Carpathian 00 - The Scarletti Curse

luxury of snuggling closer to him, so she could hear the reassuring beat of his heart. He was solid and strong. He bent his head to hers, his hand lifting her chin so that his mouth found hers in total desperation. She tasted his fear for her, his hunger. A need as elemental as time. He was fiercely possessive. And his kiss was the most sinfully intimate thing she had ever experienced.
    She felt the way his body hardened, his arms like iron bands about her, his loins hot and aggressive. But his mouth… It moved over hers like hot silk. It teased and insisted. Caressed and tempted. The moment she relaxed and submitted, opening her own mouth, he took complete control, sweeping her into a world where there was only feeling. Only Giovanni and Nicoletta and pure sensation. Of their own volition, her arms crept up to circle his neck, and her body melted, soft and pliant, right into his. They fit together perfectly despite the differences in their sizes. As if they were halves of the same whole.
    Giovanni deepened the kiss, demanding, dominating, ruthlessly sweeping her along with the rising tide of his own wild passion. And she followed where he led. His hands slipped down her back, shaped her small waist to slide over the curve of her rounded bottom, dragging her even closer until she was pressed tightly against him.
    "What is going on in here!" Maria Pia's voice rang out with shocked outrage. "Don Scarletti, I demand that you let go of that girl at once!"
    Giovanni's mouth was hot with need, moving over Nicoletta's, his tongue dancing and dueling and teasing her body into hot flames until she was drowning in her own desire. He made a sound. A soft groan of frustration and need. Slowly, with infinite care, he reluctantly kissed the corners of her mouth, then rested his brow against hers as if he didn't have the strength to lift his head.
    "Nicoletta!" Maria Pia's voice was sharper than ever, and this time it penetrated enough that Nicoletta Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    heard the note of fear.
    Bemused, she stared up at Giovanni, her dark eyes searching his face intently. He smiled at her, the expression in his eyes so tender that it robbed her of breath. Carefully he picked a spider web from the silken strands of her hair. "You have taken ten years off my life," he confided very softly.
    "Thank you for rescuing me." Her voice didn't sound like her own. It was husky and soft, a seductive invitation, and she found herself blushing wildly.
    The don turned his head to look at Maria Pia. He bowed slightly, a courtly, elegant gesture. "I believe I am going to have to insist that you stay with your charge at all times, Signorina Sigmora. It is that or the guards will have to be stationed in her room." A dark scowl shadowed his face at the thought of the two men in Nicoletta's bedchamber.
    "That passage is dangerous, Don Scarletti," Nicoletta announced, pointing to the severed broom handle as evidence. "Sophie has been using it to get from the nursery to my room. Her father knew." Her voice held accusation although she tried hard to keep it neutral.
    His eyebrows shot up. "Call me Giovanni," he prompted, his lips so outrageously close to her ear that she felt the warmth of his breath heating her blood all over again. "It is forbidden to all to use the passageway. Sophie knows that, and certainly Vincente knows it. Sophie was moved out of the nursery when it was discovered she knew of the passage. She was warned many times of the danger. Both Vincente and I forbade her to use it. There are numerous traps in there, and more than one person has died trying to hunt treasure or escape to the sea."
    Nicoletta lifted one eyebrow. "I have heard of Scarlettis under assault escaping unseen to the sea, but I have never heard rumors of hidden treasure."
    Giovanni shrugged his wide shoulders with careless ease. "It is said that our ancestor, Francisco Scarletti, who had this palazzo built, included the hidden passageway to allow members of the household to escape to waiting ships should there be need. Few know how to maneuver the passageway or the rocks in the cove, but Francisco mapped it carefully for future generations. More than once, during an invasion, the passageway and the cove were used for escape. In the days when the palazzo was constructed, fortresses often hid elaborate traps for invaders. Francisco was also reputed to have treasures without equal. Solid gold sculptures." He