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“You mistake me for someone who cares.”
The furball jumps onto the bed and starts rubbing his head against my leg, purring like a goddamn engine.
“Ah, red? Your cat is molesting me. Get it off the bed.”
Scarlet turns back over and holds up her wrist. The rope burns my skin as she pulls on it. This was a bad idea.
“I would love to help you, but you see, I am tied to a fucking moron.”
My patience snaps. Pulling hard on the rope, I yank her, so she falls awkwardly on top of me, her face a mere centimeter from mine. The cat scurries off the bed and into the bathroom.
“Listen up, red,” I hiss. “I have had it with that smart mouth of yours.” Her eyebrows crease with obvious annoyance. “In case you have not realized, I am a bad man. A bad man that does terrible, gruesome things to people, and I have not slept in two fucking days. Are you following me?” She narrows her eyes further but doesn’t reply, so I flip her onto her back, and now it’s me on top, my weight crushing her.
“I asked you a fucking question?” I growl, watching her face turn red. She can’t breathe properly like this, so I don't expect her to answer me verbally. After a few seconds, she nods. Defeat floods her eyes as the tears well and then spill down her face.
“Good.” I lift myself up a little to take some weight off her, and she immediately lets out a long exhale. “Now, I am going to untie you, close the curtains, and come back to bed. You will not move; you will not speak. Am I clear?”
“Crystal,” she bites out, pursing her lips.
Quickly untying her from me, I get off her and draw the curtains. It doesn’t block out all the natural light from the room, but it’s enough. I pick up the cat and put him in the bathroom closing the door so the stupid fleabag can’t annoy me anymore. When I get back into bed, Scarlet has her back turned, but I can hear her small sniffles. I should feel like a dick about how I treated her because no woman deserves that, but I need her to learn her place. If she gets all lippy with Nicolai when we get back to New York, he will not have the same patience or leniency as I do.
I wrap an arm around her waist and pull her back towards me so we are spooning. She sucks in a breath, and her whole-body tenses, but she doesn’t argue. I retie her wrist, so once again, she is bound to me.
“Before you get any ideas, red, this is just so you don’t go anywhere,”I tell her, but again she doesn’t bite back as she has been. Good, she has finally listened. Her damp hair is in my face, so I sweep it to the side a little, catching a slight sweet smell of strawberries. This feels so intimate, so foreign, but so damn comforting all the same. Ican’t remember a time I have embraced a woman that I hadn’t just fucked.
After a few minutes, Scarlet’s body slowly relaxes, her breathing evens out, and we both fall asleep.
Twelve
Scarlet
I woke to a heavy weight around my waist and quickly remembered that weight is Luca. I have been lying here for what feels like hours listening to every inhale and every exhale he makes, praying it would be his last.
Hate is a powerful emotion. It awakens something inside of you that you never knew you were capable of feeling. Even though we loosely throw the term around, ‘I hate you, or I hate them,’ rarely do we really mean it. Dislike, yes, but not truly hate them. For example, I don’t like peas, but I would not necessarily go out of my way to ruin them. I just choose not to eat them. Hate is so much stronger than dislike. It fills a person with rage, loathing, and so much despise that you would do things you wouldn’t ordinarily do. Like, destroy that thing you hate.
Well, I hate Luca Valsetti with a passion. Even if it means my death, I will destroy him.
I have had time to digest and reflect over the last twenty-four hours, and I should be dead. The only reason I am alive is because Luca believes that I have somehow managed to set something up, so in my death, the Valsetti family will go down.
Lies. All lies.
Honestly, I didn’t say it to stop him from killing me. I wanted him to suffer. I wanted him to be scared, just like he makes everyone else. To walk around on edge like I had been because of him, not knowing when or if his past actions would catch up to him. It was meant to be his punishment. Well, that backfired on me, and I’m screwed. He will take me to Nicolai, and I will most likely be tortured instead of the quick death I’d prefer.
If I close my eyes and not think about who is holding me right now, it would be comforting. The warmth of Luca’s body cocooned around mine feels oddly safe and calming. He holds me as if he was holding a lover. Relaxed, yet at the same time possessive.
Looking down at his arm, I inspect his tattoos. Snakes weave around bloomed roses. Skulls intertwined in vines with razor-sharp thorns. Numbers that look like coordinates for somewhere. Angel wings and a cross. I don't know what any of it means, but it has all been so intricately placed that it must mean something to him.
Pumpkin starts scratching on the bathroom door and meowing to get out, causing Luca to stir behind me. His hand splays over my stomach, making his thumb scrape the bottom of my breast. It’s not deliberate. I can tell by the evenness in his breathing that he is still asleep. A few moments pass before he buries his head into my neck and inhales with a grown. His arm tightens around me as he pulls me closer to him. That’s when I feel his hardness behind me. I sit up abruptly and punch him in the stomach.
“Ow!” he grunts, his eyes blinking open. “What the fuck, red?” He sits up, holding his stomach, glaring in my direction. My glare of disgust back should say it all, but judging by his confused look, I’m going to need to spell it out for him.
“You have an erection and rubbed yourself against me, you filthy pig!”
To my utter surprise, Luca laughs. The devil laughs at me.
“It’s not funny,” I snap at him, throwing the blanket back and getting out of bed. “You're disgusting. I need a shower. I feel dirty all of a sudden. I storm to the bathroom opening the door and slamming it behind me. I still hear him chuckling from behind the door.
“Didn’t pick you for a prude.” He laughs. “For fuck’s sake, woman. Have you not heard of a morning wood before?”
