He was sex on legs. A predator. The sort that chewed up and spat out women like her with pathetic ease.
That was, when they bothered to notice women like her in the first place. Which was not very damn often.
"Dante. Do you have to skulk about like that?" she demanded, desperately aware of the priceless clutter just behind her.
He made a show of considering her question before offering a faint shrug.
"No, I don't suppose I have to skulk about," he murmured in his husky midnight voice. "I simply enjoy doing so."
"Well, it's a very vulgar habit."
His lips twitched with amusement as he prowled ever closer. "Oh, I possess far more vulgar habits, sweet Abby. Several that I don't doubt you would enjoyfully if onlyyou would allow me to demonstrate."
God, she just bet he did. Those slender, devilish hands would no doubt make a woman scream in pleasure. And those lips…
Abruptly she was squashing the renegade fantasy and stirring up the annoyance she most certainly should be feeling.
"Ack. You're revolting."
"Vulgar and revolting?" His smile widened to reveal startling white teeth. "My sweet, you are in a very precarious position .to be tossing about such insults."
Precarious? She battled the urge to glance down and discover if any shards of her crime were visible.
"I don't know what you mean."
With a flowing elegance, Dante was on his knees before her, those disturbing fingers lifting to lightly stroke her cheek. His touch was cool, almost cold, but it sent a startling flare of heat searing through her.
"Oh, I think you do. I seem to recall a rather precious Ming vase that used to sit upon that table. Tell me, lover, did you hock it or break it?"
Damn. He knew. She desperately attempted to think of some feasible lie to explain the missing vase. Or for that matter, any lie, feasible or not. Unfortunately, she had never been particularly skilled at prevarication.
And it didn't much help that his lingering touch was turning her brain to mush.
"Don't call me that," she at last lamely muttered.
"What?" His brows lifted.
"Lover."
"Why?"
"For the obvious fact that I'm not your lover."
"Not yet."
"Not ever."
"Tsk, tsk" Dante clicked his tongue as his fingers moved to boldly outline her lips. "Has no one ever warned you that it is dangerous to dare fate? It has a tendency to come back and bite you." His gaze drifted over her pale countenance and the soft curve of her neck. "Sometimes quite literally."
"Not in a million years."
"I can wait," he husked.
She gritted her teeth as those skillful fingers traveled down the arch of her throat and along the neckline of her plain cotton shirt. He was merely toying with her. Hell, the man would flirt with any woman who possessed a pulse. And maybe a few who didn't.
'That finger moves any lower and your stay in the world is going to be considerably shorter."
He gave a soft chuckle as he reluctantly allowed his hand to drop. "Do you know, Abby, someday you're going to forget to say no. And on that day, I intend to make you scream with pleasure."
"My God, how do you possibly carry that ego around?"
His smile was purely wicked. "Do you think I don't notice? All those covert glances when you think I'm not looking? The way you shiver when I brush past you? The dreams that haunt your nights?"
Conceited, puffed-up toad.
She should laugh. Or pooh-pooh. Or even slap his arrogant face. Instead she stiffened as if he had hit a nerve that she didn't even know she possessed.
"Don't you have somewhere you need to be?" she gritted. "The kitchen? The sewers? The fires of hell?"
Surprisingly the pirate features hardened as his lips twisted into a sardonic smile.
"Nice try, my sweet, but I don't need you to condemn me to the fires of hell. That was accomplished a long time ago. Why else would I be here?"
Abby gave a lift of her brows, intrigued in spite of herself by his hint of bitterness. For God's sake, what more could he want? He possessed the sort of cushy life that most oversexed playboys could only dream of. A glamorous home. Expensive clothes. A silver Porsche. And a sugar mommy who was not only young, but beautiful enough to make any male hot and bothered. His life was hardly in the gutter.
Unlike her own.
"Oh yes, you must really suffer," she retorted, her gaze flicking over the silk shirt that cost more than her entire wardrobe. "My heart simply breaks for you."
The silver eyes flashed with a startling heat as the fierce power that always smoldered about him prickled through the air.
"Do not presume to speak of things you know nothing about, lover," he warned.
Just let it be, Abby, she sternly warned herself. Whatever his easy charm, the man was dangerous. A genuine bad boy. Only fools deliberately toyed with fire.
Of course, when it came to men, she might as well have the word idiot tattooed on her forehead.
"If you dislike being here, then why don't you leave?"
He regarded her in unnerving silence before his eyes slowly narrowed. "Why don't you?"
"What?"
"I'm not the only one suffering here, am I? Every day you seem to fade a bit more. As if your frustration and sadness has taken another piece of your soul."
Abby nearly tumbled backward at his sharp perception. She had never dreamed that anyone could possibly have noted her desperation at her tedious existence, nor the budding fear that she would soon be too old and tired to care that she was going nowhere.
Certainly not this man.
'You don't know anything."
"I know a prison when I see one," he murmured. 'Why do you remain behind the bars when you could so easily slip away?"
She gave a short, humorless laugh. Easily? Obviously he was not nearly so perceptive as she had given him credit for.
"Because I need this job. Unlike you, I don't have a generous lover to pay my bills and keep me in style. Some of us have to earn our pay with actual work."
If she thought to insult him, she was far off the mark. In fact, her sharp words merely returned that mocking humor she found so damn annoying.
'You believe me to be Selena's whore?"
"Aren't you?"
He lifted abroad shoulder. "Our… relationship is a bit more complex than that."
"Oh yes, no doubt being a boy toy to a rich, glamorous woman is astonishingly complex."
"Is that why you try to keep me at a distance? Because you believe I share Selena's bed?"