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Thein the air around them but she would rather face the attraction between them than pretend it wasn’t always there

Slowly, he unwound his fingers around her hair Disappointment and fury wreathed his features until inch by inch, he pushed theed without touching each other, Clio? If you’re weak enough to call the thing off because you can’t—”

“I don’t think it’s weak to acknowledge a weakness” She held his gaze steadily “To pretend in front of the world and even our friends, it’s one thing But I don’t want anything else to muddy our relationship”

“It worked perfectly for us this tiain, sì”

Rubbing a hand over her tummy, Clio nodded jerkily

When he ain, it was iht it But now that she had tasted the heat of his kiss, saw hiue with Rocco, she kneas only a hardened facade

Stefan still felt as passionately as he had done a decade ago Only now, all that firestorm of emotion and passion was buried under a coldly ruthless will

And it twisted her gut that that well of passion, all that love he had to give, would never see the light of day again

His ready acceptance suddenly threw her even though it hat she wanted What she needed

“Anything else, Clio?”

“I won’t be ain, Stefan Not even in a pretend relationship”

“I do not understand”

Heat crept up her neck and she pointed to the tablet, ies of him with other women accompanied with captions like predatory playboy in capital letters

Stefan changed girlfriends like she did her clothes And their kiss, it had made her feel more alive than she had in years

Two different facts and both she needed to accept without giving it ht

“You are never without a woman”

Soaze “You still have me lost, bella Say it in words I can understand, Clio You forget that English is not e”

She was not a prude But thinking of Stefan and sex in the sah her belly that she didn’t even begin to kno to handle