Billionaires: The Hero. Maisey Yates

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      “Like I said. Give yourself some time.”

      She forced a smile. “You’re right. I just hate giving him that power over me.”

      He was silent for a long moment. “Then don’t.”

      She blinked. “Scusi?”

      “You trust me?”

      She nodded.

      “Then get back on the wagon.” He took another step toward her, stopping just short of her personal space. “We’re attracted to each other, Mina. Intensely attracted to each other. But I am not Silvio. I can kiss a woman and walk away, no matter how hot and bothered I am, regardless of where my emotions lie, because I am in control of them. I would never hurt a woman. So,” he said deliberately, “kiss me right now. Replace that image of what happened with Silvio with a positive experience.”

      She gaped at him. “We can’t do that. We made a rule.”

      “So we break it for one kiss. The longer you let this eat away at you, the harder it’s going to be to leave behind.”

      She had a feeling that was true. She didn’t want to carry this victim mentality with her. Didn’t want to give it a chance to take hold. Because this Mina Mastrantino she’d been tonight was not the real Mina. The Mina who had chased away her childish ghosts in boarding school because there’d been no one else to do it for her. The Mina who’d learned to survive without love when it seemed like everyone around her had it but her, by telling herself someday she would have it, too. The Mina who was stronger than this.

      “Sì,” she said. “Let’s do it.”

      “Come here.”

      For a brief, heart-stopping moment, Mina thought she might actually be insane. Because this man was dangerous. Beautifully, undeniably, self-admittedly dangerous. Yet, she conceded, she trusted him implicitly.

      He was letting her take control. He wouldn’t make the first move.

      She took a step forward, then another, until she was almost touching him. There she stopped, her innate shyness kicking in. Nate’s gaze caught hers, pulled her in. She took the last step forward, sucking in a breath as he reached out, curved a hand around her waist and brought her to him in a loose hold that continued to give her every option.

      She thought he would lean down and kiss her then. Instead, he focused on her lips, as if they were the most fascinating thing in the world. As if he had all the time in the world. Her breathing quickened, anticipation firing her blood. He brought his mouth down to hers without touching. Their breath mingled first, then the lush surfaces of their mouths. Oh, mio Dio. She was practically panting by the time he angled his head and took her mouth.

      He brought his fingers up to capture her jaw, lightly, as if she might bolt at any minute. Explored the surface of her mouth with an exquisite thoroughness that just about brought her to her knees. Long and mesmerizing, the kiss went on and on, until she was boneless beneath his fingers, her blood moving through her veins in a hot, restless purr.

      He moved his hands to her hips and brought her closer. About as close as their practice kiss. Except this time she didn’t feel any fear. She just wanted more.

      His tongue traced her bottom lip, laving it. Then he nipped gently, taking the sensation to a whole other level. The moan that came from her throat was low, instinctive. He satisfied her demand, dipping his tongue inside her mouth and turning the kiss into a hot, uninhibited exploration.

      Her insides contracted. She’d never been kissed like this before. Like he wanted to devour her. Possess her. The kisses she’d received from the men she’d dated on her quest to find a husband had been tame. This was far from tame. It was toe-curlingly sensual, like an overture to an opera, slowly building to the main act.

      She met the bold strokes of his tongue with tentative forays of her own. It was a poor attempt but Nate seemed to like it, stroking her, urging her on with a low husky voice. She grabbed a fistful of his shirt for balance, arching instinctively into him as her body caught fire. His hands shaped her against him, molded her to the hard contours of his powerful body as if he’d been expecting it, waiting for it. She tilted her head back to his demand as he consumed her more deeply.

      The thick, powerful evidence of his arousal burned an imprint into her, shocking her, heating the blood in her veins to a whole new level. Her hands curled tighter in his shirt, but she didn’t let go. Not when his kiss, when he, felt this intoxicatingly good.

      Lost in a universe that was all Nate, all about the feel of his hard, hot body against hers, it was a full second or two before she registered the fact that all that heat was gone. That Nate had set her away from him with firm hands that remained on her hips to steady her as her heart pounded near through her chest. As if he knew how completely unbalanced she was.

      “One kiss,” he rasped, his eyes on her face. “And now I’m walking away, Mina. Just like I said I would.”

      She stared at him. “I—that was—”

      “What I hope will erase that other kiss from your memory.” His mouth twisted. “Never to happen again.”

      She nodded. “Esattamente,” she agreed shakily. Exactly. Never to be experienced again, either, she was fairly sure.

      He picked his jacket up off the chair. “Buonanotte.”

      She watched him walk away, as if he regularly brought women to their knees...metaphorically. Now she knew why she hadn’t accepted any of the suitors her mother had tried to foist on her. Because none of them, not one of the eligible and some of them very good-looking bachelors that had been presented to her, had ever made her feel even one-tenth of what Nate had just done.

      Pulling in a deep breath, she kicked off her shoes, picked them up and headed for her bedroom. That might have done the job and knocked everything else clean out of her head. Proved to her she could trust her instincts. The issue, she predicted, was going to be finding a way to think of anything but what had just happened.

       CHAPTER SEVEN

      MINA HAD BEEN RIGHT on her wedding day. A real kiss from Nate was unforgettable. She’d spent a sleepless night in her big, soft bed tossing and turning, imagining what it would be like to be in his arms. Wondering about all the things he would teach her.

      Which would stay right there in her imagination, she told herself as she sat in on a marketing meeting with Giorgio and his team to discuss the repeat guests campaign. What Nate had given her was priceless—a chance to prove she was more than just a pretty face whose only opportunities lay in trading on her looks. A chance to prove she was capable of more than providing a graceful introduction at an afternoon tea or cleaning toilets at the Giarruso.

      Nate had also given her something perhaps even more important. He’d reminded her last night that despite how overwhelmed she felt in her current situation, she was not simply a creature of God’s universe, being batted to and fro by the whims and mercies of the world around her. She was a woman who’d chosen her destiny, who was finally standing on her own two feet.

      It was something Celia’s mother had taught her on the school holidays she’d spent with the Bettencourts in Nice while her mother СКАЧАТЬ