Page 49 of The Savage

Staring at his mouth is sinful. Staring at his mouth is sinful.

I repeat the words over and over until it sticks. Until I feel stable enough to pick up the porridge bowl. ‘Would you like some more?’

He shakes his head, his head sagging against the pillows even as his eyes pierce me, moving over my face with rabid intensity I can’t dismiss. ‘Food isn’t what I crave now, angel.’

I stand abruptly, brushing crumbs from my lap. ‘I need to… I need to shower.’

He opens his mouth, already smirking. I cut him off.

‘I’m not showering in your room. I would rather stink.’

His grin is feral. ‘You’d still smell better than holy water.’

I stare, lips parted, caught between outrage and something uncomfortably close to laughter. ‘Signore, I’m beginning to think you’re pazzo.’

He shrugs. ‘I’m Sicilian, pazzo is our middle names,’ he says, as if that explains everything. ‘And you should drop to your knees right now and pray for forgiveness for calling God’s child crazy.’

‘Have no doubt, I will be praying for your soul. But I’m still not showering in this room.’ While you lie mere feet away. The very thought of it sends shivers all over my spine.

When I don’t move, his amusement fades. His expression hardens to something colder, more deliberate.

‘Fine.’ He picks up the phone on the table and presses a button. ‘Doctor.’

It takes less than a minute for the man to appear, clearly out of breath.

‘I want her escorted to the nearest empty room,’ Renzo says, his tone suddenly pure command. ‘She wants a shower. Bring two nurses and two of the security men with you.’

The doctor blinks. ‘Of course, Signore.’

Renzo fixes him with a look that could carve marble. ‘And make sure she comes back soon and in one piece… or else… Do I need to go on?’

The silence that follows is heavy, absolute. Even the machines seem to hesitate.

The doctor nods so quickly it’s almost a bow. ‘Subito, Signore.’

He hurries out.

I swallow hard, torn between fury and disbelief. ‘You can’t keep threatening people like that.’

He leans back against the pillow, studying me through hooded lashes. ‘Sister, I’ve spent my entire life doing exactly that. If there’s a heaven and a hell, I know which one I’m destined for.’

The worst part is, I believe him.

I fold my arms, wishing I could fold the world back to the way it was this time yesterday, instead. ‘And you mean to keep me prisoner while you throw your weight about?’

‘I mean to treat you like the most precious thing in my life. Even more precious than my Furia racing car. And that machine is a sexy thing of sublime beauty.’

‘You’re a terrible man.’

He smiles lazily. ‘And yet, you haven’t plastered yourself into the corner of the room or shrieked like a banshee. Or even tried to kill me in my sleep. I take all that as a sign of extreme progress.’

I don’t answer, because I don’t know how.

When the door opens again, and the doctor returns with two guards and the nurses, I let them usher me away, the weight of his gaze following me like a brand and his ‘hurry back, baby’ beating a pulse in my ears and in… other parts of my body I’m deeply ashamed to acknowledge.

* * *

Renzo