The Unwanted Conti Bride (The Legendary Conti Brothers) Read Free Page B

a gift like this one.
    Just months ago Sophia had chosen Leandro over him to marry.
    To see the one woman he had given up years ago—granted, after thoroughly breaking her heart—as his brother’s wife every day would have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. In other words, destination Hell on a direct flight.
    He would have had to let the engagement go forward. The wedding itself, probably not.
    He’d have seduced her, for sure. He’d have had to do it before the wedding, he remembered telling himself in a drunken haze. Luckily, his—now—sister-in-law Alex had shown up, turned Leandro’s life inside out and spun Luca away from that necessary but destructive course.
    And here Sophia was now...proposing marriage to him this time. The woman had balls. He loved her for that if nothing else. “I believe this is the best birthday present I’ve ever received, bella . How the mighty fall. Wait till I—”
    He heard the outraged snarl before a filthy word fell from her stiff-lined mouth, and it was like a violin had joined the piano in his head. “If you tell anyone, I’ll cut off—”
    He burst out laughing again.
    “Go to hell,” she whispered, her petite frame radiating fury. Most of it self-directed, he knew, for Sophia hated betraying any emotion that made her weak.
    He caught her wrist and pulled her inside the large, and thankfully empty, lounge behind them. Backing her into the wall, he pulled her arms above her.
    The disdain in her eyes, the arrogant jut of her chin... It was like pouring petrol over a spark. Jerked at every primal instinct he had carefully banished from his life. Her breasts heaved as she fought him, as if they too fought against being confined.
    “You thought you would propose marriage and walk away? You did not think I would find it entertaining?”
    “You’re a remorseless bastard.” It was the first time she’d hinted at their past.
    Regret was a faint pang in Luca’s chest. Only faint.
    Did he regret that he had hurt her ten years ago? Si.
    So much that if given the chance he wouldn’t do it again? Non.
    He was far too selfish to willingly deny himself the true joy he’d found with her in those few weeks. “And you love playing the uptight shrew far too much.”
    Outrage, and most improbably, hurt, transformed her muddy brown eyes into a thousand hues of golds and bronzes.
    Her stubborn, too-prominent nose flared. Incongruously wide mouth in a small face flushed a deep pink. The hourglass figure swathed in the most horrific black dress rubbed against him, bringing him to painful arousal.
    In front of his eyes, she became something else.
    She became the Sophia he’d known once and hadn’t been able to resist, the Sophia he’d kissed with wonder, the Sophia she’d been before he had beat all the softness out of her.
    She grunted and gave herself away, seconds before she raised her knee to his groin.
    “How would this marriage of ours... prosper and proliferate if you turn me into a castrato, Sophia?”
    Dancing his lower body away from her kick, he used the momentum to slam her harder into his hip. Her soft belly pressed and flushed into the lines of his body, his hip bone digging into it, as if it meant to make a groove for itself against her.
    A softer gasp escaped her this time, throaty and wrenched away from the part of her she hid so well. So well that he had often wondered if he had known her so intimately once. That short huff for breath stroked Luca’s nerves. Like strings of a violin...
    Thick, wavy locks of hair fell from the ugly knot at the back of her head, touching the strong planes of her face with softness. The floral scent of her shampoo, something so incongruous with the woman she was, or pretended to be , fluttered under his nose. Luca pressed his nose into the thick, wavy mass. Kneaded the tense planes of her upper back as if he could calm himself by calming her.
    He had never forgotten his amazement at the fire that had flared between them,