A Thief in Venice by Tara Crescent

laughed, but there was no humour in that sound. “You could never be one among many, Lucia.” He paused. “I’ve never asked you about Casanova,” he said.
    “True.” It was one of the things I liked the most about Antonio. There was no double standard.
    “Not because I am entirely indifferent to it,” he continued. “But because at the end of the day, the past is the past, and there’s nothing that can be done about it. What matters is the present.”
    His mouth found my neck again and kissed it. “I would ask that you give me the same courtesy. I have a past, it is true, and so do you. But Lucia, since that day you got into my car after stealing my painting, you’ve been the only woman in my life.”
    Damn it. I couldn’t argue with that logic at all. I had slept with many men, and I would have walked away from him in an instant if he had had anything to say about it. I could hardly judge him for his past while insisting he couldn’t judge me for mine.
    I took a deep breath. “No one else?” I tried my level best to keep the hope out of my voice. I really liked Antonio. A lot. Far more than I’d ever liked a guy before. The idea of him with another woman? It made me want to stab something.
    He shook his head with a wry smile. “Want to try monogamy, Lucia?” There was a hint of vulnerability in his voice.
    “Do you?” I asked directly.
    “Yes, little thief.” His voice was steady.
    I gazed ahead, my eyes troubled. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to be monogamous with Antonio – because I did. The idea of sleeping with someone else seemed foreign to me. I hadn’t stepped into the club for weeks, not because I was concerned about whether anyone would play with me, but because Antonio held far greater appeal. There was a comfort between us. The more we played, the more we were in tune with each other. He pushed me, and I let him because I trusted him completely to keep me safe.
    My hesitation was something else. Neither Antonio nor I were used to monogamy. Things were great now. They might not be one day in the future.
    “Look,” I said, “what if we tire of each other?”
    “I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that could never happen,” he responded. “I’m as new to this as you are. But we communicate well about sex.” That was the understatement of the year. “If we aren’t meeting each other’s needs, I’m assuming we’ll talk about it. And do our best to sort it out.”
    “Okay,” I said. My voice was cautious, and Antonio laughed aloud.
    “Hardly a ringing endorsement of my sexual prowess, little thief.”
    I laughed with him, and moved my hand behind me to reach for his dick. It was half-erect, and I licked my lips and turned so that I lay down in his lap, my mouth on him, urging him to readiness. When he was hard, I lifted my mouth from him, and smiled at him. “Remind me again of your sexual prowess, Antonio,” I winked.
    He laughed again, but his eyes glinted in that particular way that told me the game was beginning between us. He reached over the side table to grab a condom, rolled it on, and lifted me up and slid me on his hard, erect dick so that I was seated on him, completely filled by his length in me. I shut my eyes for a second. He felt so good.
    “Go out for dinner with me,” he repeated. This time, it was an order, accompanied by a soft pull on my nipples.
    “You don’t get to order me around outside the dungeon,” I pointed out, as I writhed in his lap from the sweet ache that shot through my nipples as they reacted to his touch.
    He inclined his head in agreement. “Please go out for dinner with me, sweetness.” His hands stilled. His voice was still hard, but there was vulnerability in his eyes. He didn’t allow himself to soften a lot, Antonio. He was the head of Thieves Guild. Softness was not really part of the job description. And the way he had grown up hadn’t allowed for much tenderness either. But it was still there, and I needed to