Page 65 of Veiled Amor

She was a woman with ovaries gonging like a town hall clock every time she looked at his bronzed face. It sucked she was only in love with one man and couldn’t scrape together even half that amount of attraction for another man. Not that she got much chance to get over Capone. If given an opportunity, she pondered if she could move on from him.

“Lucia,” he groaned again.

Her name sounded tortured in his throat, and it gave her some hope. Sure, he’d rubbed her to an orgasm and kissed her a bunch of times already, but it didn’t mean he wanted more from her. She wasn’t stupid. She might not have a lot of relationship experience as any other woman her age, but she knew sexual chemistry didn’t mean a man wanted to wife her.

And oh, god, she’d never wanted to be wifed as severely as she did by Capone.

Okay, fine. She’d live in delicious sin if he weren’t the marrying kind.

But first, she had to get him to leave the past where it needed to stay and take a chance on them.

Easier said than done when it was a mule-headed, honorable man like Capone. She knew his hesitancy had everything to do with Santiago.

Was she wrong by withholding the full story?

Was she crazy to have him choose her despite what he thought happened?

Eh. Maybe she was just as stubborn.

Her need was to be wanted because he couldn’t resist, and not because he knew the full picture. Capone’s tight expression revealed nothing.

Why couldn’t he be an open book?

It didn’t bother her how silent he was. She’d always done enough talking for them both. Why change it now?

The party noise outside of their room increased.

She had one last thing to say.

“I’m going to make you chase me so hard. You’ll have no clue whose idea it was, Gi.”

With a teasing smile, she watched his brows fold deeper, and a gorgeous tick worked through his firm jawline. She turned on her heel and headed out of the door.

Making it five steps before a hand latched onto the back of her nape, and Capone reeled her in until she was pressed up against a wall with him, stepping into the space to make their bodies align.

Oh, wow.

She started to sweat and shake with excitement.

Being manhandled by him was an experience. He didn’t do it to hurt her, that much was clear, but ohhh… it felt insanely good to be clasped in those powerful hands of his. He didn’t let her neck go, and she didn’t ask him to let her go. Instead, she tipped her head back to better see the raging darkness coming out of his eyes. He was breathing through his teeth, pushing the air over her face as he leaned in and gave her neck a tiny, lovely squeeze.

“You’ve fucking haunted me for years.” He moved in an inch closer, and her eyes automatically dropped to his mouth, surrounding in soft, dark hair. “You’re so extravagantly beautiful. You make me ache just putting my eyes on you.”

Lucia stopped breathing.

His hand tightened on her neck, and she sort of listed forward until both hands were braced on his solid chest. Her heart palpitated like a wild deer caught in a hunter's trap. Ugh, he was so big and steam-hot. A little frightening if you didn’t know him. Lucia was far from afraid of Capone. She was almost vibrating under her skin. He stared so long that a wave of heat rushed into her neck and face, it settled in the pulse on her throat, throbbing.

Time stood still.

The concentration on his face electrified her while he stared. A specific hungry wave crossed through his eyes. She wasn’t making shit up. It was there, clear as a Christmas tree in March would be. The way a starving man survived on a deserted island, dreaming of his favorite meal.

Capone dropped his gaze to her mouth, and she darted out her tongue unconsciously, running along the lower lip. It’s when he grunted that he broke the erotic spell, his voice husky and profound, “you don’t know how badly you tempt me, Lucia. How hard I’ve forced myself to keep a distance between us.”

She frowned, “but…”

“I fucked up, and I can’t get past what I did to Santiago. You’re his. You can’t be mine.”

Every inch of her heart, the valves, the veins, and everything else keeping her alive, hurt in her chest.