The Sicilian's Bought Cinderella

Her throat moved before she looked up and her wide, confused eyes fell on him. ‘Dante, I can’t wear this.’

‘Why not? Don’t you like it?’

‘It’s the most beautiful piece of jewellery I’ve seen in my life. If I c

ould have asked a jeweller to make a ring bespoke for me, then this is exactly what I would go for...’

‘Then what’s the problem?’

‘It must cost a fortune. What if I lose or damage it? You’ll never be able to take it back.’

‘It’s yours to keep,’ he said evenly.

‘I can’t keep it! It’s too much.’

‘Aislin...’ He sighed and crossed the threshold, closing the gap between them enough to take the box from her hand and pull the ring out. Not giving her mouth or his brain time to protest, he took her left hand in his and slid the ring on her wedding finger.

‘Listen to me,’ he said quietly, moving his gaze from the ring on her finger to stare at the ring of her eyes.

Her eyes were a thousand times more dazzling.

‘This is a gift from me. I already know you well enough to know you will give every cent of the remaining money to Orla for Finn’s benefit, and I admire you for that. I admire much about you, dolcezza, and I want you to come away from our time together with something that is yours alone. Now, I ask that you do not insult me again by refusing it.’

Only when he’d finished speaking did he notice the tingling warmth on his hand and realise he’d clasped his fingers tightly around hers, and that he’d leaned his face so close to hers he could see the individual freckles on her pretty nose.

For once, Aislin had no comeback. Her tongue had rooted itself to the roof of her mouth, the pressure of his fingers around hers setting her already ragged heart off on a rampage of heavy beats.

She could smell his skin under the cologne he wore. She could feel the warmth emanating from him. If she raised the hand not being held so tightly she would be able to press it to his chest and feel if his heart was beating as erratically as hers.

Everything inside her heated and made a weird contraction, as if her body was being reset to a brand-new mode. Suddenly she was very much aware of her sensitised skin, the tight heaviness of her breasts and the surge of damp warmth between legs that no longer felt connected to her brain. Breathing became impossible.

The eyes staring so deeply into hers darkened as they inched closer and closer...

A large, tanned hand clasped the side of her neck and she caught the flare of his nostrils before the sensuous mouth she’d tried so hard not to stare at and fantasise about caught her in a hard, unyielding kiss that sent her resistance crashing.

Awareness exploded and rippled through her.

This...

His tongue flickered into her mouth, a new dark taste filling her, and then she was moulded against the contours of his hard torso. Feelings she had never known before crashed through her in a second explosion of awareness. Deep inside, the damp warmth became a furnace of bubbling need, and she kissed him back, plundering his mouth with the same intensity with which he devoured hers, all sense abandoned as her senses took full control.

It wasn’t just his torso that was hard. His arousal pressed against her belly, sending a pulse of red-hot need so deep into her that she groaned from the sensation it induced.

Every part of her body came to glorious life, all dancing with heady delight to Dante’s tune...

And then the dance was over.

The kiss broke and the hard body pulled away with a suddenness that bordered on cruelty.

CHAPTER EIGHT

STUNNED, AISLIN BLINKED and tried to breathe.

Her lungs were so tight she could hardly get air into them.

For the first time she was afraid to look at him.

She was afraid of what she would see on his face.