LITMIR.BIZ

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said I got where I am by reading people perfectly. I read you better than I’ve ever read anyone. So you either don’t know how rare you are or are too modest or too held back by other’s opinions. I’m the one to free you from all that, the one to give you everything you need to fulfill your potential. You are exactly what I need. On all fronts.”

      She stared into his eyes, head spinning. He had no reason to sweet-talk her. She’d already promised him the night. And as many nights as he’d want her. He meant all that.

      A smile broke his intensity. “But as I’ll take it slow in courting you in pleasure, I will do the same as I court you in business.”

      “Don’t. Please, Rafael...”

      He shuddered against her, his fingers digging into her buttocks, grinding her into his hardness. “Yes, say my name. Say it, minha beleza.”

      “Rafael.” That came out a long moan of protest. “Please...stop talking about business in any form. I want to keep things purely like this—between us, man to woman. This is all that matters to me.”

      He eased his hold on her, rose on his elbow, brooding down at her. Then he exhaled. “As you wish. For now.”

      Then in one impossible move, he was on his feet with her swept up in his powerful embrace. She wrapped her arms around his neck, not to secure herself or to help him, but because she loved it.

      He smiled down at her. “You must be starving. Let’s dine while we wait the ball out, and then...”

      She jackknifed, making him spill her to her feet.

      “I have to get back to the ball!”

      He detained her as she whirled away. “You certainly do not. You didn’t want to be there in the first place.”

      As her gaze darted around, searching for her purse, his words sank in. “How do you know I didn’t want to come?”

      His smile was all knowing, as she was really beginning to think he was. “I told you I can read you.”

      Something hot and sweet expanded inside her. He did interpret her so accurately it was scary. Wonderfully so.

      She caressed his hard cheek and he caught her hand, buried his lips in her palm. “I’ll never stop being thankful that I dragged myself here. But I do have to go find my...boss. He must think I’ve driven off a cliff by now.”

      After a moment’s contemplation, he let go of her hand and walked away. He located the purse that had fallen from her what felt like days ago by the door.

      He brought it back to her. “Call your boss. Give him some excuse for not attending the ball.”

      Ellie blinked up at him. “Now that you mention calling, I can’t imagine how he hasn’t called me a million times.” She pounced on her purse...and groaned when she didn’t find her phone. “I must have left my phone in the car, or even back in the apartment. I was half-asleep at the time. Oh, God, he must be going out of his mind thinking something happened to me.”

      Rafael frowned, but silently bent to reach for his jacket. Producing his phone, he handed it to her.

      She shook her head. “I’d have to explain why I’m calling from someone else’s phone, whose it is—and I assume you don’t want me to tell him it’s yours?”

      “I don’t mind.”

      She rolled her eyes. “I do. You have no idea the interrogation your name would instigate. And I don’t want to invent a story. I’ll just go reassure him in person.”

      She turned away and he buttoned up his shirt, tucked it in, shrugged on his jacket and fell in step with her, taking her around the waist. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

      She kissed his chest. “I’ll only be ten minutes.”

      “Not one minute. Not without me.”

      She leaned her head against his shoulder, loving his unyielding...everything. There was no point in arguing. This man got what he wanted. Period. And she was what he wanted now. Who was she to stand in the way of his desires?

      Sighing her pleasure, she still had to point out the obvious. “Though I never found photos of you, I can’t say I looked very hard. What if someone out there did and recognizes you? Your plan to keep stirring the marketing scene into butter with your elusiveness will come to an abrupt end.”

      “I’ll be worth not letting you out of my sight.”

      Delight heightening, she teased, “But if people recognize you, you’ll be swamped. This might postpone our...plans.”

      “If I suspect it will, I’ll go on a rampage and chase everybody out.” He pressed an openmouthed kiss on her lips. “Now quit stalling.”

      Laughing, tucked into his side, she walked out of the study where her life had changed forever, feeling she was stepping out into a new universe filled with endless possibility. A universe with him at its center.

      For however long she had with him.

      * * *

      Walking back to the ballroom with Eliana, Rafael realized how far away his study was. When he’d been carrying her there, it had only felt ten paces away.

      “This place is amazing.”

      He looked down at the magnificent human flower nestled into his side. He felt as if her flesh was an extension of his, her smile and voice and eyes the fuel of his heartbeats. The past hours had been the most incredible, ecstatic stretch of life he’d ever had.

      She was looking around as she strode by his side, as if it was the first time she’d seen the place. It was. She’d had eyes only for him on her first passage through it.

      He nuzzled her cheek, truly unable to stop touching her. “It was a mansion that was converted into a boutique hotel. I was driving down the coast when I saw it and decided to spend the night. The next day, I bought it. I refurbished it but preserved most of what I liked about it in the first place.”

      Her eyes poured that all-out appreciation over him, not attempting to temper it or to hide how much she loved being with him. “It must have tremendous tourist appeal, especially in its current lavish condition.”

      “I didn’t buy it for commercial purposes.”

      Her eyes widened. “You plan to live here?”

      In the space of a heartbeat, he saw a whole lifetime in which he did—with her. But something stopped him from sharing the vision when so far he’d been telling her everything as it occurred to him. Probably out of fear he’d alarm her, as he had when he’d made those business offers. It had been only then that she’d resisted him. He wouldn’t risk another premature move.

      “I haven’t thought about it.” He’d only had revenge on his mind since he’d come to Brazil. Until he’d seen her. Now anything but her felt inconsequential. “I always acquire whatever my gut tells me to, then decide what to do with my acquisitions later. This place presented the best setting for this ball. But though I’m used to living in spacious, isolated places, this mansion might be too much for only me.”

      “You have no one to share the place with...?” She stopped, mortification suddenly flooding her gaze, stiffening her body. “It didn’t even occur to me to ask if you have a—a family.”

      Thanks to Ferreira, he no longer did.

      But that wasn’t the family she was asking about. She was belatedly horrified at almost sleeping with a man who might turn out to be married.

      Before entering the ballroom, he took her by the shoulders. “Do I transmit sleazy cheater vibes to you?”

      That delightful flush flamed across her cheekbones as her eyes escaped his rebuking ones. “You know what vibes you transmit to me. The kind that short-circuit my mind.”

      He

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