Page 19 of A Son Hidden from the Sicilian

Then he was pulling off her shirt and she was fumbling with the buttons of his pants.

Madness. Madness. Madness.

And she wanted it all. Here. Now. Nothing else mattered but this wild, whipping desire that even climax hadn’t eradicated. She couldn’t think past wanting him naked, on top of her, inside her.

It was wild, desperate. Like two people who had thought of little else in their two-year separation. And she might have understood that if it was just her pathetic self. But he seemed just as lost. Just as found. Just as desperate.

This “dangerous” billionaire who understood how to be patient with a toddler and how to protect a son.

Whatever warnings existed in her head were drowned out by him. His kiss. His touch. The harsh, hoarse way he said her name into her neck. Until she fell apart. The tantalizing words whispered in her ear as he laid her out on the warm, plush rug of his office.

Naked now. Him naked. He took a moment and simply stared at her as if taking her in, and it should have been a wake-up call. A moment of clarity.

But it wasn’t. It never was with them.

He ran his hand down the center of her, between her breasts, over her stomach. A possessive move when she wasn’t his. When he didn’twanther to be. Because she would have beenanythingto him two years ago and he’d walked away.

Left her. Without aword. And she would simply...give in to him now? Without an apology? Without even a conversation of why he’d left things the way he had, or what he planned to do about it now? Just because itfeltgood?

No. She couldn’t be that immature, that reckless.

She called on every last shred of control and determination the past two years had built inside of her and rolled out from under him. She didn’t scramble. Because this wasn’t about panic. It was about making therightchoice.

It was about being the adult.

So they sat naked, ridiculously, on his plush office rug with the distance and cool air between them, their breathing more like panting in the now quiet room.

He said nothing. Which gave her the opportunity to take control of the situation and God knew she needed to be in control ofsomething.

“I think we should chalk that up to some form of insanity brought about by lack of sleep,” she said, even as she could barely catch her breath. Even as she wanted to give in to the heat in his gaze.

But she knew where that led. And it would be one thing to risk herself, her own heartbreak all over again. She thought if that was all there was, maybe she would have no choice but to follow this once more.

But she had Gio, and if she was heartbroken, she could hardly be strong enough to give him the father he deserved.

“I want you in my bed.”

God, the way he growled that. She couldn’t look at him or she’d be lost, so she calmly began to collect her clothes and worked on putting some censure in her tone. “Lorenzo.”

“It is what you want too.”

And how.

But she focused on the act of getting dressed. On the cold air around her now. On the truth of the situation.

The sex would be great. Life-altering—in more ways than one. But that was all it could be now. He’d had his chance for it to be more.

The chance was long gone.

“What I want? Physically? Sure. The sex would be good. It’s always been good.” Even that momentary lapse in her sanity had beenmorethan good.

She didn’t want to bare herself to him emotionally. Wanted to leave the nakedness and near miss of the situation as the only thing intimate between them.

But he had to understand. Maybe if he understood he would keep his distance. He would... They could bepartnersin this. Parenting.

Not sex.

So she forced herself to meet his gaze and spoke her truth. “But you...left me. You crushed me. I can’t be crushed again. I have a son to protect. A mother doesn’t get to follow her wants every which way. And I don’t get the sense what happened here is about...anything more than chemistry.”

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