Chapter Four #3
“You asked me to dinner! You wanted me to go to your room. You wanted to have sex with me so you could throw it in Otto’s face!”
“Then why haven’t I?” he retorted.
“Because Axel caught us!” But even she couldn’t fully square that logic.
She’d spent the last three years feeling used by Rocco, but what had he really done?
Maybe he’d hidden his rivalry with Otto, but their kiss had been consensual.
The shame she had carried around like a box of broken glass was all hers, made heavier and more ungainly by her confusing relationship with Otto.
She’d been terrified that Otto would find out and dislike her more than he already did.
But his dislike had nothing to do with her. She was merely the stand-in for Otto’s contempt for her mother.
She pushed the heels of her palms into her eye sockets, trying to move past this awful, awful revelation that kept tangling her feelings into knots.
“I wasn’t planning to kiss you that day,” Rocco said.
“Then why did you?” She dropped her hands into her lap.
His face blanked as though her question didn’t make sense. He expelled a tight laugh then pointed across the room. “Go into that bathroom and take a look in the mirror.”
“Oh, please.” She made every effort to keep her appearance flawless. It was a defense mechanism against Otto finding fault, but she was very average under the salon products and carefully applied makeup and designer clothing. “No. You knew I was—” Easy.
She hadn’t known she was easy, though. She wasn’t. Only for him.
“What?” he prompted.
“You came on to me the second I walked in here,” she reminded him with a scuff in her throat. “Like you thought all I wanted was sex.” Angry heat pressed behind her eyes, making it hurt to meet his gaze. “Like it’s all I’m good for.”
“I thought you were here for rebound sex.” His mouth twisted with self-deprecation. He reached for his drink.
“Seriously?” Her heart lurched. “And you were willing to be used for that?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “It’s unfinished business between us.”
Because she had finished and he hadn’t? She closed her eyes in mortification.
“We can circle back to that.” His tone was almost gentle, as though he pitied her enough to guide their conversation back to less sexually charged waters. “You’re not here to get back at Axel, you say. It’s Otto you want to punish.”
“Yes.” Her fingers absently searched for the ring she’d removed. “Will you tell me why he’s been coming after you all these years?” She lifted her gaze.
“You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine.”
“Hmph.” They were a pair of poker players, trying to read each other, trying to decide who was bluffing and how much to gamble.
“What do you think I can do to him that I’m not already doing?” Rocco asked blithely. “I’ve been in a bare-knuckle brawl with him for years and I haven’t knocked him out yet.”
“Give Axel some credit for that.”
He curled his lip, conveying he was loathe to do anything of the sort.
“I don’t know what I thought you could do,” she admitted with consternation. “Coming here was an impulse. I was in Praiano and realized I could come to you.” She decided to show one of her cards. “I’m in the process of taking all of my money out of Vorstoben.”
“Really.” That lifted his eyebrows.
“I thought you might find that interesting.” She crossed her legs and saw his gaze flicker to them, making her prickle all over again.
She shifted, adjusting the hem of her dress with a little tug, and wondered what he saw because whatever it was, his inscrutable gaze was unsettling her.
“Are you thinking I had no business calling you cutthroat when I’m going behind his back like this?
” she asked. “Because I’m not wholly comfortable with jeopardizing the company.
I don’t want people to lose their jobs or clients to suffer.
I only thought if you knew things were bumpy, and that Otto and Axel are at odds, you might be able to take advantage. ”
“I will,” he assured her. “I need to make some calls.”
Dismissed. It was a small letdown when they’d almost begun to speak with civility, but she decided to quit while she was ahead. She stood.
“What hotel are you staying at?” Rocco asked as he rose.
“The Grand Vesuvio.” She brought her phone from her purse and tapped the rideshare app.
“In Naples? You came up for the day?”
“On the train, yes. I flew down there expecting to stay in my villa, but it needs too much work.”
“Stay here in Rome. We have a lot to discuss.”
“I don’t think I’ve been clear.” She lowered her phone. “I’ve spent most of my life letting a man I hate tell me what to do. I’ve decided not to do that anymore.”
“Mirabella.” His tone was both indulgent and patronizing. “You could have used that phone to call me and tell me what you have told me today. You didn’t need to battle your way in here wearing a dress designed to kick me in the crotch.”
“Maybe I chose to wear it because I like it,” she said, instantly riled. “Did you think of that?”
“Maybe you did.” His mouth twitched with amusement. He clearly didn’t buy in to it. “But you still could have called. In fact, you could have avoided me altogether, the way you did at the Hellere Tage Foundation dinner four months ago.”
“I don’t recall,” she lied, chin high while his charged aura radiated off him, making her body alter itself. She was turning soft and receptive and sweet with anticipation. Her mind hadn’t stopped turning over those things he’d said. Look in the mirror. Unfinished business.
Much to her mortification, she feared he could see that he had thrashed her defenses. Her cheeks were so hot they hurt.
“I believe you hate me,” he said with a grave nod, coming close enough that she sensed his toes nearly touching hers.
“But I don’t think it’s about London. I think you hate me for the way I make you feel in spite of London.
You don’t trust me and that makes you afraid of this.
” He touched the metal edge of the zipper where the ribbed collar would become a turtleneck if she pulled the zipper to her chin.
“Don’t.” She knocked his hand away, but the word was more a plea than an order.
His mouth twisted. “It’s the same for me, Mira. And I hate you a little bit for it, too. But that’s not the only thing we have to talk about. So you need to stay here in Rome.”