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* * *

This time, there was no dazed shock at what they’d done.

This time, when Elvira finally opened her eyes, she took a deep breath and did what her body yearned for. She turned her cheek and kissed the temple of the face pressed into hers.

The fingers laced through hers squeezed.

She didn’t even remember when they’d reached for each other’s hands.

Their heads were on the pillow she’d shot.

“Once could be classed as an accident,” she whispered, breaking the silence. “But twice?”

And in such a short space of time?

Slowly, the man slumped on top of her came to life. The compression of his weight on her chest lifted, and he raised his head, his gaze seeking hers.

A swell of emotion filled her chest, and she unthinkingly splayed her fingers into his hair.

“No one has to know,” he said huskily.

“We’ll know.”

His features tightened. He gave a sharp nod but didn’t take the rest of his weight off her.

Swallowing, she tried to cut through the atmosphere that was as weighty as he was. “How am I ever going to kill you now?”

His answering smile was pained. “I’m sure you’ll do your best.”

Despite herself, despite everything, she laughed and knotted her fingers in his hair. It was silky to touch. “I don’t even know where my gun is. I don’t remember dropping it.”

“Mine was in my jeans. I think I heard it fall out, so it must be on the floor somewhere. Do you want to ninja yourself off the bed for it?”

She shook her head. “We made a deal. One bullet each… I assume you’ve got more somewhere?”

“You assume right, but I won’t put them in the barrel until the morning, and I won’t use any of them on you.”

“You can’t know that. Anything could happen. That’s the only certainty we have. In the heat of the moment…” Her voice trailed off as a host of possible scenarios flooded her mind. None of them had a happy ending.

She almost laughed again that she could even try to think that when the endgame came, there could be a happy ending for anyone.

He jerked a nod of agreement, and then he was rolling off her and slumping onto his back with a loud puff of air.

Slinging an arm above his head, he looked at the ceiling. “This is madness,” he said starkly before rubbing a hand over his face. “We’re mortal enemies. We hate each other. I kidnapped you, what, twelve, thirteen hours ago? So tell me how the hell we’re lying in bed after having sex for the second time?”

“You’re going to have to explain that one to me because I sure as hell don’t understand it either.” She didn’t know how she would ever understand it. Elvira had never been driven by her libido and sure as hell had never let it control her, and yet one touch from Mattia Esposito and she was lost. Sure, he was the sexiest man to walk the earth, but he was also the bastard who’d had her snatched off the streets, cuffed her to a chair and held her at gunpoint, and that was without winding further back at their tangled family history.

She couldn’t bear to imagine what her parents would think if they could see her now.

“I always thought of you as an emotionless Ice Man,” she added, her voice choking. “I was convinced you never had sex.”

“I don’t,” he admitted. “I hate it.”

“Really?” She rolled onto her side to face him. “Are you really saying you hated what we just did in a way that runs deeper than it being me you did it with?”

“No.” The strong plane of his throat extended as he drew in a long breath. “That’s what’s adding to this whole damned madness. I’ve always had to psych myself for sex, and now here you are, and I find you so damned beautiful and sexy... Fuck.”

He rubbed his face again and sat up, rubbing hard at his hair. When he looked down at her, there was bleakness in his stare. “I thought earlier that you looked like an avenging angel, and now I wonder if you really are one, because it feels like you’ve put me under some kind of damned spell. Is this all part of your revenge?”