She blinked slowly and finally nodded against his palm. He cautiously lowered his hand, ready to cover her mouth again if she started screaming. She didn’t. Dante exhaled slowly. “Did you get the Plan B?”
She froze. “What?”
“A simple question, Rosa. I didn’t get it to you last week. Did you acquire it?”
Her gaze flew to his face. “Why are you asking me this?”
“Answer the question.”
She shook her head slowly. “No. I didn’t get it. I…forgot.”
He stared down at her, hope and something dark rising in him. “Liar.”
“No, I’m not.”
“Liar,” he repeated. “You knew the risk. You could have insisted your cousin stop along the way to the airport. A small stop once you were out of the immediate area. Simple. Easy. You chose not to.”
She parted her lips, painted fuck-me red, and then hesitated. “It would be incredibly reckless if I put myself at risk for being pregnant with your child because of some strange emotional blip. It would make me a fool.”
“No.” He leaned down and pressed his face to her neck, inhaling harshly. “No, not a fool. You feel it, too. You want this, too.”
“Dante, we can’t. The stakes are too high.”
He slid his hands over her hips and down to the hem of her dress. “Tell me no, amata. Tell me you never want to see me again, and I’ll be gone.” He didn’t know if he was lying or not. He couldn’t fucking tell. He wanted Rose so much, he couldn’t think properly, but part of wanting her was needing her to be right there with him. “Just say the word.”
“Dante… D’yavol.” She shivered. “This is a terrible idea.”
“That won’t work. Not this time. Use your words. Tell me yes or tell me no, Rosa.”
She pressed her lips together and shot a glance at the door. “We don’t have a future. We can’t.”
He didn’t repeat himself. He just waited, counting the beats of their racing hearts that seemed to sync up the longer they stood pressed together. He was so fucking hard, he could barely string two thoughts together, but he wanted her to choose this.
To choose him.
She ran her hands up his chest slowly. “It will never work.” She toyed with the buttons at the front of his shirt. “My family wants you dead. Your family wants me dead. We need every weapon we can come up with right now, and I can’t risk alienating our alliances because I want you.” She reversed her movement, reaching down to hook her fingers in the waistband of his pants. “I shouldn’t care about you at all. You’re my enemy.”
“Everything else is true enough.” He held perfectly still, refusing to let her incite him into closing the last little bit of distance between them. If she chose this, she chose this. There would be no pretending he pushed the issue. “But not that last. I’m not your enemy, amata.”
Her brows drew together. “If you’re not my enemy, Dante Verducci, then what are you?”
“Yours.”
She made a pained sound. “You can’t just say shit like that. It’s not that simple.”
“Yes, Rosa, it is. I’m yours and you’re mine. Tell me you don’t feel it.”
She shook her head helplessly. “We can’t.”
Dante made himself take a step back even though every part of him demanded he stay as close to her as possible. “So be it.”
He took another step back when she moved. Rose grabbed the band of his slacks and jerked him to her. Her expression went fierce. “I want you. It can’t work, but I don’t care. I…care about you.”
Not a full capitulation but enough. Or maybe Dante was simply looking for an excuse to take her mouth. To push her back and then lift her onto the counter and step between her bare thighs. “It will work.”
“We can’t be sure.” But she didn’t stop. And neither did he. He let her undo the front of his pants and reach in to wrap her hand around his cock. Rose gave him a rough stroke. “Now, d’yavol. I need you now.”
He should hold out, but it was never going to happen. Not when his woman needed him. Dante shoved up her dress to press two fingers into her. Rose gasped and glanced at the door. He followed her gaze as he worked her, readying her. “Someone will come looking for you shortly.”
“I don’t care.”
“Bene.”
She stroked him roughly. “I started birth control again. You don’t need to use a condom.” She guided him to her entrance.
He hesitated, searching her face. “Be sure, amata. We do this, there’s no going back.” He lightly covered her mouth with his hand when she started to speak. “You already said it’s impossible. I don’t give a fuck about impossible.”
“Don’t stop,” she whispered against his palm.
“I won’t.” He held her gaze as he pushed into her. There was no slow easing into it, not with the overwhelming desire to mark her as his, to get as close to her as possible. It had been a little over a week since he was inside her last, but it felt like a lifetime. Dante’s hips met Rose’s, and he pressed his forehead to hers. “Mine.”