Heat floods through me instantly. My thighs press together as I imagine what he plans to do with these.
Fuck.I'm already wet and he's not even here.
I trace my finger along the smooth metal, thinking about his hands securing them around my?—
My bedroom door flies open.
"Babe! You will NOT believe what Dylan just?—"
Amanda freezes mid-sentence, her platinum hair swinging.
I shove the cuffs behind my back. Too slow. Way too slow.
Her blue-green eyes lock onto my hands. Then the box. Then my flushed face.
"OH MY GOD!" She screams loud enough to wake the dead. "ARE THOSE?—"
I launch myself across the room and clamp my palm over her mouth. "Are youinsane? The whole compound can hear you!"
She mumbles something against my hand, her eyes enormous and gleeful.
"If I let go, will you keep your voice down?"
She nods frantically.
I release her. She immediately whisper-screams, "Are thosehandcuffs? Did your hot Russian fiancé send youhandcuffs?"
"Amanda—"
"Let me see!" She darts around me and snatches the box from my bed before I can stop her. "Oh my God, these aregorgeous. Rose gold? Leather-lined? Vittoria, this man hastaste."
"Give those back."
She holds them up to the light, completely ignoring me. "There's a note. What does the note say?"
"Nothing."
"Liar. Your face is the color of marinara sauce."
I grab for the cuffs. She dodges, laughing, and we end up tangled on my bed, both of us giggling like we're back in our college dorm.
"Fine!" I wheeze, shoving her off me. "Fine. I'll tell you. But you have topromisenot to scream again."
Amanda crosses her heart solemnly, then ruins it by bouncing on the mattress. "Tell me everything. Start from the beginning. Why did he cancel last week? What happened at the dinner with James? Why are you suddenlyengaged? I've been dying, Vittoria.Dying."
I pull my knees up to my chest, the cuffs cool against my palm. "His father is dying. Cancer. He only has days left."
Amanda's excitement dims. "Oh. That's... that's awful."
"Yeah." I think about Dmitri's voice in the car, stripped of its usual confidence. "He told me in the car after he basically kidnapped me from dinner with James."
"Wait,what?"
So I tell her. All of it.
James's smugness, his threats about the Sartori family growing vulnerable. Dmitri appearing out of nowhere likesome avenging angel in a three-thousand-dollar suit. The way he called me his fiancée in front of everyone without asking permission. The confrontation with Pietro afterward.
"And you just... went along with it?" Amanda asks.
