“I am safe,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Cazzate.” His accent was thick when he swore. “Why do you do this,cara? Any woman in her right mind would be scared witless about living here. A terrible part of the city, with inadequate security. And yet you rail against my attempt to make you safer. Why?”
She swallowed. He’d never understand. Someone like him couldn’t know the thrill she got out of tempting danger and beating it. Her eyes were enormous in her face as she shook her head.
“Your … interest is completely misplaced,” she said seriously. “And dinner? Why would you bring me food?”
“Recompense for the bruschetta we did not share yesterday morning.”
Kate pursed her lips in frustration. “You’re still doing it. You’re saying one thing and acting completely the opposite. This whole time you’ve been trying to push me away with your words but pulling me closer with how you act. I don’t get it.” She swallowed, furious at the tears that made her throat ache. “I don’t get why you can’t just tell me what you want.”
“What do you want?” He flipped the table on her easily, but it only frustrated Kate more.
“I want you to do what you say. Yesterday was meant to be goodbye for us. So what are you doing here?”
“You’re not happy to see me?” He pushed, the arrogance of his tone showing that he knew she was.
“I’m confused. That doesn’t mean I’m not … God! Stop … making this so hard for me.”
“You are beautiful when you’re angry,” he said, staring up at her dainty features with a sense of appreciation that should have terrified him. Only those eyes stopped him from feeling anything too deeply. Those eyes were such a reminder of who she was that he knew he could never be in any real danger of truly caring for her.
“I’m not angry,” she retorted.
“You should be. I’m being an arsehole to you.”
Her laugh was short and sharp. “At least you realize it.”
“The truth is,” he murmured, wondering just how he would ever be genuinely honest with her. “I saw you and I knew I wanted to be with you. I thought one weekend would be enough. That you’d be out of my system. That’s how it is for me.” His smile was distracted.
“You just … sleep with women and then forget all about them.”
He shrugged. “More or less.”
“Charming,” she snapped, but her heart was breaking with the certainty that soon, she would be one of the Forgetten Women.
“I am being truthful with you.” At least on this score. “I cannot give you the guarantee you want. I cannot – will not – promise that I will still feel this way in a week. I am not going to lie to you,cara. But I want you now. In this moment, you are all I can think of. I want you to come to my apartment. Not because this place is a disaster waiting to happen. I put locks and an alarm here so you would understand. I am not scaring you into my life. I am empowering you to make the choice based purely on what you want. So? Will you come to me and stay for as long as it suits us both?”
“I…” She shook her head. Confusion was making speech impossible.
“All you have to think about is whether or not you truly want to say goodbye to me; to end this. If you want me to go, I will. I will walk out that door and never bother you again.”
She thought then of how she didn’t even have his phone number. Their next goodbye would ring with a sense of finality, if she let it.
Her words were husky when she spoke. “I don’t want you to go.”
His eyes flared with unmistakable triumph. The brief insight she’d had of him as a normal, even slightly-insecure man, disappeared completely. He was in charge once more, confident and ruthless.
He sipped his wine then placed the glass down carefully. “In answer to your questions, Kate,” and the way he said her name sent goose bumps leaping along her spine. “Your body obsesses me.”
She ignored the dull ache of betrayal. “My body, huh?”
“Si.” He lifted her hand and kissed her fingers, then gripped her hips. “Stand up.”
She was too confused to say anything. When she was with Benedetto, Kate felt as though she plunged from desperate despair to delight in the space of a nano-second.
His fingers moved with slow determination, unbuttoning her shirt and peeling it from her body. “The first time I saw you, I wanted to do this.”
“To do what?”
