“Don’t. Not yet. You have to understand. Never in my life have I had someone who was mine. Who looked at me the way you do, as if I was worth something. Me. The man. Not a Lospostos who might do something for them. Not a man to be seen in public with. You see me. I see it in your eyes, Siena. I’ve always seen it. A leopard doesn’t tolerate a female—the wrong female—for very long. I needed sex. I walked around as hard as a fucking rock and I needed a body to get rid of that ache, but I never felt a fucking thing other than relief. Not until you. Not until I saw you sitting across a table from me with your beautiful eyes, so green a man could get lost forever there. That hair, wild, baby. So wild I knew the wild was in you. That the moment I touched you, you would go up in flames and take me with you.”

His arm locked around her lower hips, pulling her body into his until it felt as if he were imprinted on her skin, in her bones.

“Suddenly sex wasn’t just sex. Suddenly it mattered who was with me. It’s always been you, Siena. You’re the one who got to me. Got inside me. You’re in so deep, and I know that sounds crazy because you’ve only been with me a couple of weeks, but really, it’s been years. As sick as that is, it’s been years.”

“That doesn’t sound sick to me, Elijah,” she protested. She had to give him the truth. “For me, it’s always been you. Ever since I sat across from you at that table, I never looked at another man.”

“I know that, baby. I know you gave me that. You gave me your body, something no one else had. Mine. For me. A gift beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Do you think I want to risk losing that?”

Siena pressed her uninjured cheek tight against his chest. She couldn’t help but hear the raw honesty in his voice. He didn’t attempt to hide it from her. He hadn’t hidden his temper, and he also didn’t hide how much he wanted her.

“Elijah, fix me my grilled cheese and start with my grandfather. You know if he’s some kind of crime lord and I’m inheriting his businesses, I’ll need to know what I’m in for. Those businesses are what Paolo is after.”

“He’s after all of it. You included. A leopard doesn’t go that crazy unless he thinks someone is fucking with what’s his.”

“You have to stop dropping f-bombs before the baby’s here, honey.” She tipped her head back, and this time he let her. “I’m not Paolo’s. I never was.”