Page 118 of Where Wild Hearts Dance
I push the smooth satin through the knot, gently pulling it free. It feels like such a raw, intimate thing to do for a man and a shiver down my spine makes him splay his fingers across my back.
The tie slips from around his neck and he watches me intently as I slide it around mine. I hold his gaze while I tie it into a loose knot beneath my collarbone.
He shakes his head, slowly. “You have no idea how sexy that is.”
“What now?”
A smile dances across his lips. “Oh… You’re looking for direction?”
My own smile falls. “Yes.”
He closes his eyes for a long moment. When he opens them again, they’re a little darker.
“Unbutton the top of my shirt.”
I suck in a surprised breath. “What? People will see.”
“Just the top two buttons. And trust me, no one is watching us.”
My fingers shake as I fumble with the buttons and slide them through the holes. My breath stutters when a fragment of his bare chest is revealed.
“You like that, huh?” Bernadi’s voice is gruff, like he’s barely holding himself together.
I swallow. “Not at all.”
“Oh,” he replies, leaning forward a little and brushing his top lip against my jawline. “You hate it.”
My eyelids flutter shut and I momentarily forget where I am. “With every fiber of my being, Bernadi.”
“Ah,” he says, amusement tickling the edge of his tongue. He slides one hand down my back and presses me into his rock solid erection.
A fractured gasp leaves my lips.
“That’s a relief. I’d hate it if the feeling weren’t mutual. I mean, it could get a little awkward.”
“I, um… I agree.” I can hardly speak, I’m so turned on.
He stops swaying gently and leans forward so his breath brushes the shell of my ear. “Promise you’ll hate me forever.” His tone is laced with a vulnerable heat that sings in my veins.
“I promise.”
“Until death do us part?”
“Until death do us part.”
“Any last requests before I lock this down with a kiss in front of your entire family?”
My pulsethumps. He knows that if we’re seen kissing in public, both our families—the Castellano one and the Di Santo one—will insist on marriage. Maybe not yet, but eventually. And this is what he’s asking.
I smile into the cut of his jaw. “No more basements.”
“Got it. No more basements.”
Well, that was easy.
“No shooting people a foot away from my head.”
“Um, nope. Can’t promise that.”
