Page 8 of Venice
And then I stop dead in my tracks as I inhale a scent I’ve never smelled before. I pause and breathe in, deep and slow. Fragrant flowers, too many to name. Rose, jasmine, stargazer lilies with notes of pine and freshly cut grass.
It calms me, and I can’t remember why I was even angry. The fragrance radiates through my body. I can taste it on my tongue and feel it in my fingertips. It’s both visceral and ethereal at once.
“Is that for me?” Diva asks.
I snap out of the trance but pause to breathe in the aroma again before crossing to her. “Yes, Luca put together a vegetarian meal.” I hand her the plate and sit down on the wooden chair across from her.
“So, you must be Marcello.” It’s a statement, not a question, and I nod.
She looks at the plate and then back at me, her small pale brows raised. “A fork?”
“Oh shit.” I stand, but she holds up a tiny finger to stop me.
“It’s fine, I like eating with my hands.” She places an already eaten cob of corn on the side of the plate and picks up a spear of asparagus.
I watch her, fascinated, as she puts just the tip into her small, heart shaped mouth and licks around it. My cock pulses to life against my slacks. She watches my face, but I can’t look away from her mouth.
Delicately, she sucks on the asparagus, pushing it into her mouth and pulling it out. Her tongue darts out, pointed and pink, and I have to hold on to the sides of the chair as she licks the juices, sensually, off her fingers. I want to leap across the space and claim her. I want her as my mate. I need to feel my cock knotting inside her, locking us together until we both scream in ecstasy. Emilio asked if she was his fated mate, but from the mind numbing experience of simply watching her eat seductively, I can’t help but think she belongs to me.
She puts the asparagus spear back in her mouth and chews it, almost tenderly, never taking her eyes from my face. Is this what she did to Emilio with the corn? No wonder he looked the way he did. This wasn’t love. It was pure, unadulterated lust. I want this slip of a girl more than I’ve ever wanted another female in my life.
“Do you like watching me eat?” She swallows and licks her lips.
I’d watch you do just about anything right now. It’s my cock talking, and I know it, so I inhale the perfume again. It’s coming from her. “Are you a vampire?”
She stiffens. “What? No, of course not. I’m not an evil supernatural being.”
“Signum,” I correct. “And we’re not evil.”
“We?” She scoots farther away from me. “You’re Signum?”
I nod. “You didn’t figure that out for yourself? Why else would we kidnap you? Why else would we have this basement with shackles, rings, and chains along the walls?”
She looks around as if just noticing all the other places someone can be restrained in this room. The plate falls from her lap and clatters to the floor, spilling all the food. “You’re fucking werewolves?”
I stand, and she shuffles as far from me as the shackles will allow. Moving to the floor in front of her, I crouch and pick up the plate, scooping the food back onto it with my hand. “I’ll get you more food.”
“I don’t understand.”
I look up, and for a second a thought comes unbidden. This is where I belong, on my knees in front of this girl, worshiping her. What the serious fuck? If this girl isn’t enchanting me, I may be losing my mind. I breathe in her floral fragrance again and clear my throat. “What don’t you understand?”
“Why you’re being so nice to me.”
And there it is. Whatever is happening here, she’s not playing us. If she were, she’d expect us to behave a certain way, but from her posture I can see plainly, this girl is scared. I set the plate down on the floor, pull a clean handkerchief from my pocket, and wipe my hands. Then I hold them out to her.
Her pouty lips thin, but then she moves toward me, widens her legs, and holds out her tiny hands. I grasp them, and a jolt of something that feels like fire shoots straight from her hands to my heart. She feels it too because her body jerks, but she doesn’t let go. Instead, she leans forward and licks the crease of my lips. I shiver in anticipation. My body tenses in response. My cock throbs. I want to push her back on the bed and take her, but I don’t.
She covers my lips with hers, and I open my mouth to receive. Her tongue darts in, tentatively at first, and then with more fervor. I push back and the kiss deepens. Our tongues tangle and dance. Our lips press tightly together, and I breathe in that scent which goes straight through my body until it reaches my toes. Dropping her hands, I reach for her.
Chapter Eight
Diva
I have no idea what I’m doing. Not really. When he told me they were werewolves, without coming out and saying it, I thought maybe I could get away through seduction. But what began as play acting has become something more.
It’s only because I haven’t been properly laid in a very long time, I lie to myself. And Marcello is such a good kisser. I wanted Emilio in this way when he was here too, which doesn’t surprise me. I’ve always been a fickle girl, never able to settle on just one guy, which means I’ve broken a lot of hearts in the past. Better theirs than mine.
I pull Marcello onto the bed, and he wraps his arms around me, his mouth attached to mine as if I’m his oxygen tank and he’s been trapped underwater for an hour. I keep smelling a strange floral scent that began when he entered the room. It’s stronger now, and it seems to be emanating from me.