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‘Salvatore?”
‘Hmm?” His hand played idly over her ribs, his own body only having just relaxed from its shuddering reaction to their lovemaking.
‘How come it’s OK for you to make love to me on this trip to Sicily, but the last time I was down, it would have been a dishonor to my family if you had seduced me?” His hand stilled.
‘ls it because I’m not staying in my father’s house?” That would help explain his intractability on the subject.
Surprisingly, he shook his head.
‘ls it because you told my father you intended to marry me?” She didn’t think so. Somehow, she couldn’t convince herself that her father would be a modern sort who thought it was OK for his daughter to shack up with her intended.
‘Then why?”
‘Because amole in my mind you have been my wife since the night you told me about the baby.”
She sucked in air like a boxer trying not to go down.
‘you’re kidding.” Not original, but her brain had frozen on that amazing statement.
‘Marriage is no mocking matter to me.”
She swallowed the disbelief trying to choke her. ‘lf you’re serious then I guess that makes you pretty poor husband material.”
She was only half kidding.
He flipped her on her back and loomed over her, all domineering male, but she didn’t feel dominated. He would never hurt her physically and she was beginning to see that the emotional wounds he had dealt her pained his conscience as much as her heart.
‘What do you mean by that?” he demanded.
‘WeII if you’ve been married for the last year to me in your mind that makes you an unfaithful husband doesn’t it?”
She wanted to be flippant but her words came out very serious and too vulnerable for her comfort.
The idea of him making love to another woman probably one who was way more sophisticated and experienced than she was caused a sharp pain in the region of her heart.
‘Why would you say this?”
‘oh please.” He was so oversexed they could write manuals on him. ‘you’re not exactly the celibate type, Salvatore.” And the thought he’d gone an entire year without sex at all was laughable.
‘Nevertheless, I have been celibate.” His tone of voice dared her to disbelieve him.
Her breath sort of froze in her windpipe. She shook her head unable to get words out.
‘Si. I had desire for only one woman and she avoided me with the professionalism of a tax evader ”
It was unbelievable. Impossible. Salvatore had had no one for a whole year?
‘ls that the truth?”
‘i will never lie to you.”
She looked through the dimness trying to read the expression in his almost black eyes. Even the darkness could not hide the sincerity burning there. She believed him.
‘What would you have done if I had found someone else?”
‘you would not. You belonged to me even when you wan
ted to deny it.”
