No one had ever fought over her before. People were generally only too happy to give her away.
‘You haven’t asked the lady what she wants,’ Rocco said coolly. She supposed she should have liked that he was giving the choice entirely to her but she realised it was less about her as a woman and more about needling Leo. Intimating that Rocco cared what she thought and Leo didn’t.
‘Tesoro?’
Leo held out his hand. She took it. If there was a side to be taken here, Leo would always win.
‘It seems my husband’s finished what he was doing, Mr Silvestri. Thank you for the dance.’
The corner of Rocco’s mouth curled in a sardonic kind of smile. ‘You’re not someone who required babysitting.Alla prossima,Simone.’
He nodded and then disappeared into the crowd without looking back.
Leo bundled her into his arms and held her close against him. Not the distance of strangers but of intimates, even though there hadn’t been any intimacy between them. Every part of him seemed tight, barely leashed. Part of her liked to believe that it might have been jealousy but that would have required a certain level of emotion between them, when she knew there was none.
‘There will be nonext timewith him. There shouldn’t have been athis time,’ he hissed into her ear.
The music took on an intensity. More of a tango type of beat. Leo led the dance in a way that left Simone in no doubt as to who he thought was in charge. Well, as they said, it took two to tango and she wasn’t about to play whatever game he’d started. She refused to be scolded like some errant schoolgirl.
‘Don’t pull the jealous husband act, Leo.’ He’d danced them deeper into the crowd of people on the floor, out of the way of those who’d witnessed the exchange between the two men and towards the opposite edge of the dance floor near a set of doors. Then he pushed one open and led her from the room into a darkened corridor, wheeling round to face her. Toe to toe. She didn’t care. She wouldn’t back down.
‘If anyone could be said to have an enemy, Silvestri is mine. How do you think it looks if mywife’sdancing with him?’
‘Perhaps it looks like there’s adétentebetween you.’
‘Never. He’s after my secrets. He’s after my wife. What a coup that would be.’
‘A coup?’ she snorted. ‘I wonder what the press would say about your Plain Jane wife then?’
Leo snaked his arm round her. He was so strong, so hard and uncompromising. The planes of him pressing into her, leaving no space between them, just their bodies flush against each other. Still, she had no doubt that if she demanded distance he’d give it to her.
She didn’t want any distance.
‘Silvestri can see what you can’t. A beautiful woman,’ Leo bit out. ‘And you’ll never have anything more to do with him.’
Simone ran hot and cold, a mix of anger and something far more potent coursing through her.
‘You’re not the boss of me, Leonardo Zanetti.’
His hand flexed on the small of her back, burning and possessive. ‘I believe you’ll find I am. You, in fact, demanded to remain in your role.’
‘And what are you going to do? Terminate my services like you tried to do earlier? Be careful what you wish for. I’ve had more than one job offer whilst working for you. It wouldn’t be hard to find another.’
‘Silvestri,’he said, jaw clenched, clearly guessing at least some of what she and Rocco had been discussing on the dance floor. ‘There’s no world in which I’d ever permit you to work for him, as your employment contract clearly sets out.’
‘And that ends if you sack me rather than me leaving of my own accord. You promised me a dance, then dismissed me like I was nobody when to the world, I’m yourwife.Well, I discovered almost dying has a way of changing your perspective on everything. I want to dance the dance. I want to live my life.Mine, not someone else’s. I’m tired of waiting. For you, for anyone and I’m not going to do it any more. I’m done.’
She placed her hands on his chest intent on pushing him away yet instead her hands simply rested there, relishing the feel of his sculpted muscles under the fine cotton of his shirt far too much.
‘You don’t want to dance.’
‘Oh really?’ Simone asked, her heart punching at her ribs. ‘Then what do I want, Leo?’
‘This.’
His lips crashed to hers and he groaned. His mouth hard, uncompromising. The music in the background faded to nothing but white noise roaring in her ears. This was a possession, him staking a claim, and she claimed him right back.
His arms wrapped round her as a cool wall hit her back. She curled her fingers against his chest, not caring that her fingernails pricked his flesh through the fabric of his shirt. He groaned, his hands flexing and gripping her body, as if he was warring with himself when there was nothing to win here. She was already lost to him. His body pressed hard into hers. The scent of him overwhelming her, a rich, heady spice, like she’d been transported to another place. He invaded every part of her. Their mouths clashed, fused together. His tongue conquering hers, only urging her to take more, kiss harder. She was nothing but passion and flames. Perfect heat. Desire and wanting. It was dizzying. If Leo hadn’t been holding her up she’d have dissolved, slipping through his grip and pooling at his feet.
