Star of Wonder (4 page)

He swung his head to the other side, sucking her in the exact same spot, now digging one hand into her hair in a fevered search for her hairpins. Through the haze of her senses, she heard the pins hitting the wall, the lamp, the furniture as he hurled them away. When her hair finally tumbled free against her shoulders, he pulled back and stared, his eyes sharp as switchblades on a moonless night.

“Goddamn it.” He spoke it from locked teeth. “You’re so beautiful.”

The reverence in his tone was like a physical caress. Oh, how easy it would be to believe the feeling in that soft baritone, to think this really meant something to him, to actually open that emotional shell at which he tapped.
No way
. Not happening. The words that ached for release would stay locked in her psyche.

Beautiful? Look who’s talking! I want to look at you all night, Dante Tieri. I want to fly in the dark skies of your eyes and cling to the forest of your hair. I want to explore every curve of your lips, feel the rasp of each hair in your beard. I want to get lost in you; would that be okay?

Instead, without a word, she slid fingers up to the first button of his luxurious white shirt and slipped it free. A pulse jumped beneath his beard. His dark gaze never left her. She pulled the next button out, then the next. A sigh bloomed in her throat, but hitched as she parted the fabric to reveal the deep bronze of his chest. She pressed her fingers there, wondering if his taut, muscled skin was as hot as his gaze and his kisses.

The second she made contact, a harsh noise burst past his lips. He ripped off the rest of the shirt himself, buttons flying as he surged forward and captured her lips again. But this time, he didn’t stop his momentum. Celina stumbled back, erupting with a mewl as she gave in to his assault, until he caught her without a break in the kiss or his stride. Her breath left her as he rammed her against the wall. She came off the floor with his action, and her pumps fell free. Dante still didn’t stop, plunging over and over into her mouth as he fitted the juncture of her thighs perfectly along the ridge now bulging in his. He ground their bodies together like two waves of kerosene, colliding into her with fluid wildness, their clothes like the kindling on their explosion. Celina gripped his shoulders once more, dimly justifying the action as an attempt for balance, until her senses cried bullshit on her logic. The feel of his delts and traps, flexing as they gripped her, stole her breath as much as his erection at her core.

She was so mesmerized with exploring him, she didn’t feel one of his hands move to the zipper of her skirt and tug it down. Only when his long fingers dived underneath, around the curve of her buttock, did she cry out in stunned awareness.

“Oh! Ohhhh…”

“Fuck.” His hand spread, digging into her flesh, imprinting her skin with dark fire. “You feel so good…” He adjusted her weight so he could get his other hand in. “If you want me to stop, say something now, stellina. Otherwise—”

He’d paused as if to consider the finish of it, and that was a moment too long. Celina grabbed his head again and slammed his mouth down to hers in a new crash of passion. “Shut up,” she finally told him, twining her breath to his with it. She heard his teeth lock from it, and watched his eyes go a deeper shade of black, thick ink.

“Are
you
ordering
me
, Lieutenant?”

Though his challenge was dark as his stare, she still expected a little uptick of his formidable mouth. When it didn’t come, she realized he was pretty damn serious about this. And she realized, with a jolt of amazement, that she wanted him to be. The shock wave resonated through every cell of her body, most deeply in the secret layers now taunted by his fingers from the back and by his hard, pulsing pressure from the front. It felt like a tiny taste of what this could be, this vanquishing he hinted at, a battle and surrender and victory all in one night. It was clear the man went after his one-night stands with as much fervor as his company mergers. And tonight, if only for a few hours, she yearned to be desired that much. She wanted to be earned. She longed to be won.

That didn’t mean she’d make it too easy.

“Perhaps I am, Mr. Tieri.” She gave him the reply with a defiant jerk of her chin. “I’m comfortable with orders. Are you?”

His jaw worked back and forth a little. “That’s a nice piece of lip, sweetheart, considering your back’s to the wall with my hands up your skirt.”

“Your hands aren’t
up
my skirt.”

“Well. Maybe your skirt”—he set her down so he could shove the cloth down, hooking her panties along with it—“needs to leave this conversation.”

She gasped as the cool night air hit her exposed skin…and the moisture of her intimate folds. “Okay, that was an interesting order.”

“It wasn’t an order.” He didn’t give her time to generate a comeback, tugging her free from the clothes puddle, then slamming an urgent kiss to her again. “
This
is. Walk to your bedroom. Take the rest of your clothes off as you do.”

The command turned her senses into another spirograph. The blatant carnality of it, along with the new steel in his tone, made her confused and aroused—and stupid and bold. “And is my voice is supposed to leave this conversation too?”

For the first time since she’d met Dante, there was a flash of color in his gaze. Holy shit. The man had deep, dark, incredible violet eyes.

In the next second, she also realized that the appearance of those purple flecks didn’t exactly equate a good thing.

That regal hue also stood for royally ticked off. He proved as much by hauling her over again, smashing her back against his chest. His breath was a heated invasion in her ear as he worked the buttons of her jacket free with vehement twists.

“Two minutes ago, I told you to speak up, stellina. You kissed me instead.” He jerked her jacket off her shoulders, then shunted it down her arms. One of his hands stayed down there, landing sharp smacks to each of her ass cheeks. “Now move!”

A million retorts rocketed to her lips. Yet she couldn’t set any one of them free. Her mind careened, trying to process what had happened. Had he really just
spanked
her? No. Seriously,
no
. She didn’t do lusty. She didn’t do wanton. And she sure as hell didn’t do spanking.

But every inch of her backside was still ablaze from the blows. Every speck of her skin was a bloom of delicious warmth. And God help her, every inch of her pussy had gotten even more soaked, crying out in need for more…oh God, more.

Ohhhh, crap. Dante Tieri had just spanked her, then told her to lead him to her bedroom. And she was obeying. Gladly. Hurriedly. Trying to get her shirt and bra off as she did.

She was in trouble.

Chapter Five

You’re so in trouble.

The refrain pounded at Dante at least a hundred times as he watched what his spankings did to her—but worse, as he endured what
that
did to
him.

First, her face had exploded in astonishment. Well, no shit. That was the expected part. But her attitude after that…
Hell
. He still stared, half-stunned, as her gape mellowed to reveal dilated eyes and a mouth parted in abject arousal. Not that she let him look at all of it for long—because she turned and actually conceded to his order, hurrying down the hall with her hands fumbling at her shirt and her ass, bright pink and gorgeous, swaying at him.

The ass he’d just whacked without a sneeze of approval from her.

Shit.

Oh, yeah. Trouble. Him. Same boat.

“Shit!”

He emitted it under his breath, mixing it with his confusion and anger. All right, sure, he’d spanked women before—right after they’d begged him to, and usually right before a few other “hits” of things became more important. He’d never used the dynamic as real discipline, especially on a woman who’d already been pawed by barbarians tonight. Especially on a woman like Celina Kouris, period. She was an officer of his country’s military, for fuck’s sake. Couldn’t she pull out some regulations manual, cite his ass for even touching her, and have him tossed in a damn cell?

The woman didn’t look like she was considering that at the moment.

“
Shit
.”

He repeated it in a whisper as she stopped long enough to wriggle out of her shirt. She glanced back at him and licked her lips uncertainly. He gave her a small growl of approval, barely holding back from touching her again, as she rounded the corner into a dark room at the end of the hall.

When he entered the room, his eyes took a second to adjust. But only a second.

Thanks to the moonlight streaming through the shutters, Celina was the first thing illuminated for him. And after he saw her, the only thing he really cared about.

“Oh, stellina.”

Now she really did look like a star come to earth, her nude perfection bathed in silver beams, her hair cascading around her shoulders, her eyes huge and deep. He didn’t move for a long moment, for he wasn’t stupid enough to think he’d ever get the gift of this sight again. She was perfect. So goddamn perfect.

She was also back to being visibly nervous. And lippy.

“Are you just going to stand there all night?”

He pressed his lips together and crossed his arms. Her feisty forest-cat thing, despite her obvious anxiety, was a massive turn-on. Not that he was going to share that. Not that he didn’t crave to tame that wild creature this very second.

“Are you in a hurry for more orders?”

She jabbed her head forward with incredulous eyes. “More? Okay, wait. We’re in here now, so why—”

“What would you do if I gave you more?”

Her little gasp matched a similar sound from his psyche. What the hell? He was a pretty passionate lover, but this was a path he’d never traversed with a woman.

Yet with
this
woman, it felt so achingly right.

“I—I don’t know.” Celina averted her gaze. But she shifted her thighs, and her areolas went deep red and tight around her erect pink nipples. “Your orders…they make me feel—”

“I know how my orders make you feel.”

Again, she looked like she was going to slap him for that. But again she sucked the reaction back and simply looked to him. Nearly as if depending on him.

“Come here, Celina.”

His voice now seemed to belong to another man, though it was definitely his guttural baritone wrapped around the words. When she stood but inches from him, he delved a hand into her hair and tugged her head up. He heard the little stop in her breath and wondered what that had done to her breasts. With his other hand, he rubbed a testing thumb across her nipple. Through it all, Celina remained exquisitely still, communicating to him only through the tiny cries that vibrated up in her mouth.

“Do you want to touch me too, stellina?”

She gave a tiny dip of her head and a sweet, acquiescing utterance. Without a word, with his lips still brushing hers, he pulled her hands up to his chest. The sound of her aroused moan was an aria. The feel of her fingers threading through his springy chest hair…heaven. A harsh sound erupted from him, and he filled her mouth with it as they fused into another kiss, tangling hard with each other now—but not hard enough that her hands didn’t scratch their way down over his abs, scrabbling at the buckle of his belt, then the button of his pants.

Dante groaned. Beneath the fabric, at which she fumbled, his cock pounded like a tethered bronco. He broke the kiss to toss his head back as she slid the zipper down the rise of his torment, and then—

“Next order,” he said, grating it. He refastened a hand into her hair and loved it when she sighed in response. He pulled harder and said, “Kneel for me, stellina. Then take me—damn!”

She dropped to her knees and pulled his cock into her mouth with a sweet, deep moan.

“Celina! Fuck!”

His thighs trembled, and his ass clenched as the velvet of her mouth surrounded his burning length. With his hand still at her scalp, he gave in to the temptation to guide her pace, shocked when she let out a tiny mewl of arousal in return and pumped more feverishly. He couldn’t take his eyes off the sight of her doing this to him. Her lips, so rosy and full, stuffed with his shaft. Her fingers, slender and graceful, braced to his thighs. Beyond that, he got peeks of her incredible breasts and then the dark caramel curls that led exactly where he longed to taste next.

He finally pulled her from him with a reluctant yank. She started to stand, but Dante whirled her around and pressed her to the bed, her stomach flat against the white spread, her feet still on the floor. Her graceful ass was perfectly positioned in front of him.

“My turn,” he declared, running his palms over both sides of her delicious globes. He hunkered behind her on the floor and brought both hands up to her thighs. “So fucking gorgeous,
tesorino
. Now spread them for me. Spread your legs wide. Dig your toes into the carpet. You will
not
move unless I tell you to. Are we clear?”

“Uh…uh-huh.”

His wildcat sounded more a kitten with that, making the blood pound harder in his cock. Holy God, what her obedience was doing to him…was doing
in
him. As she opened her legs for him, obeying his directive to the letter, something surged in his mind and all five senses, something he’d never experienced in all his years of sexual adventures. It was heady, powerful—and when he saw everything it did for Celina too, it became outright magical. What the fuck had he stumbled into? He had no guide map, no sounding post. He’d never tried any of this with a woman before. But Celina Kouris, in all her headstrong, goddess-level, don’t-fuck-with-a-navy-girl glory, was definitely unlike any woman he’d ever gotten naked with before.

He wanted to give her the moon.

Starting right now.

With that determination, he lowered his head to the moist folds between her legs and tasted her pussy for the first time.

Merda
. She was pure ambrosia. A tangy, amazing cocktail of her essence and her arousal, flowing to greet him as he lapped at her with the flat of his tongue, then nipped her with teasing bites. But he was on a mission. He knew the sweet nub of flesh he wanted to get to, and he sought it out with careful stabs, seeking until he found—