his way out of the kitchen toward our bedroom. “He didn’t have a problem with it.”
“Well, I do,” I yell, following him.
“Too bad. Like we discussed, I need my wife with me when I travel.”
“And like I said, I won’t let you interfere with my job. Do you have any idea how you’ve made me look to my boss?”
“Last I looked, I am your boss. I own the majority share.”
Anger heats up my face.
“You really are a prick, you know that?” I grit my teeth. “Did you buy Ulvaeus Diamond Company because I worked there?”
Inside our bedroom, he turns around to look at me.
“It certainly was an attractive part of the package.”
My fingers curl into a fist.
“Why are you fucking with my life?” I shout.
“You’ll see,” he says calmly.
I’m so angry I want to cry.
I slap him across the face, hard, and I can see the restraint in him as he battles to control his temper.
I have a feeling that no one has dared put their hands on Alessandro Lastrantonio and lived to tell the tale.
Anger flares in his eyes.
The energy in the room shifts.
When he speaks, his voice is low and dark with a smoky dangerousness that hits me straight between the legs.
“I have never raised my hand to a woman in my life. And God help my soul if I did. But you are pushing every one of my fucking buttons, Bella, and you should know, there are plenty of other ways to punish you.”
I refuse to be intimidated. I raise my chin, and the bright green of my eyes lock onto the black obsidian of his. “You don’t frighten me, Alessandro Lastrantonio. Give it your best shot.”
His eyes burn into mine and dear God, it’s turning me on.
I think about our wedding night.
About seeing him with his cock in his hands.
About the look of ecstasy on his face.
About how wet it made me.
A throb takes up between my thighs.
Honestly, it hasn’t left me since that night.
And I hate myself for it.
He can see I am losing the war taking place between my body and my mind.
He backs me up against the wall, towering over me, and his body settles against mine and it is warm, and big, and rock hard.
Our eyes lock on to one another as he reaches for me. His cool fingertips find my hot skin as they whisper down my throat and over the rise of my breasts.
The darkness on his face recedes and I see him struggle to swallow as he touches me so intimately for the first time in over a decade. He licks his lips, his pulse raging in his neck as his fingers skim lower, over my stomach and down to the hem of my dress.
With his eyes not leaving mine, he slides his hand beneath the fabric, and I watch his expression with mindless fascination when he feels the touch of my lacy underwear against his fingers.
He begins to stroke the soaked fabric, sending waves of pleasure through me. His gaze is intense, his eyes black and dark as I tremble and soften against him, my body igniting beneath the friction.
I start to shift restlessly as pleasure funnels through me, and in that moment I need so many things. I need him to kiss me. I need to see him naked. I need him to take me into his bed and fill me with every single inch of the hardness I saw in his hand the other night. But most of all, I need him to keep rubbing me because I am seconds away from what is going to be the most intense release of my life.
My eyes flutter. I’m going to come.
He leans closer and his lips brush my ear.
“Il mio piccolo diavolo.” My little devil. “This will be your punishment.” He draws in a rough breath, and with a growl, pulls his touch from my body and steps away.
The sudden loss of contact is devastating.
I sag against the wall, my orgasm retreating like a coward.
I was so close to coming and now… now I want to fucking cry.
My hands curl into fists at my side.
I glare at him, mourning my lost orgasm.
Asshole.
If he thinks he can do this to me, then he’s sorely mistaken.
I straighten and pull myself together because I’m not about to let him win.
I’m going to beat him at his own game.
If he wants a war, then I’ll goddamn give him a war.
Pretending he isn’t in the room, I walk over to the nightstand