“What is it?”he asks, or more like barks at me.They’re also supposed to watch how they speak to us.Clearly no one’s given Matteo the memo.
He’s wearing all black again, a suit with a black shirt and tie, like he’s at a funeral.But it somehow makes him glow even brighter, especially his green eyes.
“I want to go for a walk,” I tell him, closing the apartment door behind me firmly to punctuate my point.
“And what do you want me to do about it?”
If his eyes weren’t holding me in a pool of warmth I’d put him in his place.But as it is, I can’t stop thinking that his gaze is exactly like it would be if the sun shone in the dead of night… hot yet shadowy, dark with only a lick of light shining thorough, weird in all the right ways.
“Didn’t you hear me?”he asks, snapping me out of the vortex I was spinning in.
“Someone usually goes with us when we go outside.”
“Are you referring to yourself asus?Like royalty does?”he asks, his gaze turning a few shades darker and even hotter.
“No, of course not.I meant me and my sisters,” I say.“I can go on my own, no problem.But I won’t be responsible for what happens to you when they find out you let me.”
A glint of light passes over his eyes.Bright and amused, but so very sharp I can practically feel it cutting my bare skin.No one’s ever had such an effect on me, and this guy has me hallucinating just by standing too close and looking at me.
Luckily Rafaelle comes striding down the hallway, asking what’s going on.I tell him I want to go out and I can clearly see he wants to attempt a sneaky way of persuading me it’s not a good idea.I just give him one of those hard, level looks I learned from my dad, daring him say no to me.Maybe I am acting too much like the queen I’ll never be.But we’re losing sunlight outside and I’m not just going back into the apartment to bicker with my sisters.
Rafaelle turns to Matteo.“Go with her.Take her wherever she wants to go but make sure she’s safe.”
The look on Matteo’s face could kill someone all on its own, and for a second or two, I’m sure he’ll say no.But then he nods.
“After you,” he says to me and stands aside so I can walk to the elevators.His tone said something entirely different though, something entirely less pleasant.But I’m going to ignore that.
Because I waited all day just to see him and now I’ll have him by my side for however long I want.Best not say that or he’ll accuse me of being haughty again or whatever he meant by that royalty comment.But that’s OK, because I wouldn’t mind being his queen at all, despite the darkness he’s enveloping me in.Because I’m sure he can bring all the light too.I’m sure he can actually make the sun shine in the middle of the night.And I think he’d be doing it just for me.
Chapter15
GIANNA
There’s barelyany sunlight left as we reach Central Park and what little there is, he seems to be sucking up with that darkness cloaking him.He’s walking about a step behind me like a proper bodyguard, scanning our surroundings with precision that suggests he’s spent his whole life doing just that.Correction.He’s scanning everything but me.Never once as I turn do his eyes land on me.
“You’re gonna trip if you keep turning around,” he says in a clipped voice on one of those occasions that I do.
So he does see me?
But did I even doubt it?
Even though the sun has almost set, I’ve been feeling it warming my back this whole time.And it’s his gaze.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ve been here thousands of times,” I say, smiling over my shoulder.His eyes remain fixed on the path ahead of us.
“Worrying about you is literally my job description right now,” he says.
“Seems to me like you started on that job before you were hired,” I counter, flashing him another smile that goes completely unnoticed.“At that club, I mean.”
“A mistake,” he says and it sounds like chunk of that darkness surrounding him is speaking, not him.
I don’t want to hear that, I don’t know what to make of him saying it and I don’t know how to backtrack from it.
Joggers are passing us on the path but also mothers with toddlers, mothers with strollers, and families with the moms and dads still in their work clothes, looking tired, but happy as they chase their children around, trying to corral them to take them home and put them to bed, I’m sure.And here I am with a guy who thinks saving my life was a mistake.
And I’m cursed to never have anything like the families around me have.Cursed to always be alone, trailed by men who would all probably prefer to be doing something else, something more important.I should’ve just stayed home and had a couple of drinks, watching some stupid movie that at least lets me forget all that for a while.
Instead, I spend all day fantasizing about a scene just like this one—me and Matteo taking a lovely stroll through the park at sunset.There’s nothing lovely about this walk and sunset seems to have gone straight into night, no twilight in-between.I bet that’s because he’s in such a foul mood.
