naive once himself, he had no desire to rip away the veil of innocence from someone else. Yet here he was, poised to do just that. If he was being completely honest with himself, he’d ignored every neon warning sign that had been flashing at him tonight, every obvious example of the evidence of her innocence and inexperience. Her total naivety.
‘It matters,’ he gritted out and, though it felt like the worst form of torture, he started to withdraw from her welcoming, silken entrance.
‘No.’ Lina hooked her legs around his hips, pulling him back inside her. Her expression was fierce, her eyes bright with determination. ‘You can’t ruin me without fulfilling your side of the bargain.’
He let out a choked laugh, every muscle straining as they engaged in this absurd, exquisite push and pull. ‘My side of the bargain?’
‘You said you were going to make love to me, Rico,’ she stated fiercely. ‘So do it.’ And with that she wrapped her legs more tightly around his waist and pulled him deeper into her, wincing as she did so, but not hesitating for a second.
Rico muttered a curse as he sank deep inside her, his mind going hazy with the incredible feel of her body wrapped around his. His instinct was still to withdraw, to roll away from her and send her from the room. A virgin. A disaster.
Yet the tightly held shreds of his control were disintegrating under the welcoming heat of her body, and with a groan he surrendered to her, knowing she was the victor as their bodies began to move in that ancient, harmonious rhythm.
The least he could do for her was bring her back to that dazzling precipice, even as he climbed towards its heights. Rico watched in satisfaction as her face softened with pleasure, her eyes unfocused, pupils dilated, her breath coming out in a shuddery rush as her body convulsed around his. Then, and only then, did he find his own satisfaction, releasing himself inside her with a final groan of surrender.
For several moments afterwards his mind blurred and blanked as the last aftershocks of his climax pulsed through him. He rolled off her onto his back, one arm thrown over his eyes. Regret lanced him, a sword he threw himself on with bitterness—because he knew better. Of course he did.
He’d lost his self-control, he’d thrown it away with both hands, and for what? A single moment of pleasure? A damning need? He hated the thought. He didn’t need anyone. He wouldn’t let himself.
‘Why,’ he gritted out, his arm still over his eyes, ‘did you come up to my hotel suite if you are—were—a virgin?’
She shifted next to him, pulling a sheet across her body. ‘What does one thing have to do with the other?’
‘You knew what I intended. I made it very clear, for a reason.’
‘Yes.’ She sounded calm and a little resigned, but not particularly regretful. Rico removed his arm from his eyes and turned to stare at her. Her face was rosy and flushed, her lips swollen, her eyes bright. She looked... She almost looked happy. He didn’t understand it at all.
‘Did you intend for this to happen?’ he asked incredulously. ‘Was that why you were waiting outside the party? Were you waiting for me?’
‘Not for you in particular.’
His ego took a surprised bruising at that honest statement. ‘So any man would have done?’
She bit her lip, her gaze sliding away from his. ‘That sounds awful.’
‘But that’s what you’re saying?’ He felt outraged, even though he knew it was ridiculous. He’d had that very attitude countless times. He preferred that attitude...in himself. And one thing he was not was a hypocrite. Yet here he was, feeling offended by her honesty.
‘No, that’s not what I am saying.’ Lina’s eyes flashed and she scrambled up to a sitting position, her lush breasts on glorious display. She had the most amazing figure—curvy and womanly and round. Just looking at her made Rico ache all over again. Virgin or not, Lina still enflamed him.
She pulled the sheet up, wrapping it around herself as she glared at him, her chin tilted at a defiant angle. ‘What does it matter to you?’ she demanded. ‘According to those women back in the bathroom, you should be showing me the door right about now.’
‘Is that what you want?’ Rico hurled back at her. He didn’t even know why he was so angry, only that he was.
‘It’s what I expected. And wasn’t that what this was all about? You warned me, Rico, about how little I could expect from you. Now it seems I’m getting more than I bargained for.’ And she didn’t sound very happy about it.
Rico stared at her in fury, wondering why he didn’t just let her go. She was acting exactly the way he should want, but something compelled him to keep her here. He wanted answers. He also wanted her.
‘It’s different,’ he ground out. ‘Since you’re a virgin.’
Lina rolled her eyes. ‘That’s my business, not yours.’
‘You should have told me.’
‘Why?’
‘Because I never would have slept with you then!’
‘And that’s exactly why I didn’t tell you.’
She was impossible. Rico rolled up to a sitting position and yanked on his trousers. A sudden thought occurred to him, terrible and profound. ‘You said it was safe.’ From behind him Lina didn’t say a word and slowly Rico turned around. ‘I asked you if you were on birth control...’
Her eyes widened a fraction and she hitched the sheet higher. ‘That wasn’t actually what you asked.’
‘I asked if it was safe!’
‘Which could mean something completely different.’
Cold dread swirled in his stomach, along with an anger fiercer than he’d ever felt before. ‘Most women, when in the intimate situation we were in, would know precisely what that meant.’ He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. ‘Are you saying you’re not on birth control?’ Why would she be, if she was a virgin? Unless she’d taken it with the express purpose of losing her virginity tonight. The thought seemed so bizarre he didn’t know what to do with it. ‘Tell me you’re on birth control.’
Lina shrugged, her ink-dark hair sliding about her shoulders. ‘Fine. I’m on birth control.’
‘You’re lying.’
‘You asked me to tell you—’
Rico swore loudly and viciously. ‘I didn’t mean for you to lie.’ He raked a hand through his hair, his fingers pulling on the short strands, frustration now matching his fury and confusion. ‘Lina, I don’t understand you.’
‘You don’t need to.’
He knew she was right, and that infuriated him all the more. He should just send her away. By this point in an evening, usually he would already be in the shower, expecting his bed partner, whoever she was, to be finding her own way out. What was so different now?
‘If you’re not on birth control, you could be pregnant.’ Lina lifted her chin another notch and said nothing. ‘Damn it, Lina, that’s a rather major issue, don’t you think?’
A muscle flinched in her cheek. ‘It’s not your concern.’
‘It is very much my concern,’ Rico returned in a low, dangerous voice, certainty thrumming inside him. He would never abandon his own child, as he had once been abandoned. He would die first. ‘If you are pregnant with my child, it is my paramount concern.’
Her face paled and she blinked slowly, seeming to absorb that statement. Rico shook his head, impatient as well as furious. ‘Did it not even occur to you that you could become pregnant?’
‘Not exactly.’ She bit her lip. ‘I wasn’t thinking about