Gold(25)

“But you want me,” he said. “I can feel it.”

She nodded. “But it’s just… Yes, the fantasy of romance is amazing. And I like kissing as I see it in books. And as it happens with you. But if things go further… I know it’s not like that. Men don’t make love like they do in the books. It’s not some hot fantasy.”

Anger curdled inside him, but he pushed it aside to focus on her. “And you know this from experience?”

She nodded.

“Then they didn’t do it right,” he said.

“I know,” she said. Then she looked out at the shore and the mountain beyond it. “But I don’t have anything else to compare to.”

He hmphed and began to row them back to shore. The wind was picking up, and he didn’t want to be caught out here. He didn’t want to downplay whatever had happened to her, but how could he tell her that sex could be good without coming off like a total douchebag?

When they docked, he tied up the boat and helped her up, catching her in his arms as she stepped onto the platform.

For a moment, the feel of her soft sweater, her soft body, was almost his undoing.

Then the tension broke, and she stepped in front of him to walk back toward the house. “Time for lunch. I’m hungry, aren’t you?”

He bit his lip. Oh yeah, he was hungry all right.

He caught up to her, finally knowing what he wanted to say. “Wait a second, Ella.”

She turned back to him curiously.

“How about this?” he said. “You don’t have to let up your trust. Let me win you over. Let me woo you. And then only let me into your heart if you want to.”

She nodded slowly. “Fine.” She started toward the house again, looking flustered.

“But I guarantee you won’t regret letting me have a go at that curvy body,” he couldn’t resist adding with a grin. “I’ll make your romance novel heroes seem like ice cubes compared to how I’d set your body on fire.”

She looked at him for a second and visibly gulped before whipping around to head back to the house.

But he could swear he saw a hint of a smile on his mate’s face just before she tried to hide it.



After lunch, the rest of the day went by fairly quickly and, thankfully, without incident. But no matter how she tried, Ella couldn’t shake Dante’s proposal from her mind. Couldn’t forget the way his gaze had looked when she’d agreed to something as crazy as letting the already-incorrigible man “win her over.”

But despite her fear that something would happen, something bad, Ella knew she was even more afraid that she would fall for the too-cocky, too-perfect Dante. Because regardless of his foibles, the man had too many pros too count.

Starting with that amazing body, she thought as she tried to suppress a gulp as he sat next to her on the bed. Tonight he was wearing a casual pair of checkered pajama pants with a T-shirt that hugged his muscles and allowed her to see every outline of his chest and shoulders.

She’d already settled in herself and was trying to distract her burning mind from thoughts of Dante and onto her book.

To her surprise, he pulled out a romance novel from the nightstand on his side of the bed and began to read.

“Where did you get that?”

Dante glanced away from the pages, cool as a cucumber. “Your family has a pretty big book collection. I found this tucked away with a few others in a corner behind the couch. Someone must have been trying to hide them,” he said with a slight grin.

She noted the cover again and instantly recognized it as one from a tiny collection she tried to hide in the family library for times when she wanted to read when she was younger or when she was home for summer breaks during college.

Ella felt her temperature rise, and as it did, Dante’s grin widened.

But rather than argue, she let out a slight huff and turned onto her side, away from Dante’s smugness, and opened her book again.

There’s something between us. Do not deny me your feelings any longer, Cecily. The words from the page poured into her mind at breakneck speed as she tried to ward off thoughts of golden eyes and perfect lips.

But as she continued to read, she found herself slowing down as she reached a sexy scene between the two protagonists.

Her breath caught, the faintest whisper of air leaving her lips in a gasp as his fingers intertwined with her hair and his other hand found the button of her blouse.

Ella found herself curling the sheet around her more tightly as she pressed on. Normally, she just skipped the sexy parts in her books, interested more in the plot twists and dramatic reveals instead. But reading a romance like this by yourself was a whole lot different than reading it with a six-plus, muscular specimen of a man with the face of an angel and the body of a Greek statue sitting next to you on the bed.