Inferno's Kiss (29 page)

“I’m more than capable of appreciating a beautiful woman without lusting after her,” he growled as he watched Cleopatra flirting with two of his best fighters. “Cleopatra is simply a test of my dedication.”

“Bah,” Placido snorted with disgust. “If you expect me to believe that, then you really think me a fool.”

“You’re not a fool,” he said with quiet sincerity. “But you are a meddlesome old man.”

“No,” the Sicari Lord said in an affectionate tone as he grasped Dante’s shoulder with his bony fingers. “I’m someone who cares about you and your future.”

He glanced in Placido’s direction to see a fatherly expression on the Sicari Lord’s face. With a brusque nod, he silently acknowledged the old man’s words. The ancient warrior squeezed his shoulder before he sent Dante a cheeky grin.

“Now then, I think I should go rescue our young lady from the attentions of all these hot-blooded males. Unless you care to do the honors?”

He shook his head despite his desire to do just as Placido suggested. With a shrug, the old man walked away. As he watched his friend reach the small crowd of Sicari males surrounding Cleopatra, Dante struggled with the violent need to drag her out of the room and away from them. A low groan rumbled in his chest.
Deus
, he was in deep waters.

The realization continued to plague him throughout the evening meal as he watched Cleopatra flirting with Placido and another of his fighters. Disgusted by his inability to ignore the way the Sicari Lord and Tony were making fools of themselves over her, Dante’s mood deteriorated throughout the meal.

When several people rose from the table, he almost sighed with relief. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d ever been so grateful for a meal to be finished. Rising from his chair, he overheard Tony offering to show Cleopatra the garden. Before he realized what he was doing, he moved to stand at the fighter’s side.

“Don’t you have a mission tonight, Tony? If Cleopatra wants to see the garden, then I’m sure
il mio signore
Placido would be happy to serve as her escort,” he said quietly as he nodded toward the ancient Sicari Lord.

The fighter started to protest, and Dante stared him down. Tony sent him an odd look before he shrugged and turned back to Cleopatra. Capturing her hand, Tony kissed her fingers as he bid her good night. Dante watched in silence and fought the sudden urge to pound the other man into the ground. Placido rose slowly to his feet and winked at Cleopatra.

“Would you like to see the garden under the few stars the city lights allow,
carissima
?”

“In your company,
il mio signore
, I would find it most enjoyable.”

“Careful, you mustn’t get my hopes up,
bella
. I’m not a young man anymore.” Placido shook his finger at her. “In all honesty, I’m feeling a bit tired, so I’ll have Dante escort you for a stroll in the night air.”

Dante stiffened at Placido’s words and glared at his friend. What in Juno’s name was the man thinking? Being alone with Cleopatra had proven challenging enough over the last twenty-four hours, but in the dark?
Christus
, Placido was testing him again. But was it a test of his commitment to the
Absconditus
or was it something else his old friend was trying to teach him? Either way, it didn’t matter. Being alone with Cleopatra wasn’t a good idea at all.

“Perhaps Cleopatra might like to wait until another time—”

“Nonsense, my boy,” Placido scoffed. “The night air is warm enough for a pleasant stroll, and you can always talk business. Although I’ll think you mad if you do.”

“I’m perfectly capable of walking in the garden by myself,” Cleopatra said with a laugh. “There’s no need for Dante to join me.”

There was just a hint of bitterness in her voice, but there was a challenge there as well. She was essentially saying he was afraid to be alone with her. She was right, but he was damn well not going to admit it to her or anyone else.

“There may be no need, but
il mio signore
’s orders are never questioned,” Dante replied.

The sharp note in his voice was reserved for Placido, but he saw the way Cleopatra stiffened before she sent him a cold look. The old Sicari Lord shook his head with disapproval as he reached out to carry Cleopatra’s hand to his mouth.

“Forgive him,
carissima
. It’s past his bedtime, which explains why he’s so cranky.”

“Why doesn’t
that
surprise me?”

Although she answered Placido with a laugh, the sarcastic note threading its way through her response didn’t escape him. Tension locked his jaw as he realized he’d managed to insult Cleopatra while letting Placido know he didn’t like being pushed into a corner. He glared at the old man before he gestured for Cleopatra to precede him out of the dining room.

He would have offered her an arm, but the thought of her being so close wasn’t something he was ready for. Not to mention he was certain she’d refuse. As they moved through the hallway to one of the doorways leading into the garden, he tried to comprehend what he was doing.

Why in Jupiter’s name hadn’t he just let Tony show her the garden ? He didn’t like the answer. He’d wanted to keep Tony from being alone with her.
Fotte
, he would have done the same thing even if her escort had been Placido. As they moved out into the night air, he was at a loss for what to say.

It didn’t help matters that she seemed quite content with the awkward silence stretching between them. At least it was awkward to him. She appeared to be completely indifferent to his company. It was a change from this afternoon when he’d come close to losing control of his sanity. With the grace of a well-trained fighter, she moved toward the small stone temple situated in one corner of the garden.

The secluded spot made his gut tighten as he followed her. He stood at the entrance to the gazebolike structure. Two stone benches faced each other, while a small altar was opposite the temple entrance. Unable to help himself, he watched with fascination as she crossed the marble floor to one of the benches.

With her back to him, she braced a hand against the arm of the bench then bent over to remove first one shoe and then another. The movement exposed the edges of a softly curved bottom, and his cock was hard in seconds. Still ignoring him, she sat down, her fingers wrapped around the edges of the bench’s seat as she looked up at the ocular opening in the temple’s ceiling. Moonlight danced across her face, and he couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen anything more beautiful.

“I like Placido,” she said with a smile. “He must have been a real charmer in his prime.”

“In his prime? If he heard you say that, he’d be insulted,” Dante said with an overwhelming sense of relief. Praise Juno. She wasn’t going to mention this afternoon.

“Tony’s just as charming.” She looked at him with an expression that immediately made him uncomfortable. “Is that why you kept him from showing me the garden? Protecting my virtue like you did earlier today?”

There was a sharp edge to her voice that illustrated once again her humiliation at the way he’d rejected her.
Christus
. He should have known better. She had no intention of letting him off the hook about this afternoon. Not that he deserved to be let off so easily. Dante cleared his throat as he desperately tried to come up with an explanation for his behavior. He didn’t have one. Just the truth. Something a part of him wanted to ignore.

“He had a job to do. I simply reminded him of the fact.” Dante knew he was skirting the truth, but he wasn’t about to admit that something else had made him interfere. He’d moved deeper into the temple before he realized that might be a mistake.

“I see.” Her obvious skepticism made him grimace.

“He’s taking one of the older students out for his first execution.” He saw her go rigid for a moment before she nodded.

“The first time is always the hardest.”

Her barely audible statement made Dante frown. He’d done some checking on Cleopatra’s recent missions, and over the past three years there had been a pattern to her assignments. Almost every one of the criminals she’d executed had hurt or killed children.

She had been involved in just enough executions for other crimes to make it appear a coincidence, but something told him the events weren’t happenstance at all. Even Angotti had indirectly been responsible for the deaths of five children when he’d ordered Luigi Romano to burn one of his apartment buildings to the ground.

“I remember my first execution,” he said quietly. “It was a young man who’d murdered an entire family in their beds as part of a mob initiation.”

“You sound as if you regret carrying out his judgment.” There was a hard note in her voice that troubled him.

“No. His sentence was a just one. I simply wonder what he might have done with his life if he’d chosen a different path.” He met her gaze steadily until she averted her eyes. “And you?”

In the moonlight, she paled slightly, and her throat moved as she swallowed hard. She suddenly seemed fragile and vulnerable again—far removed from the confident, self-assured woman he believed her to be. The urge to pick her up and hold her as she fought with unseen demons made him stiffen.

“Yes, I remember,” she whispered. “He was a forty-three-year-old man who’d raped a three-year-old boy. I remember how hard it was to perform the
Rogare Donavi
with the
bastardo
. I didn’t want to ask his forgiveness. I wanted to carve him up into little pieces while he was still alive.”

Fury and rage pulsated off of her, and he remained silent. For some Sicari, the first execution of judgment was a burden that never fully disappeared. It was always there under the surface. The event was life changing, and the impact it had made on Cleopatra was evident. But the loss of her baby and the end result could only have magnified her anger for those who harmed children.

Although there was no reason to believe she’d broken the Sicari Code when executing her targets, anyone holding a grudge against her could make trouble for her if she continued to manipulate her assignments. He frowned as he considered how to answer her.

“Your feelings are justifiable, Cleopatra. I don’t know many Sicari who wouldn’t have felt the same way you did.” His words seemed to have little effect, as she nodded sharply then looked up at the moon through the gazebo’s open ceiling.

“It’s a beautiful night. A bit warmer than usual for this time of year.” The abrupt change in topic said she’d closed herself off to further retrospection.

“You’re not cold, then?” His gaze swept over her bare shoulders.

“Not at all,” she said as she looked up at him with a wry amusement that hinted she’d either forgiven him or was on the verge of doing so. “I suppose you’d have gallantly offered me your jacket if I was.”

“Yes.”

“You’re a challenge, Dante Condellaire.” The vulnerable woman he’d seen seconds ago was gone, but the change was no less potent. She leaned back against the bench and folded her arms, which pushed her breasts up higher. His mouth went dry as he remembered touching and suckling her. He forced himself to meet her amused gaze.

“Am I?” He wanted to groan at the cryptic reply. It was almost a blatant invitation for her to probe deeper.

“Oh, most definitely,” she said in a voice that had suddenly become a soft, sultry caress. Her confidence was alarming. “And I do love a challenge.”

“Then I think you’re about to be disappointed, as I’m anything but.”

“Really?” She arched her eyebrow at him in the moonlight. “Then explain to me why you keep dancing around the elephant in the room?”

The question made his muscles go taut with tension.
Fotte
. That direct, to-the-point mannerism of hers had a way of making him squirm under the microscope—not a pleasant feeling. Irritated by the amused expression on her face, he glared at her. He was a Tribune, heir to the Sicari Lord title. He’d faced down more Praetorians than he could count, and he’d be damned if he was going to let this woman intimidate him. He shrugged with an indifference he didn’t feel.

“Are you referring to what happened in your room?” He breathed easier at the disconcerted look on her face. Good. He’d thrown her off balance. She hesitated, but from her scowl of irritation, he was far from out of the woods in terms of explaining himself.

“Yes, I’m referring to what happened,” she said fiercely. What he’d thought was forgiveness might have simply been the eye of the storm. “One minute it was . . . it was incredible, and the next minute you were running for cover.”

He didn’t know how to answer her. What he’d experienced had been a hell of a lot more than incredible. It had been mind-blowing and scary as hell. She’d been hot and sweet on his tongue, and even now he could still breathe in the soft freshness of her skin.

And sweet mother of Juno, the memory of suckling her was enough to make his cock stir in his trousers. The direct look she sent him didn’t surprise him. But he tensed at the determination in her gaze. Somehow he was certain he wasn’t going to like what was coming.

“Did you read my mind earlier? Just when things were getting hot?”

How in Jupiter’s name was he supposed to answer that? He flinched. The connection he’d had with her from the moment they’d met was something he had no way of explaining. As for earlier today, he wasn’t sure if he’d read her mind or if the images he’d seen were his. It didn’t matter; she’d obviously been thinking about it at the same time he was. He flinched as he considered telling her the truth. Why was it so hard for him to tell her? The immediate answer that came to him wasn’t the one he wanted to admit to.

“You know it’s forbidden for a Sicari to read the minds of other Sicari without permission.”

“Forbidden. Right,” she mused as she studied him with a look of puzzlement. “What I don’t get is just when we were about to have some incredible sex, you ran for cover.”

He coughed at her blunt honesty. That hadn’t been just direct—that had been a blow to the gut. His throat tightened, making it difficult to get air into his lungs. There was a hint of triumph in the way she leaned forward and wrapped her fingers around the edge of the bench once more. Jupiter help the Praetorian who came up against her in a fight. The woman was relentless.