Page 17 of The Cost of Corruption
“Fuck, Chastity.” Now his voice really was a growl. “Do you have any idea what talk like that does to a man?”
I shook my head. But even as I did, I could feel the energy in his body tightening beneath my hands—a sensation far more intoxicating than any liquor on earth.
“Is that a yes?” I asked.
Again, he answered, not in words but in action, cupping the back of my neck and guiding my mouth down to the center of his chest.
For a second, I couldn’t do anything but breathe. The faint earthy scent of soap and skin rose up with the heat of his body as I pressed my lips against his breastbone.
Hesitantly, I opened my mouth, flicking the tip of my tongue against his flesh. Above me, Matteo hissed in a breath, the sound both sharp and heady.
It was enough to spur me on.
I opened my mouth wider—truly tasting him. But with every kiss, the hunger inside me only grew. Fiercer and wilder. More urgent and pounding.
Matteo’s hands moved up from the back of my neck to my hair, ripping off the simple white covering and tossing it across the room. A tangle of tresses fell, and his fingers curled inside them as another one of his primal growls filled the room.
“Yes,” he said as I moved down from his chest to his belly. “Yes.Fuck, yes,” as my head dipped down even more.
All the way down to the edge of his pants.
His whole body tightened as I flicked the tip of my tongue no more than a millimeter or two below the waistband.
I wasn’t so naive that I didn’t know where I was heading. Some wicked part of me knew what I’d been doing the whole time.
Knew and didn’t want to stop. Wanted to keep going farther. Pushing myself right over the edge of no return.
But now that I was finally at the crossroads, I wasn’t so certain which was the best choice—stop and beg the Lord above for forgiveness or plunge headlong into the depth of true carnal sin.
I drew in a shaky breath, hesitating for just a second. Frozen in fear of making a decision that would define the path of my life from that moment on.
But as it turned out, I didn’t have to choose. The decision was made for me.
In the next breath, Matteo’s office door forcefully flew. The pictures on the wall rattled in their frames as voice I knew far too well echoed off the walls.
“Matteo D’Angelo! You are a dead man.”
Oh, shit.
My father was here.
Chapter Four
CHASTITY
Adrenaline pumped through my veins, rushing with such intensity that it wasn’t just my head that shot up from Matteo’s waist. It was my whole body. I popped out of his lap like a corn kernel in a frying pan.
I might have jumped halfway across the room if Matteo didn’t clasp onto my wrist again and keep me by his side.
“Father!”
I should have kept my mouth shut. The instant his cold, pale eyes flashed my way, I wished the earth would open up and swallow me whole. Better that than having to watch his face turn a frightening shade of red as he took in the sight of his supposedly saintly daughter—hair tangled and tossed, habit bunched and wrinkled, lips flushed from use. Pure rage radiated out of him. His whole body shook with it.
“D’Angelo, you son of a bitch!” I shuffled back a step as his roar filled the room. “I’ll fucking kill you.”
I’d seen my father angry plenty of times. I’d even heard him threaten others’ lives—men who, the next day, had theirobituaries printed in the paper. But I’d never seen him this of control before. He looked ready to rip Matteo’s head off with bare hands.
Strangely, though, Matteo didn’t seem all that concerned.
