Margaret Mayo - His Virgin Bride - The Fiorenza Forced Marriage / Bought - For His Convenience or Pleasure? / A Night With Consequences

‘I’m glad it was you, Rafaele…’ she told him in a whisper-soft voice.

His hand dropped away from her face. ‘Why?’

She drew in a little hitching breath. ‘Because you made me feel things I have never felt before.’

Pain flickered briefly in his eyes. ‘Do not make this any harder than it already is for me, Emma,’ he said. ‘You are young and far too inexperienced for someone like me.’

‘Why do you say that?’ she asked.

‘I say it because it is true,’ he said. ‘This attraction I feel for you will burn itself out in no time at all. It always has with everyone else I have been involved with. It is the thrill of the chase. It is a primal urge that all men feel, some more than others.’

‘If I wasn’t so inexperienced would you be pushing me away right now?’ she asked.

‘If I thought you were developing feelings for me, then, yes, I would push you away, for your own good.’

Emma felt another piece of her heart crack. ‘Isn’t it up to me to decide what is good or not good for me?’ she asked.

His dark eyes flashed at her angrily. ‘Stop this, Emma. Stop it right now. It is not going to go any further than this. It should not have gone this far, damn it to hell.’

Tears began to course down her face and she scrubbed at them with a jerky movement of her hand. ‘Do you hate me so much?’ she asked.

He swore under his breath and reached for her, pulling her into his chest, bringing his chin down to rest on the top of her head. ‘No, no, no, mio piccolo ,’ he said huskily. ‘Maybe before…but not now…not now…’

Emma nestled closer, her cheek pressed against the deep thudding of his heart. ‘Then…then can we be friends?’

His hand continued stroking the back of her head as if he wasn’t quite ready to release her. But after a moment or two he eased her away from his chest to look down at her uptilted face. ‘You are a sweet person, Emma,’ he said. ‘Anyone would be proud to have a friend as caring and giving as you.’

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