Ouch.“You talk a big game for someone with a 9 o'clock curfew.”
That one made her eyes narrow.“Oh lovely.A battle of wits against an unarmed opponent.”
“I envy people who have never met you.”
Ellie leaned back, studying me from head to toe.“You wanna know the best thing about you?”
This ought to be good.“Sure.”
“You’re biodegradable.”
While losing the battle by laughing, I logged that one to use against Mario.He’d appreciate it.“You win.”
I leaned back on the couch and stretched my arm over the back, encircling Ellie under it.“You know, if you weren’t still rebounding from that asshole—” I cut my words short.Ellie didn’t need to know where my thoughts veered off course.
“I’m not rebounding.”
The sex we had in Venice said different.Hell, she told me herself that I was only a substitute for her disappointment.“Remember what you said to me on that gondola ride?”I didn’t let her chime in.“You said, ‘Ringo, this isn’t permanent.It’s a blip because I don’t adjust well.’”
“Oh, I get it now.I bruised your ego, and you took it out on my phone, right?”
That was part of it.The other part was cutting Mario out of her sister’s conversation before I could gracefully exit Ellie’s life.I’d gotten what I needed.Confirmation of where Mario holed up.I didn’t need Ellie anymore.And she certainly didn’t need me.
Except she did.
Pornstach was still a problem.One I should have eliminated tonight, messy or not.He needed to die.I stood up, tucked the blanket around Ellie.“I’m going out.”
Ellie tossed off the blanket I’d tucked around her.“No!”
Her bathrobe gaped open just a little.My eyes fixed on the glimpse of flesh, that sensuously enticing curved shape.
“I mean, please?It’s late and— Are you staring at my boobs?”
I quickly looked away.
“You were, weren’t you?”
“I’m a guy.Sue me.”
“You stilllikeme, don’t you?”
The way she drew that word out irritated me.“Don’t be juvenile.”
“You’re the one staring at my boobs.”
To prove her wrong, I looked her in the eye.“Are you done?”
Her mouth opened, but she hesitated.“I… I’m scared.”
Yeah.I could see why.But that didn’t change the fact that she was using me to not be scared, or to get over her obsession with that— a thousand words flashed through my mind.Almost all of them tied to the ways I hated that man.
The quickest way to failure is to let your emotions cloud your mind.Mario’s voice echoed in my head.Until he met Ellie’s sister, that man lived by those words.
Funny how one blond-headed menace and her twin could change things so quickly.
“El, I know you’re scared.I also know I’m tired of being your punching bag.”
Her eyebrows pushed together in the center.“I’m not punching you.”
