Chapter 8
Emma
A nother week passed without any sign of my father’s guards. Krista and I weren’t expected to come home. No Marchese men lurked on the Tropican property either.
Still, I didn’t lower my guard. My future loomed as an unwanted sentencing I hated to accept, and there was simply no way to ease this dread.
The other day, when I passed by a representative from the resort and received a “Good morning, Miss Giordino,” I was convinced that the ruse was up. Something about the curt nod of greeting and the uber-polite, ass-kissing tone told me enough. We used Krista’s name for checking in, but my father would know to track her reservation to me, too.
The resort staff had to know who I was. And I had a hunch my father was aware that Krista and I had taken off to hang out here. If I’d tried to leave town to go anywhere else in the world without security, he would’ve been on me about protocol and forced men to come after me.
But no one appeared. He could rely on the Tropican security while I was a VIP guest here. In fact, the longer he didn’t send anyone out to tail me, the more nervous I got. It became a game of waiting for the other shoe to drop. It seemed like Krista and I had some degree of separation so we could have some fun, but a loose sense of being watched remained.
I was being watched. It was a fact that I had yet to figure out how to handle.
Every time Krista and I headed to the beach and pool, walked to and from our condos, or ate at the restaurant, I felt the telltale burn of him watching me.
Luke. He seemed to be here every day or night. If he didn’t live here, he worked long hours. All week, I spotted him, and each time was like another chip of my patience cracking off and busting to pieces.
We exchanged glances from a distance. We glowered silently, daring the other to look away first. He had an issue with me, that was clear. The night I saw him walking, he told me that he didn’t have time for women who always got what they wanted. It was a rejection and a warning all in one, which made me all the more amused when he couldn’t avoid me. He was unable to ignore me, caught in this stupid pull that I felt to notice him. Without conscious planning, I had to know where he was, how close he could be, and if he was watching me.
He was wrong—about me always getting what I wanted, but my retort likely didn’t make sense to him. After many times of replaying the short interaction we had when I leaned over the balcony railing, I realized that he might have interpreted my comment to assume something else. That I had been telling him he was wrong about not having time for me, implying that he’d make time for me.
Which was ridiculous. He wouldn’t make time for me. It seemed like he wouldn’t dare to get close enough to speak to me. The man was here working, all the time, and I wasn’t so desperate to play coy and seek out his attention for the hell of it.
But I couldn’t turn off this draw, this awareness that he was in my sphere. When he passed by the pool, I was stuck profiling him and cataloguing how ripped and strong he was, with all his muscles straining the fabric of his uniform. When he glanced up from scoping out the surroundings, his brow furrowed as he peeked over the rim of his glasses. And that time I found him helping another man fix what looked like a busted pipe near the pool’s utility room, shirtless and his arms flexing with the torque of tightening a bolt.
All those damning incidences of seeing him woke up a dormant desire I never explored. Knowing I would be bartered off to someone prevented me from ever having girly crushes or getting infatuated with a boy at school. Any time I watched a movie with romance or browsed a book about a couple falling in love, I resisted the big feelings of yearning and locked them up.
What was the point of ever getting my hopes up? It was far easier to shut down and ice over the need to love and be loved.
Until now.
Luke didn’t fawn, he didn’t smile or wink, or gaze at me with bedroom eyes. He glared and glowered, dead set on the proclamation that he didn’t have time for women like me. According to him, I was unfit, forbidden.
Yet, it was his reluctant attention that made my blood heat up with desire. Those reminders that he was near fueled me with the beginning teases of what if .
“Hmmm.” Krista smiled as she slid her sunglasses down. Lying next to me on her towel on the beach, she zeroed in on something that had caught her eye.
Or rather, someone.
Luke. My Luke.
I tracked the direction of her stare and found her gawking at him as he stood near the lifeguard stand, talking with whoever manned it.
Not my Luke.
I sighed.
She rose up higher on her forearms, letting the sun warm her back like I did. Licking her lips, she gawked at Luke in the distance. “Oh, I’d hit that, all right.”
“What?” I cleared my throat, refusing to play along.
“You know who.” She tipped her head toward him. “That sexy beast who can’t stop glancing at us.”
Us? Please. I doubted that he’d noticed her yet. Krista was gorgeous, but Luke reserved his glowers just for me.
“Not bad on the eyes. Not bad at all,” she teased.
I shrugged. “Then go for it. Nothing’s stopping you.”
“Not even you?” She turned, raising her brows.
I shook my head, frowning harder. “How would I stop you? I know I haven’t been much fun lately, but we are here to live a little. If you want that...” I looked at him, catching him watching me. He glanced away. “If you want him, go for it.”
“You wouldn’t care?”
Of course I would.
“Why would I?”
“Because you can’t stop looking at him either.”
I figured no reply would be the right answer here. Clamping my lips shut, I lowered my gaze and traced small circles in the sand in front of my towel’s edge.
“Why can’t you admit that you’re interested?”
“Because I’m not,” I snapped. “I can’t be interested in him. Remember? I’m ‘promised’ to Antonio.”
“Yeah, someday. You said you wanted to live a little and lose your virginity on your own terms.” She gestured at him. Her hair fell over her shoulder as she moved, but the breeze blew it back. “So why not with him?”
“First of all, that was just something I said in the heat of the moment.”
She laughed lightly. “I don’t buy that. You meant it.”
I sighed, envious that she’d lost hers a few years ago. “And second of all, I wouldn’t stoop to sleeping around with the hotel staff.”
“Why not? He’s not good enough?”
Luke looked good enough to freaking eat.
“It’s so...” I shrugged. “He’s here. It’d be convenient is all. If I followed through on this idea, it’d be to spite my father and Antonio. I’d want it to be more meaningful than literally jumping on the closest man around.”
Krista dipped her chin and stared at Luke over her sunglasses again. “Sis, I gotta say. Getting freaky and filthy with a man like that would be meaningful. He’s gotta be hung and no one that sexy can be that bad in bed.”
I dropped my head into my hands and groaned. Hearing her talk like this wasn’t helping. I had an idea she would be right, and that only anted up the temptation.
“I want to live a little and have my summer adventure,” I admitted, “but not by taking the easiest, most accessible path to finding it. With the hotel staff? How cliché would that be?”
Krista studied me with a knowing smile. “But you are interested.”
I huffed and looked away. You are not going to hear those words come out of my mouth. I’d be damned if I said I wanted him. That confession would be giving him the satisfaction of knowing he’d gotten to me.
“That man rubs me the wrong way,” I said.
“Oh, he could rub you all—”
I swatted at her arm. “Stop.”
“Seriously,” she said, giggling.
Luke peeved me on an elemental, subconscious level, but he also taunted me and tempted me.
He made me feel out of control, addicting to seeking him out. Nothing bothered me more than feeling like I had no power or choice.
He’d gotten under my skin and I detested it.
“Let’s go to another club tonight.” I paired my impulsive idea with a quick smile. I wasn’t a fan of clubbing, but with the sun about to set, I looked forward to having something, anything, to distract me from thinking about Luke.
“To see what else is out there?” she teased.
“Yeah.” I wouldn’t lie about that.
Hours later, though, after we got ready for a night of clubbing, I regretted that I’d suggested it. This club was bigger and further from the Tropican. More people gyrated and danced on the floor. Drinks flowed everywhere, literally in fountains. It might have made me sound like a dork and a prude, a good girl who never wanted to step out of line, but as we walked further into the club, I had this silly idea that I was entering a drunken orgy. A setting that’d be a tribute to Dioynsus himself.
What really had me wishing we’d stayed at the resort was seeing the men on the other side of the room. Several Marchese men lingered near the bar. They were newer recruits, but Krista and I recognized them.
“Uh-oh,” she muttered, glancing at me nervously.
“Yeah, maybe we should go.” I looked around for an exit, already confused which was where. So many people were packed in here. It was too damn loud. I couldn’t think straight as panic descended upon me. I didn’t want to run into Antonio. Not now or ever.
“The irony kills me. We came here to get out and have fun. For you to have a chance to avoid him.”
I nodded, wincing as I sought the exit signs. I’d avoid Antonio Marchese as much as I could.
“I guess it’s his night off if he’s not a bouncer here, too.”
“Huh?” I frowned at her.
“He’s not here working.” She gestured at the other end of the bar, where she must have thought I was looking.
Luke. He stood there, talking and hanging out with a group of friends. He wasn’t working, just chilling and having a drink.
Krista thought I was talking about avoiding Luke, not the Marchese men.
“Let’s go.” I swallowed hard at the sight of Luke down there. As I urged Krista to retreat the way we’d come, three of the Marchese men sauntered close.
“Well, well, well.”
I tensed, holding Krista’s hand as she urged me to go faster.
“Where you running off to now?” one asked as he blocked my way. A second man stepped up flush to my back, sliding his hand over my stomach as he hugged me close. The stink of his boozy breath sickened me. Terrified and on edge, I looked back in the direction of where Luke was.
His back was to me as he hung out with his friends. Oblivious to the fact I was here.
“Let me go.”
“The boss has been wondering where you’ve been hiding,” the third Marchese soldier said. He held Krista out of the way as he leered at me.
“I’m not hiding. We’re just having some fun.”
The taller one who blocked my way stepped into my space. Leaning down, he brought his mouth toward my ear. “The boss won’t mind sharing his whore. I’m in the mood to have some fun too.”
Shudders wracked my body. My lower lip trembled as fear shrouded me, but I fought to stand still and not show a sign of it.
“What do you say we break her in for him?” the Marchese at my back taunted.
No. Fuck. Shit, this can’t be happening!
They nodded. One took hold of my wrist and pulled me forward to leave with them.