“I don’t remember you being so hard…” Her words trailed off as she shook her head sadly.
* * *
“A lot has changed in the last five years,” he told her.
Her eyes were golden-brown and dreamy, just as he remembered them. Her scent was the same, too, faintly floral with a hint of summer nights. His hands itched to hold her and he told himself he was just eager to get started on the revenge for which he’d waited so long.
But it was more than that and he knew it.
The memory of this one woman had tormented him enough that no other woman had ever come close to erasing Teresa from his mind. It was time now to exorcise that memory so he could move the hell on.
“Do you agree to my terms?” He asked the question because he wanted to hear her say yes. He wasn’t the kind of man to take a woman against her will—and it pissed him off that she could even suggest it to him. But he wasn’t above making sure the woman he desired didn’t have much choice, either. At least in Teresa’s case.
She was the only woman who had stayed with him, thoughts of her eating away at him day and night. And it wasn’t just her betrayal that made her so unforgettable. No, it was more than that, though the fact that she’d lied to him and used him gnawed at Rico constantly.
She was the woman who had made him feel more than he ever had. Hell, he’d married her when he had been sure that he’d never want to be with one woman for the rest of his life. With Teresa, though, he hadn’t second-guessed anything. He’d listened to his heart and thought her a gift. He’d married her because he hadn’t been able to imagine his life without her. He’d let down his guard around her and had ended up paying for that.
After she had vanished, he’d figured out that she hadn’t been a gift, but a curse. Now he was going to get past the old anger and sense of betrayal. He was going to use her to pave his way to the future.
A future without Teresa Coretti.
“So?” he asked, a casualness he didn’t feel coloring his tone. “What is it going to be, Teresa? Do you stay with me for a month or do you wave goodbye to your family as the jail doors slam shut?”
She lifted her chin, fixed her gaze on his and whispered, “I’ll stay.”
* * *
Teresa was surprised Rico had let her out of his sight.
Although, she told herself an hour later, maybe she shouldn’t have been. He knew all too well that she wouldn’t do anything to endanger her family. So of course she would agree to his terms. And of course she wouldn’t make a break for freedom. And of course she would end up having sex with him. How could she not? Teresa had been dreaming about Rico for five years. Sleeping beside him wouldn’t be enough and she knew it as well as he did.
She walked along the dock, headed for the boat launch where her father and brother waited. Rico had made arrangements for her family to be taken from the island to St. Thomas. From there, they could take a plane back to Italy and hopefully retrieve Rico’s dagger from Gianni’s collection. Thankfully, her brother hadn’t sold the dagger, as he did most things the Coretti family liberated from their owners. Gianni had a small, priceless collection of his own and she knew that dagger was a part of it.
In one month, her family would be back to return the antiquity and free Teresa.
A soft breeze caressed her and tossed a long lock of her hair across her eyes. She plucked it free, plastered a fake smile on her face and studied her family as she approached them.