Sensual Danger by Tina Folsom

she hated his touch. Having his suspicion confirmed would only force him to act upon it: he would have to do what he had planned all along. Send her to the mainland. Why this revelation didn’t make him feel relieved, he didn’t know.
    After all, sending her away would mean he could resume his old life: fuck a different whore every night. However, that prospect made him recoil. He didn’t want to fuck a whore, he wanted to bed his wife. On clean sheets. In their marriage bed. Every night. And every day.
    Something was seriously wrong with this picture. Because Nico liked variety, he liked the conquest, and he liked his women experienced and adventurous.
    Not virginal. Not shy in bed. Not disgusted with him.
    So why did his cock rise every time he thought of Oriana? Why did his heart beat faster when he caught a whiff of her scent?
    “Nico!”
    Dante’s voice pulled him out of his daydreams. Nico rolled his shoulders. “Yes?”
    “I said, if you want to spend the evening at your home—I mean considering you’re practically on your honeymoon—nobody is going to fault you for it.”
    Nico shook his head. “There’s no need. I’ll do my part.”
    At the very least, it would distract him, though roaming the city at night wouldn’t dull the hunger he felt for his wife. The hunger for her luscious body and her rich blood. A hunger she would never allow him to still. He had to end this charade now: he would send her to the mainland as planned. At least that way, he wouldn’t make her cry again. She would get what she wanted, and he would simply return to his bachelor life. If he could get Oriana out of his mind.
     

9
     
    Oriana couldn’t believe that her husband had simply left without a word. He hadn’t even told the servants where he was going or when he was coming back. Cook had looked at her almost accusatorily when she’d served Oriana’s supper and Nico still hadn’t returned by then.
    She’d waited impatiently, but when the clock in the sitting room had chimed the twelve strokes of midnight, she’d yawned and ascended to her room. After her maid had loosened Oriana’s corset, she sent her to bed. She continued undressing, draping her dress over the screen. When she was wearing only her chemise and drawers, she let her hands glide over her torso. Instantly, the same desire flared up in her again as when she’d lain on the dining table being pleasured by Nico.
    Would this remain the only time he touched her like this? Had she done something wrong? Was that why he hadn’t come back yet? He’d called her his wanton wife. What if she had disgusted him with her behavior? After all, he’d married a lady, and he’d gotten nothing better than a trollop dressed in lady’s clothing.
    How she could have behaved like this, Oriana couldn’t explain. Maybe some temporary insanity had gripped her and controlled her. Would it happen again? Would she again lose all her good senses and behave like a whore the next time her husband tested her like this? Because that was all it could have been: a test to assure himself that she was the virtuous wife she’d promised him she’d be.
    Surprised at herself why she was even concerned about what her husband thought of her, she shook her head. She didn’t care what he thought.
    Liar! she chided herself.
    At the very moment when he’d looked at her with such untamed passion in his eyes while taking her on the dining table, something had changed. Even now she felt her heart race at the thought that he wanted her. A rush of power surged through her. Confusion followed. She’d never been so torn in her life. One minute she wanted to throw herself in her husband’s arms, the next she wanted to profess her virtuousness and assure him that she would never again behave in such a lusty way.
    While she tried to understand what was happening to her, Oriana turned to the chest that contained her finest garments. Among the items was a negligee she had saved from her mother’s