Page 31 of The Mafia’s Girlfriend

Despite all my reasons not to, I wanted her too damn badly.

She’d burrowed under my skin so stubbornly, but I vowed, right here and now, to avoid her at all costs. At the Tropican. At any clubs we ran into each other. Everywhere.

She had no business being in my life and I damn well had to start acting like it.

Chapter 12

Emma

I thought the second week at the Tropican was hard, trying and failing not to notice Luke. The third week—all these tortuous days after I kissed him in the alley—was infinitely harder.

Because now I knew.

Tormenting myself with the memory of how well he could turn me on and drive me insane, I sought him out again.

I didn’t have to wonder what his hard lips could feel like as he demanded a brutal kiss. I could replay the sensation in my mind.

I no longer fantasized about how gritty and urgent his hands would seem on my skin. I could think back and relive the experience mentally.

It wasn’t enough. The more I thought about him, the less confident I was in my ability to stay rational.

Just like the first two weeks here, Krista and I hung out at the Tropican. Lounging at the pool, lying out at the beach, and walking along the shore. We ate at the restaurants on site, but we stayed out of the clubs. In other words, we were right here. Available.

He remained elusive, though, either working less hours or going out of his way to avoid me. When I did spot him in the distance, he turned and headed in a different direction. If I saw him talking with another member of the staff, I lingered until they left altogether.

“You’re clinging.” Krista smirked, not looking up from scrolling on her phone while we lounged by the pool. We’d given in and turned them on after that fight at the club. If my father didn’t know that we were at this resort before then, he’d be able to piece it together now.

“I’m not clinging,” I sassed back at her, furrowing my brow when Luke turned and headed in a different direction.

“Okay. You wish you could be clinging to him.”

I sighed. “I think he’s avoiding me.”

“Correct.” She set her phone down. “Are you that bad of a kisser?”

I gaped at her. “Hey.”

“Well, you are a virgin,” she teased.

“Oh, that’s a low blow.”

“Bet you can’t say that you’d be too high and mighty to stoop to sleeping with the hotel staff now, huh?”

I flipped her off.

“You can’t doubt that he would want you.”

“What?” I damn near screeched it. “He’s been avoiding me all week.”

She pursed her lips and shrugged. “Maybe it’s a male version of playing hard to get.”

I was hard to get, namely because I “belonged” to Antonio. I shouldn’t be on the market to be gotten. When Luke kissed me and shoved my back up against that wall, though, he’d taken charge to show me how much he intended to have me then.

At least, how much he intended to have my lips. In his kiss, I felt all the need and desire he contained. If Krista hadn’t interrupted when she had...

“He told me to go away.”

“Bah.” She waved me off like I was ridiculous. “A man doesn’t take on someone like that street fighter without wanting you.”