Chapter 4
Autumn
My toe grazed the Spirited Massachusetts’s top step; sliding backwards off and digging my heel into the step below. I squeaked at the sudden loss of footing. Heels, even chunky ones, were the wrong choice for a boat. What the hell was I thinking?
“Careful.” Dante’s hand was on my lower back in a heartbeat. He helped me up to that final landing. The heat from his lingering fingertips threatened to melt through my cotton blouse.
“Heh, thanks. Slippery.” I laughed, trying to think of anything, but the searing touch of his strong hand on my back. I blamed the slow listing of the boat and my last two glasses of wine, but really I was just nervous as hell. “No wonder these stairs are off limits.”
Dante slipped by me. The wry glance and cracked smirk he tossed my way as he passed told me he knew there was nothing wrong with the stairs.
The top level of the ship was another open-air landing that was about the same size as the public one below. The large enclosed room that took up half the deck, which had to be the bridge where the captain and all the navigation deck panels were, was lined with tinted glass.
Were we really allowed to be up here? Another nervous feeling crinkled up my abdomen. Anyone in that cabin could easily see us and the last thing I needed was to get yelled at again.
Needing to regain my composure, I drifted toward the railing and gazed out into the horizon. Dante checked the door of an addendum room that looked like it was only used for storage.
I wasn’t always this clumsy! It had to be him.
Everything about Dante put me off balance. I swear he created his own gravity. Every time I was near him I was consumed with vertigo, like I could fall into him at any second.
“Beautiful,” he said, suddenly behind me, raising the tiny hairs on my arms and neck.
I looked up from my hands, breathed in the crisp sea breeze and I took in the view. The last of Boston’s jagged skyline sailed slowly by us. The Massachusetts had finally escaped the harbor. The infinite black of the starry sky bled seamlessly into the watery horizon and stretched out before us for what felt like forever. The only light was from the full moon, which lit a glistening trail across the ocean so bright that you could almost walk across it.
“It’s amazing,” I exhaled; renewed warmth charged me like a battery despite the nipping cool wind on my cheeks.
How long had it been seen I’d seen the ocean this late? I’d gone to the beach almost every summer, but never at night. Seeing the vastness of the water was magical, but it also made me feel small and insignificant.
Like I could be swallowed whole any second.
“I wasn’t talking about the view.” His voice was a gravelly bellows in my ear that fed the smoldering coals of his earlier touch, and reignited them into a raging inferno. Fortunately it was too dark for him to see the five shades of red he turned me. “Do you still want to thank me?”
“I uh…”
How the hell was I supposed to answer that?
Dante turned, leaning his back against the railing. The moonlight drowned in his dark, inescapable eyes. I worried the buttons of my blouse might melt off if he looked at them long enough. The scar on his cheek and the one through his brow, betrayed his roguish nature and dangerous profession. Up front in his white suit he was all James Bond, but just beneath that was a scoundrel who wanted nothing more than to get his hands dirty.
That’s what I wanted too.
I swallowed a mouthful of hot ash. What was I so afraid of? Hurting my career? What career? I wasn’t an actress anymore. Why not let go and just enjoy myself for once?
“Yes.” I studied him. My courage was frayed at the ends, but it was still there
“Then let me have a sip of your wine.”
Wine? I deflated a little. That couldn’t be all he wanted? I had no idea what he was going to ask for, but my glass wasn’t what I was hoping for.
What was I hoping for?
“Sorry, I’m all out.” I glanced down at the red remnants that glazed the bottom of the glass; it was empty. When had I finished it, and why didn’t it do anything help my parched throat?
“No. You’re not.” Dante didn’t so much as flick his eyes down to check. He slid a hand around the back of my neck, up through my scalp and leaned impossibly close.
A spike of adrenaline raced through my veins as my mind was instantly transported. I reveled in the way his weight crushed into me just like on the pavement that day on set. The vivid memory of him saving me along with his dragging nails through my scalp forced me to grip the railing to keep from falling over.
I sucked in air as a wide smile overcame me. He’s going to kiss me!
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t fantasized about this moment whenever I thought about him. But it was always just that—A fantasy. I was never supposed to see him again. And here we were.
He didn’t kiss me; our lips barely grazing, he did something far more intimate. He cocked his head to the side, parted my lips with his tongue and dragged it across my teeth. It was then I realized Dante was a thief. He stole all the sensation from my face, somehow even ripping the very air from my lungs.
There was no hiding my eyes were saucers. I didn’t know what just happened, but the thrill that coursed through me was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. My skin crackled. If he didn’t pull away, I might’ve drowned in him.
Dante’s bottom lip was a white line, drawn between his teeth as he pulled away and studied me. Just a taste, his dark eyes shined. He savored the wine; me.
“How’s the wine?” I clumsily murmured, gasping in breath, and desperately trying not to show how much that not-kiss affected me. His look unconsciously drew my thumb and forefinger to my ear stud, but I caught myself immediately after and lowered it.
He didn’t smile, or say anything. Anticipation rolled off him like steam from the hood of a car during a heat wave. With Dante I was quickly coming to understand it wasn’t always what he said, but what he’d left unspoken.
“That’s not the only thing I’m going to lick off you.” His sinful promise was a hot summer rain soaking me to the bone.
The bastard knew exactly what he was doing to me.
I moaned in reply. Equal parts fear and excitement pricked me as he slid his hand under my ass and squeezed roughly. I could feel the bruise form. The thought of a souvenir from tonight, hidden on my body thrilled me.
With one sweeping arm Dante lifted me off my feet and carried me through the door he’d tested earlier. The small room was a combination of storage and repair area and was only a little bigger than Mom’s walk-in closet. Opposite the door was a cluttered work bench and stool beneath a lonely, porthole window; thin racks of electronics lined the other walls.
It was too claustrophobic for a proper workspace, but for us, it was perfect. Déjà vu swelled in me. It was suddenly eleventh grade and I was at Julie’s party slipping into a closet with my boyfriend. Only Jake wasn’t anything like Dante, not even in his wildest dreams.
Electronics danced across the shelf as Dante roughly crashed us against it. The door lazily snapped shut behind us, cutting us off from the rest of the world.
It was only him and me now…
It frightened me how much I wanted this. It wasn’t just Dante that excited me; it was also the thought of giving up so much control to such a powerful man. A one-night-stand was so unlike me, so…out of my comfort zone.
It was the ultimate way to end this grand movie star adventure.
Dante shrugged off his jacket, then pulled his tie and button down shirt off in one overhead jerk. He was a patchwork of tattoos and scars beneath a tuft of chest hair and over more corded, bulging muscles than I’d ever seen on a man. The light that filtered through the small room’s lonely window robbed Dante of his color and cast his sculpted physique into heavy contrasting shadows, making him look even more imposing than he already was.
My indie photographer friends would kill to get ahold of Dante in this stark lighting.
Dante stalked forward and kissed my neck. He dragged his nails down my spine to the edge of my dress’s hem then plunged further. He easily popped the clasp of my new strapless bra that I still had trouble with occasionally.
Doubt swung like a pendulum in the recesses of my heart. I was never going to see him again after tonight but... Did that make this OK? What would Mom say if she found out?
I didn’t know anything about this man.
That wasn’t true. Not exactly.
I knew he was fearless. Dangerous. And he obviously took what he wanted.
“God damn…” Dante said, slipping the spaghetti straps off my shoulder and tearing off my bra. He paused a moment to let his eyes feast on my bare chest. “And here I thought you couldn’t get any fucking hotter. What else are you hiding from me?”
No one had to know about this, about us, I smiled, smoothing down my flyaway hairs and straightening my skirt. It was all I could do to keep from trembling under his ravenous gaze.
Unconsciously I couldn’t help, but beam a little that he chose me. Top-billed actresses, professional makeup artists, French runway models who served drinks; this ship was full of gorgeous people!
Who was I?
“Why don’t you come over here and find out, big boy,” I said with my sexy voice. Black Widow from the Avengers whispered the words into my mind, but when they tumbled out of my mouth it was all Velma from Scooby-Doo.
Damn it! I was too caught up in him to think straight!
“Big boy?” Dante snorted, amused and closed the distance anyways. “You have no idea.”
I swallowed as the air between us sizzled and popped, and welded me to the floor. He slipped a hand up my thigh and cupped my pussy. His pressure flooded through my stomach and ribs like soda bubbles.
“You’re so fucking wet.” His fingers curled against my eager pussy lighting me up like a short-circuiting Christmas tree. The thin panties I wore did nothing to dull his touch. “When I’m done with you they’ll be mopping you up off the floor.”
The harsh, too-confident way he spoke made me exhale all my expectations and sent lightening cracking through my veins. I bit hard into his muscle-packed shoulder to keep my smile from cutting my face in half.
I felt his moan through my teeth. I should’ve guessed he’d like the sting of pain. Dante was a man whose profession was to take the hits that no one else could. How could he not like a little pain?
I almost took a piece of him with me when he pushed me back into the shelving unit. Metal clattered and rattled, threatening to jump off the wall. Dante locked my gaze as he released my pussy. Towering over me, he stuffed two of his fingers into my mouth. I could taste myself on him.
The thought of that curled my toes. It was crazy how wet he’d made me. I’d soaked through everything.
“I’m going to ruin you.” There wasn’t a ghost of levity in his voice. It sent my already racing pulse into a full gallop.
Dante was equal parts sexy and terrifying.
All the veins in his beefy arm came to rigid attention as he cleared all the heavy-looking electrical equipment and tools off the work bench like they were children’s toys. Thousands of dollars of navigational tools and devices smashed against the floor. Glass shattered and springs flew free. The loud crash made my ribcage jump.
Someone definitely would’ve heard that!
Fear of getting caught twisted in my belly. How could he be so cavalier about this? Wasn’t he worried? Was Dante afraid of anything?
Dante saw the apprehension in my eyes and smirked. He didn’t try to ease my fears; instead he seemed to drink them in. He sat me onto the now empty bench and offered only, “But you’re going to love every second of it.”
Give in. The dark pools in his eyes demanded.
“Are you going to talk or are you going to fuck me?” The words rushed out with such boldness that even I wasn’t sure who said them. He might’ve generally been unconcerned about the consequences, but my defiance was born of desperation. Who knew how long we’d have before we were discovered.
Impressed, Dante raised his wounded eyebrow, then smiled as he raised my dress and pulled my panties completely off. The abrupt violence of the motion made me gasp. A sucking of air licked at my wet, newly uncovered flesh, making me shiver.
Wearing my dress as a bulky belt, all my modesty drained away as I lunged forward, unfastening his belt and pants. My whole body needed to feel him. A rush of heat rolled up my hand when I unzipped him. I bit my lip and forced my fingers into his boxers and down his massive stem.
I couldn’t wait any longer.
Veins pulsed down his hardened cock like a living roadmap. Dante slipped a condom out of his pocket, then thumbed his pants down. I dropped my clutch when he slid me further onto the bench and leaned me against the back wall.
“I see you came prepared.” I tried covering my mounting nervousness at seeing just how big he was, but knew the surprise and excitement was written all over my neck, chest and face with flushness.
I was an introvert, granted one that made goofy internet videos, who preferred to stay home. It’d been longer than I cared to remember since I had sex with anything that wasn’t battery operated. I hoped Dante wouldn’t hurt me too much.
“Always,” he said. He dragged a thumb across my clit and watched my whole body subtly spasm just for him. Fisting his cock, he pushed the engorged head against my slit, working it back and forth and turning me into a puddle like he promised.
He was toying with me! I gritted my teeth and let out a hungry moan of my own.
My eyes flashed as his member began splitting me apart. I whispered, “Slow. Please.”
He didn’t voice it, but there was a look of acknowledgment in his eyes as he eased into me. His cock was so wide and long that I had to shift several times to take all of him in. All the while he read my face, watching to see if the pleasure shifted to the wrong kind of pain.
Was that empathy in eyes? I didn’t think a man as arrogant as him was even capable of that. I of course assumed he’d be selfish in sex too.
You are full of surprises, Dante Marks.
He lifted my legs, hanging them over his shoulders, nearly folding me in half against the metal, windowed wall as he started slowly pumping into me. Slow eventually disappeared and his rhythmic movements became harder and faster.
Fuck…the fullness he gave me turned my muscles into mashed potatoes.
I craned my head back and sucked in as much air as I could. I nestled my fingers into their familiar position over my pussy and began rubbing my clit.
“Oh no you don’t.” Without breaking stride, Dante slapped my hand away. “Your pussy is mine. All mine.”
“I can’t get off with just—” a hard cock. Fuck, his balls slapped against my ass and I was still too embarrassed to say some things out loud? But it was true! No guy alone could ever get me off. I always had to help. “I need to touch myself.”
Dante flashed a devilish smirk and dragged his hand up my body. His fingertips were little flaming coals, searing their way across my stomach and firmed nipples, all the way up to my throat.
He leaned in, which bent me even more and whispered in my ear, “I’ll be the one who touches you. You’re going to need both hands just to hold on.” His hot breath and the kiss of his teeth against my earrings made the low rumble in his voice cut through me like a scalpel.
I was a mess.
“Oh God…” I breathed loudly. The coarseness of his thumb pushed into my clit and began to rub with devastating precision.
“Pray to me,” His words rumbled in my ear. With his strength, tattoos, scars and hard, merciless eyes, Dante was white-hot sex and fire wrapped in every fantasy I’d ever had. The authority in his tone crushed me, sending me spiraling over the edge.
I bit my scream off into my lip so hard I thought it was going to come away bloody. My hands slid along the work bench uselessly, desperately trying to grasp on to something as cannon-fire blasted behind my eyes.
The orgasm rocked me to my core; I couldn’t contain my scream any longer.
I was going to get us caught if I kept screaming like that! An annoying chirp of worry resurfaced, it cracked my lusty haze. Fortunately it was fleeting. If I could still feel the vibration of music two floors below us, then there was a good chance that no one could hear us now.
Either way, with him all around me I physically couldn’t care about anything else. My thoughts had dissolved into cascading colors and sounds. The only clear thing that rattled through me was Dante’s thrusting force, over and over. My pussy was vibrating with spasms. The next climax took me by surprise.
How was he doing this?
“Dante…” I whispered, coming hard again. It was all I could say before every fiber in my body became tightened steel—all the way down to my inner walls. I crushed his cock. My nails found the back of his broad, defined shoulders and anchored for dear life. I was breathing and sweating harder than any jog n’ bitch session.
“Fucking hell. You feel amazing.” He grunted through tense, flexed exertion. The sweat that didn’t drip off his chin rolled down between his perfect pecs and rocky abs. The muscles in his huge arms fired sporadically as he pushed hard into the workbench.
I knew he was close by the way he buried himself far enough into me for sunbursts to appear behind my closed eyelids. I propped myself up on wobbly elbows when—much to my horror—the door swung open.
“Hooollly Hell—” shouted an unfamiliar voice. I snapped my eyes open in horror. A young wide-eyed uniformed sailor had burst in, clipboard in hand. He was probably there to grab a piece of equipment. “What in the shit is this?”
It was my worst fear come to slap me in the face!
I knew this would happen! I was so fucking stupid! My back flopped down on the work bench with a sweaty thump as I whipped my arms out to cover my chest. My body temperature shot up to the point of scalding.
“The fuck does it look like?” Dante turned his head just enough to give the man a look that was bloodied barbwire. “Kindly fuck off.”
The edge in Dante’s voice tensed the rest of him including his cock, which was still buried deep inside me. His subconscious flexing pushed my walls open a little wider sending a surge of ecstasy racing through me. I’d probably have moaned aloud if it wasn’t for the extreme amount of embarrassment I was feeling.
“I’m sorry, sir, but you can’t be in here. You have to leave.” The sailor was clearly nervous at Dante’s size and irritated demeanor.
Dante sighed heavily lowering his head when he realized the sailor wasn’t just going to leave. The sucking sound his cock made when he carefully slid out of me was fucking mortifying. I scrambled to unbunch my dress enough cover myself up.
I wanted to die.
Unabashed by his nudity, Dante turned to face the sailor who didn’t even look old enough to drink yet. Dante raised his arms slightly, turning his palms over. He smirked at the sailor’s hesitance and asked, “You going to be the one to make me?”
The sailor glanced behind him to see if anyone was out there to back him up. The man’s face fell when Dante took a step toward him. Everything about Dante was intimidating from his physique and posture, to his raging, veiny, erection. The sailor pressed his clipboard to his chest defensively and took two steps back. He nervously muttered to himself, “I’m just trying to do my job.”
Dante’s eyes narrowed on the clipboard, then he ripped it out of the sailor’s hands and read it. The nervous sailor tried his best not to glance over at me or down at Dante’s cock. He failed at both more than he didn’t.
Finally Dante grabbed a part off a shelf behind me and pressed it and the clipboard into the sailor’s chest. “We good?”
The sailor nodded, nearly tripped over his feet as he back peddled from the small room. The door swung closed and I nearly collapsed back on the table. I could not believe that just happened.
“Where were we?” Dante turned back to me, all the previous tension in his face at dealing with the uninvited guest had completely dissolved.
“Are you crazy?!” I balked, scrambling to find my clothes. “That terrified kid is going to tell—I don’t know— someone! Probably several someones with guns or something.” I had no idea what was going to happen, but I had no intention of anyone else seeing me naked today.
“This isn’t the navy.” Dante laughed. “He’ll tell his captain for sure, but no one else will bother us.” Seeing that wasn’t nearly a good enough answer Dante elaborated. “There’s a lot of film business that comes through Boston. The last thing this company wants to do is piss off their clients and get passed over for all that future money.” Dante ran his finger down my hip and along the length of my thigh. “All we’ve done is buy this room for the rest of the night with no interruptions.”
I stood up and twisted and straightened my dress out enough to actually wear again. As attracted as I was to Dante, being discovered like that really killed the mood for me. I felt terrible giving him blue balls, but apparently, I was not as adventurous as I thought. Getting caught like that gave me serious anxiety.
“Dante…this was great. Really, really great, but I—” I shook my head, reaching for my ear stud. I wore that apprehension on every line in my twisted up face. Worry sank hard in my belly that he was going to be upset. But what else could I do? I just couldn’t go any further. “I can’t. I’m sorry.”
Dante’s eyebrows pitched in a surprise and confusion. Being denied obviously wasn’t something he was accustomed to. I braced for him to a dick about the whole thing, like the entitled celebrities that occasionally make the news.
But that horribleness never came.
After the moment of disbelief passed, Dante exhaled into a defeated smile. He blew the rest of his air out, gave me a smile that bordered on genuine, then slightly nodded his head in understanding.
It was a sliver, the smallest crack in his façade. Right then I realized that behind his sexy, badass veneer Dante was handsome on the inside too. There was a glimmer of tenderness buried deep down in him that I desperately wanted to see.
But the moment for that was past too.
“Here.” He leaned over me. I breathed him in, his warm scent thick in my nose and heart. He snatched up my clutch which had slid to the edge of the bench and handed me my cell that had nearly fallen out. “I think someone’s been blowing up your phone.”
“What?” Shit! The vibrations I felt earlier were from my phone? I thought that was the music! I riffled through my small purse and saw that I had twenty missed calls; all from Mom.
I sighed. She probably wanted me to get her picture with a celebrity or something.
“I’ll—” I started to tell Dante I needed to use the phone, but he interrupted me by drawing my chin up with his finger. He leaned in and kissed me sweetly on the cheek. Dante didn’t wait for any kind of reply, before leaving. He didn’t even so much as look back over his shoulder at me. He was just gone.
I called her back, but the voice that answered deep and very male.
“Who is this?” I asked cautiously.
“Hi. My name is Dennis. I’m a medic.” The man’s voice was so calm that it took the edge of my building worry. “I’m calling because you were listed in this phone as an emergency contact. We have a woman here in the bottom level of the dance hall.”
“You have a woman?” I asked having no idea what this guy was talking about.
“Yeah, I’m sorry I don’t know the relation, if there even is one. Your caller info came up as…Little-miss-sassy-face.”
“You have my mom.” I sighed. Hoping she hadn’t drunkenly yelled at the director like she threatened to earlier. I wondered if these ships had brigs like in the Navy. “Her name is Paris Moore and I’m her daughter Autumn. Is everything OK?”
“Not really,” Dennis said, with an audible groan. “Your mom… She collapsed. You’d better get over here.”