to worry about him anymore. His things have been removed from his room. He won’t be back.”
Emilio was gone? Cass felt a wave of relief. “What do you mean?”
“He won’t be returning to the palazzo, or attending the wedding. I made sure of that before we left the restaurant tonight.”
She felt weak, her legs wobbly, and she didn’t even know why. “You can do that?”
“My security detail can.”
She moved to the window, touched one velvet panel, the velvet soft, warm, pliable beneath her fingertips. “I didn’t know you had security.”
“I don’t when I travel. But here at home when the family gathers at the palazzo, or when we host a party, particularly one like my sister’s wedding where we have many high profile guests attending, it’s wise to take precautions.”
“That’s how you knew Emilio was trying to break into your office?”
“We caught him on one of the security cameras.”
She glanced up, checked the ceiling and corners of the room for possible cameras. “You don’t have any in the bedrooms, do you?”
Maximos smiled faintly. “I believe that’s considered an invasion of privacy.”
“Good.” A little of her tension eased. “We agree on something at least.”
Maximos stepped toward her, adjusted the strap on her white slip dress, smoothing the fabric on her bare golden shoulder. The touch of his fingers on her skin made her shiver, body and nerves tingling. “We probably still agree on quite a bit.”
She shivered again as his fingertip traced the low neckline and the lace panel covering her breast. “Careful,” she murmured, voice low and husky.
His hand fell away. “Are you dating anyone?”
Was she dating anyone? What kind of question was that? Hadn’t he been listening to a single thing she’d said today? “I’m not dating.”
“Why not?”
Did he really mean to hurt her, or was he honestly so oblivious to the depth of her feelings? It took her a moment to manage a careless shrug. “I do get asked out.” Not that she ever said yes, but he didn’t have to know that. Since he clearly didn’t care.
“And do you go out?” he persisted.
“I haven’t been in the mood.” First there was the heartbreak, then the discovery of the pregnancy and then the miscarriage. Not exactly the right mind frame for meeting—or dating—new men.
“You’re too young not to go out, find real happiness.”
“Because with you it wasn’t real happiness?”
“I was never an option.”
She gritted her teeth, not understanding, not ever understanding why it was that he’d ruled himself out as a possibility, why he’d have her body but not her heart. “I hate it when you do that.”
“Do what?”
“Make decisions for me. Decide what it is I can or can’t have, what it is I need or don’t need.” The anger was building. Hot, terrible and fierce. “You might know what you need, Maximos, and you might know what you want. But you don’t know the first thing about me.” The emotion felt hot and strangled inside. “You never even tried.”
Silence stretched, a long uncomfortable silence that made the hair on her nape rise.
“And yet you let it continue for two years,” Maximos said finally, his voice a soft drawl.
She gritted her teeth, stifling the pain. “Stupid, isn’t it? If I were smart, I would have bailed early on.”
“If I were smart I would have moved on six months ago.”
Her heart did a painful lurch. “You haven’t moved on?”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a faint, mocking smile. “You’re surprisingly difficult to forget.”
“Maximos.” His name came out strangled, her voice strangled, everything inside her tightening up. What did he mean by that? And why had she ever loved him? Why him? There were so many men in the world, so many men who had been interested in her, fiercely devoted, but she’d never cared about any of them, never cared one way or the other until Maximos.
He now reached for her, his hand cupping the back of her head, his fingers curving, briefly tangling in her long hair before falling away. “So difficult, I find myself not wanting any other woman yet.”
“Yet?”
He ignored her comment. “And you should know that I never slept with any other woman while I was sleeping with you.”
Sleeping. Slept.
Her throat squeezed, constricting nearly as tight as her heart. It crossed her mind that she should stop talking now, that even though she had questions she probably wouldn’t want answers.
But she’d come too far. Waited too long. Common sense was a thing of the past. “So I was your only sexual partner?”
“Yes.”
“For the entire two years?”
She felt rather than saw him step closer, felt the sudden sizzle of energy, the electric sexual tension that always hummed between them. “Yes.”
Yes. Her heart did a double thump, hard, uneven, fast. Too fast. He was now standing too close. “And there’s been no one since?”
“Cass—”
“I have to know.”
“Why? What good will it do? If I had a one-night stand with some nameless woman, will it change anything between us?”
“Maybe. Possibly.” She gave him her most evil eye. “No.”
“So?”
“But did you?”
He made a hoarse sound, part exasperation, part amusement. “No.”
She breathed in, breathing in the achingly familiar scent of him, feeling his warmth, his sheer physical strength. Even without him touching her she could remember the caress of his hand, the heat of his palm, the way his fingers wrapped around hers.
With him she’d known a life no one else had ever shown her. Known emotion, passion, a scope of feeling that had been everything she’d ever wanted—and more and the desire returned full force.
Her belly clenched. Her legs felt odd, and she kept crossing her legs, holding the emptiness in, fighting the ache as if desire could be so easily answered.
She wanted him.
She
