A strong wind gusted, partially lifting the hem of my dress, but I couldn’t even react.
I froze, sensing Matteo lean toward my face—and in the next instant his lips touched mine.
I had no idea how I found the self-control not to start struggling with all my strength that very second, yet inside everything flipped and began to crack with a deafening roar.
During our previous and, until now, only kiss, I had pulled away at once.
So I hadn’t really managed to feel anything.
But now… Truly cornered, it felt as if I had no other choice but to feel—his rough lips, the unrestrained kiss, the powerful body pressing me harder against the wall.
The way Matteo, removing his fingers from my chin, slid them into my hair, gripping it and forcing my head slightly to the side so the kiss deepened and his tongue slipped into my mouth.
My heart thundered.
A powerful current surged through my body in a wave, and I felt my palms begin to tremble.
What was happening now was completely different from anything that had ever been between Dante and me.
I still didn’t fully understand what kind of man Matteo was, but his kiss was something brutal.
Completely overpowering.
Insane.
As if he really were that monster capable of devouring without mercy.
Matteo lowered his hand to my thigh.
He squeezed it with such force that I moaned painfully against his lips, shuddering as he abruptly pressed me even harder into the wall and began to hike up the hem of my dress.
That alone jolted me sharply awake.
“Wait.
No!
We’re outside,” I fluttered desperately, quickly, gasping for air with my lips.
Only now realizing that I hadn’t been getting enough oxygen at all.
“There’s no one here,” Matteo said, his voice hoarse.
Heavy.
His hand slid under my dress and now squeezed my ass, covered only by the lace of my panties.
He seemed to curse, then slowly exhaled, leaning toward my neck and covering it with kisses.
Hard.
Rough.
In that position I couldn’t look around to see whether anyone was on the sidewalks or not.
All I registered was that no cars were driving past right now, which was strange in itself—but what the hell did that matter?
“I… I don’t want you putting your hands under my clothes right out on the street.
This… I’m not… I’m not some cheap, dirty whore you can just take and—” I stumbled.
Took several deep, ragged breaths, not knowing how to make Matteo understand that I categorically did not want anything of the sort.
Especially since he might very well consider me a cheap, dirty whore.
I had no idea what was going on in his head.
I only saw that he saw no prohibitions for himself in coming into my room and tying me up with a belt.
Or, like now, practically undressing me right on the sidewalk.
But for some reason Matteo stopped.
For several seconds he didn’t move, though his body seemed tensed to the limit.
Only after a while did he exhale heavily, slowly, and remove his hand from under my dress.
“Let’s go to the hotel,” he said, resting his palm on my waist and brushing his lips against my cheek.
And for me, that moment was another one in which I froze in horror.
“You want…?” “Yes, I want you.
Me, you, a bed.
Right now.” He lowered his hand again.
Squeezed my ass once more, and I forgot how to breathe.
It took me several seconds to grasp even a little of the thoughts that were currently being shredded to pieces in my mind.
“You only needed me to hurt someone.
That person won’t be in the hotel room, and…” “You just said you like me.” “Yes, and…” God, why did I say that?
And why was Matteo focusing on it?
“For us girls, ‘like’ doesn’t equal ‘I want your cock inside me right away,'” I whispered very quietly, already regretting both what I’d said earlier and the fact that I’d left the house at all today.
But damn, all of this was so hard.
“Then what does it mean?” “I… don’t know,” I decided to answer honestly.
Or not entirely honestly.
Maybe not answer at all.
We were still standing in that wildly strange, almost intimate pose, and I did the one thing I absolutely didn’t want to do—pressed my face into his chest.
Purely out of self-preservation.
It seemed to me that when we were in some semblance of closeness, Matteo behaved less fiercely.
And I… simply wanted to save myself.
“But I’m definitely not ready to sleep with you,” I said even more carefully, freezing on every word.
He wouldn’t take me right here against my will after that, would he?
Right now all I felt was how tightly wound his body still was.
“You’re such a difficult fucking virgin.” Matteo laid his palm against my cheek.
“But only because you’ve never had boyfriends before, and I’ll be the first, I won’t touch you right now.” As if to confirm his words, he withdrew his hands and slowly took a step back.
Now that at least some distance had appeared between us, I should have felt easier—but it didn’t happen.
My body was still trembling.
Burning.
Whether I wanted to admit it or not, Matteo possessed some strange magnetism about him.
And when I came into contact with him, whatever happened in my body didn’t simply disappear.
I stepped aside as well, and it took time before, through the feverish noise of my own thoughts, I heard that my phone was ringing.
I already knew who it was—Gina.
Most likely she had already arrived at the café and was waiting for me.
“I have to go now,” I took out my phone and, glancing at the screen, confirmed that it really was my classmate calling.
And I desperately wanted to latch on to that and run away immediately.
“My classmate is waiting for me and…” “Spend this evening with me.” I had already been about to take a few more steps away when I stopped at the edge of the sidewalk.
“I can’t today,” I shook my head barely noticeably.
“It’s my classmate’s birthday and…” Matteo looked at me in a way that sent a chill down my spine, and we simply started walking.