Chapter 12 #2
A muscle twitched in his jaw. I’d learned to recognize when he was controlling his temper. “You left me, blocked my number, moved in with Maurizio, and you think this is about a breakup?”
“What would you call it?” I crossed my arms over my chest, trying to project confidence I didn’t feel. “We’re done. I left because you cheated on me with that ugly, long-faced Italian bitch.”
Lord stopped his circling. His expression shifted to something almost like confusion. “Is that what you think happened? That I cheated on you?”
“I don’t think. I know.” The words came out sharp and laced with the pain that still felt fresh. “I saw the pictures on your phone. I read the texts. I followed you to that restaurant and watched you kiss her. So don’t stand here and lie to me again. Aren’t you ti—”
“You followed me?” He cut me off. “You spied on me instead of opening your fucking mouth and asking me what was happening?”
“Would you have told me the truth?” I challenged.
“Yes.” The single word hung between us. “Because there was nothing to hide. Lolita is a business connection, nothing more.”
“You kiss all your business connections in the mouth?”
Lord took a step closer, and I instinctively backed up. “A peck. The LaGrassas’ are valuable to the organization.”
I was appalled at his blatant disregard for my brain. This blue-eyed devil really thought I was stupid, born yesterday and that my favorite color was seven.
“Lord, the nude pictures on your phone? The sex messages asking when she could see you again?”
“Do you think you’re the only woman that wants me?”
Fuck! That stung more than I could’ve imagined. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t want you anymore.”
“You don’t know what you want. I’m telling you, you were mistaken.” He took another step toward me, and this time I held my ground. “Or you misunderstood what you saw.”
“Don’t gaslight me, Lord. I know what I fucking saw.”
“And yet you ran straight to Maurizio without giving me a chance to explain.” His voice took on a dangerous edge.
“My own fucking cousin. Tell me, Labria, was he being nice to you? Was that pretty bitch waiting for his chance to fuck you? How long after you left me did it take before he was inside you?”
The crude question made me flinch. “That’s none of your business.”
“No, tell me. One minute or two?”
“None of your fucking business!” I yelled.
“Everything about you is my business.” He took another step closer, and now I could smell his cologne. The same scent I used to breathe in when I laid my head on his chest at night. “You are mine.”
“I don’t belong to you or anyone else.” I shot back. “I’m not property, Lord. I’m not one of your expensive possessions.”
“Who said you were expensive?”
He was cutting me up. He fucked up first, and now he was talking shit.
“Fuck you!”
Lord moved close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his body. “No, fuck you.” He calmly said, scaring me even more.
“I left because I deserve better,” I said, fighting to keep my voice steady. “I deserve someone who’s honest with me. Who doesn’t lie to my face every damn chance they get. I deserve a man who doesn’t replace me with the first available bitch with a mustache.”
“Replace you?” Lord laughed, but there was no humor in the sound.
“You didn’t even try to contact me after I left,” I accused. “Not a call, not a text, nothing.”
“You blocked me,” he reminded me, his eyes never leaving mine.
“I unblocked you after a week,” I countered. “You knew where I worked. You could have come to me then. Instead, you waited until now to send your goons to kidnap me from my job. Who are you?”
“I’m Lordes Romans Donovan,” he said simply.
“Bregoli, you fucking forgot Bregoli. You’re one of them now. And maybe I’m a fucking dumbass and you were always one of them.”
“My cousin isn’t a Bregoli?” He countered, stepping even closer. “You didn’t choose him because you wanted him. You chose him because you knew it would hurt me.”
I opened my mouth to deny it, but the words died on my tongue. Was there truth in what he was saying? I didn’t think so, but I wasn’t acting like myself, and I blamed him, BMF and this fucking dry-ass desert heat.
“What I do with Maurizio is my business now,” I said instead. “You and I are done.”
“Are we?” He moved swiftly, closing the last distance between us. His hands gripped my upper arms, fingers digging in hard enough to hurt. “Look me in the eyes and tell me you don’t still want me.”
I tried to pull away, but his grip was iron. “Let go of me!”
“Tell me,” he insisted. His face was only inches from mine. “Tell me you don’t think about me when he’s rubbing on your pussy. Tell me you don’t wish it was me inside you instead of him.”
“Fuck you,” I spat, tears pricking at my eyes despite my best efforts to hold them back.
“That is not a denial.” His grip softened slightly, but he didn’t release me. “Your body can’t lie to me, even when your mouth tries to.”
He was right. I think. Damn him. My pulse was racing. My skin was hot where he touched me. I could feel the familiar pull of desire stirring in my belly. It was just a visceral response to his proximity that I couldn’t control.
I was over him and his hyper-masculine bullshit.
My mind screamed to push him away, to remember his betrayal.
Maurizio was waiting at home. But my treacherous body leaned slightly toward Lord, craving the contact I’d been denied for weeks.
I leaned back, thinking about when I would get the chance to claw his eyeballs out the sockets.
“I hate you,” I whispered, but my words lacked conviction.
“No, you don’t.” His blue eyes bored into mine. “You wish you did.”