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“You checked all the right spots,” he says, his grip flexing on my wrists. He leans down, his warm breath fanning over my face as he draws his tongue along the corner of my ear. A stirring in my stomach starts as my skin sparks fire. “Except, you forgot to check under the bed, don’t you know that’s where all the monsters hide, Enzo?”
My heart is going ninety miles an hour and it feels like there’s a tornado in my stomach.Thisis why it's hard for me to stay mad at Maximo. The emotions he stirs in me are too powerful, too strong to be ignored no matter how pissed I am. It’s why I’ve done my best to avoid being in any compromising positions with him lately.
It's my turn to lick my lips, trying to ignore the way Maximo’s own are still too close to my skin. “Grown men don’t hide under beds, Maximo.” I try to make the remark biting but it’s ruined by the way my breath catches when Maximo starts running his fingers down my right wrist.
“They do when their prey is trying to hide from them.”
I close my eyes, inhaling a deep breath before I push myself upward, reversing our position as I pull my wrists away from Maximo and lock my hands against his shoulders, rolling us. I settle my weight down onto his hips as I stare down at him. I capture his wrists, pushing them above his head.
He doesn’t look the least surprised or bothered by the change of position. In fact, he looks quite comfortable. I can already feel him growing hard under me.
I shake my head. “You see that’s the problem, Maximo, you think of this thing as a predator and prey situation instead of giving it a real title, a serious title.” Another thing that has been grating at me. I was hurt by the physicality of Maximo attacking me, but the fact that he still wants to downplay what we have, treat it as water when it’s blood…
Nothing can hurt worse than that.
His jaw clenches and he tries to pull his wrist from under my grip but I don’t let him, pressing down harder. “Are we back to this, Enzo?”
“We never left it.”
His gaze moves away from me.
“You can’t even handle the intensity of this conversation and we haven’t gotten into the real issues,” I point out. “I told you I love you and you found that more offensive than the fact that you nearly killed me.”
He scoffs, “Enzo, if I wanted you dead, you would already be decaying by now.”
I release his wrists and watch as he relaxes until I strike him right in the face.
His lips part and he looks up at me, blinking even as his cheeks turns red. “You punched me.”
“And I’ll do it again,” I tell him, narrowing my eyes. I’ve never put my hands on Maximo outside of sex in a violent way, and only on the rare occasion that Maximowantedthe violence from me. I know the trauma of his past, of all the pain and violence that his father, and now Giovanni, has caused him and I know it’s a limit for him, people close to him physicallyhurtinghim. Which is why I’ve never done it, no matter how pissed he makes me.
Until now.
I don’t want to see the hurt in his eyes so I move my gaze away from him as I climb off of him. I stare out of my window, folding my arms over my chest. “Get the fuck out, Maximo, before you force me to do something we’ll both regret.”
Maximo is strong, powerful, smart as a whip when it comes to fighting. But he’s not a match for the training I have from the military. We both know I’d win in a clean, hand to hand fight.
I continue to look away from him, even as I hear the creak of the bed as he stands.
It’s my mistake.
I should have known Maximo would never go quietly.
His body slams into mine, drawing all the air out of my lungs from the impact of his shoulder t-boning my chest.
I stumble backwards, my head smacking against the wall behind me. I try to catch myself and I’m just settling in, managing to remain on my feet, when Maximo comes barreling at me again.
His eyes are on fire and from the hard set of his shoulders, I know he means business. I get my hands up, grabbing onto his shoulders before he can ram into me again. With a clenched jaw, I shove him away from me, right into my nightstand.
Glass goes flying as my lamp is knocked off, clattering to the ground. Maximo lets out a swear as he hits the ground, one of his hands landing right in the shards of glass.
A pang rings through my chest.
Swallowing, I move over to him slowly. I know I shouldn’t be upset with myself, I warned him not to keep pushing me. But still, I find myself kneeling down next to him.
“I’m sorry, Maximo.” I reach for his hand, blinking in surprise when I feel something cool and hard wrap around my wrist. In shock, I look down at my wrist and the cuff wrapped around it but Maximo is already yanking roughly onto the other end of the cuff and snapping it closed around the railing of the bed.
His lips twist to the side as he stands up.
