“You’re not fucking leaving. Not ever. You are going to stay and watch me prove you wrong. I am capable of…”
My smirk grew, and he saw it. Instantly, his anger dulled.
“Oh, that was good, Sophia. You almost made me lose my temper, but I have to admit you have always been able to press my buttons, haven’t you?” He pointed. “Go to your room. And don’t come out unless I allow you to.”
“With pleasure. Anything is better than spending one more second looking at you.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Matteo
She was lying to me. Or at the very least, she wasn’t telling me the whole truth. I had thought so for months, but in the weeks since I had found that poison in her bathroom, I had become sure of it.
There was more going on than I knew, but I couldn’t find out anything. It was like all my avenues of enquiry were dead ends, and no one across the pond was talking.
Sophia almost did, though. Just now, she almost spilled her secrets. I had seen in her eyes that she had wanted to, and like a moron, I had kept on talking over her.
And now the moment was gone.
Leaning forward, I pushed the plate away. I knew it wasn’t poisoned, but I had tried to punish her anyway.
Humiliation was my weapon of choice for Sophia.
Sighing heavily, I dropped my head into my hands. What was I going to do about Sophia? If I couldn’t find out what she was hiding, and she wasn’t telling me. What other choice did I have but to keep punishing her?
She could stop it at any point. All she had to do was talk to me truthfully.
The chair scraped back with a loud screech, and I walked toward the bedroom where we had once shared a bed. I wasn’t going to sleep, though. And neither was Sophia.
Grabbing the closest dress that looked suitable, I headed toward her room, slamming open the door without knocking.
She froze. Her back was to me, and she was dressed in nothing but a pair of red panties and a bra. I couldn’t see her face, but I didn’t need to know she would look exquisite.
She always looked amazing, and it made me furious. “Why are you standing there in your underwear?” I snapped and scolded myself. So much for trying a different approach to get her to open up. What was it about her that made me crazy? “Still trying to seduce me? It won’t work.”
She whirled around, hands on her hips, and she glared at me. “You are the one who walked in here without knocking, Matteo. I was changing. I wasn’t hanging around in my underwear in the hopes you would come in.”
I stared at her open-mouthed. Of course what she said made sense. It was my own thoughts that didn’t.
I sucked in a breath. “Have dinner with me?”
She shifted her weight slightly. “We have already had this conversation this evening, Matteo.”
“I am aware, and now we are having it again. I want you to put this on.” I thrust out the dress, which was as red as the underwear I was trying not to drool over.
She stared at my outstretched hand and the scrap of red material hanging from it. When she lifted her eyes to me, hers were full of confusion.
“I’m sorry, what?”
Sucking in a deep, settling breath, I tried again. “I want us to go out for dinner.”
Her eyebrows slammed down. She still didn’t reach for the dress.
“But you said…”
I cut her off. “I know what I said, but I think I want a burger, and you haven’t eaten. And I would like you to come with me.” I stressed the last words. “Plus, you haven’t left the apartment for weeks. Don’t you want some fresh air?”
The look she gave me told me she did.
