Page 31 of The Virgin's Dance with the Devil
The hand cupping her neck so tenderly slid down her back, and then he was holding her hips. His piercing stare locked onto hers. “Do you still want to walk away?”
The room they were in, all the people dancing around them, swam in a hazy focus. Only Rico was solid. Real…
Too real. However much he tried to portray himself in his letters as some kind of romantic lead in a book, he was still a flesh and blood man. A powerful and richflesh and blood man, and for all his good humour and affability, he was dangerous, but the danger he posed to Marisa wasn’t of the physical kind. It was much worse than that.
Until she’d seen him playing along with Ciara’s flirtations, she hadn’t fully understood the danger she’d been hurtling towards or how deeply her heart had attached itself to him.
Rico had the power to make her heart sing in one beat and then break in the next. He had the power to hurt her badly.
But any hurt she’d felt watching him play along with Ciara’s flirtations had been unintentional. In doing what he’d believed was the right thing for Marisa’s sake, he’d done the wrong thing, his actions clumsy and thoughtless but not deliberately cruel.
And, really, had Ciara’s flirtations beenthatbad? Hadn’t Marisa watched her flirt, often outrageously, with the men who’d sat beside her during the earlier courses? She’d even flirted with Niccolo and Gennaro’s grandfather.
Gazing into the blue eyes holding hers so steadily, a wave of shame washed over her. “I’m sorry,” she said in a small voice.
A crease formed in his forehead. “For what?”
She closed the distance between them and put her hands on his shoulders. “For acting like I did.” She bit her bottom lip before admitting, “Iwasjealous.”
His lips curved, his eyes lightening. Sliding his hands around her waist, her drew her back to him. “I thought as much.”
With a long sigh, she slipped her hands around his neck. “I’ve never felt jealousy before. I didn’t think I couldbejealous.”
He kissed her forehead lightly. “I like this possessive side of you.”
“I don’t. I don’t feel like myself.” She hadn’t felt like herself since she’d met Rico... No, shehadfelt like herself, justmore, as if parts of her had been dormant and had now awoken, emotions she’d not been aware existed inside her uncoiling. Gazing deep into his eyes, she whispered, “I can’t share you, Rico. I’m not cut out for a relationship like that.”
“I know, and I would never ask it of you.” A hand dragged up her back to touch her bare skin, making her shiver with sensation. “For us, it has to be all or nothing,” he said huskily.
Her heart opened like a flower in bloom.
She already knew what nothing felt like. Misery.
When it came to Rico, she’d already passed the point of no return.
Almost unthinking, she raised herself onto her toes and kissed him.
The pads of his fingers dug tightly into her back. Rubbing his masked cheek into hers, he said, “Be careful, my angel. People will see.”
Spearing her fingers into the back of his hair, she gazed into his eyes again and, without thinking, whispered, “Come to me tonight.”
His nostrils flared, and something flickered in his eyes. “Are you sure?”
Their gazes held, and suddenly she was as certain as she’d ever been about anything. Marisa had been waiting her whole life to feel like this. Waiting her whole life forhim.
She brought her mouth back to his. “I choose all.”
Rico walked the corridor to Marisa’s room with his heart pounding like a jackhammer.
He knew this was wrong. Knew he should turn around and walk away. Keep walking until hereached a different continent.
If he had any conscience, he would have let her go when she told him to let her pass.
When it came to Marisa, he’d already lost base with a morality he’d only ever had a fingertip to.
He reached her door.
Walk away, his conscience urged.You’re going to destroy her.
