Inferno's Kiss (34 page)

“Neither one of them will be happy that we’ve kept this from them. Lysander will understand why, but will Dante?”

Atia’s question made Marcus wince. She was right. He wasn’t sure how his protégé would react to the news. He shook his head and rolled his shoulders slightly.

“Like Lysander, he’ll be angry, but I think he’ll understand the reasoning for keeping them separated. I imagine his reaction will be similar to Cleopatra’s when you told her about Gabriel and me.” The instant she paled, he regretted his choice of words. He quickly reached out with his thoughts and touched her cheek. “Her reaction was a normal one, Atia. She will forgive you. I’m certain of it. Her anger had already begun to fade the day I gave her permission to remain at the
Absconditus
.”

“Something you shouldn’t have done,” she said tightly. He stiffened at the rebuke in her voice, and she sighed. “I’m sorry. You were right to let her stay, but I don’t like her being in Rome. I didn’t like it when Lysander chose her for his team, and I don’t like it now. It’s not safe for her. Have you not heard anything at all from Dante?”

“Nothing.” He rubbed the edge of his jaw with his knuckles. “His
Praefect
called the other day to discuss a minor business issue. When I asked about Cleopatra, all Cornelia said was that she was proving a challenge for Dante.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Atia said with a small smile. “Cleo follows orders, but she doesn’t hesitate to question them.”

“Then she’s her mother’s daughter.” He laughed softly. “I can remember a number of times you balked at doing something I told you to do.”

“That was because you weren’t used to someone questioning you.” Her smile widened. “Do you remember the day I found that Sicari dagger in the dig near Rennes-le-Château?”

“It wasn’t Sicari in origin,” he growled with irritation. She laughed.

“Yes it was, but you couldn’t admit that I was right. You still can’t.” Her gentle chiding made him release a disgusted grunt as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“Will it make you feel better if I admit that I’m not always right?” The question made her gape at him in surprise. He felt a flush of heat rise in his face. “It’s not easy to say that, but I’ve made plenty of mistakes. One of them was letting you leave me that night at La Terrazza del Ninfeo.”

“As I recall, I didn’t give you a choice,” she said quietly. “I had to return here for a Council meeting.”

“Would you have stayed if I’d told you I loved you?” The question made her eyes darken with an emotion that gave him a small sliver of hope.

“I . . . I don’t know.” She averted her gaze and shook her head. “That whole night was . . . it was like a dream. None of it seemed real.”

“You said once it was a mistake,” he rasped as he remembered her words they day he’d found out about Cleopatra.

“
No
,” she exclaimed as she quickly faced him. “It gave me Cleo, and it . . . it . . .”

“It what,
mea amor
?”

It was easy to define the emotions emanating from her. Confusion, sadness, and fear. The fear startled him. She had nothing to fear from him, and he gently reached out with his thoughts to touch her mind. She didn’t retreat from the mental caress. If anything, she opened up herself to his thoughts, welcoming him. Still, the vibration of her fear drifted into his mind until he realized what she was frightened of. She was afraid to trust him.

His mouth went dry at the hope taking root in his heart. He immediately pulled back, aching to probe deeper and reassure her but knowing he couldn’t force her to come to him. And he didn’t want her like that anyway. He wanted her to come to him with a willing heart because she trusted him and loved him.

The moment she took a hesitant step toward him, his heart slammed into his chest. Fear wasn’t a foreign concept to him. He’d experienced it more than once, but he’d always been in control and able to defend himself. This was completely different.

For the first time in his life, he was afraid he might actually lose everything that he held dear. He tried to swallow the knot squeezing his throat shut, but he failed. Barely able to breathe, he watched her take another step toward him. Her fingers lightly touched his cheek, and a shudder ripped through him.

Christus
, he’d never been so uncertain of her as he was at this moment. After all they’d been through, would she risk loving him again? Slowly, he bent his head, allowing her all the time she needed to pull away from him. When she didn’t move, his lips caressed hers in a featherlight kiss.

“Tell me what that night meant to you,
carissima
,” he whispered as he breathed in the sweet floral scent of her.

“Everything,” she choked out. “It’s the only thing that’s comforted me when I’ve been alone in the dark, wanting you beside me.”

“Does this mean you’re willing to grow old with me?” He remained still as he waited for her answer.

“Yes.”

Her reply rocked him to the core, causing his hands to tremble as he grasped her shoulders and pulled her into his arms. Every part of him was shouting with a jubilation that was almost painful in its intensity. He’d won.

She was his once more, and this time he wouldn’t give her up. Not for anyone or anything. Hunger etched its way through him, hammering away at him as he crushed her mouth beneath his. The sultry taste of her on his tongue made him hard in a second.

Jupiter’s Stone, he needed—wanted to show her how much he loved her. Her mouth moved heatedly against his, and a harsh rumble rose in his chest as her hand brushed across his stiff cock. Instantly, his hands grasped her buttocks and nestled her tight against his erection. Her mind touched his with an erotic image of her kneeling at his feet, sucking and licking him until he wasn’t able to hold his seed anymore. He groaned at the titillating picture in his head, while his tongue tangled with hers in a hot, fiery dance that made him ache for release. She rubbed against him with her hips, the friction of the material between them making him ready to take her here and now, and to hell with the possibility of someone discovering them. With a quick twist, she was out of his arms.

“
No
. Not here,” she said in an achy whisper that betrayed how aroused she was.

“Then where?” He glanced pointedly down at his cock then smiled at the flush filling her cheeks. “You’re beautiful,
mea amor.
”

“And you’re blind as a bat,” she whispered as her cheeks grew even darker with color.

“I’ve always been blind where you were concerned,
carissima
.” His chest tightened as he cleared his throat. “And if we don’t get somewhere private, I’m likely to be blind to everything except making love to my wife.”

The corners of her pink mouth tilted upward as she took his hand. It was a tantalizing smile, and the desire shimmering in her gray eyes dragged the last bit of air from his lungs. He watched in silence as she quickly shut down the computers and secured the
Tyet of Isis
. In less than a minute she was in front of him again, and with a gentle tug on his hand, she pulled him out of the research lab. He went willingly. Content to follow her wherever she went.

Chapter 17

ATIA trailed her fingers down the middle of Marcus’s chest as she stared into his blue eyes. The love she saw there made her heart skip a beat with the joy that had enveloped her since earlier in the morning. Over the course of the last few hours they’d talked and made love as they rediscovered each other. In the shower a few short minutes ago, they’d bathed each other with a tenderness she couldn’t remember ever sharing with him.

There was a new awareness in the way they touched, as well. Every touch echoed with a silent understanding that they’d lost so much and their time together now was that much more precious.
Deus
, she’d never thought it possible to ever be this happy again. And then there was the passion. The memory of how his mouth had nibbled, suckled, and teased her sex made her want to do the same for him.

Straddled across his thighs, she smiled as his body flexed with tension the instant her thumb slid casually over the tip of his erection. Blue eyes darkening with desire, he released a harsh breath when she dragged her forefinger down the hard, thick length of him.

Leaning forward, Atia pressed her mouth to the thin line of hair that dove downward to his erection. A wet droplet from the tip of him dampened her nipple as her breast brushed against him. Slowly, she slid her lips down to the small indentation just above his thick length. Every inch of him was beautiful.

Her movements unhurried and deliberate, she blew a small breath over his erection before her mouth trailed across his skin to the spot where his hips joined his waist. The sharp breath he drew in made her lift her head to look at him. Need hardened his features as he reached for her. She easily evaded his grasp and quickly turned her head to take him into her mouth.

The swiftness with which she did so pulled a low cry from him. The way he arched upward into her mouth sent a rush of pleasure through her. Heat and a light taste of salt caressed her tongue as she swirled it around his hard length. Another groan rumbled out of him as his hands slid through her hair, and he murmured something incoherent. Releasing him, she lifted her head and smiled at the expression on his face.

“Are you all right, Eminence?” She used the title in a playful manner, and he groaned as she cupped him and rolled his sacs around in her hand.

“
Christus
, woman, are you going to make me beg for it?”

“Actually, I like the thought of that very much,” she whispered.

“It’s not in my nature.”

His dark growl made her laugh, but a moment later she gasped with surprised pleasure as a powerful, invisible force lifted her up and he thrust upward into her. Desire coursed its way through her veins as her body welcomed his. A shiver of delight raced across her skin as she saw the triumphant smile on his face. He knew exactly how much she’d enjoyed his masterful behavior. Hunger glittered in his eyes as he reached out and rubbed his thumb against the sensitive flesh of her sex. The touch made her jump, and a wicked smile curved his mouth.

“Now who’s on the edge of begging, Madame Consul?”

“You’re not playing fair,” she gasped as he increased the pressure of the touch while slowly pressing deeper into her.

“Shall I stop?”

“No,” she whispered, rocking her hips against his.

He matched her slow rhythm, one hand pressed into her breastbone as he gently forced her backward to enhance her pleasure. A relentless pressure began to build in the spot where they were joined at the hip. With each stroke of her body against his, she slowly increased the pace until she rode him with a wild abandon that answered the fevered pitch of the passion burning between them.

The first ripple of her orgasm caught her by surprise, and she cried out his name. His fingers biting in her hips, he forced her to ride him at a blistering speed as one violent tremor after another crashed through her. The explosion of ecstasy spiraling its way through her body left her trembling as he shouted with pleasure and came inside her. For a long moment they shuddered against each other while the aftermath of their combined pleasure ebbed away.

Atia sighed with contentment as she unseated herself from Marcus and shifted her body off his to lie beside him. His arm curled around her shoulders to pull her into his side as his mouth brushed against her forehead. Eyes closed, she murmured a soft sigh.

“Is that a sigh of happiness or satisfaction?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Both.” She kissed the edge of his chin then came up on one elbow to stare down at him with a smile. “I don’t remember you ever being quite so insatiable.”

“I’m making up for lost time,” he said in a dark, velvety tone that sent a lazy shiver down her back. An invisible warmth stroked the side of her breast before it moved to brush across her stiffening nipple.

“Stop teasing,” she admonished him with a mock glare that made him chuckle.

“That’s rather difficult when I’m presented with two such delightful opportunities.”

This time he stretched out his hand to lightly circle the tips of each breast. She laughed and playfully smacked his hand away. A quick glance at the clock said it was past one, which meant they’d spent half the day rediscovering each other. She scooted off the bed and moved toward her closet.

“Where do you think you’re going?” he growled.

Powerful, invisible hands gently dragged her back to the bed, where she tumbled on top of him. Hands braced against his solid shoulders, she strained away from him and shook her head.

“In case you’ve forgotten, we still have a puzzle to solve, and I wanted to get Lysander to come look at the document right away.”

“A puzzle that’s gone unsolved for almost two thousand years can wait another day,” he growled.

“It’s not just the document. There are other business matters to attend to.”

She brushed her mouth over his before she escaped his grasp and went to her closet. Her fingers stroked soft silk as she hesitated to voice what the other matters were. Breathing out a quiet, resigned sigh, she pulled her robe off a hanger.

“I need to talk to Ignacio and ask him to reconsider his resignation.” She bit down on her lip when Marcus didn’t reply, and she slowly slipped into her robe, afraid to turn around.

“Do you think it wise to ask him to come back as your advisor?” he asked with a hint of jealousy in his voice.

Atia immediately whirled around to reassure him. At the sight of him, she drew in a deep breath. He was magnificent. Stretched out across the bed, he was lean, hard muscle. Time had barely touched him. It had only made him more beautiful. She hesitated for a moment, cognizant of the sensitive aspect of their conversation.

“Ignacio has been my eyes and ears in the Order since Cleo was little. He always knows everything before it happens, and that kind of help is irreplaceable.” She kept her tone gentle and matter-of-fact as she tied the belt around her waist. “Without him, my leadership of the Order will be much more difficult.”