Page 41 of Venice Vampyr: The Beginning

For a moment, nobody spoke. The silence in the foyer was deafening.

He waited for a snide remark from his brother, but it didn’t come. “What, no comeback?” Dante asked.

“You’d better take her upstairs. I’ll inform the servants to watch what they say. I’m assuming she doesn’t know what you are?” Raphael’s voice was calm and collected.

Dante shook his head. “No. It’s bad enough she thinks sex is a terrible thing. How do you think she’ll react if she realized one of our kind took her virginity?”

He gazed into Viola’s face and drew her tighter to his body. She seemed so fragile, and he felt like a beast that had attacked her.

And he wanted to do it again.

Chapter Seven

Viola felt a warm cocoon surround her and snuggled deeper into the softness. She hadn’t expected the afterlife to feel so soft and warm. In fact, she’d rather thought that her desperate act of committing suicide would make her go to hell. But this didn’t feel like hell. There was no smell of sulfur. Instead, she could smell a lingering scent of cologne—a man’s cologne—and a little smoke from a fire burning nearby. It was odd.

She opened her eyes to take in her new surroundings. Shock made her sit up.

She was in a large four poster bed in the middle of a richly decorated bedchamber—a very masculine bedchamber.

“Ah, you’re finally awake.”

Viola snapped her head toward the male voice and froze. Dante. He sat in an armchair near the fireplace and now rose to walk toward the bed. She grabbed the sheets and pressed them against her body, realizing instantly that she only wore her chemise.

“I had to make you more comfortable.” His tone was apologetic, and even his eyes looked sincere.

“Where am I?” she pressed out, panic gripping her. Had he kidnapped her? What had happened? She distinctly remembered pressing the gun against her temple and pulling the trigger.

Dante reached the bed and sat down at the edge. Viola eyed him suspiciously. “You’re in my home. I didn’t know where you lived, so I brought you here.”

Instinctively her hand went to her temple. She felt a tiny abrasion, but nothing else.

His eyes followed her hand. “The bullet only grazed you. I jerked it from your hand.”

Her heart pounded at the knowledge that he knew what she’d done and that he’d prevented her from succeeding. “How dare you?”

“Excuse me?” His forehead crinkled with confusion.

“You heard me. How dare you stop me? It was my choice.” She hit him with a furious glare.

“Choice?” He stood up with a start. “You didn’t know what you were doing. You can’t just kill yourself over something so trivial.”

“Trivial?”

“Yes, trivial. No woman’s first sexual experience is all that enjoyable. Don’t you know that?”

He thought she’d wanted to kill herself because it had hurt when he’d penetrated her? She’d had to deal with more severe pain in her life than the little ache that had lasted only a few seconds. How self-absorbed was he? “You pompous, arrogant rake! This has nothing to do with you.”

Dante glared at her. “It has everything to do with me. There’s no need to lie to me. In fact, it would be better for all involved if you told me the truth. You’re obviously not a widow. I guess we’ve already established that.”

Viola didn’t like his commanding tone and decided not to make this easy for him. Maybe he thought he could command other women around, but not her. “I could very well have been married and still be a virgin if—”

He suddenly was at the bed and cupped her chin with his thumb and forefinger. “Lying doesn’t become you. So stop, or I’ll have to do this to shut you up.” He pressed a kiss on her lips, a kiss so brief she could barely enjoy the sensation.

“I didn’t give you leave to kiss me!” she protested and pushed him away, dropping the bed sheet in the process.

“You gave me leave to do a lot more than that.” He grinned and lowered his gaze to her breasts.

With a jerky movement, she covered herself with the sheet. “Go, sit on that chair over there.” She wanted him as far away as possible. When he was so close with his male scent wrapping around her, she couldn’t think clearly. Why else would she want to pull him into bed with her and ask him to kiss her again the way he’d done before he’d used his enormous manhood on her?