Page 25 of The Sicilian’s Deal For 'I Do'

‘One week.’ He pushed her backwards, pressing his body to her, so she was caught between the edge of her desk and his strong thighs, and her world began to crumble and tumble and roll, her eyes filled with stars and fireworks and flame. ‘Give me one week of your time, Mia. Let me have you, just for one week.’

‘And then what? You’ve had me already for two days. Was that not enough?’ She needed to know.

‘I’ll go away again. I’ll stay away.’

She swallowed, trembling, tortured and delighted in equal measure. He was offering something so simple. A week. A week out of time, to enjoy him and this and then return to normal. With a set-in-stone end point to their fling, surely that would limit any potential harm.

He moved his mouth to the corner of hers, kissing her there lightly, making it hard to think clearly.

‘Nobody can ever know.’ She tried to cling to sense, to hold onto rational thought for long enough to negotiate this in a meaningful way, to make the kinds of stipulations she should have made in the first instance, way back when they were engaged. But in the last year, Mia had grown, and she’d changed, and that meant being more determined to stand up for herself and what she wanted.

‘I am not intending to take out an advertisement.’

‘I mean it, Luca.’ She pulled back to stare into his eyes. ‘You pulled my life apart once—you can’t do it again. You have to play by the rules.Myrules.’

His eyes narrowed slightly. ‘And what are they?’

Given the opportunity to enumerate a list, she found her mind becoming blank. But she waded through the flotsam and forced herself to focus. ‘We have to keep this secret. No being seen together in public, no turning up at my office,’ she added quickly. ‘No following me to bridal-dress fittings. No going out for dinners, nothing like that. My parents know everybody in Sicilia, just about, and those they don’t, Lorenzo’s family will know. Nowhere is safe.’

‘Except my home,’ he pointed out.

A thrill of excitement exploded inside Mia’s chest. ‘Yes,’ she conceded carefully.

‘Any other rules?’

‘One week,’ she said emphatically, because she needed to cement that in her own mind. ‘Nothing beyond it. This is an aberration. I want to focus on my new life and I can’t do that when you’re here. So after a week, you’ll go, just like you said.’

He nodded curtly. ‘I’ve already agreed to this.’

‘You also agreed to marry me,’ she reminded him, then winced, because she was sick of dragging up the past, of remembering that hurt. ‘But we both know it’s a good thing you didn’t.’

Silence sparked in the air. ‘Now, it’s my turn.’

‘For what?’

‘Rules. I will do everything I can to ensure no one learns about this,’ he promised. ‘But you are completely and utterly mine for the next week. Do or say whatever you need, but you will be in my bed, at my home, for the next seven days.’

Her eyes widened and her mouth parted. Terror and delight were tangling in her belly. It sounded so wonderful, so heavenly, but it wasn’t reality. ‘I can’t...’

He pressed a finger to her lips. ‘We have one week. Youcan.’

She thought of some options, desperation making her like a descendent of Machiavelli suddenly. ‘I’ll try,’ she said with a nod, thinking of her best friend, the one friend of Mia’s who her parents actually approved of. Mia had mentioned a desire to travel to London to spend some time with Caroline—she could fib and say she was going, spur of the moment, next week. Excitement pounded in her chest.

‘Anything else?’ She was breathless.

He lifted up, eyes sparking with hers. ‘No.’ He ground his hips against her and she whimpered, because he was hard and she was desperately hungry for him after two days of not seeing him. ‘My car will collect you on the corner. Don’t keep me waiting too long, Mia.’

‘I won’t.’

‘Promise?’

Everything slowed down until the world stopped spinning. Standing on a precipice, Mia knew she should hesitate, that doubts should be flooding her, but the truth was, everything suddenly seemed so simple andright. ‘I promise,’ she agreed huskily, and she really, really did.

CHAPTER SIX

MIAHADEXPECTEDthe car to take them to Luca’s Palermo town house but instead, within ten minutes of leaving the office, they were on their way down a familiar road, out of the city, towards San Vito Lo Capo, and Mia was glad. Glad because Palermo felt risky even within the confines of his home, and because what they were doing was such a slice out of time that it felt better to be also out of space, out of her familiar geographical locations.

‘I have no clothes except these,’ she said with a tilt of her lips.

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