“I don’t know… Likethat.”
He smirks. “Just imagining,” he says, and I roll my eyes but begrudgingly take the bait.
“Imagining what?”
The grin broadens on his face. “What it’ll be like to fuck that bratty mouth of yours.”
My bottom lip falls open. “Massimo,” I hiss out, looking around to see if Gui or Monique overheard. It seems they’re now occupying each other’s time. She’s giggling while he says something to her.
I bring my attention back to Massimo. “You can’t say stuff like that.”
“Why? Because it scares you how much you enjoy the idea of it?”
“It doesn’t scare me,” I scoff out.
He raises a challenging brow at me. “So if I took you to the private room that’s in the back of this plane right now, that wouldn’t scare you?”
“Why would it?”
“Because clearly I scare you.”
I laugh, shaking my head. “That’s some big head you got, Massimo.
“Isn’t that why you left without saying a word to me after the night we had?”
“I left because I had work to do and I needed space to think.”
“And where have your thoughts landed you?”
“I …” I take a deep breath, not knowing how to answer that.
Massimo remains quiet, the tension heavy in the air. His eyes haven’t moved from me, and when it becomes too much, I unbuckle my seat belt and push myself out of my seat.
“Excuse me,” I say, not bothering to tell him where I’m going. I just need a moment to breathe without having his eyes burn through me.
Opening the door to the bathroom, I lock it and grip the counter. I glance at my reflection in the mirror and take a deep breath.
“Stop letting him get under your skin, Liana. Sure, you might be falling for the husband you never wanted, but you need to remember who he is. What he does. Where he comes from.”
I’m so confused about my feelings. Massimo started out as this cocky asshole who extorted me into marriage. I thought he was going to be controlling, an absolute menace to be married to, but he’s been the opposite.
He followed through with his part of the arrangement and gave up one of his high-rises before he even got me down the aisle.
He’s opening up a sexual side of me I never thought could exist.
He’s calling me on my bullshit as if he knows me better than I know myself.
And now I’m wondering how I’ve fallen for the man I’ve tried so hard to not have feelings for.
Everything about that sentence terrifies me. I know with this life comes a lot of death and destruction if you’re not careful, and it’s not something I ever wanted. I’ve lost a lot of family because of this world, and leaving myself vulnerable, susceptible to more loss, is never something I wanted.
But now, Massimo has wormed his way into my heart in a way I never thought he’d be able to, and that scares the living shit out of me.
I gaze at my reflection in the mirror and take a few deep breaths, trying to steady my racing heart.
Would falling for my husband be so bad? I’m clearly fighting a fight everyone can see through, and I’m just exhausting myself.
I shake my head and run my hands through my hair, pulling at the strands.
