While we didn’t resume talking about her cousin or my sister, there wasn’t a chance for awkward silence to settle over us. My stomach growled, and I stood to tell her that we should go get lunch.
See?
I shoved my hands in my pockets, letting my desire and admiration for Sofia sink in a little deeper.
Nothing happened.
She’s not stealing intel or anything like that.
She might have seemed curious about that paper, but that didn’t mean she wanted it to sell it. She was probably confused about it and wasn’t sure what category of paperwork it belonged in.
She’s not a threat.
My father was wrong.
And with that conviction firm in my mind, I let out a deep breath and hoped thatIwas right. Not about her, but about good things coming to those who waited.
She’d passed my loyalty test so far.
But would she ever pass the test of submitting to me and quit this farce of denying this attraction that sizzled between us?
12
SOFIA
Apulsing throb between my legs woke me up. Shifting out of the dream of Andre going down on me and slipping into the reality that I was alone in my small bed, I bit my lip.
No.
No.
Please, no.
No. Just a couple more minutes!
Cringing without opening my eyes, I tried to grasp the flimsy edges of the dream as it whispered away from my mind’s eye.
Almost every night, he tormented me in bed. The second I fell asleep,hewas the one I saw. The ghost of his touch on my skin. The hint of his mouth on my lips. The sound of his gritty, gruff growls as he teased me with promises of all the wicked things he wanted to do to me and the taunts of what he wouldn’t do if I didn’t behave and submit to him. Tous.
I heaved out a deep sigh of frustration as I opened my eyes. Going back to that dream was impossible. I was awake. I was with it. But the cruel loss of another erotic dream about my uncle’s rival, about the rugged Mafia man I was supposed to spy on, was too much to bear.
Still, I wouldn’t cave. I couldn’t.
The second that I surrendered and told Andre that I couldn’t keep up this game of denying our mutual attraction, I would be giving up on Esmeralda. I couldn’t choose him and still appease my uncle. I’d be in too deep—if I wasn’t already.
Torn between two worlds, caught between two concerns, I felt pulled apart in half.
Shame coasted over me as I shifted and fidgeted on the bed, trying to get comfortable again. I felt too warm. Too on edge and antsy and wide awake after that dream of him crawling over my body, going down so he could bring his mouth to the inner part of my thigh as he parted my legs open wide.
Oh, God.
The fragments of the naughty image hadn’t disappeared yet.
I swore I could still feel the phantom touches of his lips and callused fingers.
Lowering my hand, I felt the evidence of how wet I was.
I heaved out another sigh.
