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She stared up at him, her chest rising and falling at a rapid pace, drawing his gaze to her full breasts that pressed against the thin cotton of her pale pink nightgown. A sinful body covered by a sweetly innocent nightgown with a little white satin bow in the center of the bodice, for the love of God—she was a contradiction he wanted to explore further.
More than anything, he wanted to bed her. He knew it was wrong, to let his lust for her control him, but damn it, he’d known this woman would eventually belong to him for years. To have her suddenly ripped out of his life made him want her even more.
“I don’t want what you have to offer.” She narrowed her eyes as she glared up at him. Her fingers curled into his shirt, her nails scraping against his chest. “Is this some sort of trap? Do you want to get caught with me in my room so you have no choice but to marry me?”
He hadn’t thought of it—and the idea was tempting, as wrong as he knew it was to even contemplate such a thing. “I don’t want to marry you…yet. I want to show you what you want to see. I want to be the one who offers you that taste of freedom you yearn for, Cat. Let me take you wherever you want to go. Whatever you want to see.”
“We shouldn’t do this.” She pushed at his chest and bucked her hips, nudging against his burgeoning erection. He grimaced at first contact. “Rafe, please.”
Christ. She said it like that and it aroused him beyond measure. Her soft, sexy voice whispering please, the way she clung to him. He could imagine her begging him in other ways. Sexy ways. Naked ways. “Come away with me, Cat.”
“No.” She shook her head, her gaze cutting away from his, her fingers still curled in his shirt.
“Cat.” Reaching out, he gripped her by the chin, forcing her to look at him. “Come. With. Me.”
“Why? So you can trap me into a loveless marriage and then abandon me? So you can impregnate me and force me to have an endless stream of babies to ensure the Renaldi line will carry on? Where you’ll end up leaving me alone and pregnant and miserable and feeling unloved like my poor, miserable mother? I don’t think so.”
He blinked, shocked at her words, at the images they brought forth. He had no intention of doing any such thing. His reputation as a charming ladies’ man may have preceded him in his future wife’s eyes, but he’d had every intention of being faithful to Catalina once they were married.
“When you become my wife, you will never have to question my faithfulness,” he said solemnly.
“But I can’t count on it now? Is that what you’re implying?” Her hazel eyes blazed with fury, the little flecks of gold sparking like flames. She was good and furious and damn beautiful with it too.
She was provoking him though. Making him angry that she would write him off as a careless, thoughtless jackass like her father.
“Stop putting words in my mouth,” he bit out.
“And stop trying to force me into something I definitely don’t want to be a part of.” She bucked her hips again, her pelvis rubbing directly against his cock and her eyes widened when she realized what she’d done. “Oh.”
“Yes. ‘Oh’.” He ground against her, nice and slow, torturing himself, hopefully torturing her as well. Her legs spread wider, accommodating him as if by instinct, and he couldn’t help himself. He kissed her, hard. Thrust his tongue inside her mouth, mimicking exactly what his body wanted to do with hers.
She didn’t fight him. No, surprisingly enough, she wound her arms around his neck, burying her fingers in his hair as she pulled him in closer until he completely covered her.
Relief surged through him at her reaction. Cat wanted this. She wanted him. And before he took it too far, he needed to get the both of them out of there so he could show her that adventure, the taste of freedom she so desperately wanted.
“We’ll pack a bag for you,” he whispered in her ear before he licked it, earning a soft little moan for his efforts. “Leave your mother and sister a note. We can fly out first thing in the morning. I already contacted my sister. She could have a private plane available for us, to take us back to New York.”
“New York?” She blinked open her eyes, staring up at him. “You want me to leave the country with you?”
“You’re the one who said you wanted to see the world. I’m offering to show it to you,” he explained simply.
“I—I can’t just leave. I have responsibilities.” She shook her head, those wide eyes drinking him in. “A job, my family. What will I tell my sister? My mother? They’ll worry about me. Annalisa already knows that we ended our engagement. She’ll find it odd that I left with you.”
