn’t earn your submission.”
The brow crawled back up. “Excuse me?”
“If you choose to go through with this marriage, we’ll have a partnership, but a boat can have only one captain. I won’t demand anything of you, but I hope you’d give it. I hope I’ll have earned your faith in me as a male, as a leader, as an Apha.”
Damn it. She hated how reasonable he sounded. She didn’t want anyone to be the captain of the ship but her. Only, she didn’t. The idea of captaining her own ship was terrible. She didn’t want that weight, the expectation. Deep down, she wanted to turn it over to someone else. She’d just never trusted anyone with that before.
Marchessa didn’t want to talk about these things anymore. They were too close to the feelings she didn’t want to have, didn’t want to deal with.
“You said if I choose to go through with the marriage. Is saying no even an option? Wouldn’t you take my father to war when he didn’t return the diamond mine you paid for me?”
“That wouldn’t be very honorable of me, now would it?”
“Neither would me backing out this betrothal.” As much as she wished she could say otherwise. Antony wasn’t horrible and she was pretty sure he was a good male. It was just, it would’ve been nice to choose her own mate.
“Your father and I made that deal. Not you and I, and I well know it. It shouldn’t be incumbent on you to bear the brunt of another’s choices. Truthfully, Marchessa. If you don’t want this, I’ll not try to force it on you. Your father can keep the diamonds.”
She exhaled heavily, her stupid eyes watering with stupid salt. It had to be the salt in the air. It couldn’t be that she was so moved she wanted to cry. But relief washed over her like a balm for all the things that hurt and burned.
“Then he’d just try to force me to marry someone else, unless I want to challenge him for Alpha. And I don’t.” She sank down and dipped her toes in the water.
“I don’t want you to have any misconceptions about what this will be like.” He sat down next to her. “I want you to make your choice based on all the information I can give you.”
“So, what? We’re going to spend however long here before going to Roluscany? What happens when we arrive there?” She was thinking about Cassius.
“I trust you’ve had a candid discussion with Cassius?”
Almost as if he knew what she was thinking.
She exhaled heavily. “I did. And I honestly can’t see how that’s okay with you.”
He gave her a grim smile. “I’d never curse anyone to live as I must.”
“But—”
He held up a large hand to silence her. “It’s not something I wish to discuss right now. It pains me. Embarrasses me.”
Marchessa would’ve pushed if not for that last part. Would’ve brought up all the advances in modern medicine, her willingness to try them with him, should they marry. But she didn’t want to shame him. Not after he’d been so kind to her, so understanding.
“I would, of course, claim any children as my own.”
“I don’t mean to push the issue, but does that mean that you’ll never hold my hand, never touch me, never kiss me?”
“That’s why Cassius.”
She recoiled. “No. A kiss can be an expression of affection. It doesn’t have to be about sex.”
“As a bitch in your prime, you wouldn’t be able to help yourself.”
“Yes, I would. I can help myself all to hell and back. I may wear an animal skin, but I have higher reasoning. Do it. Kiss me now.”
“To what end, Marchessa?”
“So we can see what it will be like between us. I don’t want an emotionless marriage. If we’re partners, I want all of it. Sex is incidental.”
“Until you can’t have it. I can tell you what’s going to happen. I’ll kiss you softly, this thing gentle and new. Then it’ll spark something dark, something dangerous and we’ll crash together like titans at war. It’ll feel really fucking good, until you wonder why I can’t close the deal. Then there will be shame and blame on both sides and it’s a nasty proposition best not touched.”
“I ca
ll bullshit.” She couldn’t help it.
His arms came around her as she fell into him and it was Marchessa who kissed him. It wasn’t salacious by any means. It was a simple press of lips, hers to his. She felt the same spark as when she’d kissed Cassius, the same fire. But she didn’t surrender to it, she knew she’d already pushed hard enough. Instead, she pulled back then.
“That wasn’t so terrible was it?”
Part of her expected him to be angry, but he wasn’t. “You just want what I’ve told you that you can’t have.”
“Of course. That’s the human side of our nature. All of us. If I told you that you could have one part of me, but not the other, you’d set out to have it.”
“You are correct on that, my dear.”
“So, verdict?”
“On the kiss?”
“Yes.” What else? He was avoiding answering her.
“I envy Cassius.”
She sighed, not caring at all for that answer.
But he wouldn’t let her turn away. Instead, this time, he was the aggressor. He turned her in his arms, his grip like iron, and kissed her again. Hard and fierce. His fingers on her face were strangely gentle, such a contrast to the ferocity of his kiss.
When he released her, she was breathless and dizzy. She found herself wondering if he made out with her cleft the way he did her mouth that they would have no problems at all in the sex department.
Of course, she couldn’t imagine always giving head and never being able to get any of her own direct satisfaction out of the act. Pleasing her partner was all well and good, but if she didn’t get hers, she couldn’t see how she’d be up for that as a long-term solution.
But neither was sharing her mate.
“Liked that, did you?”
“You know I did.” She looked up at him, breath still rushed and her heart beating a ragged staccato rhythm.
“And with Cassius?”
Princess of the Pack Page 3
