Sparing Anthony one final look, I get up from my seat, walk into the bathroom, and start running the shower so he can’t hear.
“What the fuck do you want?”
“When the fuck were you going to tell me?”
“Tell you what?”
“Don’t play stupid, Bella.” There’s a dark edge in his voice. “I know what Nico told you.”
“Then mystery fucking solved.” I rake my hand through my hair. “Why are you calling me?”
“Are you fucking him?”
His voice is dangerously low now. The rough edge of barely contained jealousy in his accusation makes him soundhot. And just like that, wet heat starts pooling between my legs again.
Maybe it’s the recklessness still burning in my veins. Maybe it’s my own hot jealousy at the nameless woman whose handwriting is in Slava’s safe. Or maybe it’s that self-destructive impulse Ican’t control whenever I’m around him urging me on, but I hear myself say:
“So what if I’m fucking him?” I clench my jaw. “What’s it to you? You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
Slava falls silent on the other end, and I can practically see him brooding in my mind. Is he pacing restlessly in front of those floor-to-ceiling windows, shirtless and pissed off? Are his hands opening and closing by his side? Is he imagining his fingers wrapping around my throat until I confess the truth that I’m not fucking Nico D’Ambrosio?
Then Slava speaks, and his voice is as cold as ice. “Is that why you’re going to the yacht party? To fuck Nico?”
Yacht party? What yacht party?But I don’t back down now, not after all these accusations.
“Yeah, that’s exactly why I’m going.”
The lie trips off my tongue like I was born for this, like antagonizing dangerous men is my calling. My heart is hammering so hard I can feel it in my throat.
“Nico’s going to send a car for me, and I’m going to let him fuck my brains out every way a mancanfuck a woman. And if you’re so fucking interested, I’ll even let him record him fucking me so you won’t miss a fucking thing.”
“You’re not going to that party,” he growls. “Not with Nico, and definitely not alone.”
“The fuck I can’t.”
“Because you’re going with me.”
“Excuse me?”
“And if I see Nico so much asthinkabout touching you when we’re there.” His voice is heavy and strained now. “I’m going to cut off his hands and make you wear them around your neck.”
Then, he hangs up.
I sit there in the sudden silence, phone pressed to my ear, the dial tone the only sound in my empty apartment.
Holy shit.
Holy fuck.
I set the phone down with trembling hands and press my palms against my flushed face, trying to process what the fuck just happened. Slava threatened to cut off Nico’s hands because he thinks Nico is fucking me.
He’s completely, absolutely, and totally jealous.
And so am I.
But that means?—
No.I shake my head violently and swallow.Don’t go there.
