Prologue: The Day It All Started
Alina snuggled deeper into the couch, her legs wrapped in the soft throw blanket. She was lost in the pages of 'If Only', an erotica novel that had her heart racing. She had been reading it for the past few days, and every page seemed to be stimulating her feelings in ways she couldn't quite understand. The chemistry between the characters was intense, leaving her yearning to understand what laid further beneath the pages.
“I can't sleep." Josh said, his soft lips brushing against her ear. His fingers trailed beneath her panties, and when they brushed against her moist folds, she flinched, holding back a gasp. Her breathing was slowly quickening, her chest rising and falling. “I just want to make you moan...make you moan my name...”
"What if we get caught...?" She managed to say, her words heavy on her throat. She felt the tingling sensation that crept from his long fingers, and before she knew it, they slipped into her core, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut, a soft moan escaping her lips. He was inside of h—
A knock at the door shattered her silence, snapping her from the riches if the good part. Her eyes snapped up, frustration etched on her face. She wasn't expecting anyone the least. So why the sudden disturbance? She folded her novel, marking the page a finger, and tossed it aside. Her biggest fear was being seen by whoever was standing at the door.
She knew she was aroused, and the heat that swirled between her thighs forced her to cheeks to be ablaze. She was blushing incredibly, and she couldn't do anything to stop it. She'd just have to make everything appear as normal. But how? As she approached the door, her irritation grew. She flung it open, ready to give the intruder a piece of her mind.
But her words died on her lips.
The man standing before her was....intense. Dark hair framed his rugged features, and piercing blue eyes seemed to bore into her soul. They were so lush, for a moment she thought they had been outlined with eyeliner. Numerous piercings adorned his ears and eyebrows, giving him a devil-may-care outlook.
“Alina Jones, I presume?” His accent tinged with humor.
'Say it again. Say my name again.' She couldn't understand why she wanted him to say it, she wanted him to say her name again and yet, she had just met him. It wasn't his fault, she had been reading too much and now, her mind was playing tricks on her. "Yes." She managed to say after taking a deep sigh. "And you must be, Dante?”
His rough face was not at all handsome. His voice was jagged like a demon lover’s—low and crushed velvety, promising things no good woman should wish for. She found herself thinking of s*x—and not in the privacy of a book,
but here, now, in broad daylight. "The one and only.”
His eyes kept staring at her, as if he was assessing something and she felt it. For a moment she thought he was stripping her naked with his bare eyes, and there mere thought made her heart skip a beat. But, at the same time, she couldn't let herself be thinking like this. She knew who he was, or so she thought. She had only heard about him from her sister, that she was Darrel's younger brother....making him her brother-in-law. She had never seen him before, because he was at the barracks most of the time. And now, now that she was seeing him, she was staring at something provoking.
"Are you just gonna keep staring at me, or you're gonna let me in?" He asked, and she snapped out of her haze. She felt the heat that burnt up her cheeks, and she quickly moved aside as he entered. His muscled arm brushed against hers, and she felt a shiver race down her spine. She mumbled, "Sorry about that."
But now was not the time to be thinking like this. To be so caught up in her own little fantasies when she was all alone with a man in the house. 'Take a deep breath, Alina.... You can do this...' she closed the door shut, before she walked into the lounge, following him.
As she entered the lounge, her eyes widened in horror. Dante had thrown his bag onto the couch she had been sitting, and his fingers were wrapped around her novel, lifting it up to examine the cover.
"'If Only'," he read aloud, his voice dripping with amusement.
Her face burned with embarrassment. She always kept her erotica hidden. She couldn't bear the thought of knowing someone knew about her dirty fantasies. People always saw her as innocent, and she wanted to keep it like that. "Leave my book alone!" she snapped, striding over to him.
Dante raised an eyebrow. "Why so defensive? It's just a book... I'm not going to eat it."
But she wasn't buying it. She knew why. She tried to snatch the novel from his hand, but Dante lifted it out of her reach. He was taller after all, making it hard for her to take it. But it couldn't stop her from noticing that his muscles rippled beneath his fitted t-shirt with every movement.
With a mischievous grin, Dante flipped the page to the one she had been reading. His eyes scanned the text, and then he read aloud, "'—she felt the tingling sensation that crept from his long fingers, and before she knew it, they slipped into her core, forcing her to squeeze her eyes shut, a soft moan escaping her lips.'"
Her face was on fire. She hid her face in her hands, mortified. He didn't have to read it out loud like that and it irritated her. She preferred to read it on her own, than for some hunk to read it for her. It only made her remember the moments she had been so caught in her novels, she wished she was the one experiencing the pleasure. "Stop it."
Dante's eyes crinkled at the corners as he stared at her. "Damn, I didn't know I was going to be staying under the same roof with a bloody pervert."
Her embarrassment turned to anger. "Shut up!"
"Why should I, when you've just made my boring day more interesting...." Dante chuckled, his eyes glinting with amusement. "Tell me something.... Do you masturbate everytime you read your steamy s*x stories?”
What kind of a question was that? And yes, he was starting to get on her nerves. She had just met him for the first time, and he was already asking her intimate questions. Her cheeks were on fire, her sparklingly eyes trying to be firm. “That's non of your business..."
Dante c****d a brow. "Oh, I think it's very much my business...since we're going to be living together.”
"Give me my book back," she spat, trying to ignore this nonsense he was spitting at her face. Why would he want to know about her private s*x life? When he's just as good as a stranger than family to her? He was just the brother of her sister's husband....making him her brother-in-law.
Dante's gaze lingered on the cover for a moment before he stared back at her, a sly grin spreading across his face. "I'm sorry, love, but I'll be keeping this."
"It's mine! Why do you even want it?" she demanded, trying to snatch the book from his hand. But Dante held it out of her reach, his eyes never leaving hers. As she stretched to grab the book, her fingers brushed against his chest, sending a jolt of electricity through her body. She quickly withdrew her hand, her face burning with embarrassment. But why was she feeling like this? Especially around him?
"Give it back!" she repeated, trying again to snatch the book. This time, her fingers grazed his arm, and she felt a spark. Dante's eyes crinkled at the corners, and he chuckled, his voice low and husky. "I want to know more about your dirty little fantasies...," he said, his smile sending a shiver down her spine. "...for future use!"
This was so wrong.
She tried to snatch the book again, but this time Dante caught her wrist, his fingers wrapping around it like a vice. Her heart skipped a beat as she felt his warm breath on her skin. "You're not getting it back," he whispered, his eyes glinting with amusement. "At least, not until I've finished reading it."
