Kiss Me in the Dark Anthology - Monica James Page 0,113
hunt. And you just interfered in such a hunt, bella. Do you know what happens when a predator is under attack?”
“He turns into a stronzo?” I asked, insulting him and struggling against his tight hold yet again to no avail.
“He turns feral and will attack anyone in the vicinity, even an innocent.” He leaned closer as his scent swelled in the warm air between us, fresh and cool like damp forest air. I could see the pulse throb strongly in the tanned column of his throat and felt the odd animal compulsion to press my tongue there. “Be careful where your good heart may take you, for it may be straight into the arms of a predatory beast.”
“Ragazzi,” a police officer called, shattering the strange energy between myself and the stranger as he jumped over the hood of the car to reach the criminal and the bodyguard who held him.
The strange blond man pressed tightly into me as if imprinting himself into my skin, then stepped back abruptly and dropped my hands. The darkness in his features retreated like night creatures into the shadows, only the glow of his silver eyes giving away his wicked intentions.
“This is the last time I try to save a life,” I muttered, smoothing my slightly trembling hands over my bodice.
“Oh, I should hope so,” he parried even though he was already turning, his eyes on the policeman, his mask affixed. “Though I very much doubt it will be the last time you become involved in a situation you shouldn’t. You have no preservation instincts, and such a failing will be the end of you.”
I watched him greet the policeman, how the officer winced at the firmness of his handshake and the unconquerable power he wore like a mantle over his broad shoulders. In under thirty seconds, the Brit had established his dominance over the lawman. I remained preoccupied with him even when a man came to interview me about the crime. Even when I was released from questioning after giving up my contact information and an officer was leading me toward the metro.
He lingered like the thought of a monster under a bed, like a creature lurking in the dark of my dreams ready to corrupt them into nightmares, and when I looked over my shoulder before descending into the underground, he was watching me with hawkish intent that blistered my skin.
I knew in the same way I’d always known my father would be the end of my life as I knew that this wouldn’t be the last time I would see the predator I’d so foolishly saved from slaughter.
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There was something in that, the harsh white linen against the richly tanned olive skin and the long, thick plume of dark hair caught in the wind like a pennant.
Something virginal and earthy, as if she were a nymph caught alone in a glade and I, the depraved mythological god come to steal her away to my dark domain so that I could debauch every inch of her goodness.
It was hard to say exactly if the metaphor gave birth to my plan or vice versa. Either way, as I stood in the cool shadows at the mouth of a stone walled alley in the crushing stink and bustle of downtown Naples, Italy, I knew the woman I studied would be mine.
Cosima Lombardi.
Even her name was an aphrodisiac, erotic as it rolled in my mouth and over my tongue.
Beauty of the cosmos.
I knew the meaning of her name because I’d researched it just as I had her height, weight, family tree, and birthdate.
In one week, she would be eighteen.
Now, she was just over the cusp of illegal, though she didn’t look it as she lounged on the cement breakwater, her brown legs bare and dangling over the edge, full breasts glistening with a sheen of sweat under the hot midday sun. If anything, she looked overripe, a fruit begging to be plucked from the steam.
My fingers twitched as she tipped her head back and laughed, long throat exposed in a way that begged me to mark it with my teeth and span it with my big hand.
A collar, I thought, would look sinfully erotic banded around that elegant neck.
It had seemed too good to be true when the ridiculously beautiful and rash woman who had saved me from a mugging gone wrong turned out to be so much more than a