A beat.
Then.
We went for each other, for totally different reasons.
My hands came up to touch his throat, but he wrapped his massive hands around my wrists, pushing me back until my back hit the sofa. His face was serious. As serious as I’d ever seen it. Below his flesh, I felt the trembling of his bones.
I had only just met this man, but it was as if he were my home, and I’d been inside of his heart forever. He could be frightening when he looked like this, but…I wasn’t afraid of him.
I stuck my chin up. “You’re mad,” I said, stating the obvious.
“Mad does not even come close to what I am.” He rolled his lips.
“He was hurting you!”
“If he would have—” He was too pissed to even finish. He shook his head. “I would have killed my own father.”
“I—” All the fight left me, and I went forward, my forehead hitting below his chest. “I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I couldn’t stand to see it.”
“Look at me, Amora.”
My eyes rose to meet his.
“Never apologize to me. You are forgiven without having to say the words to me—per sempre. That is your right alone.”
I looked away from him. “Are you okay?”
He released my wrists and picked me up, carrying me to the sofa. He positioned me on top of him. I had a knee on each side of him, and my legs were spread, and even though it wasn’t the time… I started to ache. He was rightthere.
Focus, Ari!
The look in his eyes was NOT helping!
“You missed me,” he whispered.
“Yeah,” I whispered back, moving from his eyes to his lips, but…his lips were succulent and needed to be sucked on.
I was in trouble. Deep. Deep.Deeptrouble.
“You are in deep trouble,” he repeated, his entire posture going rigid, as if he was ready to go to war for me.
My eyes flew up to his. I must have saidthat out loud!
Sighing, I ran my hand over his throat, demanding that my touch be the last touch his skin remembered. He closed his eyes for a second before he slowly opened them. He looked high.
“I am,” I said, being honest. “I am in deep trouble, Rocco Fausti. Whatever this is between us…it’s too powerful for me to even understand. I just know…when you’re too far away, I feel like I might lose my mind.”
He stared at me, then shook his head, setting his palm against my cheek. I closed my eyes to his warmth. His pull. “You are a lethal woman to me, Aria Amora Bella, without holding a weapon in your hand. You could tear the roaring heart out of my chest, but do not waste your time. All you would have to do is walk away from me.”
My eyes slowly opened to his. “Is this normal?” I whispered. “To feel…so much this soon?”
“Questa è la nostra normalità,” he said.
This is our normal.
I leaned into his strength and sighed. “Will you talk to me? About what happened?”
He went into some detail about the rules of his family, and how Francesco would challenge him in the future for the title of King of the Faustifamiglia. Rosaria’s death had caused some…concern. Then he said his father was gifting us the private use of the island. Come Monday, it would only be the two of us. And even though Rocco Fausti was too honorable of a man to lie, I felt like he was omitting something from me. Problem was, I didn’t have all the right questions to ask yet.
