A Touch of Temptation(62)
“You have given up on me.”
Fresh tears spilled from her eyes, but she wiped them with determination. This was only one day—the beginning. She would spend this entire lifetime and more waiting for his love. Because this man—he meant everything to her. And she wasn’t going to hide how she felt for him either.
“I’m in love with you, Diego.” She rushed over words that should be said slowly, softly, without waiting for his reaction. She could do this only one way. “I’ve always been in love with you. I was an idiot before. I’m going to spend the rest of my life fighting for us, proving to you that I’m worth it. All I ask is—”
In a second he was kneeling over her, his legs on either side of hers. And then he kissed her. She moaned and wrapped her hands around his nape. Gave his kiss everything she had in her. He wasn’t gentle with her. His hand in her hair kept her where he wanted her as his tongue plunged into her mouth.
Heat blasted all over her as he pushed up her nightgown with rough hands. His hands cupped her breasts and she whimpered at the pleasure sparking all over.
“Diego, wait...” she managed to say, even as arousal stole through her, lighting an insatiable fire in her body.
He halted, his breathing rough, his palms spread out over her thighs. His face was tight with guilt. “Did I hurt you?”
She laughed and cupped his jaw, her breathing still nowhere near normal. “I won’t break, Diego. I want nothing more than to feel you inside me.” Stealing her fingers into his hair, she pressed an open-mouthed kiss to his lips. Warmth stole through her. Diego’s groan added to it. “But I... You haven’t said anything. I understand if you’re angry, if you’re—”
“Angry?” he said, and the very emotion he was denying crept into his tone. “Try gut-twisting emptiness. I’ve never been more alone, felt more alone in my life than the past week. Everything I have achieved, everything I have—it means nothing without you.”
Her heart leaped into her throat. She felt dizzy—as though someone had sucked out the oxygen from around them.
He touched his forehead to hers. “I love you so much, minha esposinha.” His words reverberated with pain. His features were stark and menacing. “And if you leave me again it will destroy the little good there is in me. It almost did this time.”
Her heart felt as if it would burst out of her chest. Kim wrapped her arms around him and hugged him so tight that her breathing stuttered. It was more than she had ever hoped for. “You love me?”
His gaze was filled with pain. “I can survive if I lose all this wealth, I have survived rejection from pretty much everyone in my life, but I can’t survive losing you. When you left, for a few moments all I could think was that you had gone because everything I had done wasn’t enough. I wasn’t enough.”
“No, Diego. Don’t say that. You’re the most wonderful man I’ve ever met. I just couldn’t bear to be by your side thinking that you would never love me. It hurt so much that you turned away from me. I wanted to ask you. I wanted to...” She shivered and he kissed her temple. “It was nothing to do with you, Diego. I was weak. I...”
“You’re stubborn, arrogant, you drive me to the worst of myself and you’re so damn hard to get through to sometimes. But you’re the toughest woman I know and I love you for everything you are.”
He settled his palm on her belly and she wondered if she would combust from the pride, from the acceptance, from the love in his words.
“I can’t think of a better, stronger mother for my children.”
This fierce, passionate man loved her. She would count herself lucky for the rest of her days. “You really think that, don’t you? I couldn’t believe you trusted me enough to...”
“Of course I do. You might not feel that connection, but I have no doubt that you’ll love our children.”
Kim smiled and hid her face in the crook of his elbow, his words washing over her with a warmth she wanted to keep close. She would tell him in a minute. She would tell him how much joy now flew through her just at the thought of their little family.
“Will you promise me you will never stop fighting for me and you will never give up on me? Even when I don’t believe I’m worthy of you?” she said, fear stealing through her.
He met her gaze and smiled, his hands tight against her waist. And the tenderness in it stole through her. “We will always fight for each other. We will never let ourselves settle for anything less than we deserve. It’s a promise, gatinha.”
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