Page 100 of Ruined Vows
When the task is completed, I stand there a minute longer, staring at Bianca. She’s the fire, the sharp-tongued, and beautiful even when her mascara’s smudged, woman with a heart of gold. She’s a woman who is also fierce, a woman who punched me with intent and didn’t hurt me as much as shecould have. But mostly, she’s the woman who set a ten-date trap like I’d never seen war before.
And now she sleeps onmyplane, inmybed, without a single gun in reach.
She doesn’t even realize that she already gave me more in this moment than she has with any of her words. And I’m the one falling, not for her body and not for the game. They are both incredible and intriguing, but that’s to be expected. No, she has me tripping over the fact that she gave me her silence without knowing it. A silence that speaks a thousand words, a silence we shared comfortably.
Bianca is a spitfire, a strategist, and a consummate saboteur of my sanity. She’s been fighting me since the moment we met. Sure, she’d like to think she hates me, the once enemy, and all that. But what she’s discovered is the reality that I might win.
And her thinking would be correct, but what she doesn’t know is that she’s winning too, because I’m already losing to her in ways I never meant to.
I pull out the sofa bed in the living room. But my hard cock keeps me up, along with the realization that I’m losing my heart and soul to this woman. How can she be so close, and yet so far away? It’s a paradox I must solve if I want my happy ending.
Bianca
Sometime later…I wake up with my cheek pressed to something warm. Soft. And then I become conscious.No!Oh, hell now.
My throat is dry. My hair is sticking to one side. There’s— Oh God.
There’sa line of drool on my arm.
I wipe it with the kind of feral embarrassment reserved formiddle school nightmares. The room is dimmer now. I’m no longer in the chair.
I’m—I whip the blanket off.The bed.No. I look around in a panic and find him standing near the cabin door, watching me.
His shirt sleeves are rolled up now, jaw shadowed with stubble, and his mouth curves when he sees the dawning horror on my face.
“Before you accuse me of violating your personal space,” he says smoothly, “you drooled.”
I blink. “You carried me.”
“You slumped like a dead thing halfway through turbulence.”
“I wasresting my eyes.”
“You were snoring.”
My entire body ignites in one flush of humiliation.
“And the bed?” I snap.
“I wasn’t going to let you crumple your spine on one of my chairs. I may be dangerous, but I have standards.”
I glance around. “Who—who undressed me?”
He shrugs. “My flight attendant.”
My mouth drops open.
“She’s trained,” he adds. “Discreet. She used to work for a Saudi prince who collected wives and Ferraris.”
“Vukan!”
“I had her keep your blouse on,” he says, calm as ever. “And no, she didn’t seem phased. See the knife tucked in your heel? You’re not as subtle as you think.”
I cover my face with both hands as he walks over and sets a glass of water by the bed.
“For the record,” he murmurs, “you looked beautiful.”
I lower my hands just enough to glare at him. “If you ever mention the drool again, I’ll smother you in your sleep.”
