“Me? What about you? Your heart and emotions match your name. Stone cold.”
I know nothing about his heart, but he keeps his emotions close to his chest. That is pretty obvious.
“You need to not jump when I touch you.”
“Maybe if you had a personality to go with those looks I wouldn’t.” Shit. I really didn’t mean to say that. I’ve already told him in a dozen different ways that I’ve checked out his body.
“I could say the same.”
“What?” I poke at his chest. “I have a personality.”
“A feisty one.” He wraps his fingers around my wrist, trapping my hand to his chest.
“I suppose your people would expect you to marry a quiet subservient girl who cowers at your every command.”
The vein rears its ugly head. Only, it isn’t ugly. It gives Stone’s face character. The rest of him is too chiseled, too polished, too perfect. The vein is the only sign he has any type of emotion.
He yanks me into his chest. “Your smart mouth is going to get you in all kinds of trouble.” His gaze drops to my lips.
I struggle to free my hand and move away, but he snakes his free hand around my waist and pulls me tighter into him. Shit. Is the man always hard as a rock? I haven’t been checking out his crotch but I think I would have noticed if he’d had a hard on during lunch.
“Let me go,” I curse at him through gritted teeth.
“Not the words a blushing bride would say to her groom days before her wedding.”
“I’m not a blushing bride.”
“Tell that to your pink cheeks.” He releases my hand and moves it to my face, brushing his knuckles across my jawline.
“What is it you want, Stone?”
He doesn’t move away but doesn’t grind himself into me either. He has to be aware I can feel his erection. He makes no attempt to hide it. We stay like that, locked together, staring into each other's eyes.
Without breaking eye contact he says, “This is good. To the nosy help with their faces plastered to the windows, we look like we’re in a lover’s embrace.”
“Is that what you want? To fool the help?”
“We need to fool more than them. Father Paul Michael won’t marry us if he doesn’t think we’re not truly in love.”
“Do you even know what that looks like? Love?” It’s a ballsy thing to ask.
“Do you?” he fires back.
I lick my lips and narrow my eyes at him. “I guess it’s the blind leading the blind.”
He releases me and I move quickly away from his erection, not wanting to admit how much I liked it pressed against my stomach. Or rather, how much I liked that he didn’t force himself on me.
“I’m serious, Gia. We need to make him believe this is real or he won’t marry us. At least not this weekend, or without jumping through a lot of hoops.”
“You’re not used to jumping through hoops, are you? You’re used to making them.”
He rights his suit and pierces me with those sea-blue orbs. “The sooner we can make this happen the sooner you can see your mother.”
Damn, he doesn’t play fair. What do I expect from a kidnapper and blackmailer?
“What do you need me to do?” I ask in all seriousness. If I have to dance with the devil to free my mother and myself from my monster of a father, I might as well wear the proper shoes.
Stone eyes me from head to toe. Even though my outfit must be worth hundreds of dollars, I am too casual for his taste.