***
When I heard the sliding glass doors open after what felt like hours, but barely two hours, I turned to see Paulo standing there. Frowning, I stood up on shaky legs. “Where’s Harris?”
“Taking a shower. It’s done. The curse is lifted. We tested it out by leaving the house,” he explained.
“Why areyoutelling me and not Harris?”
Paulo cleared his throat, appearing uncomfortable. “Would you like me to order dinner? Anything in particular you would like?’
I walked past him. “Whatever you want. Make sure everyone eats.”
He quickly followed behind me. It took him no time to catch up because he was a foot taller than me. “Give him a moment.”
I ignored him as I continued to walk. “Nope. And don’t try to stop me. This is your life now if I’m in it. It’ll be a lot easier if you just let me do what I want.”
“He’s going to kill me,” Paulo muttered behind me, but I didn’t feel him breathing down my neck, so he must have stopped.
“I’ll tell him not to. If you die, he dies. I got your back, man!” I called, raising a fist in the air as I quickly climbed the steps.
I walked into the bedroom suite, hearing the sound of running water from the shower. I stormed in, stomping so I wouldn’t scare him because mafia orcs were paranoid and punched first before asking questions. “Why are you showering?” I called over the water.
He peeked his head out past the translucent glass shower wall, then rolled his eyes. Even annoyed, he looked so damn pretty. His long-wet hair draped over his shoulders in a way that was distractingly sexy. I tried my best not to get sidetracked by the droplets covering that ridiculously toned chest of his. My mouth watered with just the visual of licking the water off his smooth green skin. Why was I here again?
He grumbled something. “I’m going to have to talk to Paulo.”
I pointed a finger at him and gave him my best threatening face, which I feared did very little to scare him. “If you touch him, I’m leaving.”
His eyes darkened. “Why are you defending him?”
He looked like he wanted to murder someone. What was this? Jealousy? He had nothing to worry about. I tossed my hands up in front of me. “Calm down and tell me what happened.”
He scrunched his face up and went back under the water. “No.”
“This jerk,” I muttered before quickly pulling off my clothes and undergarments. I then got in the shower with him. I wasn’tplanning to wet my braids today, but some sacrifices were worth it.
I poked at his chest as he looked down at me with curious eyes. “Tell me what you know?”
He smirked at me before wrapping his large hands around my waist and pulling me against his hard body. “I know the curse is broken.”
“Yes, Paulo told me. So, the warlock complied?”
The playfulness in his eyes dimmed, his smile faltering. “I had to force it.”
I pressed my teeth into my bottom lip, my stomach tightening. I knew who he was. Dangerous. There were points in my life I fought against that truth, but when we graduated high school, I learned too quickly that Harris was hard. He had to be to survive in his family’s business. To meet his father’s expectations. And maybe that fed my crush on him growing up. It was the bad boy side that I guess I liked.
Still, I never allowed myself to fixate on what being a mafia boss meant until recently. Mostly because we weren’t friends anymore. However, I knew that he hurt people. Most likely more. I’d like to think all those people were bad. He couldn’t be so kind to me and horrible to innocent others. I’d heard things about his father being cold and cutthroat, but I’d heard through the grapevine that since Harris had taken over, things were getting better. Less violence and more alliances formed. However, he was still feared, and that led me to believe that he was no pushover. This warlock had hurt us, and Harris had it resolved in one day of knowing our attacker’s identity.
I narrowed my eyes. “What does force mean?”
His hands moved from my waist to my ass, possessively squeezing it, and sending a jolt to my center despite the seriousness of this conversation. “You don’t need to know.”
Okay, now he was annoying me. He did something connected to me and still wasn’t telling me. “Of course I do.”
“If I told you what happened, what would it matter? You’re not going anywhere.”
The audacity of him. “You keep saying that as if you can control me.”
He chuckled. “You heard all that I’ve done, and you still don’t think I control what happens to those around me?”
