Rocco rakes his fingers through his hair. “The pigeon gazed at him with its dear, innocent, round eyes. It couldn’t understand why he had brought it out into the rain. It couldn’t understand why he clutched it so hard. Tears came into his eyes. He had loved it with all his heart all its life. It was impossible to explain to anyone else how he felt. Yet, no one could blame him. Without him, it would have died long ago. He remembered the day he had found it, how tiny and helpless it had been. Then he remembered its adorable habit of gently rubbing its beak against his nose. It loved him. It was a soft and gentle creature. It ate directly from his palm. Not the hawk. The hawk was a proud thing. It would never concede even to be his friend. Let alone love him. He closed his eyes for a second. In that second he made up his mind.”
I throw the silky sheet off me, clamber off the bed, and run to kneel next to him. I put my hand over his mouth, and beg, “Don’t tell me anymore.”
He stares at me, his eyes as inconsolable as I had imagined the man who had the terrible decision to make.
He takes my hand off his mouth. “I have to tell you, Autumn,” he whispers brokenly. “You have to know what you are getting into.”
“I know. I know. There are too many unanswered questions around you, your family, and those people at the party, but not tonight. Tonight is for me. You see, I already know that what you have to tell me will mean I have to walk away from you, but just tonight, I want to have you. I want you, Rocco Rossetti. Tonight, make me yours.”
“Are you sure?”
“I have never been more sure of anything else in my life.” I smile. “I’ve got two condoms.”
He closes his eyes. “Oh, Autumn. You are so pure.” He opens his eyes. “I dread the day you begin to hate me.”
I lay my hand on his smooth cheek. “No matter what I will never hate you. Maybe I won’t be able to be with you, but I will never hate you.”
He looks so deeply into my eyes, it is as if he is looking into my very soul, and cherishes me beyond all else. But I can’t understand it. How can that be the case when he knows so little about me?
“Don’t say that yet,” he whispers. “If I start to believe that it will make me very sad if you start to hate me.”
“I won’t hate you,” I insist fiercely. “No matter what you tell me, I won’t hate you.”
His lips are inches away. So close. “Let me tell you everything now, Autumn. It’s the right thing to do… before you give your body to me.”
My heart pitter-patters in my chest, but my voice is sure and firm. It is neither colored nor muddled by alcohol. This is what I want. “You will tell me when we get back to Hunter’s Cross, and I will find a way to walk away from you. I can do it because I’ve always known you do not belong to me. You are too beautiful, too exotic, too special, too mysterious, but just tonight I want to pretend you’re mine. Now, kiss me Count Rocco Rossetti.”
Chapter 42
Autumn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vKsSGyQf-M
-Wicked Game-
His powerful hands suddenly shoot out to grip my arms and roughly pull me to him. A shocked gasp flies out of my mouth. He swallows it as he crushes his lips hungrily against mine. His kiss is wild, ferocious, and triumphant. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought it to be a declaration of possession. A man claiming his woman. Whatever it is, it is nothing like the previous occasion our lips met. Vaguely, somewhere in my head, flashes of the realization that he must have been holding himself back the last time.
This, this is the real him.
His scent, earth and morning dew, fills my senses, intoxicating me. As the kiss deepens, his taste begins to filter into me. He is delicious. It pushes away all my confused thoughts about him and makes me feel as if I am lost in a sweet dream. The edges become hazy, as if I am in a fog. But this is real, I tell myself. And yet it seems fantastical, unreal. Even my body feels like warm butter. Fluid and boneless.
With my eyes clenched shut I swing my arms around him. I’m determined to have my fill before I lose him forever. We are wrapped in a cocoon of dangerous attraction and molten lust. He slips his tongue into my mouth. It is like being zapped by a bolt of electricity. My whole body starts humming as dormant desires wake up and an insistent throbbing begins between my legs.