Page 51 of Ruthless Touch

“We should live here,” I correct her.

“Okay. We should live here. But only if our deal from before stands. I don’t want to be stuck here all alone while you’re at the hotel and not be able to leave the house. If that’s the case, I vote to stay at the penthouse.”

As I cradle her face in my hands, I kiss her lips and smile. “Our deal stands if we live here. I’ll just have to make sure one of my guards is available at all times so you can leave whenever you want to.”

That brings a big smile to her face. “Thank you, Gideon.”

“Let’s go into the dining room. It’s time for dinner,” I say as I guide her back through the house to where two waiters will serve our meal cooked especially for us by the hotel’s chef.

When she sees the two men dressed in their black uniforms just like at the hotel, she spins around to face me, her eyes wide in amazement. “You had waiters come here to serve us?”

“And the chef made our meal just like back at the penthouse,” I answer with a smile, loving how happy she looks that I made such a small effort.

She deserves so much more than she ever expects. I need to make her see that.

I pull out her chair for her, eager to begin giving her all she should have in life. “My lady.”

When she looks at me and bites her lip like she loves this, I can’t help but feel like we’re finally making progress. Tonight we’ll have a wonderful dinner and drinks, and she’ll see what having a man like me loving her means.

After the waiters take away the last of the dishes from dessert, I give them something extra they appreciate and send them on their way so Aria and I can be alone. She looks beautiful tonight, but more than sex, I want us to talk. So much of our time together has been focused on our physical attraction, so tonight’s a chance to share an emotional connection.

“What do you want to do now?” Aria asks with a sparkle in her eye.

“I thought we’d talk. Let’s go out onto the terrace and sit down,” I say as I take her hand to lead her outside. “It’s all brand new out there. The original villa only had a tiny little balcony, but I had them build a terrace for me.”

As we step out through the French doors, I hear Aria gasp. “It’s gorgeous, Gideon! I think it’s even more beautiful here than at the penthouse. I like looking out over the water, but this gives you a view of the entire area. Look at all the lights up and down the coast.”

She points toward them, and I can’t help but love how excited she is. “It’s an incredible view. I’m happy you like it.”

Aria throws her arms around my neck. “I love it!”

I pull her close to me and hold her in my arms as we look out over the Amalfi Coast. It’s never appeared as beautiful to me as it does at this very moment with the sun setting and night falling so the lights reflect off the water.

After a little while, she says, “What did you want to talk about?”

I sense the worry under her words, so I quickly move to show her it’s nothing bad. I just want us to share something other than our bodies.

“Don’t worry. It’s nothing to be concerned about. I just wanted to talk so we can find out more about one another.”

She slowly turns in my hold and stares into my eyes. “What do you want to know about me?”

My gaze drifts over her beautiful face before I answer, “Everything. I want to know what you love. What you hate. What makes you happy. What makes you sad. Everything.”

Aria doesn’t say a word but continues looking into my eyes as if she isn’t sure she should believe me when I say I want to know about her. Maybe the men she’s been with before me didn’t give a damn about who she was when she wasn’t naked, but I do.

“You do love me, don’t you?” she asks, her voice full of disbelief.

“I do, and I want to know everything about the woman I love.”

That finally seems to convince her that I truly want to hear about who she really is, so she takes a deep breath and lets it out in a rush before she begins. “Well, my favorite color is blue. I love the water, but I hate boats. They scare me.”

I can’t help but smile at how sweet she sounds. “Why?”

With a shake of her head, she says, “I don’t know. Maybe in a past life I was thrown off a boat and drowned. I don’t know. I’ve only been on a few in my lifetime, and I’ve never been in danger. All I know is every second I was on them, I hated it.”

“Okay. No boats for Aria.”

“I love cake, especially lemon and blueberry cake. I wanted to be a vegetarian a few years ago, but I found out I liked steak too much, so that went out the window. I’ve always been tall. All the boys at school made fun of me until high school because I was taller than them.”

---