Page 16 of Sin and Seduction

“I...I don’t know. I mean, it’s only been two weeks, and we’ve just had sex. I barely know the man,” she stammers, and I smile, knowing exactly how she feels right now.

“All you need to know is how he makes you feel, Gabriela. And I can tell by how distraught you are that he made you feel good.”

“He made me feel very good.” She laughs, looking at me with sparkling eyes. “I’ve never been with an American man before. Especially not a cowboy.” She giggles like a little girl, and my heart almost breaks for her.

This woman has been kept in the dark all her life with no one to listen to her. I relate to her more than I thought. I stand and hold my hand out to her, helping her up and lifting her luggage to her bed so that she can finish packing.

“I’ll talk to Dante for you. I have a knack for making him see things he’s usually too stubborn to see. Plus, he has no room to judge anyone in this situation. He needs to keep his head in the game if there’s this big threat lurking behind us.”

She’s quiet for a moment, staring at me with sadness in her eyes.

“I’m sorry about what happened to your mother.”

A dark wave crashes into me, but I don’t show it. This is something I have to get used to now.

“It’s happened, and nothing I can do will bring her back. I have to keep moving forward. We all do,” I say, swallowing the lump in my throat.

She nods, and I turn for the door, stopping when she calls my name.

“Emmie, don’t worry about whether or not my mom will like you. I know she will,” she says quietly, and I laugh.

“How do you know?” I ask, and she gives me a sweet smile.

“Because I like you,” is all she says, and it makes my stomach warm.

“Let me know if you need anything,” I say before leaving her room to go wait for Dante in his.

* * *

It’s just past midnight when Dante walks into his room. His face looks exhausted, and I wait for him to come to my place on the bed. He sits down with a sigh, and I move behind him, my hands rubbing his tense shoulders as he lets out a low growl. I smile at the sound. He’s been gone the entire day, and I missed him. No matter what our future holds or what our past is made of, this man is my peace.

“So… how did it go?” I ask, trying to sound aloof but obviously failing miserably because he gives me a knowing look.

I can’t keep anything from this man. He reads me like an open book.

“I know about Diego,” I blurt, and he sighs, pulling my hands away from his shoulders but still keeping them in his grasp.

“You don’t have to talk about it right now. It’s been a long two weeks, and we have an early flight. Why don’t we go shower and get some rest—”

“I’m sorry, Esmeralda,” he blurts suddenly, stopping me from getting off the bed. I stare at his troubled eyes, the amber color of them nearly brown.

“For what?” I ask, confused by his sudden and odd apology.

He grips my hands before bringing them to his lips, kissing my knuckles one by one before holding my face in his hands. He stares at me with an intensity, guilt etching his handsome features.

“I made you feel like it was your fault about your father's place in my life. I blamed you for my distraction and made you feel like you were a hindrance in an operation that was pretty much useless. If anything, you saved my family from their plotted deaths just by existing.”

He sounds so earnest, but I don’t say a word. He wraps me in his arms, pulling me into his lap as he continues to look into my eyes.

“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done. For my rudeness and arrogance. For pushing you and not listening to you. For not having enough faith in a woman who has given me everything. I guess my love for you angered me. It angered me because I never knew I could love someone this much. I never wanted to. Because as you can see, my life is always hanging on by a thread, and I never wanted to involve someone in that.”

“Dante, I—”

“No, let me finish,” he says, cutting me off and placing a chaste kiss on my lips before moving off the bed.

He grabs my left hand and kneels before me, twirling my wedding ring in his fingers as he looks up at me with so much love that it leaves me breathless.

“You are my heart and my sky, Esmeralda. My beginning and my ending. I don’t know what’s ahead of us, but I do know that I’m too selfishly in love with you now to ever let you go.” His eyes are glossy, and it makes my heart beat so loudly and hard that I feel it’ll break through my chest.

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