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He does so without a response and my father is furious. Especially with him already insinuating the marriage ahead of our agreed terms. But as I slowly feel like I’m spiraling into insanity, I really have no choice but to act now anyway.
Members watch on curiously as Luca takes me onto the balcony. Surprisingly there’s only one other person out there puffing on a cigar but the moment Luca locks eyes with them they wisely hightail it back inside. The moment we step away from the glass door and are concealed by the brick wall of the building I push him away.
“I told you no tonight.” I hiss.
“You said no to escorting me. Nothing about me approaching you.”
He’s fucking everything up!
“Are you still mad about this morning, sweetheart.”
“Stop calling me that! We’re nothing to each other.”
“On the contrary. I literally hold your life in my hands. Or should I hand the reins over to your father who wants to sell you off like a mule to a farmer?”
My gaze narrows on him. “If you knew about the matchmaker, then why are you pressing me like this? I made that agreement with my father and with your association it’s just speed tracking the process.”
“Ever heard of applying pressure to someone so they reveal all their cards, sweetheart?”
My mouth shuts because that’s exactly how I feel right now.
“How could you expect me not to walk across the room when I see this.” His hand snatches my wrist raising the bandaged hand. “Who did this to you?”
My mind goes blank. “What? No one did this to me. I did find the cameras you hid as I picked up porcelain pieces from the jaguar you bugged in my office. Then the ones in my apartment as well.”
A smug, arrogant smile spreads on his face and it takes everything in me to lock my arms to my side before I try to break his nose. “It took you long enough to find them, Ara. Is your hand, okay?”
This time I do swing but he expectantly catches my wrist with an even more perverted smile. He is pushing me over the edge purposefully, to see what I’d do as if I were some caged animal. I struggle to free my wrist out of his grip but he’s just too strong. Too overpowering and overwhelming.
“Fuck off, Luca.”
His beautiful and devilish smile spreads as he stares at my lips.
“I don’t know what it is about you, Arabella Barone, but you are devouring my every thought and when you speak to me like that…” I stifle under his touch as his thumb rubs against my bottom lip. “This back and forth game is becoming tiring.”
I’m shocked by his confession. No, it’s a game. It’s always been a game. “I didn’t ask for your attention. I don’t want it.”
“Your little visualization board in your room would say otherwise.”
“That wasn’t a visualization board, dickhea—” My mouth shuts when he begins to chuckle. I realize he’s riling me up. “What about you, Mr. Intensity? You won’t even let me sleep now without breaking into my room. You don’t think I’m exhausted from all the obsessive behavior?”
“Isn’t that what women want nowadays? What do they call it…a cinnamon roll?”
“Okay I’m not even going to ask where you learned that terminology. Stalking, breaking into a woman’s house, sending cut up body parts, and taking her freedom is not the definition of a cinnamon roll. Or any sane man for that matter. I’d take a fucking serial killer over you because at least he wouldn’t fuck with my head as much as you.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Don’t.”
His hand slides over my jaw and my body already responds to him as if he is the very breath that brought it back to life. I step out of it, realizing we’ve already slipped so easily into our toxicity. “Luca, this is impossible and crazy. Don’t you understand, you’re the enemy. We are not allies. We aren’t even friends.”
Too close.
He’s gotten under my skin and breathing him in any longer is poisonous.
“What I do know is that you’re mine. Any other opinion is irrelevant.”
“No Luca. I’m your obsession. If you’re half as smart as you think you are, you’ll start viewing me as anything but yours. You don’t know what a partnership or a relationship is. And it’s not something I can offer. Find an obedient wife elsewhere.”
