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A Condottiera’s Return Awakens Dangerous Fire
- Prologue
1525, the old tower above Montefeltro
Rain hammered the tower roof in steady, relentless sheets, the sound filling the stone room like a second heartbeat. Firelight licked across the walls, throwing long shadows that shifted with every gust clawing at the narrow windows. Caterina stood with her back to the door, cuirass unlaced and hanging open from her shoulders, the heavy plates catching the glow. Beneath it her linen shift clung damp to her skin, translucent where rain had soaked through on the ride up, outlining the long muscles of her back and the faint ridge of an old scar that crossed her left shoulder blade.
She did not turn when the door opened and closed with a soft, deliberate weight. She knew the tread of those boots on the worn rushes, the way he paused just inside the threshold to let his eyes adjust to the dim light and to take her in. The air between them thickened before he moved. When he finally crossed the room, the faint scent of sandalwood and ink and the sharper trace of rain on wool reached her first. Then his presence at her back, close enough that the heat of him pressed against the chill still clinging to her damp clothes.
Lorenzo lifted one hand and brushed a heavy strand of wet hair from the side of her neck. His fingers were ink-stained at the tips, elegant, steady. He tucked the hair behind her ear with a care that made her breath catch low in her throat. For a moment he simply stood there, letting the warmth of his body seep into hers through the open cuirass. Then he leaned in and pressed his mouth to the thin white line of the scar just below her jaw.
The contact was slow, deliberate. His lips parted, tongue tracing the raised edge of it as though he could taste the old pain there. Caterina’s fingers tightened on the edge of the cuirass. A low sound escaped her, half breath, half warning. She reached back with her free hand, found the hard line of his thigh through velvet, and gripped hard enough that her nails dug into the fabric. She pulled him forward until the full length of his body met hers, until she could feel the unmistakable thickening of his cock pressing against the curve of her…