Page 240 of Roberto

His hand gripped the barrel so there was no danger to me and held it out.

“If you’re going to kill me,” he said, “get it over with quick.”

I glanced down at the gun, then back at his face.

I was frozen – confused – overwhelmed –

And for reasons I couldn’t quite put into words, incredibly turned on.

Roberto smiled…

Pocketed the gun…

And reached out and kissed me.

I froze for a second as voices screamed in my head.

He’s a gangster!

He’s in the mafia!

He’s everything you said you hated!

But my heart knew the truth:

Roberto – the man hetrulywas – was everything I wanted.

I gave in and kissed him back.

His warm lips on mine…

His strong arms around me…

They shattered my last bit of resistance.

The dam I’d built around my broken heart burst open, and relief flooded my entire body.

I gave in to him totally and completely…

Until another little voice yelled inside my head.

He just fired a GUN!

I broke off our kiss and said, “We have to get you out of here – someone must have heard the gunshot and called the cops.”

Roberto just grinned like he’d won the lottery. “Let’s go, then.”

I grabbed his hand and we ran across the street through the rain.

84

We couldn’t go back to De Sade – or at least I didn’t want to, because Icertainlydidn’t want to explain any of this to my employees – so I took him to the parking garage instead.

The Bentley’s top was already up because of the rain. As I jumped behind the wheel, all I could think of was getting Roberto back safely to my apartment –

Until he reached over from the passenger seat and grabbed me.

“I can’t wait,” he said in a sexy growl.

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