Page 10 (1/2)

She bit her lip, wanting so o after him

But so stopped her, and it wasn’t pride or even shyness It was so that told Lane the next stephad to come from him

So please take that next step, she whispered in her heart

Please

AND SO THEIR CAT-AND-aaze even though she would not stop staring at him But every damn day, there would be that one instance he wouldn’t be able to help it

He’d look at her, and always she would already be looking at hily parted in invitation

Steal my first kiss, those rosebud lips seemed to tempt and taunt him at the same time

And it would be her first kiss, he thought grih she and that boy fro out, he was experienced enough to recognize the signs, had seen innocence defiled too many times to count

She had never been kissed, and certainly her body had never known a man’s touch

But the fact remained

She belonged to someone else

That first day they had met, he had practically tripped on his own feet in his haste to get back to her But from across the street, he had seen her with the boy, and they had their heads together, talking with a kind of intimacy that only people ere exceptionally close could do

And when he had spoken to the boy, saw the love in the younger elo’s worst fears had been confirmed Even now, the taste of bitter defeat still hadn’t left hisabout it made him murderous

She was everything he didn’t want in his life, daht savagely He knew all this, daame?

All it would take was a single ined hile moment for her to knohat he already knew

That he orth no one’s love

THE CAT-AND-MOUSE GAME could have gone on endlessly

But there was no way to know

The rules, and the very gaed the day he saw her kiss the convenience store boy

Even though he had always been known to be courteous and cool-headed, the truth was that Angelo was as proud and possessive as any other hot-blooded Italian

Her standing so close to anotherin another man’s company when that sound should only have been for his ears—-

All of those he could commit murder for