‘I let you down.”
‘yes ”
‘I am sorry ”
‘lt doesn’t help.”
‘I know ” But was that entirely true? After learning about Sofia Pennini , Elisa appreciated better why Salvatore had not trusted her. An experience like that would make any man wary when his lover told him she was pregnant with his child.
Her father’s assertion Elisa was just like her mother had justifiably fueled Salvatore’s distrust.
So, yes, she understood why he believed what he did, but it made little difference to her emotion-deprived heart. The simple truth remained. If he had loved her, he would have wanted the baby to be his not been afraid it was so. He would have believed her. He never would have left.
For a brief time, she had believed he loved her. He’d wined and dined her. Flattered her. And he’d bedded her. In the end it had been that easy. Over her vacation in Sicily, she had fallen helplessly in love with Salvatore. She’d had no hope of resisting his blatant seduction when he looked her up i n MiIan .
Stupidly, she had mistaken his passion for love. She had ended up pregnant with his child and had only then come to appreciate her mistake. He had not believed her that the baby was his and she’d miscarried. Now they had this thing between them that was b0th too big to dismiss and yet nothing at all.
‘How long have you been sitting there?”
‘I do not know
”I can move to the floor if you like. I’ve got your coat to lie on anyway.”
‘No don’t. It is bound to be more comfortable for me than it is for you.”
‘you’re so stubborn and you’re too macho for your own good.”
‘you think I am macho?” There was humor in his voice which was a real improvement over the almost desperate tone he’d had earlier or the dead tone he’d used when he apologized.
‘please, Salvatore. You’re so macho you could bottle and sell it. Not only are you a good head taller than most Sicilian men but you also have more muscles than any tycoon has a right to.”
And the way he’d been flashing them earlier was still affecting her breathing when she thought about it. you’re trained to fight like a commando and you practically define the word virile. It’s enough to make a woman swoon.”
The only warning she had that he had moved was the faint sound of fabric brushing against fabric and then he was there. Next to her on the mattress his face so close to hers that his breath brushed her skin.
‘I define the word virile?”
Perhaps that had been a dumb thing to admit, but it was no use lying now.
‘Yes.”
‘But you will not let me share your bed.”
‘I didn’t kick you out of the bed. You left because you were afraid of seducing me.”
‘You admit I could seduce you?”
‘l’m not admitting anything. It’s your own worries that had you sitting on the hard floor in the middle of the night.”
‘Fear. Worry. You make me sound like an old woman.”
Nervous laughter huffed out of her.
‘I don’t think so.”
His lips brushed her cheek.
‘Maybe you want to be seduced ” he whispered the words a caress against her skin.