Page 50 of The Don's Dilemma (Caprice Langden)

For a second, I thought he wasn’t going to tell me. I couldn’t read his expression as he hesitated. His chin rose slightly. “My name is Gabriel...Gabriel Mauritzio Calegari. What’s yours?”

I smiled. “Suzanne Eleanor St. Valentine.”

Gabriel raised my hand to his lips and left the softest of kisses across my knuckles. If seduction was his goal, then he wouldn’t have to make much more effort than that.

“Then, yes, Suzanne Eleanor St. Valentine, I am trying to seduce you.”

He pulled me to him, wrapped his arm around my waist, and kept my hand pinned to his chest, right over his heart, which still beat wildly.

“Is it working?” he whispered hoarsely.

My own heartrate joined his, thumping erratically while I fought more primal urges. “Oh, yes, Mr. Calegari, it’s working.”

He leaned his head down until our noses touched.

And then...he just stood there, gazing into my eyes.

“Gabriel?”

“I don’t know what you do to me, Suzanne. I have wanted you since the moment I watched you walk into that coffee shop. You have been all I could think about since.”

I had to smile. “It’s been a whole week.”

“It’s been aneternity,” he groaned. “I didn’t want to move this fast. To put pressure on you. I told myself I’d take my time.”

“You haven’t put pressure on me. I’m a big girl, Gabriel. I can make these decisions for myself.” I leaned into him. “You don’t have to protect me.”

The guttural growl that escaped him was possibly the hottest sound I ever heard. To think I could make a man groan like that...

“You have to understand one thing, Suzanne. If this happens...fuck that...oncethis happens, Iwillprotect you. I will touch you, and hold you,” his voice dropped another level, “and kiss you, and yes, I will protect you.”

“I’m not asking for a white knight-”

“And I’m not offering to be one. I don’t have what it takes for that job. I know you think I’m superhuman, whatever that means, but I promise you, I’m just a man who wants a woman. I lead a complicated life. Unpredictable hours. I’m a workaholic. I will protect you, Suzanne, not from dragons, but from monsters. The human ones. I’ll need to protect you from me.”

“I don’t need to be protected from you. I get it. I understand your life - the responsibilities you have, the pressure you’re under.” Why would he think I needed to be protected from him? I was going into this with my eyes wide open. He’d never been anything but honest with me so far.

I lifted my hand and caressed his cheek, something I’d wanted to do for a very long time, which was silly because, in my own words, we’d only known each other a week.

“I don’t want to add to that. I won’t be a burden to you, Gabriel. It’s rare that I meet a man like you.” I tried to avoid the cliched ‘I’ve never met a man like you,’ but it was true. I was willing to get a little crazy, take a few risks. Something deep in my heart said this man was worth all the unknowns.

“We can take this one day at a time, one night at a time, or one moment at a time. I’m not in any hurry.” It was possible my next words would spook him but being honest with him was the only way I knew how to be. “My father used to tell me that anything worth having was worth waiting for.” I tried to lighten the implication with a smile. “I tend to agree with him.”

“Your father sounds like a smart man.”

“He was. In some ways, you remind me of him-”

“I don’t even want to hear that right now, considering what we’re about to do.”

I laughed a little, but he was right. “I agree. Maybe later.”

“Later,” he growled again as he lowered his lips to meet mine. “Much later.”

This wasn’t our first kiss or even our second, but it wasthekiss - the one that every woman waits for, the one that holds promises of more to come - the one that makes your stomach flip, your body tingle, and suddenly, you can’t get close enough to him.

Gabriel’s lips settled over mine - softly at first, with a delicate pressure that brought forth sighs and aches of a sweetness I’d never known. But it wasn’t enough.

I stopped denying my fingers their urge to explore. Both palms flat, I slid my hands up the breadth of Gabriel’s chest, pushing aside the fabric of his shirt and reveling in the feel of heat radiating from his skin. His arms encircled me fully, crushing me against his chest. I raised my hands to his shoulders and stroked the nape of his neck as our kiss deepened. I lost track of time and any thoughts beyond how much I wanted this man.

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