“No.” I caught him around the wrist before he could swirl his fingers around my clit. If he did that, I would be gone, and the whole restaurant would know what he was doing under the tablecloth. Tonight had been humiliating enough as it was.
“No?” Matteo’s voice was sharp but he didn’t fight against the pressure of my hand. “Why not? You want it. You’ve been trembling for it all evening.”
Hesitating, I bit my lip. “I don’t want it like this.” Tears came rushing up into my eyes unbidden, and angrily, I wiped them away.
“Are you crying?”
“Yes.” What would be the point of lying when the evidence was all over my face? “I’m sad and overwhelmed and humiliated and…” a sob threatened to rip its way out of my throat. “It’s just been a lot, okay?” I ended feebly.
“If you didn’t want me to touch you, you should have said so. There are plenty of people here who would have come to your aid. You want me, Sophia.”
Maybe they would have come if I had asked for help, but making a scene was out of the question. If I wanted to get back to Lily, I had to help my brother get revenge. It was the only way I would ever be able to live in peace without constant fear following us around.
“Who do you hate more, Sophia?” Matteo’s hand slid down my leg and straightened the hem of my dress. “Me or your brother?”
“Why would I hate Gio?” Confused, I turned on his lap and stared at him.
“Because.” Reaching up, he cupped my face in that old, tender way he used to touch me. “You’re brother is the one who gave you back to me. He sold you. To keep his…”
“He did not sell me.”
“So you planned on coming back to me, did you?”
I swallowed hard, caught in a corner with no way out. “No,” I admitted. Again, there would be no point in lying. Matteo would see straight through it.
“No,” I said more firmly. My voice was completely steady for a second before it cracked. “No, I didn’t plan on ever seeing you again, Matteo.”
Silence stretched around us, so thick and heavy that it seemed that it buried us in a cloud and separated us from the rest of the restaurant.
Five, ten, fifteen seconds passed before Matteo sighed. “Let’s go.”
“We haven’t had dessert.” I didn’t know why I said that. I wasn’t hungry. I had barely touched my food, and the little I had eaten just made me feel sick.
“I’ll get you ice cream on the way home.” Standing up and giving me no option but to do the same, Matteo slid my hand into his and led me to the street, where somehow, his car was waiting for him.
He even opened the door for me to slide into the red leather seats. Confused, I stared up at him for a second as the first drop of rain landed on my face.
“Why are you being…”
Nice. I was about to say nice, but didn’t get the chance. A growling grumble ripped its way out of his lips. Like I had asked something bad or rude.
“Just get in the damn car, Sophia. Before you catch a cold.”
I wanted to tell him that I wasn’t going to catch my death from a few raindrops, but the look he gave me had me scuttling inside just a second before he slammed the car door angrily.
And that was him all over. Angry and cold one second, and looking at me like I was his entire world the next. It was confusing as hell.
This whole situation was confusing. It had been less than forty-eight hours since I had stepped into that hotel room to meet him and been snatched from my old life and daughter, but it felt like so much longer.
I missed my daughter, and every single cruel thing he did and said just made me miss her more. I knew I would feel better if I could just talk to her, but I also knew that it was impossible.
Matteo would be watching my every move, and he could never find out that he was a father.
“You’ve got that look on your face again.” Pulling into the slow-moving traffic, Matteo glanced in my direction. His eyes were glittering in the lights from the street as they moved over my face.
“What look is that?”
“Like you’re sad. No.” For a second, his eyes darted back to the road, but just for a second before they speared me to the spot again. “Like your heart is breaking. You look like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders,” he said gruffly. “You look petrified.”
