Free Dante's Contract Marriage by Day Leclaire Page A

The brilliant red clung to her upper torso, molding itself to generous breasts that were a fantasy come true.
    He struggled to do the honorable thing and look away. But somehow his eyeballs had become disconnected from his brain. “Do me a favor, will you?” he asked politely.
    She planted her hands on her hips. “You just threw me in the water, and now you want me to do you a favor?”
    “Or not.”
    She relented with a smile. “What’s the favor?”
    “I seem to be having trouble controlling my caveman genes. Would you mind ducking down a little?”
    Fate rewarded him with a few more seconds of visual bliss before comprehension set in. With a gasp, she sank downward so the water lapped around her shoulders. “Did your caveman genes enjoy the view?” she asked acerbically, her accent a bit more pronounced than before.
    “They did. They really did.”
    She spared him a disgruntled look, one that took on an appreciative glint. “I must admit, my cavewoman genes are having some enjoyment, as well. Maybe too much enjoyment. If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go in and change.”
    He nodded. “Feel free.”
    She lifted an eyebrow in a manner as regal as it was pure Romano. “Would you mind turning around?”
    “I’m afraid I would mind. But don’t let that stop you.”
    Her mouth twitched and she splashed water at him. “You are a rotten man.”
    “Not rotten. But definitely all man.”
    He lunged at her, catching her around the waist and yanking her into his arms. He didn’t give her time to catch her breath, let alone protest. He took her mouth in a kiss as thorough and urgent as the one they’d shared on their wedding night.
    Her mouth was warm and wet and the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted. This time there weren’t any witnesses to the embrace, and he could take his time and explore at his leisure. He half expected her to resist, to slap him or give him hell in Italian.

    To his surprise, her curiosity matched his own. Her hands slipped upward to trace the contours of his face before sliding into his hair and tugging. But it wasn’t a demand for release. It was a silent appeal for more.
    With a harsh groan, he mated her mouth with his, deepening the kiss until their breath became one. His hands swept up and under her shirt and closed over her breasts. They were every bit as full and lush as they’d appeared through her wet shirt, the skin like velvet against his palms. The peaks turned to hard nubs beneath his touch, and he captured them between his fingers, torturing a moan of sheer pleasure from her.
    For a tantalizing moment she pressed herself more fully into his embrace, giving with the soft want that was uniquely woman. Water swirled between them, carrying them together so their hips fit male to female. A groan snagged in his throat. It would be so easy to strip away the thin layers of clothing separating them and mate more than just their mouths. His hands swept downward, his thumbs hooking into the waistband of her shorts. Before he could slip them off her hips, she twisted free.
    Wrapping her arms around herself, she dragged air into her lungs. “We shouldn’t have done that,” she informed him the instant she could speak.
    “It was bound to happen, if only for curiosity’s sake.”
    “Is your curiosity satisfied?”
    “My curiosity’s satisfied. But it hasn’t done a damn thing for the rest of me.”
    “No, it hasn’t done a damn thing for my rest, either.” She slid her hands across her face as though to scrub the lingering traces of passion from it. “I would like to go inside and change. Would you mind staying here for a few minutes so I might have some privacy?”
    “Of course.”
    He tormented himself a bit more by watching her wade from the lake before working off his libido with a long, hard swim. By the time he’d finished, all he could think about was food and sleep. Okay, he thought about Ariana, too. Most of all, he wondered how long it would take to talk her