“I’m sorry too,” tumbled out of her mouth before Cora knew it. “I’m sorry my dad screwed you over and it came down to this. I’m sorry you felt this was the only way you could…” Trailing off, she moved away from him, staring out of her window.
“I don’t say it if I don’t mean it,” Paolo snapped. “I mean about apologies. If I had to, I could do it, go off and find some other woman to be with; fuck, whatever. I’d get over you eventually I guess. It would just take longer and hurt more.” Paolo chewed on the inside of his lower lip. “It’s probably worse for you because…” he gave a sniff and shook his head. “…because I think you’re pretty damn hot, and I’m an amazing lover and you’d have to get over that too. You love me as much as I love you” He gave Cora a weak smile. “Even if you’re a whiny-ass bitch and I’m a jerk-face liar.”
“Well, you were blaming my da-” Surprised at the rest of Paolo’s words, Cora looked up at him. A smile lifted the corners of her lips, “I’m not whiny, but you are a jerk.” She ran a hand through her hair, then realized she was supposed to be taking things very seriously. “I… ah… I’m not. Hot. It’s just that you think I’m the one that got away…” She swallowed, her mind still on Paolo’s admissions. “So if, you know, you’d just seen me somewhere; didn’t know who I was, you’re saying you would really think…”
“If we’d ran across each other in a bar or a benefit? Or maybe at a basketball game? Yeah I might have hit on you, some making out in the rest room sort of thing. In another time and place, yeah,” Paolo said with a nod. “Yeah I’d definitely buy you a drink and whisper sweet nothings in your ear.” He blew out a breath. “You know how it is at these things right?” he said as he came to stand beside her.
Cora’s fingers curled around the windowsill next to Paolo, as she imagined just that. “No. My dad is always afraid I’ll get hooked up with the wrong element, or so he says. Especially after Travis. It’s just about the only thing he and mama agree on.” she gave a choked laugh. “Plus he’s got plans for me.”
Her fingers played about in the dust coating the windowsill. She really needed to dust. “What would you whisper?” She knew she shouldn’t be playing this game, but caution was apparently thrown to the winds. “I need to know. What someone, what you would say if it weren’t for this…” she waved her hands to indicate her entire situation with her dad and illegitimacy and revenge.
Paolo studied her for a minute. “I’d stay away from vulgar shit because you’re a lady in spite of your potty mouth. Tell you what a cute tight ass you’ve got. How I like the way that your hair waves naturally and is so soft yet thick to the touch, your umber complexion makes me want to run my hand up and down your smooth face; Your dimples are in my top ten. I like how that lock of bangs falls over your eye. How your eyes are like the perfect mix of honey and caramel… How I’d like to see you naked. Run my fingers over your perky breasts, the curved line of your spine…And damn, what blinding white teeth you have, Grandma.” He gave a smirk. “Vulgar versions would be explicit offers of what I’d like to do to you, how I’d like to see you all naked and covered in sweat. And I wouldn’t need to be high to get me to say those things. Any of them.”
“Do those lines really get you anywhere?” Cora gave a huff, but when she looked up into Paolo’s face, her heart stuttered. She knew she would have fallen for every one of them. “I think you’re the reason Italians are known as playboys.” Lifting her hand, she ran it over the side of Paolo’s face, his cheekbones, and those lips that might have suited a woman as well as they suited him.
She wondered if she’d have liked Paolo. Not just his looks, but his personality. She’d been pretty much turned off of the guy on sight, but the guy had also made her laugh. And that was what made her give him a chance.
“Sometimes. Sometimes not,” Paolo said giving a partial shrug. He struggled not to react to the light exploratory touches Cora gave his face, but it was damned hard–and making him harder. “And yeah, I’m the type your parents tell you to stay away from. One nighters. I like my… recreation but not ready for a long term anything. Had that. Went bad. Real bad. Not looking for that kinda bad again. So I was a smooth-talking, hot-looking, one nighter you would never forget kinda guy and I liked it that way.” Paolo turned his head a little and brushed his lips over Cora’s fingers.
“Do you still want it that way? Are you happier like that?” Cora pulled her hand away and looked at it in wonder. Heat lanced through her at the touch of Paolo’s lip, and her fingertips still vibrated.
“Maybe it’s better this way. Maybe you should go back to that. Maybe…” Cora swallowed. “Did you want to try it that way. To try to stay away?” Her eyes widened as an idea struck her. “You could maybe try again with wotsername…Gina. Then it would be impossible for you to get to me.”
Cora’s words were at odds with the heat crawling through her body. She needed to get out of here. She needed to plaster herself to Paolo. “God… Paolo,” she whispered hoarsely.
Paolo gave a faint laugh. “I’m a cad. An old relationship wouldn’t stop me. Hell, I could propose to her again and it wouldn’t keep me away from you if I’m determined.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Do you really want me out of your life? Because I’ll go if you do…convince me.” He wasn’t thrilled with that idea, not at all, but it was his fuck up of coming after her for all the wrong reasons that had put them here in this situation. He had no idea how to fix it; if it even could be fixed.
“What …what exactly would you like to happen if we end up together?”
“The exact opposite of what you want,” Cora answered, somewhere between regret and misery. “You’re mine. I’m yours. For always. We’re all in.” She paced away, if only to put distance between them. But when she looked back at Paolo, his eyes were bright and hot with desire. Her skin had started to get a little clammy and tight. “No cheating; complete honesty. We give forever the good ol’ college try.” She took a few more steps back, nestled in the frame of the door.
“Damnit,” Paolo muttered. “Well, I’m sure I’m not your dream come true. Anything but what your family had planned for you.” He looked down at his hand turning it over in a nervous gesture. “How soon… hell, Cora, is there any chance we can avoid…” he pointed back and forth between him and Cora. “Or at this point, is it pretty much a given?”