Taught by the Tycoon (20 page)
Read Taught by the Tycoon Online
Authors: Shelli Stevens
His arms tightened around her. His voice was hoarse. “I’m afraid I’m a bit of a cliché. Because after that, I couldn’t wholly trust women. Not even my mother.”
“You had every right not to trust her after that.”
It all made sense now. The tension between him and his mother. The halted politeness with Maria. And to think Christina still sought to reconcile Maria and Damiano. After all that.
Insanity.
“I’m so sorry.”
“I thought I loved her,” he murmured against her hair. “I was so distraught, in so much damn pain, that I shut down. I dropped out of University. I slummed around Europe. Honestly, I can’t even remember much about those two years.”
The two years he’d dropped off the radar, it made sense now.
“And when I realized I could’ve gotten you pregnant, and that you were late with your cycle, I went a little crazy.” He pulled away, his desperate gaze searching hers. “I couldn’t at the moment see that you and Maria are completely different women. That you would never do something like that.”
“Never,” she agreed fervently.
“
Merda
. I’m just so sorry. I was a bully and a complete jerk, and I hope you can forgive me. You don’t have to marry me. You don’t even have to move in with me.”
“Stop.” She leaned forward and placed her lips against his. “I want to move in. I want to marry you.”
Uncertainty flashed in his eyes. “
Sí
? Are you sure?”
“I’ve never been more sure.” She kissed him again, before lifting her head and rambling, “And I do want babies, Damiano. But in a few years, when we’ve planned and prepared for them.”
“Agreed.”
She rubbed her fingers over the stubble on his cheek. “But I’ll love our children no matter how they were created. Whether you forgot to wear a condom, or whether we stuck pillows under my bottom after lovemaking because I was hard to knock up.”
His arms tightened around her and he laughed. “Either way, I’m going to enjoy trying.”
He took her mouth again, tasting her and exploring her with an urgency that made it seem like they’d been apart for years instead of days. When he lifted his head, she was trembling. Every nerve in her body awake to him and the love she felt.
“One favor I’m going to ask of you though,
Dolcezza
.”
“Name it.”
“Quit your job with Lionelli.”
“I never took it. I was just shadowing Kimmy to see if I wanted to take a position there.” She gave him a pointed look. “I want to keep my job as your P.A. Married or not.”
“I would be senseless to argue with you. These past few days I was a complete mess without you keeping me in line. The temp they brought in was about as useful as a poodle.”
The image reminded her of Samuele Lionelli and his comment about Lexi.
“He wasn’t at all interested in me anymore. Lionelli. I swear it,” she wanted to reassure him. “He was just helping me fall apart in my own space, with peace, and stay on my feet in the mean time.”
He grimaced. “I both want to punch him, and shake his hand for the fact.”
“He seems like a nice guy. I was just never the right girl for him.”
“But you,
Dolcezza
, are perfect for me.” He swept her into his arms and carried her to the desk. “How about we work on that not getting you pregnant bit?”
She widened her eyes with faux astonishment. “On your desk? So scandalous, Mr. Mantovani.”
He set her on the polished wood surface and reached for the buttons on her blouse. “Get used to it, future Mrs. Mantovani.”
A shiver of pleasure raced through her. “I really do love the sound of that.”
“Me too.” He kissed the skin he’d bared and cupped her breast. “I also love the sound you make when I’m giving you pleasure.”
Which was fortunate, because for the next half hour, those were about the only sounds that left her lips.
~ The End ~
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Shelli is a New York Times Bestselling Author who read her first romance novel when she snatched it off her mother’s bookshelf at the age of eleven. One taste and she was forever hooked. It wasn’t until many years later that she decided to pursue writing stories of her own. By then she acknowledged the voices in her head didn’t make her crazy, they made her a writer.
Shelli currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with her daughter where she writes various genres of romance. She’s a compulsive volunteer, and has been known to spontaneously burst into song.
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