Page 40 of The Broker
“Your father was a sailor,” I counter. “Surely he taught you to tie a knot I can’t get out of.”
“Not with a tie.”
“There’s some cotton rope in the kitchen.” She raises an eyebrow, and I add, “It’s for a clothesline.”
“It’ll shred your skin.”
“Only if I tug free. I won’t.”
She looks at me for a long time. “Does your bedroom door have a lock on it?”
“Yes.”
And then,shockingly,she gets to her feet. “Let’s continue this conversation there.”
Triumph surges through me. She hasn’t told me to fuck off. She hasn’t laughed in my face. She’s actually giving my suggestion serious thought.
Fuck, yes.
I hurry her up the stairs and into my bedroom before she changes her mind. I lock the door behind me, then turn to Valentina and look at her properly for the first time. I noticed her dress when she took off her coat downstairs—I’m not blind—but it didn’t seem right to leer.
For the first time in my life, I let myself drink in my fill. The cocktail dress is pink and short and tight, Valentina’s breasts spilling out of the plunging neckline. I’m torn between twin urges to rip it off her body and feast on her, and I want to beat Neil Smith bloody in a jealous rage.
I do neither. “This is a very sexy dress, Valentina.”
“And you want to stab Neil in the face because he directed most of his remarks to my breasts?”
I didnotknow that. Funny how Leo’s report left that part out. “Who, me? I would never.”
She laughs out loud and perches on the foot of my bed. “Liar. How does this exposure therapy work? You’re going to give me homework?” She flushes pink. “Sex homework?”
She says sex homework and all the blood rushes from my brain straight to my cock. I want to pinch myself. I still can’t believe this is happening. I’m waiting for her to change her mind. “Something like that.”
She doesn’t respond, not immediately. Instead, she examines the rope we retrieved on the way up and gives me an appraising look. “What’s my first assignment? I’m going to tie you up, and then what?”
“And then you’re in charge.”
She gives me an exaggeratedly shocked look. “Hang on. Am I hearing you correctly? Dante Colonna, control freak extraordinaire, isvoluntarilyoffering to give up control.”
“I do have a suggestion for your first assignment,” I continue, ignoring her sarcasm.
“What a surprise.” She flashes me a grin. “What is it?”
I join her on the bed. “Tie me up and lose that pretty dress, sparrow. I’m going to lose my mind if I don’t taste your sweet little pussy.”
She inhales sharply. For a long moment, she doesn’t say anything. She stares at her hands in silence, and I wonder if I’ve pushed too hard, too fast. I’m about to ask her if she’s okay when she says, her voice low, “I’ve never done that before.”
“Sat on a man’s face?” The man in question is my dead brother, and it should be weird, but I’m far more concerned about Valentina’s reaction.
She finally looks at me. “I mean oral. No one’s ever gone down on me.”
“You’re kidding me.”
She rolls her eyes. “Yes, Dante. I’m joking. I find my non-existent sex lifehilarious.”
Okay, I deserve that. “I don’t know what to say,” I tell her honestly. “It’s a fucking travesty.” I crook two fingers at her. “Come here, sparrow. I’ve never known you to be bashful— don’t start now. Get naked, then come here and sit on my face.”
“Bossy,” she chides. “I thought I was tying you up.” She rises to her feet and moves closer, turning around and standing between my legs. “Help me with the zipper? It sticks a little, and I don’t want to tear Rosa’s dress.”