I jerked and squirmed, but I couldn’t free myself. Damn, he was strong.
“Stop it, little kitten. You’ll only hurt yourself,” he whispered, the warmth of his breath on my skin sending a shiver through my body, the scent of his cologne filling my nostrils more than it should have with my rapid, agitated breathing.
“I’m not alittle kitten. Let go of me, you son of a bitch.”
“Why would I do that?” His low, masculine voice, now tight, sent another shiver down my spine. “The last thing I want to do to you is let go…but I will…if you apologize.”
My head lashed toward him. “Apologize? To you?”
“Yes, little kitten, to me. To the guy you insulted, kicked in the nuts, tried to slap and kept being rude to for no reason at all.”
“No reason at all? All your blunt sexual comments and your unsubtle attempts to get into my pants—”
“While I do want to fuck you so much,” his hazel eyes twinkled with a fiery gleam, “I want more than that from you. A lot more.”
The way he crassly said he wanted to fuck me did infuriate me as always, but my body didn’t enter the usual angry defensive mode whenever I was in a similar situation. The reaction I had was so different, more primal, more responsive.
I was too focused on—and astounded by—the sudden hardening in my nipples and the throb between my thighs to register the rest of his words. Then I blinked, gaining clarity. “What the fuck are you saying, Domenico? Just let go of my arms.”
“Apologize.”
“Or what? There’s nothing you can do to me. If I just yell for Tino, you’re a dead man.”
He smirked, unfazed by my threat. “I thought you didn’t need a man to protect you.”
I clenched my teeth. “I don’t, and if you don’t let me go now, you won’t like my next move.”
“You won’t like mine either. At least, at first.”
Nipples growing harder or not, fuck this asshole. My back to him, I leaned forward to gain enough force when I reverse headbutted him in the nose. But I only hurt my neck as the back of my head hit the air. Somehow he anticipated my move and dodged it. Abruptly, he twirled my arms and yanked me up out of the pool. Then his fucking hands were on my waist, lifting me up and setting me on his lap.
I gasped, my eyes so wide they hurt. He was grinning in response, grabbing hold of my wrists again and wrapping them behind his neck.
“What the fuck? Get me off.” I squirmed.
“Oh, I’d love to.”
“I didn’t mean… Get me off you!”
“Apologize, little kitten.”
I slapped his back as many times as I could, sliding myself off his thighs, but he was much stronger than I was, and the more I moved, the more he pulled me into him. Onto his growing hardness.
I gasped again. The size of his erection was incredible, not that I was experienced enough to judge, but he was…huge by my standards. He stared at my lips and my heaving chest. Then his tongue darted out, licking his lip, as his mouth inched closer to mine. “God, you’re so beautiful. You’re driving me crazy, little kitten.”
He was beautiful, too. I had to give him that. Thick waves of smooth dark hair. Sharp bone structure that gave his face a perfect aura of scary and sexy. Lips meant for kissing and whispering sweet nothings any day all day. Hazel eyes fierce and dangerous like a hungry beast yet mesmerizing with an out-of-this-world gleam.
If my life had been any different, any better, I’d have loved and welcomed the attention from a man like Domenico Lanza, but I knew better.
As terrible memories flashed by, suddenly, the hardness stiffening under me felt like a threat. My breath caught, and my body shook with rage and pain and fear.
My face must have changed, must have showed what I felt, because his expression changed from hungry with lust to dark with concern. He leaned back, and his hands left mine to touch my face, pushing my hair off in a tender caress before they landed gently on my arms. “Hey. I’d never hurt you. Not like that. No one will hurt you like that ever again. I won’t allow it.”
A cold wave stiffened my body. “You know?”
He nodded reluctantly.
An unbearable tingling of rage and shame pierced my skin. “Then why are you chasing me when you know I can’t give you what you want?”