“I only want yours on me,” I tell him honestly. Every male has been eye fucking me, watching my every move with awe. But none of them feel with the unbidden desire like Zane does. His gaze scorches across me, the craving he portrays swirls around me, wrapping me up tightly. As the thought casts around us, my breathing deepens; my own longing begins to throb with yearning.
He clearly notices as his hand pushes over my waist eagerly. “Just one dance before I’m caught.”
I know what I have to do. I have to allow myself this – a slow dance in the middle of a devil’s ball. I lay my head to his chest, one hand raised in the air as Zane takes the lead, his other hand wrapped around me in a fierce, dominating hold. Even with the control he clutches to me with, we sway in this slow, sweet motion. The world might well be ending outside of this woodland sanctum, but right now, my world is holding onto me.
Neither of us speaks as we just enjoy the moment. I haven’t even asked what he’s doing here or how he got here. Right now, I couldn’t care less about any of that because he remains with me – uncaught and safe from the hunt for a moment.
As the music begins to end, Zane uses his dominance to push my back against one of the trees in my backyard. The music might be of a slower tempo, but his feat isn’t. I feel the heat rise between us, our lust erupting to life, and my butterflies start a manic frenzy as I look up to see him seductively staring at me. As he steps in, his knee parting my legs, I look up at him with an almost pointed look.
“Rip my dress and you’re a dead man,” I threaten fiercely as he stands before me. He’s trapping me against the bark, stealing my chance of freedom.
I’m met with a chuckle and an enigmatic look on his face. “You’ve already made that threat to me, Darling. It’s getting a bit boring now.” He laughs alongside me while his fingers trace and tangle with the beading lacing and wrapping around my neck.
“Be careful with that, too,” I comment as my laugher fizzles out, hitting his hand away so my own can cover the pearly beads protectively. “My father gave them to me. They were my mothers.” I narrow my gaze on him. “There are a lot of things you can do to me, but breaking these is unforgivable.”
“I wouldn’t break them,” he comments in the smarmiest way possible. “Just a little annoyed because the only pearl necklace you should be wearing is mine.” When his eyes gaze upon mine, I see the tease, the arousal, the readiness all there behind the blue lenses of his eyes. “I’m guessing those wouldn’t go as nicely with this dress?”
“No, they wouldn’t,” I whisper back playfully as his hands run the length of my waist and hips. “Maybe on another day. When I’m wearing-” I pause merely to smirk before I continue my sentence, “less.” It’s in that second, when we are just us, that I find the weight of what we could be settle upon my shoulders. “I wish you could come inside,” I whisper and grip upon the lapel of his jacket. “I want to dance all night with you.”
“Me, too, but even if I could, I have a shift,” he remarks sadly. “I can’t get out of it even to hide away in the bushes waiting for you to sneak away.”
I giggle lightly, but end in a sigh. “Will you be careful? You might have gotten in here unscathed, but what about getting out?” My stomach is roiling; my main concern is not only his line of duty, but, right now, getting out off the Abbiati land without being hunted down for trespassing.
“Yes, I’ll be careful,” he agrees thickly. “I have every reason to be now.”
My heart melts in my chest. My knees weaken, and I wish I could just be taken away with him. I know I’m foolish. I am the foolish girl my father has dubbed me, but only because what I feel within me at the mere thought of Zane is the realest thing I know. My love for him pulsates through me and I’m a livewire for once. He seeps through my blackened soul, unties every knot and bow of anguish ever bestowed upon me and makes it all a little brighter. I fell for him once, and this isn’t me falling for him twice. This is me still being in love with the first man who ever said those three little words – I love you. He will always be the man I see the life Bruno has with.
Zane Maverick turns my mantra on its head and has me thinking of my possible exit from the family – Feel, deviate, don’t kill Zane Maverick. The sound of my own maxim turned on its head seizes me with delight.
“But first,” he starts to say, knocking me from my thoughtful perch, his voice lowering in octaves until it’s like honey smothering my growing desires, “let’s just have a little time that’s just us.” He pushes me further against the tree as he begins to initiate how he wants this evening to go. “I would’ve brought a gift, but I thought I would extend your birthday celebrations for you.”
“I don’t need a gift,” I counter, disregarding his claim.
“Princess Abbiati deserves every gift possible,” he jokes lightly, and I smile at him. It’s not necessary to give me gifts. “But how about a date with me tomorrow evening,” he says and then pauses briefly. “Of course, that is if you’re not on Femme Fatale business.”