Her gaze flew to his face. “Why are you asking me this?”
“Answer the question.”
She shook her head slowly. “No. I didn’t get it. I…forgot.”
He stared down at her, hope and something dark rising in him. “Liar.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Liar,” he repeated. “You knew the risk. You could have insisted your cousin stop along the way to the airport. A small stop once you were out of the immediate area. Simple. Easy. You chose not to.”
She parted her lips, painted fuck-me red, and then hesitated. “It would be incredibly reckless if I put myself at risk for being pregnant with your child because of some strange emotional blip. It would make me a fool.”
“No.” He leaned down and pressed his face to her neck, inhaling harshly. “No, not a fool. You feel it, too. You want this, too.”
“Dante, we can’t. The stakes are too high.”
He slid his hands over her hips and down to the hem of her dress. “Tell me no, amata. Tell me you never want to see me again, and I’ll be gone.” He didn’t know if he was lying or not. He couldn’t fucking tell. He wanted Rose so much, he couldn’t think properly, but part of wanting her was needing her to be right there with him. “Just say the word.”
“Dante… D’yavol.” She shivered. “This is a terrible idea.”
“That won’t work. Not this time. Use your words. Tell me yes or tell me no, Rosa.”
She pressed her lips together and shot a glance at the door. “We don’t have a future. We can’t.”
He didn’t repeat himself. He just waited, counting the beats of their racing hearts that seemed to sync up the longer they stood pressed together. He was so fucking hard, he could barely string two thoughts together, but he wanted her to choose this.
To choose him.
She ran her hands up his chest slowly. “It will never work.” She toyed with the buttons at the front of his shirt. “My family wants you dead. Your family wants me dead. We need every weapon we can come up with right now, and I can’t risk alienating our alliances because I want you.” She reversed her movement, reaching down to hook her fingers in the waistband of his pants. “I shouldn’t care about you at all. You’re my enemy.”
“Everything else is true enough.” He held perfectly still, refusing to let her incite him into closing the last little bit of distance between them. If she chose this, she chose this. There would be no pretending he pushed the issue. “But not that last. I’m not your enemy, amata.”
Her brows drew together. “If you’re not my enemy, Dante Verducci, then what are you?”
“Yours.”
She made a pained sound. “You can’t just say shit like that. It’s not that simple.”
“Yes, Rosa, it is. I’m yours and you’re mine. Tell me you don’t feel it.”
She shook her head helplessly. “We can’t.”
Dante made himself take a step back even though every part of him demanded he stay as close to her as possible. “So be it.”
He took another step back when she moved. Rose grabbed the band of his slacks and jerked him to her. Her expression went fierce. “I want you. It can’t work, but I don’t care. I…care about you.”
Not a full capitulation but enough. Or maybe Dante was simply looking for an excuse to take her mouth. To push her back and then lift her onto the counter and step between her bare thighs. “It will work.”
“We can’t be sure.” But she didn’t stop. And neither did he. He let her undo the front of his pants and reach in to wrap her hand around his cock. Rose gave him a rough stroke. “Now, d’yavol. I need you now.”
He should hold out, but it was never going to happen. Not when his woman needed him. Dante shoved up her dress to press two fingers into her. Rose gasped and glanced at the door. He followed her gaze as he worked her, readying her. “Someone will come looking for you shortly.”
“I don’t care.”
“Bene.”
She stroked him roughly. “I started birth control again. You don’t need to use a condom.” She guided him to her entrance.
He hesitated, searching her face. “Be sure, amata. We do this, there’s no going back.” He lightly covered her mouth with his hand when she started to speak. “You already said it’s impossible. I don’t give a fuck about impossible.”
“Don’t stop,” she whispered against his palm.
“I won’t.” He held her gaze as he pushed into her. There was no slow easing into it, not with the overwhelming desire to mark her as his, to get as close to her as possible. It had been a little over a week since he was inside her last, but it felt like a lifetime. Dante’s hips met Rose’s, and he pressed his forehead to hers. “Mine.”
“Stop that. I belong to myself.” She tangled her fingers in his hair and tilted her face up for a kiss. “Make me come, d’yavol. Make me feel good.”
“Always.” He jerked her forward, until she was barely perched on the edge of the counter, and started fucking her in short, slow thrusts. The angle was perfect. She started shaking almost immediately. It was too good. He had to slow down farther, to focus on getting her there first, or he was going to blow. Dante buried his face in her throat, driving her pleasure higher even as he fought his own. The only sound in the bathroom was their ragged breathing and the soft sounds of fucking.
A knock on the door.
He froze, and Rose’s hands tightened in his hair. She dragged in a rough inhale. “Da?”
“Are you okay? You’ve been in there a long time.”
Her sister. He wasn’t sure which one. Dante started to lean back, but she ran her hands down his back and grabbed his ass, driving him deeper inside. “It’s like that?” he murmured in her ear. “So be it.”
“I’m fine.” She didn’t sound fine, though. She sounded like she was seconds from coming apart.
Apparently her sister wasn’t convinced. “Rose. What’s going on?”
“Get out of here, Sasha!” She snarled something in Russian that made his balls tighten. His woman never sounded sexier than when she gave commands. There was a beat of silence, and then her sister said something that sounded shocked, but her footsteps moved away from the door a moment later. Rose dug her nails into Dante’s ass through his pants. “Hurry. We don’t have time.”
He guided her to lean back on her hands on the sink and ran his hands up her legs, spreading them wide. “Look at us, amata.” His cock was soaked with her need, and watching her body spread to take him nearly had him losing control right then and there. He gritted his teeth and kept going. “Look how sweetly you take me.”
“Dante. God, you feel so good.” She gasped and clenched around him. “Right there. Don’t stop.”
He didn’t. He fought himself to maintain the rhythm she needed even as she shook and whimpered. When she came, it was with a strangled cry that went straight to his cock. Only then did Dante drive deep, chasing his own pleasure. “One day. When you’re mine in truth.” He wrapped her hair around a fist and kissed her roughly. “I’m going to come inside you, Rosa. Fill you up with me.”