A dark and unwanted feeling slithers uncomfortably into my veins at the wordnobody, and I shake my head to clear it before I grab Anastasio by his collar to beat seven shades of shit out of him.
He notices my agitation and slows his words. "He’ll start a war for her, and he’ll hurt her to get to you."
The feeling coils around my heart until it burns into a living thing. Blood rushes at my ears and I think about the cop whodared to put his dirty hands on Lydia earlier tonight. “People already tried to hurt her.”
“Care to explain what happened?” Anastasio leans back.
“No.”
“Cazzo,” he swears. “You’re really going to start a war for this girl.”
“That’s the idea.” I take a long sip of my scotch, but I can still taste Lydia on my tongue.
Before Anastasio can interrogate me any further, the office door opens. Giorgia comes in without knocking with her apron clutched in both hands.
"Nicolas,” she says. “Your guest has found a way out of her room."
“What?” I look at her in surprise. “How?”
“She apparently ripped the bedsheets into a makeshift rope, and is now somewhere on the grounds.”
I don’t know whether I should be pissed off or genuinely impressed.
I pull out my phone and pull up the security system’s video feed. Cycling through the cameras, it doesn’t take me long to find Lydia. She’s running deeper onto the grounds of the mansion, probably thinking that there’s another way out without realizing that what’s there is almost two miles of thick woods.
Normally, I would let her run. But after tonight, I’m not willing to take that chance with her out in the dark.
I need to get her. Running my tongue over my teeth, I feel a dark excitement thrumming through my body at the thought of chasing Lydia down.
"Thank you, Giorgia,” I say. “Please prepare a new set of beddings. I have a fiancée to bring home."
Lydia istwenty feet ahead of me as I give chase. When she hears me, she runs faster, but I know it won’t matter.
I know this property in the dark better than I know my own face, and she doesn’t.
Blood rushes in my ear as I chase, and excitement fills my heart with every step.Yes, piccola, run. Run as far and as fast as you can. But it won't fucking matter, because I will catch you. And when I do, I'll never let you go.
She turns in time to see me closing the gap. That’s when her foot catches on a gnarled root and she falls back. My hand shoots out to grab her wrist.
It's enough to steady her, but not enough to prevent gravity from dragging both of us down to the ground.
We fall into the wet mud and a small sound of surprise punches from her throat. She looks up at me with those eyes, unmistakably green even in the dark. My weight settles between her legs and fire burns through my veins when I do.
Her face is flushed from running, and her hair is plastered to her forehead in messy strands. She parts her lips, and I catch sight of the pink tip of her tongue darting out for just a moment.
Even with hate and defiance in her eyes, she's impossible for me to look away from.
Maybe it's because of the hate in her eyes that I can't stop looking at her.
I become aware of just how little space there is between us, how completely my body covers hers, and how fuckinghoteverything feels right now.
“Get the fuck off me!”
Her hands reach up to claw my face, but I catch and pin them beside her head. She lets out a snarl of frustration, and struggles underneath me. But I refuse to let her go.
We lie there, face to face in the dark, breathing in the same air and staring into each other’s eyes.
I want to crush my lips against hers, slide my tongue into her mouth to swallow her moans, before I rip away her clothes right now and fuck her in the mud. After how wet she got for me earlier, I know that there is a part of her that not only will let me do it, but wants me to do it.
