To fear.
Once we’re outside and around the front of the house, I still don’t release her. Not fully. I keep her body pressed against mine and try to ignore how well she fits against me. She’s on the taller side, which I like more than I should. She’s a decade younger than me, but she’s still a full-grown woman. A woman with curves in all the right places.
Am I seriously thinking about this right now? Jesus Christ.
I give myself a mental kick in the nuts.
“No one is dictating how you should live your life,” I growl close to her ear. “They just don’t want awful fucking shit to happen to you. If you’re not careful, you could get yourself killed, and I’ve made a promise that I won’t let that happen.”
I’ll be goddamned if the little hellcat doesn’t get her teeth around my fingers just enough to bite me. Hard.
“Fuck, woman.” The hissed words are a mix of fury and wonder.
I let her go and shake the smarting hand. She didn’t break the skin, but she was close. My bad for letting my guard down.
Message received.
“You’re assuming an awful lot. You don’t know anything about me,” Terina shoots back at me, her chest heaving with angry breaths.
“I know you well enough to know you always assume everything will work out for the best, and that could get you killed. Do you see how easy it would be for someone to take you? I didn’t even work up a sweat.”
I inch closer until her back is against the stucco exterior of the house, and her eyes have to lift to hold my stare. I place my palms on the wall on either side of her and lean that little bit closer so that my body is inches from hers. “The Russians could pluck you off the street just as easily as I took you from the house. If I were some other man, I might already have my cock buried deep inside you, and there wouldn't be a damn thing you could do about it.”
The ragged scrape of my lust-filled words paints a graphic image. I see it perfectly, and I know she does too, when she draws a shaky wisp of air through her parted lips.
“You’re a real dick, you know that?” she breathes softly. Only problem is, her statement doesn’t carry the insult she intended because the heat in her eyes is no longer fueled by anger. Those mossy irises spark with a totally different kind of heat that stuns me.
Little Terina Donati is turned on by the thought of me fucking her.
Jesus Christ.
That is not information I should possess, and now the notion is seared into my brain. I’ll never be free of the visual.
Doesn’t matter. She’s off-limits, and you’d do best to remember that.
“I know exactly what I am, and if being a dick keeps you alive, I’ll wear the title proudly. Now, get back inside. I think I’ve made my point.”
I slowly draw away from her and wonder if it’s moisture in her eyes or a trick of the setting sun. Surely, it’s the sun. I can’t imagine a woman as headstrong as her would let an ass like me get to her so easily.
“Anyone ever tell you that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar?” She charges past me toward the front door.
I let her go because I don’t need to catch a fly. She’s already in my grasp.
All I need to do is keep her there. Alive and untouched.
Renzo is trusting me to protect Terina, and that should be my sole objective. I will not let him down.
CHAPTER 3
TERINA
Present
Infuriated doesn’t beginto describe how I feel. Frustrated, insulted, homicidal—God, so many emotions—but more than anything, it’s internal conflict that eats away at my insides as I stomp up the stairs to my childhood bedroom.
I want to scream at DiAngelo that I know exactly how serious the danger is. That’s why I don’t want him or anyone else risking themselves on my behalf. I’m not being difficult for the pure joy of it.
I’m terrified.
