She shook her head but no sound came out. He took a step closer to her again, bringing his face next to her ear, causing her body to tremble in response. “What do you want?” he whispered. Again, her head began to shake but she froze when she felt his tongue on her neck.

“I’m not usually like this. I want you to know that.”

“I do.” He continued to kiss and lick her neck making her legs weaken with every stroke of his tongue.

“I don’t condone cheating. That’s not the type of person I am.”

He stopped his kissing and pulled back to look at her. “Yet, here you are with me. Why is that?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

“Would you feel better if we stopped?”

“No!” She felt her face heat with her abrupt answer.

Staring at her very seriously and thankfully not smirking at her rejecting the idea of them stopping so vehemently, his eyes came down to her lips. “Why’d you bring me here? Tell me what you want, Bianca.”

With her body still trembling, she shook her head, for once her mouth holding hostage the words that she really wanted to say for fear he’d think her absurd. “I don’t know,” she whispered, staring now at his lips. “I don’t know anymore. I don’t understand what I’m feeling—or know what I want.”

“I know what I want.” He leaned in whispering the words against her neck making the trembling more pronounced. And she felt him chuckle. “Is that your body telling what you want?”

She tried pushing him away, suddenly feeling angry—or hurt. It made no sense, she did want him—this. And doing what he was suggesting was probably the most she could ever expect from him but she didn’t like that he was okay with just that. “No, Gio. That’s not why I brought you here.”

He pulled away to look at her and damn it if she wasn’t caught in those eyes of his in an instant. “I know that, sweetheart.” He hugged her hard. “But Jesus. What I want… I could only dream of…”

He didn’t finish his sentence burying his face into her neck, then lifted his head and took her mouth in his again kissing her so hard it was alarming but at the same time so thrilling she moaned. He bit her lip the arousal she felt by the slight pain was surprising, leaving her to only imagine would he could only dream of—what other parts of her body he wanted to bite. Then like they usually did in reaction to him the words now flew out. “I’ve been dreaming of you.” His head lifted immediately—his near frantic eyes eagerly searching hers for more and suddenly for the first time in all the times she’d spoken so freely with him, Bianca was speechless.

CHAPTER 16

Gio waited but Bianca said nothing more. She just stared at him in that same way she’d been doing since they left the cabin that morning. Those eyes owned him now—completely. It was almost painful to look into them now and know she belonged to someone else. That she was his for just a few stolen moments and tomorrow she’d be back in Felix’s arms… his bed.

He hugged her, squeezing his eyes shut, not wanting to be looking into those eyes when he asked her, “What’ve you been dreaming, Bianca?”

Did he really want to know? He realized only moments ago when he found himself getting carried away that as much as he wanted to take her and do all the things he’d been fantasizing about on a daily basis now he couldn’t—shouldn’t. Not just because she was Felix’s girl but because what was happening was exactly what he’d been afraid of.

Kissing her today had been a leap of faith. One he’d hoped would get her out of his system. Instead, it’d backfired on him. His need for her now had magnified in a way he hadn’t expected. Making love to her would only make that a million times worse. If she told him now that that’s what she wanted he couldn’t even begin to imagine rejecting the idea—but he had to.

“Bad things,” she finally whispered. “This isn’t like me. I swear to you. That’s why it’s so hard for me to understand why this is happening.”

Earlier he would’ve looked at her. Watched her as she gave him any further details of her dreams but now he couldn’t. It was hard enough just listen to her.

“What kind of bad things?” He gulped, now afraid of what her answer might be.

“The kind of bad things that have me waking up with my heart pounding and breathless but very content.”

Gio froze and he could feel Bianca do the same. One thing he loved about her so much was how easily she put things out there. Only now he was wishing she’d have been just a tiny bit vaguer. He was having visions of the kinds of things he could do to her to leave her heart pounding and breathless. Although today he’d had a heavy dose of her breathlessness and felt her heart pound straight into his several times like now.

She still didn’t move but she began to speak again. “In my dreams—”

“Don’t.” He had to stop her before she went on. “I don’t think I can take it.” He backed up taking in the delicate features of her sweet face—he was in love with every one of them now. He forced a smile. It took everything in him to let it go—not stay there and listen to her tell him what he’d done to her in her dreams. “Let’s go check out that meadow.” He pulled out her scarf from where it was half pushed into his jacket pocket and placed it gently around her neck, then kissed her one last time before taking her hand and walking her out of the cave.