Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 126060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126060 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
“I want children,” she admitted. “I want you to ask me properly, and I want you to be very sure. I don’t want to marry someone who won’t love me. All my life I’ve been alone, Geno. I never thought I’d be with someone, but when I considered it, I knew it would have to be with someone who would love me for me. They had to see me, flaws and all. I don’t want you to think I’m ever going to be someone who sits on the sidelines, because I won’t be.”
“I see who you are very clearly, Amaranthe,” Geno said. “I’m looking right into your heart, and I see what I want. I hope you’re doing the same. I don’t think this car is the place to ask you to marry me properly, but if you want me to be on my knee, I’ll do it when I find the right opportunity. You have my word.”
The tension in her eased. Geno wasn’t playing a role. He meant when he said. He’d reassured her dozens of times, it seemed. She was the one without the confidence. She found herself searching his dark eyes. Ferraro eyes. They were dark, but not brown. Not black. They were actually blue, but so dark blue they looked black at times. He was a beautiful man, and he took her breath away.
She was never going to fit into his world. Never. But she would fit with him when they were alone. And as a rider, there were few her equal. She took a deep breath. Let it out. On sheer bravado, she made the commitment.
“Okay, then. Let’s do this.”
“As long as you’re sure.”
She nodded, never looking away from his dark gaze. She did love his eyes. “I’m very sure. I’m not going to doubt us again.”
His smile was slow in climbing to his eyes, but when it reached them, it lit up the deep blue until her stomach began to perform loops and somersaults.
“You’re lethal to women, Geno.”
“Just to you, I promise.”
He cupped the back of her head gently and bent to brush his lips across hers, featherlight, before she could protest that she was wearing lipstick. As kisses went, it was fairly virtuous. It shouldn’t have made her heart pound like a drum out of control, but it did. He didn’t stop there. He shifted her, easily bringing her onto his lap, urging her to straddle his thighs.
Amaranthe knew better, but she couldn’t help herself. He mesmerized her. Large hands at her waist, he lifted her, and she settled one knee on either side of his thighs. His lips moved on hers again and again. Barely there. Whispering. Never hurrying. So light. Coaxing her with tenderness as if he knew everything she said was bravado. She was still afraid to go into his world with him.
Geno had kissed her with fire, but not like this. Not with tenderness. Not so she could taste raw emotion. He was giving her a gift—showing her how he felt. Her lips trembled beneath his. This was a terrifying moment even as she reveled in it. His chest was hard as it rose and fell against the softness of her breasts. His tongue slid along the seam of her lips, and her heart contracted.
I want you for myself, Danzatrice Ombra. You’re the only thing I’ve ever wanted for me. The only woman I’ve looked at and known I had to have, or it would be no one. If you turn me down, there will be no arranged marriage. No children with another rider. You are my partner, Amaranthe. I feel it with every breath I take. Feel it, too. Want me the way I want you.
He whispered poetic words like that into her mind, and she knew she would never be able to resist him. It didn’t matter that he was so far out of her league, and she had no idea how to be with a man like him, she knew she couldn’t walk away from him.
She saw his absolute resolve. He meant every word he said. His life had been dictated to him, his every path, his every breath and step. He was done with giving every aspect of his life to everyone else. He would choose his wife. The woman he would marry. If he couldn’t have the woman he loved, he would choose to be alone. She saw that determination in him. When Geno made up his mind, he was absolute steel.
I’m so afraid I’ll embarrass you, Geno. I have no idea what to do or say around these people. I don’t belong with them.
His mouth brushed across her lips again. Gently. Coaxing. So tender her stomach did a slow somersault and her sex clenched. She held herself very still, frozen in place, but the need for flight was paramount. Every inch of the front of her body was pressed tightly against him. His masculine scent enveloped her so that each time she inhaled, she took him deep into her lungs.