It Hurts Me: A Forbidden Dark Romance (Betrayal Book 4)

1. Astrid

It was pouring rain when I drove down the narrow streets of Florence. A storm had just swept through the beautiful city, but the rain lingered, pounding into the cobblestones and making them shine in the moonlight. It was so heavy the raindrops thudded like rocks on the rooftop.

I heard a loud pop, my steering wheel lurched to the right, and I slammed on my brakes as I landed on the curb. Thankfully, there weren’t any cars parked there. Otherwise, I would have sideswiped them as I lost control of the vehicle.

The car came to a harsh stop, and my face almost hit the steering wheel. “Jesus…” I could barely see through the windshield, the downpour was so extreme. There were no other cars on the road because everyone was smart enough to stay home on a night like this. But I’d had an event at work, so I didn’t have a choice.

The screen on my dashboard told me what the problem was.

I blew out a tire. Must have run over a rock or a nail that I couldn’t see in the downpour.

I reached for my phone in the cupholder and tapped the screen, but it stayed black. I tapped it again, but it remained black.

It had been low on battery at the gala because I’d forgotten to charge it that morning. Looked like it had died in the meantime. I pulled out the charger from the glove compartment and plugged it into my phone. It was so dead that it still didn’t turn on. It would need a few minutes before it had enough juice to make a call.

Headlights were visible from an SUV, and then it pulled up in front of me, the red taillights in circles instead of squares, telling me it was a Range Rover. The lights went dark when they released the brakes, and the car was shut off.

I continued to watch, wondering if this person had pulled over for me.

A man left the driver’s seat and stepped into the pouring rain, just a silhouette at first, a tall man with thick arms that were visible because he didn’t wear a jacket. When he came closer to my car, he was displayed in my headlights.

And wow…he was fiiiiinnne.

Dark hair and eyes, a hard jawline, a very distinct and unmistakable “I don’t give a fuck about a damn thing” attitude. When he came to my window, he tapped his big knuckles against the glass, standing in the rain like it was a warm shower.

I hesitated before I rolled down the window, taking a second to snap out of the reverie. The second the window was down, the sound of the rain became amplified, a cacophony we had to yell over to hear each other.

He put one hand on the roof of the car and leaned down to speak to me, already soaked to the skin. There was a shadow on his jawline, popping tendons up his neck, veins down his muscular arms. “You alright?” A deep and masculine voice released into the night air, authoritative without aggression.

There were no words on my tongue because I was paralyzed by the sight of him.

“I saw your tire blow out when you ran over that scrap metal.”

“Oh, I didn’t see it.” I felt dwarfed by his confidence, felt hideous even though I’d looked my best for the art gala I’d just attended.

“You shouldn’t be driving in these weather conditions.”

“I-I had work.” I had a tough time just stringing a couple words together. All of my confidence was gone, and I didn’t like it.

“Pop the trunk. I’ll change it for you.”

“What?” I asked in disbelief.

He reached inside my car, and that was when I saw the ring on one of his fingers, a large diamond carved into the shape of a skull. He hit the button, and the mechanism clicked in the trunk to provide access to the spare tire.

“You don’t have to do that. If I could just borrow your phone?—”

“It’ll only take me five minutes.”

“It’s pouring down rain?—”

“Trust me, sweetheart. You don’t want to be on this street in the next fifteen minutes.” He walked to the back of the car, and the vehicle shifted as he pulled out what he needed to get to work. The car tilted sideways as he used the jack to lift it and the tire iron to loosen the lug nuts.

I felt guilty as hell, sitting in there warm and dry while some stranger worked on my car.

Some hot stranger…

I pulled on my jacket, put the hood up, and went over to his side.

He was kneeling down, his muscular back visible in the soaked fabric of his shirt. He loosened the tire, pulled it off, and carried it back to the trunk. When he walked back toward me, that was the first real view I got of him. Six-foot-something, the lines of his hard chest and abs visible because his shirt stuck to him like a papier-maché. “Get your ass back in the car.”

“Get my ass back in the car?” Did he just say that to me? “You need help?—”

“No.” He returned to the side of the car and slid the spare tire onto the axle. Then he grabbed the tire iron and manually tightened each lug nut around the wheel, securing it in place. He released the jack, and the car returned to its flat position.

He really did do it in five minutes. Probably less. “Are you a mechanic?”

A smirk moved over his face as he carried the jack to the trunk then shut the lid. “You’re good to go.”

“Can I give you some money?—”

“No.” He came back toward me. “Just get off the street.”

That was the second time he’d said something like that. “Why?”

“Don’t drive in these conditions. And if you do it anyway—pay attention.”

He was a gentleman for pulling over to help me in a downpour, but he was also a dick at the same time. I would normally snap back at an insult like that, but because he was literally soaked to the bone from changing my tire, I kept my mouth shut. “Thank you. I wish there was something I could do for you?—”

“You can get in the car and drive away.” He turned his back on me and walked back to his black Range Rover. He opened the driver’s door and hopped inside, and the taillights lit up once again, but he didn’t drive away, waiting for me to get back in the car.

I got behind the wheel and dropped the hood of my jacket before I started the engine. My dashboard alert had cleared because he’d successfully fixed the wheel.

His Range Rover stayed put, waiting for me to leave first.

I pulled out onto the road and waved at him as I passed, but his window was completely tinted black. The light was green, so I drove through the intersection and then headed home.