LITMIR.BIZ

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and argue with Rocco, she knew it was only a hardened facade.

      Stefan still felt as passionately as he had done a decade ago. Only now, all that firestorm of emotion and passion was buried under a coldly ruthless will.

      And it twisted her gut that that well of passion, all that love he had to give, would never see the light of day again.

      His ready acceptance suddenly threw her even though it was what she wanted. What she needed.

      “Anything else, Clio?”

      “I won’t be made a fool of again, Stefan. Not even in a pretend relationship.”

      “I do not understand.”

      Heat crept up her neck and she pointed to the tablet, images of him with other women accompanied with captions like predatory playboy in capital letters.

      Stefan changed girlfriends like she did her clothes. And their kiss, it had made her feel more alive than she had in years.

      Two different facts and both she needed to accept without giving it more weight.

      “You are never without a woman.”

      Something devilish gleamed in his gaze. “You still have me lost, bella. Say it in words I can understand, Clio. You forget that English is not my language.”

      She was not a prude. But thinking of Stefan and sex in the same sentence sent a burst of heat through her belly that she didn’t even begin to know how to handle.

      He knew how uncomfortable she was talking about this and yet he was goading her.

      “What are you going to do for sex, Bianco?” she said, gritting her jaw, daring him to laugh at her now.

      He did it anyway, but it was an indulgent smile that cut grooves through his cheeks. Her fingers itched to trace them, to feel the stubble on his cheek.

      “Was that so hard?”

      “No.” She returned his smile, feeling as if they were on equal footing again. “You haven’t answered me, though.”

      “I will not take up a woman on the side while all this is going on, sì? You have my word, bella. And I’m sure a few months of deprivation won’t kill me. If I do get desperate, I have two very capable hands,” he said, holding them up, his expression deadpan.

      Blushing at how quickly her mind supplied an image of him, naked, Clio threw her purse at him. “Too much information, Bianco.”

      He waggled his brows at her and, shaking her head at that lewd expression, she laughed.

      “You have such a beautiful laugh, Clio. You should do it more.”

      Struck speechless by his abrupt observation, Clio nodded.

      “We’ll be landing in an hour,” he said, tilting his head toward the New York skyline emerging through the clouds and visible through the windows. “Have you started looking at Jackson’s documents? Do you require help?”

      “No, I can do it myself,” Clio replied, just hearing Jackson’s name making her feel dirty from the inside. “I have downloaded and printed every document pertaining to his finances and his hedge fund company. There isn’t a single number or transaction that I don’t have a hard copy of. But I haven’t seen anything yet, Stefan. Are you sure—”

      “He’s dirty? Yes. I’ll bet my entire fortune on that.”

      Leaning back against the seat, he propped one ankle over the other knee. Clasped his hands behind his head, causing his white dress shirt to stretch tight against that wide chest. “Keep looking, bella.”

      “It’s fascinating. For example, did you know that when—”

      “So you still have a thing for numbers,” he drawled softly.

      “And you’re still the only man in the world that can make that sound dirty.”

      “Now that you have me locked in with no relief in sight, I have to find my pleasure where I can,” he said with a twinkle in his eye.

      Clio looked away from him, feeling the heat of his gaze like a caress, praying that she didn’t fall apart before she had a chance to be whole again.

      Because this time there would not even be pieces of her heart and self-respect left.

      Leaning forward, he tugged her left hand into his. She barely managed a gasp as the diamond ring slid in smooth and cold against her skin.

      Her heart slammed against her rib cage. Instant refusal rose to her lips. But she held it off as she caught Stefan’s expression.

      Distaste, and something else, something she didn’t even want to know, glimmered in his eyes.

      Was he remembering Serena just as she was thinking of Jackson?

      That day in the flat, she had removed the heavy, over-the-top diamond that Jackson had bought for her. Had finally felt free after so long.

      Eyeing the ring, she willed herself to calm down. This was only a pretense, something she was walking into with her head screwed on right.

      At least it was something that was close to her own taste—the most beautifully cut diamond, in a princess setting.

      Her gaze flew to Stefan, who watched her with an intensity that arrested her thought process.

      “Stefan, thank you...for everything. I—”

      “Not required, bella. Do not, even for a moment, believe I’m doing you a favor or that there’s anything personal to all this. You have your side of the bargain and I have mine to keep up.”

      While she grappled with his ruthless warning, he leaned forward and unbuckled her belt. “We will see Jackson tonight at a party, Clio. I made sure he can’t get to you before the evening. But obviously he will be foaming at the mouth to see you and to challenge me. He will make a scene, bella, and if I’m right about Jackson, it’s going to get dirty.

      “Do you have what it takes to face him, Clio?”

      “And if I don’t want to?”

      “Then I will drag you with me anyway. Jackson needs to be stopped and I won’t get an opportunity like this again.”

      The utter ruthlessness with which he said it stunned Clio. Every time she thought she knew him, he surprised her again. Once again, she wondered why Stefan despised Jackson so much.

      But with a self-preservation instinct she should have had long before this, she didn’t prod him. For some reason, understanding what drove Stefan was a territory she didn’t want to go into. So she reassured him of her own intentions. “I’ll never want him back in my life, Stefan. This week has helped me see more than just Jackson’s betrayal.

      “I’ll need you to stand by me tonight, but yes, I’m ready to take Jackson on.”

      For once, there were no doubts in his gaze as it swept over her face searchingly. And Clio measured her progress in that green gaze, felt a small flicker of hope for herself.

      “You have me, bella. For as long as you want.”

      The moment Stefan helped her out of the limo onto the private estate in the Hamptons where the night’s party was, Clio heard the exponential rise in the intensity of the charged atmosphere.

      Flashes of cameras and microphones were thrust in their faces from behind ropes. Their names seemed like a chant on a hundred lips.

      Jackson had always been a media favorite, too.

      Handsome, hardworking, successful—the perfect poster boy for America’s success stories. Or at least that was the image he had liked to project.

      But the crowd that the security team was trying to corral tonight was like nothing Jackson had ever warranted.

      Clutching

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