Page 158 of La Dolce Vita

"No. It's not."

"Forcing me to have sex with you will be the same as rape!" she shouted.

"Who is forcing you? I made a proposition. You are free to decline."

"Bullshit!" She stepped forward. “You are blackmailing me. If we are seen together. If one photo links of you and I together my brother could kick me out of my family. You know damn well what you are doing!”

"Decline or accept; that's the deal. You have to come to me of your free will. Tomorrow night. I am in room 1634."

"But you are forcing me! I would never be with you. Never!"

"Why?" Armando asked. "Because of Dominic? A boy pretending at being a man."

"He's more man than you!"

"How would you know? Because of a crush, you have had for your brother since you learned to walk into his arms? You think what he gives you is even close to what a real man’s love would be?"

"I love Domi."

"How do you know, Catalina?”

“Because I do.”

“How can you know if you never experienced life outside of the glass bubble he keeps you in? Look at what you have done for my sister’s business. Look at who you have become without Dominic."

“I’m not stupid Armando. There is nothing you can say to make me not love Domi. It's not how love works, Armando. It's not an emotion to be turned on and off like a switch. You're pathetic if you don't know that!"

“It’s the only offer I’m prepared to make Catalina," he said.

"I don't want Lorenzo to die. I swear I don't. But I... I can't do this. I can't become this person. I will never betray him or my brother. It’s not who I am."

"Do you know the first time I saw you? Really saw you as a woman? Not Giovanni's little sister?"

"Do you think I care?"

“I do,” he smiled. “It was your wedding to Franco."

Catalina cut her eyes away.

"I was there. Do you not remember? No one in Sicily wanted to miss the wedding ofla piccoletta. It was the biggest event since the years of our fathers. Bigger."

"I didn't see you there," she mumbled.

"But I was there. After the wedding at the party, you and your husband were announced, paraded through the families. You were out of your wedding dress. You wore something more pleasing to your beauty. I watched you dance with your husband and knew that marriage was doomed. I wanted to cut Franco's throat myself to be as close to you."

"Your charm, Armando, is too sweet. It's giving me a toothache."

He chuckled. He put up his hands as if she drew a weapon on him. “I can’t win with you can I?”

She looked him in the eye. “You disgust me. And your cock won't do anything to change my mind.”

"I disgust you?"

"Yes."

"Didn't taste like disgust when we kissed."

"I love Domi. What you taste on my tongue is him."

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