Bought: Destitute Yet Defiant

She lifted her chin. ‘Why did you let me leave?’

Something flared in his eyes. ‘Because I was a fool,’ he breathed, ‘and I made a mistake. Another one of many mistakes I have made with you.’ He strode over to her but Jessie took several steps backwards.

‘You were with Angelica—she was flirting with you.’

He frowned impatiently. ‘Angelica doesn’t know any other way of communicating with a man and don’t tell me she’s the reason you left because I won’t believe you.’

‘What is it you want, Silvio?’ she whispered, and he lifted an eyebrow.

‘You really have to ask me that? I’ve crossed a continent to find you and I’m sure you know that chasing women across the globe is not generally a habit I indulge in.’ A sardonic smile touched his firm mouth. ‘Just for the record, I’ve never had to chase a woman before. Not even over a short distance.’

‘So why—?’

‘Doesn’t that tell you why I’m here?’ His voice shimmered with exasperation and tension was visible in every line of his handsome face. ‘I want you, tesoro. And no other woman.’

Her heart turned a somersault in her chest. ‘That isn’t true.’

‘You know it’s true. I’ve always wanted you. From the day of your sixteenth birthday when I gave you that locket. I could hardly keep my hands off you even then, but everything collapsed around us and I knew it could never work,’ he said thickly, taking her face in his hands and forcing her to look at him. ‘And then I saw you in that alleyway—being away from you for three years hadn’t changed a thing.’

Jessie felt dizzy. ‘You didn’t tell me how you felt.’

‘Talking about emotions is as alien to me as analysing them,’ Silvio confessed in a raw tone. ‘And anyway, I didn’t know how I felt until I thought I’d lost you. Look at me, Jessie.’

Her heart pounding, she looked. ‘Silvio—’

‘I want you to look at me and see who I really am.’ His tone savage, he released her and stepped back. ‘I want you to remember where I came from. I’m not some clean-living, well educated boy from a good family. This face of mine is a constant reminder of the life I led.’

‘I know what your life was, Silvio.’

‘Do you? Or have you forgotten? Perhaps you see the yacht and the helicopter—the man who can buy anything he wants.’ His voice was tinged with bitterness. ‘But I was bred into a life of violence and you have no idea how difficult it has been to leave all that behind. It’s the reason I work so hard. I can never relax. I never feel far enough away from it. I’ve been running since I was a teenager, and I’m still running. I will not go back there.’

‘Why are you telling me this when I know it already?’ She spoke in a whisper, stunned by the passion she saw in him. ‘I was there with you. I lived that life. I know where you came from. You don’t have to explain it for me. Why are you saying these things to me?’

‘Perhaps I’m delivering a warning.’ His mouth twisted into a smile of pure self-mockery. ‘You talk about guilt, Jess, and, yes I feel guilt. I want

you, but I know you deserve better.’

‘Better?’ Jessie laughed, hope blossoming in her chest. ‘Does it get any better than this, Silvio?’

He inhaled deeply, his expression strangely uncertain. ‘I’m not the man for an innocent girl.’

‘Am I supposed to be the innocent girl in this scenario? I’m twenty-two, which makes me a woman, not a girl, and if you think I’m innocent, perhaps you don’t know me as well as you think you do.’

‘You were a virgin, Jess.’

‘Yes.’ This time she didn’t deny it. ‘And the reason I was still a virgin is because you’re the only man I’ve ever wanted. I was never interested in anyone else. Even when I thought I hated you, I still didn’t want anyone else.’

Some of his tension eased but there was still doubt in his eyes. ‘Is that true?’

‘You know it’s true. You have always known how I felt about you.’

Silvio lifted his hand and touched her cheek gently. ‘I hurt you. You were vulnerable and inexperienced and I hurt you.’

‘It was the most incredible experience of my life.’

‘Then why did you leave?’ He cupped her face in his hands, his tone demanding. ‘The night of the wedding—you just walked away from me. Why?’

‘Because I thought it was the right thing to do. Because I thought I wasn’t good enough for your new life, because I was afraid that being with me reminded you of the life you’d left behind…’