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“Did learning about those parties disgust you?”

“I said shut up.”

“Did learning of those sex parties secretly excite you? They must have done. Every woman there beautiful and available for fucking, but then you’d have to think of your father being the one doing much of the fucking and that must have been just gross, and…”

He’d crossed the room and pinned her to the sofa with his gun pressed to her temple before he even knew his legs had risen to a stand.

Blood was pumping hard in Elvira’s body, a gushing roar in her head. No other sound penetrated. It was like the world had frozen.

It was impossible to know how long they stayed like that; Mattia straddling her lap, trapping her to the sofa, green eyes filled with fury boring into hers, the weight of his gun on her temple…and her gun pressed into his.

Their faces were so close she could feel his hot, ragged breath on her lips. Taste the rage contained in it. Smell the heat of his skin and the faint remnant of his woody cologne. See the outbreak of dark stubble breaking out over his jaw.

His darkly handsome features were so taut that the silvery scar above his lip was more prominent than ever.

She’d finally tormented him into making a mistake, but her mistake had been in underestimating his speed. Mattia was so tall and muscular and solid that she’d never dreamed he could move so quickly.

“Do it,” she whispered, not breaking the stare. “We can go to hell together. Your father can show us around.”

The face so close to hers contorted. “Why are you trying to provoke me into killing you?”

“I’m not.” She unthinkingly moved her face even closer. “I’m trying to provoke you into losing your cool enough that I can kill you.”

“You should have pulled the trigger while you had the chance.” His hoarse voice was as low as hers.

“I know. I’ll get another chance when you fall asleep.”

“I won’t be sleeping.”

“Then I’ll just have to bring up your father’s sex parties again and throw in the rumour that your mother was so repulsed by his sexual demands that she refused to share a bed with him for more than twenty years.”

His voice dropped even lower, his face now so close to hers that their breaths swirled together. “You’re a fucking bitch.”

Her lips were tingling, a burning sensation flickering deep in her pelvis. “And you’re a bastard Esposito.”

“You should have killed me when you took everything from me.”

“And your parents should have killed me and my brothers when they killed our parents.”

The rage-filled green eyes pulsed, the nostrils of the haughty bird-of-prey nose flared, and a beat later their lips touched. It was only a fleeting sensation, barely an impression, but enough for moisture to flood her mouth and heat of a kind she’d never known existed to flood her body.

She’d barely comprehended what was happening when he drew his head back and pulled in a deep breath.

“I’m going to count to three.” His voice was so tight his words were barely audible. “On my three, we both drop our guns, and I return to my armchair.”

Her heart hammering painfully she could only nod her agreement.

Their eyes locked tightly, he gave the slightest jerk of his head. “One.”

She swallowed again.

“Two.”

It was all she could do to adjust her grip on her slim trigger.

“Three.”

Holding her breath, she lowered her gun from his head and felt the weight in her temple vanish. Moments later, the weight on her lap and the heat on her skin from Mattia’s body had vanished too.