Page 40 of The Rise of Saint (The Sins of Saint 1)

“For being seen with your future husband.”

I shook my head lightly. “I’m not even sure I know what that means.” Jesus, my head was spinning.

“Marcello is putting every security measure in place to make sure you are kept hidden until everything has been set in place. But since we’re in Italy now, there is always a chance of uninvited press lurking around. You need to act the part at all times.”

“Oh, my God.” I touched my flushed cheeks and closed my eyes. “This is going to turn into a shit-show.”

“Aunt Elena.” Saint’s sharp-edged voice sliced through the room, and I turned to face him, his large frame filling the empty space. “Please make sure Mila’s stuff is packed and ready.”

I snorted. “Nothing here is my stuff.”

Elena shot me a warning glare, silently telling me to watch my mouth. God, she made me feel like a petulant child in desperate need of discipline.

Her heels clicked across the floor as she left, and I refused to look in Saint’s direction any longer. While I stood with my arms crossed, doing my best to ignore the subtle tingle his presence sent across my skin, I heard his heavy footsteps approach. With every slow step, my heart picked up its pace and my breathing became more labored. I fought the urge to turn to him, to see the look on his face as he came closer. But then I felt him move in behind me, so close the edges of suit jacket brushed against my naked arms. It made me shiver, his presence wrapping around me like a mantle of power. Of dominion. Like he was staking his claim over me by simply standing so close.

“Turn around.” His voice was low, but it didn’t lack authority. In fact, it was stronger, more demanding, so I obeyed. I turned around but refused to look up at him. Instead, I stared at the gray tie he wore, the subtle vertical lines only visible from this close.

“Show me.”

“Show you what?” My voice was too soft. I sounded weak. Docile.

A gentle touch of his hand against my chin forced me to lift my gaze. “Show me how you’ll make the world see that you are hopelessly,” his thumb traced along my bottom lip, “and irrevocably in love with your husband.” He lowered his face to mine, his warm breath dancing across my cheeks. “Show me how you’ll prove to everyone that you’re sexually attracted to me.”

I held my breath, the tenor of his voice luring me in. If seduction was a sound, this would be it. The way his words rolled from his lips, it was both bewitching and dangerous, how it ignited a flicker of something perilous inside me. Something that felt powerful enough to control me. Make me do something I’d regret.

“Show me,” he urged, lowering his mouth inches from mine. So close, for a moment I wasn’t sure whether he was kissing me or not. I felt it, yet it wasn’t quite there. Just a breath apart. One single breath hovering between my lips and his. “Let your eyes show your desire for me.”

My muscles tensed, heat slowly spreading throughout my chest. I had no control over it, no way of fighting it as it moved down my spine only to flare between my thighs. I hated the man who stood so close to me, yet my body reacted in a way that completely contradicted the way I felt about him. It was unnerving. How was it possible to dislike someone so intensely, yet your body felt more alive than it ever did while he stood so close?

He licked his lips, the movement drawing my attention, and I could feel myself being sucked into the moment. Into the lie.

A rough hand brushed against my arm, his simple touch bathing my skin with the poison of his seduction. I could feel it corrupt me, little by little, the toxin suffocating my control. Even if I had the strength, I wouldn’t know how to fight it. How to stop his undeniable allure from baiting me, luring me into the devil’s lair while his evil intentions wrapped around me like iron chains.

A thumb remained on my bottom lip. “If you don’t believe it, Mila, neither will they. You need to make the world believe your heart is mine.” His hand slipped from my arm and rested on my waist. Lips traced along my cheek, and instead of fighting him or pushing him away, I closed my eyes and surrendered. I had never felt temptation so strongly before—the need to forget every rational thought and swim in the velvet water of desire without the fear of drowning.

Tipping his nose under my chin, he urged me to look at him, and his arm abruptly wrapped around my waist, pulling me against him.

A rush of hot air escaped my parted lips, my body pressed hard against his, molded to his frame as if I was the perfect fit. A puzzle piece that had been cut and torn away to one day be reunited and locked in place so the long-forgotten image could be once again created.

Dark brows knitted together, his eyes fully focused on mine. “Pretend we’re lovers, like I’m the only man who knows every curve of your body. Inside and out.” He reached down and cupped my butt, pulled me closer so hard the heels of my shoes lifted off the ground. “You need to act like my cock buried inside that cunt of yours is the only fucking thing that matters to you.” Those perfect lips parted, lust and savagery fused together within the blue hues of his eyes—a lethal mixture for a woman like me. A woman who had no choice, unable to stay away from him and the menacing tentacles of his sexual prowess.

He wrapped a hand around the back of my neck, and I craned my head up toward the ceiling. Bold, hungry lips pressed against the hollow of my throat, and my thighs clenched with the heat that pooled between my legs—an unwelcome feeling. An inappropriate response to whatever the hell was happening.

“Can you do that, Milana?”

My eyes fluttered closed, his breathing teasing my damp skin. “Mila,” I whispered with a labored breath. “My name…is Mila.”

I felt his lips smile against my flesh, his grip on my ass loosening slightly, allowing my heels to touch the ground again.

With a shiver and the lingering warmth inside my core, I remained frozen as he brought his lips to my ear. “Act like you worship me.”

Every word, every breath, every ounce of him was laced with sex and primal instincts that incited and teased my own sexual desires. I knew what kind of man he was, what he was capable of. And no matter how much I disliked him, loathed him, my body defied my will to fight him.

He sucked air through his teeth as he let go of me, taking a step back. “Make everyone believe I’m your God. Can you do that?”

The way my skin burned, how my insides twisted into knots and begged for release, I knew my face was speaking volumes. I tried to summon every little crumb of disdain I felt toward him, tried to let it beam from my glare. But it wasn’t working. I could see it in the way he looked at me with a powerful smirk that told tales of conquering victories. As if he knew I was clenching my thighs, desperate for the throbbing need to die and never come back. Not with him. Never with him.

Saint reached out, but I jerked away before he could touch a strand of hair that magically escaped the fifty pins Elena used to style it with.

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