Page 11 of Their UnBearable Destiny

She was wrong.

His voice rumbled right through her, scratching along her spine hard enough to make her shiver. “You and I are oil and flame, Ana. We weren’t meant to mix together, we were meant to catch fire.”

“What kind of a flame, Uberto?” She swallowed and still couldn’t alleviate the scratch of her dry tongue against the top of her mouth. “Passion? Love? Will it feed whatever this is between us? Or will it burn us alive?”

She knew she had him there.

She could tell by the tight pinch of his lips. The tick of a muscle in his jaw.

That was another way that she wasn’t like other women. She didn’t fawn all over Uberto. She didn’t want empty compliments from him. She’d rather lay out the truth. No matter how much it hurt, it was still the truth.

“I know we have passion, Ana. There’s no denying that.”

She nodded.

“But we haven’t had a chance at love, Ana. Not ten years ago.” Uberto unfolded his arms and held out his hand to her, his empty palm and wrist bare to her. “I don’t think you’re willing to try again, until you decide it’s what you want.”

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He watched her look at his hand and held it steady under her searching gaze. Uberto didn’t want to pressure her, he wasn’t going to even try. Emiliana was as fierce as any of the other bears born into the valley, but she was also a woman.

At one time, he had viewed her as a friend, someone who liked to crawl in the bushes and shinny up trees with him. They chased each other through the woods and wrestled in the fountains. He was as fond of her as he was his brothers, but in a different way. He sought her out more with each passing year, but it had only been when he’d first felt his bear stir inside of him that he’d seen the truth of what was right in front of him.

Emiliana Bruno was more than his treasured friend, she was his mate.

And the fact that she herself had a bear, that she could run beside him in both skin and fur, made him want her even more.

They were a match in every way.

And yet, she didn’t want him, for more than just a few moments of their lives.

She said that she had done it in a moment of weakness, more curiosity than care. Yet, she’d looked into his eyes that night and she’d asked for his mark.

Begged for it.

He wasn’t going to say those exact words aloud. He may have half the soul of a wild animal, but he was also human, and loved her to the point of distraction.

All these years later and he could still hear her voice in his ear. “Now, ‘Berto, please, now.”

He fought off the arousal that inexorably arose when he remembered those long-ago moments. He fought it off, but there was no way to set it aside, not completely. Not for her. Never for her. Emiliana Bruno ran through his veins like the blood in his body.

He’d been controlled by his ego before, cocksure and demanding. He’d expected Emiliana to need him as much as he did her and when she’d turned him away it had hurt, like an open, gaping wound.

She watched him now, with a curiosity that hadn’t been there before. She’d traded youthful anger for the mature caution of a powerful woman.

It may be a far-fetched hope, but all he wanted to do now was love her, give her pleasure, and whatever future she wanted. First things first, he had to get past the walls she’d put up first. Walls that he was partially responsible for erecting.

She stepped back from him as if she couldn’t trust being close enough to touch. Emiliana moved toward the door, her eyes focused on him as if she expected him to snatch at her arm, pull her into his embrace.

That’s when he knew there weren’t just walls up between them, but also a chasm that he wasn’t sure he could jump over.

“I don’t think we can try again,” she wet her lips with the tip of her tongue, “when we didn’t really try the first time.”

He winced inwardly, but at least he knew what she was thinking.

“Then I want to try now, Ana. Can you give me a chance to show you who I am now? What we could be together?”

She turned her head to the side, looking up into a corner of the room. “And then when you go back home to New York?”

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