I didn't give a fuck about her brother's injuries. "He's young and healthy. He'll heal quickly."
She must've heard the disregard in my voice, for she looked at me then. "He's the only thing I have," she said quietly.
My skin grew hot and my stomach clenched. The only thing she had? What the fuck was I? Nothing? Did I mean nothing to her at all? Everything I'd done these last few weeks had been forher.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
I didn't respond. I couldn't. It took every ounce of willpower I had to stay where I was when what I really wanted to do was wrap my hand around her lying throat.
She looked down at her tea, and when she raised her chin again, there were tears in her eyes. "I shouldn't have left you there with him." Her eyes searched mine as she waited for me to respond, to tell her she did the right thing. When I said nothing, she continued, "I should've left Logan in the car and came back for you."
I didn't try to console her. I'd told her to leave and she had. Had she known there was a bag of weapons in the back? I hadn't told them. My focus had been on her getting to safety.
But she was right, a part of me was…I tried to figure out what this fire was in my blood…enraged. With her, and perhaps more with myself. I wanted to see her tears. Her guilt. Wanted her to plead for my forgiveness.
"I'm really so sorry, Tristan." Her chin trembled and the corners of her mouth turned down as she fought back more tears. "I was so scared. And?—"
"You think I wasn't scared?" I asked. It was more out of curiosity than anything. Ever since I'd first seen her, she'd dragged emotions from me I hadn't even known existed. Did she not see that?
"Oh, god." Covering her face with her hands, she began to sob quietly.
I frowned. I didn't like seeing her like this. "Luna."
She sniffed and wiped at her face as she raised her head. "What can I do?" she asked. "Please, just tell me what to do."
My eyes roamed over her face, wet with tears, her blue eyes luminescent in the soft lighting, then dropped to her breasts. It was strange, this anger I felt. I wanted to comfort her and punish her at the same time. "Get on your knees."
She stilled.
"Get on your knees," I repeated. "I want to feel your mouth on me."
After a moment, she set down her cup, rose from the stool, and came to stand in front of me on the other side of the island. Her eyes rose to mine, and I cocked my head, waiting to see what she would do.
Slowly, she lowered herself to her knees, her eyes on my groin before she ran them up my body to my face.
My lips parted and my cock swelled to the point of pain as I stared down at her. I wanted to feel her mouth wrapped around me so fucking bad that I was about to cum in my pants.
Silently, she stared up at me, waiting for me to tell her what to do next. But she wasn't with me. She was playing the whore. In her head, she was somewhere else. Despite the needs of my body, this wasn't what I wanted from her.
I took a step back. "Go back to your brother."
She frowned. "What?"
Walking around her, I left the kitchen and headed back to Luca's office. I put my hand over my heart, trying to slow its rapid beats, but my pulse pounded in my ears and waves of hot and cold washed over me until I was drenched with sweat.
When I reached the office, I closed the door behind me and sank down onto the couch. Pressing the heels of my hands into my eyes, I tried to make sense of the chaos raging inside me. For as long as I could remember, I'd been numb. Empty. A void where a soul should be. But now, with Luna, everything was different.
Emotions I couldn't even name clawed at my insides, tearing me apart. It was as if a dam had burst within me, unleashing a torrent of feelings I was wholly unprepared for. Anger, fear, jealousy, desire—they all swirled together in a maelstrom that threatened to consume me.
I wanted her with an intensity that bordered on madness. The mere thought of her sent my heart racing and my blood burning through my veins. But it wasn't just lust. No, it was something deeper. Something far more dangerous.
When I was with her, I felt alive for the first time in my non-existence. She made me want things I had no right to want. Made me feel things I didn't even know I was capable of feeling.
And yet, I couldn't stay away. Even now, with the memory of her tear-stained face still fresh in my mind, I craved her presence like a junkie craving his next fix. It was a sickness, this need I had for her. A weakness that would be my undoing.
I lifted my head, staring blankly at the wall across from me. How had it come to this? How had one woman managed to break through the walls I'd built so carefully around myself?
My first instinct was to reach for my knife and release these emotions battling inside of me, but Gino had taken it when I'd handed over my weapons.
