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The magnitude of her admission hung in the air around them but she would rather face the attraction between them than pretend it wasn’t always there.
Slowly, he unwound his fingers around her hair. Disappointment and fury wreathed his features until inch by inch, he pushed them out of his face. “How do you suggest we pretend to be engaged without touching each other, Clio? If you’re weak enough to call the thing off because you can’t—”
“I don’t think it’s weak to acknowledge a weakness.” She held his gaze steadily. “To pretend in front of the world and even our friends, it’s one thing. But I don’t want anything else to muddy our relationship.”
“It worked perfectly for us this time, but it won’t happen again, sì.”
Rubbing a hand over her tummy, Clio nodded jerkily.
When he met her gaze again, it was impassive, in control. And Clio almost bought it. But now that she had tasted the heat of his kiss, saw him smile and argue with Rocco, she knew it was only a hardened facade.
Stefan still felt as passionately as he had done a decade ago. Only now, all that firestorm of emotion and passion was buried under a coldly ruthless will.
And it twisted her gut that that well of passion, all that love he had to give, would never see the light of day again.
His ready acceptance suddenly threw her even though it was what she wanted. What she needed.
“Anything else, Clio?”
“I won’t be made a fool of again, Stefan. Not even in a pretend relationship.”
“I do not understand.”
Heat crept up her neck and she pointed to the tablet, images of him with other women accompanied with captions like predatory playboy in capital letters.
Stefan changed girlfriends like she did her clothes. And their kiss, it had made her feel more alive than she had in years.
Two different facts and both she needed to accept without giving it more weight.
“You are never without a woman.”
Something devilish gleamed in his gaze. “You still have me lost, bella. Say it in words I can understand, Clio. You forget that English is not my language.”
She was not a prude. But thinking of Stefan and sex in the same sentence sent a burst of heat through her belly that she didn’t even begin to know how to handle.
He knew how uncomfortable she was talking about this and yet he was goading her.
“What are you going to do for sex, Bianco?” she said, gritting her jaw, daring him to laugh at her now.
He did it anyway, but it was an indulgent smile that cut grooves through his cheeks. Her fingers itched to trace them, to feel the stubble on his cheek.
“Was that so hard?”
“No.” She returned his smile, feeling as if they were on equal footing again. “You haven’t answered me, though.”
“I will not take up a woman on the side while all this is going on, sì? You have my word, bella. And I’m sure a few months of deprivation won’t kill me. If I do get desperate, I have two very capable hands,” he said, holding them up, his expression deadpan.
Blushing at how quickly her mind supplied an image of him, naked, Clio threw her purse at him. “Too much information, Bianco.”
He waggled his brows at her and, shaking her head at that lewd expression, she laughed.
“You have such a beautiful laugh, Clio. You should do it more.”
Struck speechless by his abrupt observation, Clio nodded.
“We’ll be landing in an hour,” he said, tilting his head toward the New York skyline emerging through the clouds and visible through the windows. “Have you started looking at Jackson’s documents? Do you require help?”
“No, I can do it myself,” Clio replied, just hearing Jackson’s name making her feel dirty from the inside. “I have downloaded and printed every document pertaining to his finances and his hedge fund company. There isn’t a single number or transaction that I don’t have a hard copy of. But I haven’t seen anything yet, Stefan. Are you sure—”
“He’s dirty? Yes. I’ll bet my entire fortune on that.”
Leaning back against the seat, he propped one ankle over the other knee. Clasped his hands behind his head, causing his white dress shirt to stretch tight against that wide chest. “Keep looking, bella.”
“It’s fascinating. For example, did you know that when—”
“So you still have a thing for numbers,” he drawled softly.
“And you’re still the only man in the world that can make that sound dirty.”
