“Ask Dante sometime, if you can, what he thinks about his mother and blackmail,” he said, his voice so intense that I found myself staring at him. Was he referring to Adelaide and his father, or something else? I couldn’t tell, but the words he was saying felt directed at me very pointedly.
I kept steady eye contact with him when I answered, “I’ll do that.”
“Good. Very good. Keep me posted.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY-THREE
PRESENT
I couldn’t seem to help myself. I followed Dante, tracking him down in his room.
I knocked, he didn’t answer, but I could tell he was in there, I heard him moving, so I just opened the door.
It’s a fucked up fact that I can’t resist him when he’s angry. I love it when his fury turns him savage.
I love to watch him fight and rage. Wipe blood from his lip, his eyes seeking me out, the rage in them bleeding harder.
Dante more than anyone knows this about me.
He started shaking his head when he saw me.
I shut the door behind me and approached him.
Licking my lips, I reached up and touched his shoulders.
He flung my hands away. “Don’t touch me!
Nothing he could say would have drawn me to him faster. I was in his space, rubbing against him, completely ignoring his words and concentrating on his body.
“Stay away from me,” he ground out.
I leaned forward and kissed the soft cotton covering his chest.
He backed away, eyes wide.
“You’re freaking out for no reason,” I said calmly. “You’re imagining things. There is nothing going on between Bastian and I. We were just talking. You are overreacting.”
“Why were you huddled so close? Why did he have you backed into the counter like that?”
“We were exchanging sensitive information.”
He moved further out of my reach, going to sit on the edge of his bed. “What information?”
“I’ll tell you when you’ve calmed,” I said, following him. While he watched, I stripped off my shirt, then my bra. I tugged off my thong but left my skirt on.
I straddled him there, standing against him where he sat.
Groaning, he buried his face between my breasts, one hand going to cup my rear under my skirt, the other working at the button of his pants. With jerky movements he freed himself.
He cupped my breasts, pulling me down until I was on top of him, bending to follow my nipples as they sank down out of his reach.
I rode him like that, on the edge of his bed.
After, we fell into a heap and went to sleep.
I woke up curled into his chest, his hand stroking over my hair.
“How long did I sleep?” I asked him.
“A couple hours.”
“I don’t know what I was thinking. I need to get ready for my flight.”
“You’ve got time.”
“Oh? Is it a late flight?”
“Hmm,” he said, and I thought it was an affirmative noise, but I glanced up at him suspiciously. He sighed. “You can’t leave yet. The reading of the will is tomorrow.”
“I’m not staying for that.”
“What if she left you something?”
“If she left me anything, have it donated to that charity she set up for Grandpa.”
No, I wasn’t insane. I just would not, could not, profit off her death.
Sure, I was broke most of the time. I’d lost track of the times I’d spent my last twenty on a tube of M.A.C. lipstick, or maxed a credit card on a cute pair of shoes, but that was my problem and there was no reason someone else should bail me out of it, even if that someone was Gram.
“My God, you are as stubborn as ever.”
“Are you surprised?”
“Not remotely.” He paused. “Tell me about Anton.”
I’d completely forgotten about that. And of course Dante had known his name all along, the fucking stalker. “You’re never going to drop this, are you?”
“Never,” he agreed.
I sighed. It was too ridiculous to keep up the pretense. “He’s just a friend. A good one. Demi called him my boyfriend because she’s a sweetheart and that’s what friends do when one of their girls is locked in a room with her ex.”
He was stroking my hair, kissing the top of my head. “You were messing with me,” he breathed.
“Are you surprised?” I asked him, nearly laughing. Didn’t he know how this fucked up little song and dance went?
“I shouldn’t be, that’s for sure.”
We lapsed into silence, him stroking my hair over and over and, likely because I was sated and sleepy, it soothed me. And I let it.
I don’t know why precisely it came to mind. Because I was feeling vulnerable, I suppose, and spiteful, as usual. Also, we hadn’t talked like we had for the last few days in so long, since before the breakup.
Tiffany was still after him, and I didn’t mind giving him another reason to hate her.
“That day,” I began, my voice small. “When that cop pulled me out of school.” I would not, could not describe it in more detail than that.
He’d gone stiff as a board, but he nodded that he knew which day I meant.
Of course he did.
“I saw her on the way out. Tiffany. I said something to her, because she was the only one I saw. She was supposed to tell you that I was leaving with him. Did she?”
I was only telling the truth and asking a simple question. Had I known it would do some damage?
Well, yes of course. That had been the point.
Had I known he would lose his mind?
No, I actually hadn’t.
But he did. He lost his ever-loving mind.
First he started to shake. Top to bottom, shake.
His trembling hands lifted me off him, he stood, and buck naked, strode from the room.
I didn’t follow him, but when I heard things starting to break, I didn’t have to wonder who was breaking them.
With a sigh I got dressed and went to investigate.
Ah, that made sense. He was in the guestroom Tiffany had been occupying but, lucky for her, she wasn’t occupying it now because as I stood there she approached.
She was holding an ice pack to her nose.
That made me smile.
Bastian was behind her, Leo behind him.
“What the hell is going on?” Leo’s voice boomed through the hallway.
I almost rolled my eyes. “What, did you get interrupted in the middle of screwing one of the maids?” I asked him in a taunting, baby soft voice, “Does that make you grumpy?”
I’d always had a problem with Leo, dating back to childhood when I’d first realized how he treated Dante. Any chance I got, I antagonized him.
Bastian stifled a laugh. I smiled at him.
“You,” Leo hissed. “You’ve been nothing but poison in this family since my mother dug you out of the trash.”
My brows went up. Usually it took more to get a rise out of the old lech. “Yeah, cause otherwise you’re all just a bunch of teddy bears.”
Bastian was outright laughing now.
“Can you two stop bickering and tell me what is going on in my room?” Tiffany butted in.
“That is not your room,” I said, not even looking at her. I was in a hell of a mood, every boom and crash I heard behind the door I guarded was only egging me on. “That is a guestroom that you insisted on staying in, even though no one wants you here.”
“Oh for Christ’s sake,” Leo muttered, striding to the door. “I want to know what’s going on.”
I blocked him, moving to stand in front of the knob. “Dante is having a moment, and everyone needs to leave him the fuck alone.” I looked at Tiffany. “Especially you. Trust me when I say that you don’t want to get near him right now.”