Read Online Temporarily His Princess by Olivia Gates - Free Book Online Page B

eat, exercise and sleep. Rinse and repeat in an unending cycle of emotional vacuum. Alone.
    But when he had her again, he wouldn’t be alone anymore. And he’d slake that obdurate sex drive of his with the only one who fueled and quenched it, who satisfied his every taste and need. For a year.
    What if it isn’t enough ? What if you start this and sink so deep you can’t climb out again? Last time you almost drowned. You barely survived, with permanent damage.
    So be it. He was doing this. Letting go and gorging on every second of her. At whatever risk. He’d never have a real marriage, anyway. His only chance of that had been with her. Now that he’d already experienced the worst, he’d be prepared. At the end of the year, if he still wanted her as unstoppably as he did now, he’d negotiate an extension. And another, and another, until this unquenchable passion died out. It had to be extinguished at some point.
    What if it only rages higher until it consumes you?
    No, it wouldn’t.
    You’re only hoping it won’t. Against all evidence.
    So what if it did consume him? After six barren years of safeguarding his emotions until they atrophied, of expanding his achievements until they’d swallowed up his existence, not to mention being bored out of his mind and dead inside, maybe it was time to live dangerously. Maybe being consumed wasn’t such a bad idea. Or maybe it was, but so what?
    He couldn’t think of a better way to go.
    And as long as he took her with him, he couldn’t wait to hurl himself into the inferno.
    *
    Though she’d been counting down seconds, Glory’s heart still rattled inside her rib cage like a coin inside an empty steel box when her bell rang at five o’clock sharp.
    Smoothing hands damp with nervousness over the cool linen of her pants, she took measured steps to the door.
    The moment she pulled the door open, she felt like she’d been hit by a car. And that was before she realized how Vincenzo looked. Exactly how he had looked the first time he’d shown up on her doorstep.
    Her head spun, her senses stampeded with his effect now, with the reliving of his influence then.
    A deepest navy silk suit, offset with a silver-gray shirt of the same spellbinding hue as his eyes, hugged the perfection of his juggernaut body. The thick waves of his hair were brushed back to curl behind his ears and caress his collar, exposing his virile hairline and leonine forehead. He even smelled of that same unique scent. Pine bodywash, cool sea-breeze aftershave, fresh minty breath and the musk of his maleness and desire. His scent was so potent, she’d once believed it was an aphrodisiac. Her conviction was renewed.
    Had he meant this? To show up on her doorstep like he had that first day, only a minute after she’d said yes, making her realize he’d been already there? Dressed and groomed exactly like he had been then? The only difference was the maturity that amplified his beauty.
    But there was another difference. In his vibe. His glance. His smile. A recklessness. A promise that there would be no rules and no limits.
    Vincenzo? The man who had more rules and limits than his scientific experiments and developments? The prince who was forcing her to marry him to abide by his kingdom’s social mores?
    Maybe her perception was on the fritz. Which made sense. Vincenzo had always managed to blow her fuses. In spite of everything, all she wanted now was to drag him inside and lose herself in his greed and possession, have him reclaim her from the wasteland he’d cast her into, devour her, finish her…
    “ Ringrazia Dio for that way you look at me, bellissima ….” He walked her back until he had her plastered against the wall. The sunlight slanting into her tiny but cheery foyer dimmed as his breadth blocked out the sun, the world. His aura enveloped her, his hunger penetrating her recesses, yanking at her. “As if you’re starving for a taste of me. It would have been excruciating being the only one