“Give yourself to me,” he whispered, his voice an intimate caress, sliding over her skin like the touch of fingers.

His mouth was so close. She could feel every breath he took.

“Trust me with your life, Francesca, and I swear you’ll never have to worry about another thing. I can keep you safe. I will make you happy.”

He was the devil tempting her. So gorgeous. An incredible man. She knew he paid attention to details, the smallest ones. It would be a trait in him she would both love and hate. He would always make her feel important, maybe the most important thing in his world, but he would also try to control every aspect of her life. Not, she knew, because he wanted to dictate to her, but because his need to keep her safe would make him crazy about her security.

“Say yes, Francesca. I didn’t think it was possible to feel anything real for a woman. I just couldn’t. I tried, but nothing was there. I knew I was capable of loving because I love my sister and brothers fiercely. With everything in me. But what a man feels for a woman, the woman, eluded me until you. Until I saw you.”

He melted her resolve with every word he said. There was no shoring up her defenses, no getting away from the raw honesty in his voice.

“I know you don’t believe in love at first sight because I always thought it was impossible. I tried to tell myself it wasn’t real—it was just chemistry between us. And that chemistry is so explosive I knew I had a chance of being right, but then I watched you. I listened to you. I saw the way you were with others and I felt everything a man is supposed to feel for a woman and more. When I love, Francesca, it’s with everything in me. I’m loyal and I’m a fighter, which means I’ll fight with my last breath to make certain my woman is happy. I expect those in my life to be the same way.”

Her hands, of their own accord, crept around his neck, fingers lacing. The heat of his skin was scorching, but that only added to the fire permanently burning deep inside her for him.

“I didn’t care about any other woman, Francesca. Not a single one of them. I used them. They used me. I have a strong sex drive. I’m always hard. Always. I need a woman to give me relief, but I never wanted one for my own. Women were a tool, a body to bury myself in, nothing more. I didn’t know how to have them mean more because I just couldn’t feel anything at all for them, no matter how much I wanted to or tried. I know that makes me sound like a fucking bastard, but it’s the truth and that’s what I have to give you—the truth.”

She felt perverse enough to love what he was saying to her, to love that those women sending him pictures didn’t mean anything at all.

“I fucked a lot of women, Francesca.”

She winced. She knew he had. She’d seen the evidence in the tabloids. Most of the articles weren’t true, but the pictures didn’t lie.

His arms tightened around her. “I can’t lie about that. I can’t take that back. I know what you see and read; the things these women might say to you will hurt and I hate that. I hate that I’m the cause of that. That what I did so carelessly in the past might be upsetting to you. I can only promise you the future.”

“This is going so fast, Stefano.”

His fingers massaged the nape of her neck. “For you, bambina, but not for me. Time seems to have slowed down until I want to curse with frustration. My grandfather was in love with my grandmother. They were inseparable. They detested being apart. I’ve seen real love. I’ve felt it when I was with them. They died three hours apart. My grandmother first and then my grandfather followed. Love exists, and that’s what I’m offering you.”

His mouth found hers again and she was instantly lost in him. So much heat. So much pleasure lashing through her, little strikes, like lightning flashing through her entire body. This time when he lifted his head, his teeth found her bottom lip, sinking in, tugging, driving her wild.

She heard herself cry out, almost a sob of pure hunger.

“Give yourself to me, Francesca.” Pure command. Nothing less than a demand, and that told her something.

He was the devil, but she didn’t care. On some level she even knew he was using her own body against her, pitting her innocence against his experience, but she didn’t care about that, either. She wanted to leap into the fire with both feet, arms wide, eyes open. She knew his world might be something she would have a difficult time accepting, but he was worth it.

“Yes.” It came out a soft whisper. Almost nonexistent. A strangled resolve. Maybe it was her mind’s way of trying to save her. Self-preservation trying to stop her crazy jump off the cliff.