Page 17 of Alessio

“Yes.”

Alessio chuckled, his thumb edging along the page in the book before raising, so he could slide the pad of the digit against the seam of her mouth. She hadn’t expected the touch until it was right there, but she couldn’t find it in herself to back away.

Not when he was looking at her like that.

Yeah …

Entirely overwhelming.

That’s what this man was.

“If you liked that,” he told her, “then you should see us when we fuck.”

She sucked in a sharp breath.

Alessio winked before leaning in and pulling his thumb away to drop a featherlight kiss to her lips. There was something wicked about the kiss. How his lips moved against hers, and then his tongue swept the seam of her mouth to coax it open for him. She didn’t need to be kissing the man whose lover she had been in bed with that morning, but she answered his kiss back.

It felt natural.

And sinful.

Then, as fast as it had happened, it was over, and he stepped back. Not that it mattered.

She felt it.

Everywhere.

The same way she could still taste him—a minty heat—lingering on her tongue and lips. Ginevra took a step back, too, needing the distance, and holding the open book closer to herself like that might stop him from doing it again. And why did she want that?

Because she liked the kiss.

As quick as it had been.

She still liked it.

“Why would you do that?” she asked, airless.

To hurt Corrado?

Or confuse her?

To make this worse?

Alessio lifted one shoulder, the hint of a smile creeping in. “I wanted to know if your lips were as soft as they looked, that’s all.”

She still couldn’t breathe.

“That was why?”

“Does there have to be another reason?”

Ginevra wished her throat wasn’t so tight, or that her heart would calm. “I think there is when the circumstances here are not—”

“If I wanted to cause Corrado pain, because I know that’s what you think, I wouldn’t use you to do it. I know the best place to hit that man to make it hurt, and I promise it isn’t you. Not yet, anyway. We’ll see if that changes.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means, I kissed you because I wanted to. Nothing else, so don’t make it into something when it’s nothing.”