A Hunger for the Forbidden - By Maisey Yates Page 0,16
his body. Heat shot through her, heat and desire and lust.
His eyes locked with hers as they swayed in time to the music, and she was powerless to resist the desire to lean in and press her lips to his. His tongue touched the tip of hers, a shot of need so sharp, so strong, assaulting her she thought it would buckle her knees then and there.
She parted her lips for him, wrapping her arms around his neck, tangling her fingers in his hair. Years of fantasies added fuel to the moment.
Matteo Corretti was her ultimate fantasy. The man whose name she called out in her sleep. The man she wanted, more than anything. And this was her last chance.
Panic drove her, made her desperate. She deepened the kiss, her movements clumsy. She didn’t know how to make out. She’d never really done it before. Another thing that added fuel to the fire.
She’d never lived. She’d spent all of her life at the Battaglia castello, taking care of her siblings, making sure her family didn’t crumble. Her life existed for the comfort of others, and she needed a moment, a night, to have something different.
To have something for her.
Matteo pulled away from her, his chest rising and falling heavily with each indrawn breath. “We cannot do that here.”
She shook her head. “Apparently not.” The fire between them was burning too hot, too fast, threatening to rage out of control.
“I have a suite.” A smile curved his lips. “I own the hotel.”
She laughed, nervous, breathless. She flexed her fingers, where her engagement ring should be. The engagement ring she hadn’t put on tonight as she’d gotten ready for the party.
“Please. Just one night,” she said.
“Only one, cara mia?”
“That’s all I have to give.”
“I might be able to change your mind,” he said, his voice rough. He leaned in and kissed her neck, his teeth scraping her delicate skin, his tongue soothing away the sting.
Yes. She wanted to shout it. Yes, forever. Matteo, ti amo.
Instead, she kissed him again, long and deep, pouring everything out, every emotion, every longing that had gone unanswered for so long. Every dream she knew would never be fulfilled. Because Matteo might be hers tonight, but in just a month, she would belong to another man forever.
“Take me to your room.”
Alessia shook her head, brought herself back to the present. Everything had been so perfect that night. It was the morning that had broken her heart. The cold light of day spilling over her, illuminating the truth, not allowing her to hide behind fantasy any longer.
She could remember just how he’d looked, the sheets tangled around his masculine body, bright white against his dark skin. Leaving him had broken her.
She’d wanted so badly to kiss him again, but she hadn’t wanted to chance waking him.
Somehow that night she’d let her fantasies become real, had let them carry her away from reality, not just in her imagination but for real. And she couldn’t regret it, not then, not now.
At least, she hadn’t until recently. The way Matteo looked at her now … she hated it. Hated that he saw her as a leash.
But it was too late to turn back now. The dutiful daughter had had her rebellion, and it had destroyed everything in its path.
“You don’t go halfway, do you, Alessia?” she asked the empty room.
Unsurprisingly, she got no answer.
CHAPTER FIVE
“YOU CANNOT SIMPLY take what is mine without paying for it, Corretti.”
Matteo looked at Antonioni Battaglia and fought a wave of rage. The man had no idea who he was dealing with. Matteo was a Corretti, the capability to commit hideous acts was a part of his DNA. More than that, Matteo had actually done it before. Had embraced the violence. Both with cold precision, and in the heat of rage.
The temptation to do it again was strong. Instead, he leaned forward and adjusted a glass figurine that his grandmother had had commissioned for him. A perfect model of his first hotel. Not one of the Corretti Hotels, the first hotel he’d bought with his own personal fortune.
“And what exactly is that?” Matteo asked, leaning back in his office chair.
“My daughter. You defiled her. She’s much less valuable to me now, which means you’d better damn well marry her and make good on the deal I cut with your grandfather, or the Correttis won’t be doing any trading out of Sicily.”
“My mistake, I thought Alessia’s body belonged to her, not you.”
“I’m an old-fashioned man.”
“Be that as it