no. It was...beyond magical. But...but...”
“It’s too much, too fast.”
She nodded, anxiously probing his reaction. And it felt as if a cool balm had spread over her burning flesh. There was only self-deprecation on his lips, empathy in his eyes.
After the way she’d surrendered to him, another man would have accused her of leading him on, then playing hard to get. A few men had even called her a tease.
But he wasn’t like those men. He was like no other.
She wanted to kiss him for being so wonderful. But a kiss might destroy his control, the only thing that stopped her from getting in over her head. More than she already had, that was.
“It isn’t too much or too fast, not for me,” he said, his voice a dark caress. “Every second with you is how I’ll define perfection from now on. But I will slow down—for you.” He swept her into his arms again and she succumbed on a ragged sigh, sank back into the luxury of his embrace. “But there are so many more intimacies I need to share with you, many untold pleasures. I need to keep kissing and touching and talking to you. So when everyone goes away, you’ll stay.”
“Yes.” Then she frowned. “But what do you mean stay?”
“The night. In my bed. In my arms.”
“I got that. But stay where?”
“Stay here, of course.”
“You’re staying here?”
“I should think so. I own the place.”
And suddenly, all the details she’d missed—in him, in what he’d said, which should have made sense before now but hadn’t—coalesced. Into one big wrecking ball.
It swung into her so hard, it knocked her out of his arms again. “You’re...him?”
Ellie gaped at the man who’d given her her life’s most intense experience. He was...he was...
“I’ve been referred to in some extremely unflattering ways before,” he drawled. “‘Him’ wasn’t among them.”
“I mean you’re...that man?”
“‘That man’ is also not what I want to hear on your lips.”
“God...it’s just... Okay, stop! Let me breathe.” Shaking her head, she splayed her hand on his chest as if to ward him off, but really to steady herself. “You’re...Moreno Salazar?
He took her fluttering hand to his lips. “To you...I am only Rafael.” He punctuated his words by suckling each finger. “You will moan my name into my lips...scream it against my flesh...all through the night.”
She was a molten mass by the time he pulled her other hand, wound her arms around his neck. But she still had to say...something. Anything.
“But you said you won’t make love to me.”
That wasn’t the issue here. Or what she’d meant to say.
He kissed the arms hanging limply around his neck. “I think I proved there are other ways of pleasuring you.”
“But I thought you understood, agreed that I need to—to...”
“Regroup? Yes, I know. And I won’t do anything to cross your comfort zone anymore.”
This man seemed to be reading her hectic mind, defusing her agitation, saying just the right thing.
But... “That’s still not it.”
“Then what is it?”
“You even have to ask? It’s who you are. It changes everything.”
His lips stilled on the sensitive flesh of her inner arm, then he raised his head, a spectacular frown descending over his leonine brow. “It changes nothing. I’m still the man you lost your mind over, the man you wanted with every fiber of your being. And that’s the man I’ll remain to you.”
“Yes, but you’re also Rafael Moreno Salazar, and I’m here attending your ball because my...boss is here to court your favor. And this complicates everything.”
“This complicates nothing, I tell you.”
“Oh, but it does. It tangles business with pleasure in a way I couldn’t have expected in my wildest dreams. Now I can’t spend the night with you. I don’t even know how everything will be affected by what we’ve already shared.”
Ellie’s arms slid off his shoulders and she slumped back. She felt as if he’d hurtled out of her reach when just minutes ago she’d felt he was closer to her than anyone had ever been.
She pitched forward, dropped her head in trembling hands. “Oh, God, why couldn’t you have just turned out to be just another guest here, just a regular man?”
“Well, I’m not.” He pulled her back into the cradle of his arm. “Which is why I can have you. A regular man wouldn’t dream of coming near you.” Before she could scoff at the exaggeration he’d said with such conviction, he went on just as seriously, “But I don’t care that business interests are involved. I’m even thankful they are, since they brought you here. I’m in your boss’s eternal debt for being the reason I met you. So if he is any good, I’ll do business with him. And that will have nothing to do with us.”
She squirmed to put some distance between them. “How can you say that in the same breath you say you’d do business with my boss for me?”
“I did stipulate he be at least ‘any good’ at what he does. I won’t prove my interest in you by gambling on a losing proposition. I’m into winning and would go to any constructive lengths to win you.”
“Constructive lengths.” A giggle escaped her. “Now, that’s an innovative way of putting it. Though you didn’t have to go to any lengths, constructive or otherwise. You stood there and cast your spell, and I ran and flung myself into your arms.”
“You neither ran nor flung yourself. But you will.”
She sighed, acknowledging his confidence. “So will you always be the magnet, with me the helpless iron filings, or is there hope of you doing some running yourself?”
“Command me, and I’ll run as long and as hard as you wish.” His fervor felt so real. But why not, when she felt the same? “I would have run to you this time, too, but I had to draw you away from the crowd.”
Something slotted in her mind with a thud. “You didn’t intend to make an appearance tonight, did you?”
His shrug was dismissive. “Whatever my intentions, I saw you...and nothing else mattered after that.”
“Same here. But you were going to pull
