Sharp bursts of pleasure crested over her. Desire pooled low and intense in her pelvis. She sensed his control slipping, his desire taking over, just as hers did, and each thrust was more desperate and less measured. Each sound he made was rougher and filled with a delicious lack of control.
When they hit their climaxes and pleasure broke out all over her she knew nothing was going to protect her heart now. How stupid she had been to think she still had control over this—that she could withstand it without losing herself.
Her heart was Diego’s now—whatever he wanted to do with it. And she couldn’t help but hope, after everything they had been through together, that he wouldn’t trample it.
CHAPTER TWELVE
IT HAPPENED WHEN they had almost reached the villa. The fact that it had been near midnight by the time they had finished with each other, and with dinner at the secluded spot, meant that the loud, strident peal from his cell phone shattered the peace, the moment of perfection.
Diego froze next to her, bringing them both to a grinding halt even before he picked it up. He literally froze—his body next to her and his hand around hers going from delicious warmth to dreadful cold in a second. The jarring tune blared again, and Kim realized why she had felt a shiver go down her spine that first time.
That ringtone was different from his usual one. Which meant he had set it up for a particular call. And he seemed to expect the worst.
He shifted to the side, almost as though hiding himself from her, and picked up his phone.
The conversation lasted two minutes—tops.
A curse flew from his mouth and Kim flinched. With a growl that had the little hairs on her neck standing, he hurled his cell phone. It fell into the ocean and sank in seconds with a little gurgle.
Leaving the most deafening silence around them.
His emotions floated over him like a dark cloud that cut off the intense physical connection she had felt with him only a few minutes ago. Like a signal of extreme danger to anyone who dared approach him.
Foreboding inched over her, her skin chilly in the balmy night air.
He stared into the ocean, his shoulders rattling.
She reached him quietly where he stood, with tension and aggression pouring out of every sinew of him. “Diego, what’s going on?”
“He’s dead.”
The words landed around them with the intensity of an earthquake that shook everything. She swayed for a second, her gut trembling. She dug her toes into the sand, blindly seeking to root herself. “Who?” she asked, wishing her instincts could be wrong.
“Eduardo.”
The anguish in him wound itself around her. “I’m so sorry, Diego.”
“Multiple organ failure killed him.”
“I—”
“But they are wrong.”
Her tongue wouldn’t move to form the words she wanted to ask. She was so terrified of everything crumbling. “What do you mean?”
“I’m the one who killed him. As surely as if I put my hands on his throat and choked the life out of him.”
Kim gasped. The self-loathing in his words was unbearable to hear. The need to comfort him pounded in her blood. “What are you talking about? Eduardo loved you.”
“And I used his love, his trust in me, to my advantage. He was already crumbling under the weight of my father’s expectations. And you know what I did? I befriended him under false pretenses, gained access to the company’s information and pulled it out from under him. My father had no choice but to hand it over to me. I told myself Eduardo was barely keeping it together anyway. And then, when you left, I wanted blood. I went from driven to obsessed. Instead of helping him, I pushed him into his own destruction. I should have known Eduardo was already using—should have known how close he was to breaking. By the time I did it was already too late. Are you still glad that it’s my children you’re carrying, gatinha?”
The words dug their claws into her.
“I am. Because you’re not that man anymore, Diego. You never were. I see how you are with Miguel, what you’ve gone through to pull him from that life. Whatever culpability you have in Eduardo’s death—if you have any—you have paid for it a million times over.”
She moved toward him and folded her arms around his middle from behind. A tremor shook him and it crashed into her, his raw anguish churning her stomach.
Innocence. They had both never had it. And even without realizing it they had been drawn to each other. For the first time she felt the loss of it as keenly as he did.
She pressed her mouth to his shoulders, felt him shudder under her touch, felt his rock-hard muscles relax against her. Felt him pull in a breath with the utmost effort.
She wanted to do everything she could to ease his pain. The intensity of how much she wanted to rocked through her. For a second she thought he might let her share his pain—for once let her support him.