Chapter 36 #3
“And now I’m grateful for all of it.” His eyes grew more mysterious. “I’ve never met anyone like you. You, Catalina Veléz, intrigue me in ways no one else ever has.”
“I can’t believe you were going to use me to get to that idiot,” I laughed. “I should’ve known there was a reason you wouldn’t leave me alone.”
“As I said, that was all nonsense,” he took another sip. “But nonsense I’m thankful for, because somehow it led to this night we’re sharing.”
I had no words.
Titus suddenly rose and extended his hand. “A dance before dinner, preciosa?”
I gave in to the moment. “That sounds lovely.”
It honestly didn’t get more romantic than this.
The cello drifted through the night air as the yacht rocked gently beneath us. Titus’s hand rested against the small of my back, warm and firm through the silk of my dress as he guided me slowly across the deck, bathed in the glow of recessed lighting.
The cellist behind us began another song, the rich strings deepening into something achingly beautiful as Titus’s gaze lifted to mine. He took me into his arms and began to lead me in a slow dance.
“What is this song?” I asked softly.
Then his hand tightened slightly against my waist. “Bésame Mucho.”
The way he spoke Spanish was like wrapping velvet around the words. Heat crept slowly up my neck.
I smiled faintly. “And here I thought you were trying to behave tonight.”
“The words make me think of you… Kiss me a lot,” he said softly. “As if tonight were the last time.”
My breath caught. I suddenly understood why this man was so lethal to women. Not because of his wealth or because he looked like a dream wrapped in a tailored suit.
It was this. The intensity and the way every word from Titus felt as if it had already lived inside him before he spoke it.
The way he looked at me now made my heart wrench, as if he were trying not to cross a line he’d already crossed in his head a hundred times.
The yacht shifted gently beneath us as his hand slid farther up my back.
My heartbeat turned uneven.
“Titus…” I breathed out.
His jaw flexed at the sound of his name on my lips.
He was holding himself back.
The cello swelled around us as the ocean breeze lifted strands of my hair across my face. Titus reached up slowly, carefully, brushing them back behind my ear with the backs of his fingers.
The touch felt unbearably intimate. I studied his perfect face and watched his eyes drop to my mouth, then lift back to mine. I could tell he was giving me time to stop this if I wanted to.
But hell, I couldn’t even breathe anymore.
I couldn’t seem to think past the way his hand felt against my waist or the way his body towered over mine, as if every ounce of control holding him together were one breath away from snapping.
“You keep looking at me like that,” I whispered shakily.
A faint smile touched his mouth. “Like what?”
“Like you’re trying very hard not to do something.”
His expression darkened instantly. The music carried through the harbor behind us as Titus stepped closer, slowly enough that I could’ve stepped away if I wanted.
I didn’t.
“You should stop looking at me like that, too, carino.”
Carino… sweetheart. The word should’ve felt harmless, yet the way he said it made heat pulse through every inch of me.
His fingers flexed against my waist before he gently rested his forehead against mine, and the simple touch stole the air from my lungs completely.
“Titus…” I breathed again, barely audible now.
That’s when his restraint snapped. His hand slid into my hair, firm yet gentle, and then his mouth was finally on mine.
He kissed me like a man who had imagined this for far too long. Slow at first, then deeper, as if he were satisfying a hunger that consumed him.
His mouth moved against mine with devastating control, while my fingers curled instinctively into the front of his jacket.
A sound escaped me before I could stop it, and his entire body reacted.
The low groan that escaped his chest nearly destroyed me. His hand at my waist pulled me fully against him, the hard lines of his body surrounding mine as the kiss deepened, its terrifying restraint unraveling beneath it.
It was as if he were trying to stay gentle, trying not to scare me with the intensity of what he felt.
But I could feel it anyway, in the slight tremble of his hand in my hair. In the way he kissed me like he was starving. In the way he exhaled against my mouth, as if finally touching me hurt him.
Everything in the world disappeared except Titus in that moment. The world disappeared. The only thing I knew was that this impossibly powerful man was holding me like I was something precious enough to ruin him.
And when he finally pulled back, his forehead rested against mine again, his breathing uneven now… while I refrained from panting.
His thumb brushed softly across my cheek as his eyes searched my face with something so raw that it made my chest ache.
“Dios mío, Catalina,” he whispered roughly.
God help me, too.
Judging by how my whole body still trembled from that single kiss, I knew I was already beyond help.