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“Dance?” he requested huskily, tapping a finger on her shoulder and holding out a hand. Eyes smoldering with the same banked need he felt, she voiced her excuses to the group and placed her hand in his, following him to the dance floor, which was teeming with partygoers enjoying the live music under a massive twinkling chandelier.
She moved into his arms, one hand clasped in his, the other on his shoulder. He settled his palm to the curve of her hip, just beneath the enticing cutouts that exposed her bare, silky flesh, his other hand wrapping around hers. She was warm, he registered, a flush dusting the creamy perfection of her cheeks, her décolletage, above the sophisticated asymmetrical neckline of her dress.
Luminous brown eyes met blue in a gaze that lasted more than a heartbeat. “Aren’t you afraid this will stoke the rumor mill? Make people talk?”
“Let them.” The low timbre of his voice sent a shiver through Jensen, as Cristiano rested his sapphire gaze on hers. “Thank you for everything you’ve done to make tonight a success. It is everything I’d imagined it would be and more.”
Jensen absorbed the dark flicker of emotion in his gaze. “You miss him.”
He inclined his head. “He was everything. I wish he could have been here tonight to see this. His biggest fear was that he would be forgotten. Tonight would have obliterated that thought.”
“He had no need to worry about that,” she murmured. “He’s one of the greatest designers of all time.Irreplaceable.”
“Si.But he was human, like everyone else. He worried Pascal’s legacy would supersede his.”
Jensen absorbed that surprising revelation. She’d never thought of the brutally intimidating Francesco as in any way human. He had always seemed so much larger than life. And yet she could see how hard that would be, handpicking your successor. Finding someone who could carry out your vision, who was successful enough on his own two feet to command the respect of the fashion world, and yet being equally afraid he could overshadow you. She had felt that fear with Ariana.
“Marcella said some very nice things to me on the runway. About tonight.”
“It’s about time. You’ve been spectacular.” Cristiano’s fingers tightened around her waist, drawing her closer, the tantalizing scent of his sophisticated cologne filling her head, annihilating her brain cells. “What was it like to close the show? To walk alongside Isabella?”
“Incredible,” she breathed. “She is such an icon. I’m in awe of everything she’s done. Both as a model and a businesswoman.”
He inclined his head. “Her activewear line has been very successful.”
She dug her teeth into her lip. “We had a really good conversation about the pressures of modeling. How she handled it. She knew it wasn’t going to last forever, so she put a contingency plan in place. Developed the idea for the activewear line while she was still modeling. Leveraged her influencer status to do it. Someday—” she said, her teeth sinking deeper into her lip “—I’d like to follow in her footsteps.”
Cristiano cocked a dark brow at her. “How so?”
“I’ve always been good at makeup. I helped the team with the shoot when we were down a person and they loved the work I did. I’m always doing experimental videos on social media that get lots of views. I thought,” she said, feeling more than a little awkward at exposing her inner musings, because she’d always been afraid they would be shot down given the criticism she’d faced, “I would like to create my own makeup line. If I could find the right partner.”
He must have heard the self-consciousness in her voice, because his sapphire gaze softened to a deep midnight blue. “I think that could only be a rip-roaring success. Not only do you have the sharpest business brain of anyone I know, but you have the personality and charm to sell sunshine to a Sicilian,cara. Ilaria showed me one of your how-to videos. I think it had garnered about three million views.”
A dark flush lit her cheeks. Both at the compliment and the endearment he’d thrown so casually at her. Except Cristiano never did anything carelessly; he did it with thought andintention, and the realization sent a full-body shiver through her.
“If you like,” he murmured, drawing her closer still, his eyes on hers, “I will put you in contact with a friend who runs a global cosmetics brand. You can decide if it’s something you want to pursue. But for now,” he said, his mouth moving to her ear, “I am done talking business. I am done solving global supply chain crises, and I am definitely done pretending I don’t want you, when I so clearly do.”
Jensen’s knees sagged, zapped by that definitive promise. “Cristiano,” she breathed.
He didn’t reply. Just slid his palm lower, until it was resting against the bare skin of her lower back, his fingertips burning her flesh like a brand. A promise. They stopped talking then, just danced, the way they moved together an instinctive thing now. As if their bodies recognized each other in some primal, perfect connection that defied reason. Definition.
“I meant what I said in that pool, Jensen. I’m not walking away from you. I want to know you,” he murmured. “All of you. But if I am going to do that, you have to let me in. You have to let me know all of you. You have to trust me.”
Her heart raced in her chest. Because hadn’t that always been her biggest fear? That if she shared herself with someone,trulyshared herself with someone, if she let them beneath the sparkly outer packaging she had always hidden behind, they wouldn’t want her anymore? They might reject her like everyone else had done in her life. Declare her as superficial as the world believed her to be. And that she could not bear, not from Cristiano.
But if she never learned to open up, to make herself vulnerable, how would she ever know what she could have with him? What she was capable of? If she could have that relationship with him she wanted so desperately? Because she did. There was no point in denying it anymore.
“I am scared,” she murmured breathlessly. “I don’t know if I can do it, Cristiano. I’ve never opened up to anyone like that. I’ve neverallowedmyself to open up like that, because for me, it’s always meant getting hurt.”
His eyes glittered a deep sapphire blue. “I won’t hurt you,mia cara. I promise you that.”
He bent his head and kissed her, a deep, soul-affirming caress that stole her breath. As if they weren’t in the middle of a room full of people. As if he didn’t care who knew how he felt about her. It disassembled something deep inside her. Broke down her walls.Shatteredthem.
She kissed him back, her fingers tangling in the coarse hair at the base of his nape. Moved closer still, until she could feel the steady beat of his heart against hers. The heat of his tall, strong body transferring itself to her. Dimly aware of flashbulbs going off around them, she couldn’t bring herself to care, she was so lost in him. In how he made her feel.
They danced like that for a while, reveling in the heat. The anticipation. His hand on her hip moved lower, bringing her into closer contact with the lower half of his body. A gasp left her throat. He was hard and aroused and oh so impressive and it made her heart pound in her chest.
“I think it’s time to leave.Sei d’accordo?”
