“I came to save your ass!”
“Was I in trouble?”
I hesitated but stuck my chin up at his back. “No, but I wasn’t sure. After what happened the other day at the theater…this is my fight, too!”
He whirled on me, his knuckles dripping blood. “I’m not going to ask you again, Gigi.”
“Or what?” I smirked. “You going to find another woman to fuck? I never knew you liked—” I made a heavy motion in front of my breasts. “So much.”
“You risked your life—defied my orders tostay put—to see if I was fucking another woman?”
He sounded incredulous, but it didn’t sound so shocking to me.
“What if I did?” I licked my lips, but this time they were so numb I hardly felt it.
“I’d say you risked my soul and yours for fucking nothing.”
All at once, my breath rushed out in awhoosh,and a hot flash made me feel lightheaded. It burned from my head all the way down to my feet. My heart raced. My skin was flushed, sweat dripping between my breasts. And…even though I was pissed at him, my panties felt cool between my legs. Wet.
I wanted him so bad, I could almost taste him through the air. I took a step back and ran into a bench. I took it, and that was when I noticed all the things in the room. Stuff for bondage. Whips. Shackles. Even a swing.
“What the…” I breathed out and picked up a paddle, studying it. I sat it down a second later, wiping my hand on my dress.
“You’ve been sheltered your entire life,” he said, staring at me. “You have no fucking clue how dark this world can get.”
“From some things,” I said. “I’m a Fausti. I come from darkness. But I just found out how dark my heart can get. When I saw what I did. I found out how deep treachery can run.”
“Treachery.” He took a step toward me, and I instinctually stood. “You want to know what treachery feels like? It’s when the woman you love turns her back on you every day because she’s fucking afraid.”
“I’m not afraid of anything but—” I looked around. There was a wall of shelves holding glittering glasses filled with what seemed like oils. I picked one up and hurled it at his head.
He dodged and it exploded in a crash against the wall. A flowery perfume blossomed in the air.
I went to pick up another, but it fell from my fingers in another crash when he slammed me against the wall. Our chests heaved, our hearts beating against each other’s. He lifted my wrist, and before I realized what he was doing, secured it above my head. Even if I fought him, he still had the power to secure the other.
He did.
I was trussed up, my heart still pounding to fight his.
“What are you afraid of, Mia,” he said so quietly that I read his lips instead of hearing him over the pulsating music coming through the speakers.
“Right now? That my skin is going to slide off like wax from wanting you so much. But after what I saw? My heart might give out if I do. I’m a Fausti. I honor loyalty, and my heart can’t take the deception willingly.”
He smiled, and the resentment in it turned my blood cold. “If I wanted her, or anyone else—” he shrugged in a nonchalant way, taking a deliberate step toward me, calculating “—I wouldn’t have spent my life honoring you.” Another step. “I wouldn’t have given my life to you years ago.” Step. “I wouldn’t be here now, fighting for this.”
“It’s your job,” I said, closing my eyes as the scent of his body attacked my defiance.
“Fuck the job. Fuck money.” He lifted my chin, and I strained against the leather binding my wrists, my hands itching to strike out. “Nothing. Not a thing in this world can stop me from claiming what belongs to me.”
“Me,” I said. “I can.”
He shook his head. “Not even you. Because this—” he acted like he was stacking bricks, building a wall “—is nothing but a lie.” His face came close to mine. Any closer and I’d bite his lip. “What are you so afraid of, Mine?” he breathed out in Italian.
Even though my mind was still rebelling, my heart came to its senses.
My greatest fear was this.
This was a physical representation of my nightmares. I was rendered helpless, unable to reach out to him, while my heart shattered in a million pieces from the pain of not being able to.
