Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 79833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79833 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Feeling Giorgio’s gaze on me, I turn to him and bark out, “What?”
He rides on the back feet of his chair and observes me with a sardonic smile on his lips. “She’s not marrying you because she suddenly fell deeply and madly in love with you.”
“What are you saying?” I snap.
“You lied to us. Loyal to you my ass.” He snickers. “She’s as little loyal to you as Rach is. You’re marrying her to protect her from my father because you want to keep her. Why didn’t you tell us she was pregnant? I’ll tell you why. Because you didn’t want us to know why you wanted to keep her.”
I’m in his face in a second. “Don’t pretend to understand how things work between Anya and me.”
He doesn’t cower. “I don’t because it’s fucked up. What I do understand though is that she doesn’t love you.”
I grab the front of his shirt in a fist. “You don’t know her.”
He watches me with a bold gaze. “I know what she told Rach.”
I let him go, dropping him like a red-hot stone. “What are you talking about?”
“They had a chat at the party last night. Anya said straight out she’s only using you.”
I stumble back a step, taking that piece of information like a knockout punch in the gut. Because I care. And after what she said and did for me last night, waiting up worrying and stitching my cut, I thought she cared too.
“Don’t worry, Sav. Your secret is safe with me. I won’t tell my father our bookkeeper is still a liability because I don’t give a fuck why you’re keeping her. I don’t care if you want her because she gets your dick in a knot or because you want to play daddy for her baby. I agree with you. She saved both our asses. Again. We need her.” He pushes to his feet, bumping my chest like a rooster in a cock fight. “Just watch your back, because she’ll plant a knife into it at the first chance she gets, and when she tries, I’ll finish her no matter for what fucked-up reasons you want her.”
I knock my body against his, sending him back two steps. “You stay the fuck away from her. Any man who touches her is dead. I don’t give a damn who he is.”
He brushes down his jacket and walks around me. “Just keep your eyes open, Sav.”
With that, he’s gone.
I stand there for a moment, bristling with fury that pushes up inside me until it demands an outlet or consumes me whole.
Slamming a fist against the wall, I say, “Fuck!”
The pain that explodes in my knuckles is grounding. I welcome it, using the bite that zips through my bones to find my control.
Anya walks into the office, barely looking at me as she goes to her desk.
I shake out my fingers and take my jacket from the back of my chair. “I’m going out to see someone. Stay here.” I wince as I shove my left arm into the sleeve of the jacket. Fuck. That hurts. “I’ll be back before lunch.”
She meets my gaze with questions burning in hers, but she doesn’t give voice to them.
I cross the distance with determined steps and plant a kiss on the top of her head, inhaling that scent of summer and flowers that feels like home, like a few happy moments buried in the hollow of a tree trunk when chipped glass and the cracked plastic of toy rings were my treasures.
Now, it’s her.
She freezes as if my touch is revolting.
No matter.
I linger, dragging her essence into my lungs.
She exhales audibly when I pull away.
I get it.
She’s angry with me.
Disappointed.
She feels betrayed.
Hell, so do I.
But she’ll get over it just as I will get over what Giorgio just shared.
I walk with long strides from the room and down the corridor, almost crashing into Dante who bounces up the steps.
“Where’s Giorgio?” I ask.
He throws a thumb over his shoulder. “Just left.”
“Keep an eye on Anya. Don’t let anyone near her. I’ll be back in an hour.”
He stops and follows my progress quietly, worry etched on his forehead.
Trusting him to keep Anya safe, I get into the city car I use nowadays to drive Anya around. I don’t use the Corvette any longer. She’s too far pregnant for the small space in the sports car. I had reinforced roll bars installed to prevent the roof from being flattened in case the car rolls in an accident, but the city car is one of the safest models on the market with a hardtop that can withstand a considerable shock. The near-indestructible Volvo I ordered for her will be delivered just after Christmas.
I drive to SoHo and park near the upmarket loft that Archibald James II calls a gallery. I know where he lives because I drove past here a few hundred times when Rachele moved in with him a short week after kicking me out of our house. I fantasized about bombing his place a million times.