AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“But you did and now I want to understand what you mean.”
“It’s just—” I pull away, yanking the covers up over my naked body, feeling very exposed. “I tried, okay? I tried a bunch of other guys and wanted to do it, but I never could. Then you waltz back into my life, the asshole that broke my heart?—”
“For a very good, unselfish reason,” he mutters.
“—that broke my heart for a stupid reason without evenconsultingme,” I amend, glaring. “And it works. It just works. I don’t understand it.”
He’s quiet for a moment. Watching me, expression unreadable. I wish I could do that Harry Potter thing and blink out of existence and appear somewhere else, or turn into some smoke and fly around like in the movies, but unfortunately, I’m stuck in this bed feeling very exposed and stupid.
“It never worked for me, either,” he says.
“Sorry, what now?”
“I fucked other women. Don’t misunderstand me.”
“Great, thank you for that.”
His lips tug into a small smile. “But it never felt right. It was like… jerking off.”
“Gross. Seriously, Gian?”
“I was only ever with women who wanted something from me. Money, power, status, often just the sex. But there was never that spark like we had.” He pauses, head tilting to the side. “Like we still have.”
“You’re getting ideas. I don’t like it.”
“There’s a reason I took you from Saul. When it was Renzo, I could make excuses. He’s the Don, he’s in charge, but I couldn’t stand seeing you get passed to another one of my brothers. You deserved better. You deserve everything.”
“Gian—”
“I made a deal with you and I will uphold the bargain. But in the meantime, if we want to enjoy being together, there’s no harm in that.”
I shift to the edge of the bed and quickly get up. I feel him staring at my naked body as I grab clothes from the dresser and pull them on. He doesn’t try to stop me.
“The harm is we’re complicating things.”
“No, you’re complicating. I think this is simple.”
“There’s nothing simple here. You broke my heart. You came back and made me an offer. End of story.”
“Actually, we’re mid-story. We have a very long story ahead of us.”
“No. End.” I look at him and it kills me. I hate this. I hate feeling like this. Like I want him so badly but can’t bring myself to trust that he won’t run away the second he gets what he wants.
And he so clearly wants me. It’s painful, and exciting, and I don’t know what to do.
“Come back to bed.”
“I’m going to take a shower.” I walk toward the bathroom, ready to put some distance between us. I need to think about this conversation. He’s not even trying to pretend like he doesn’t want me anymore. It’s clear in everything he does.
“I like the pillows,” he says as I’m closing the door.
That makes me pause. I peer out at him. “What now?”
“The pillows you got for downstairs. The throw pillows you agonized over. I like them.”
“Oh. Really?”
