I saw him earlier at breakfast, but we didn’t speak the entire time. When I stood to take my plate back to the kitchen, he reached for my elbow. “Have you got a minute?” he asked, but instead of giving him what he wanted, I shrugged out of his hold and kept walking.
“I need to shower,” was my curt reply.
The time to talk was last night before he left me high and dry. I spent the entire night going over that moment inmy head, and I’m still feeling angry, confused but mostly humiliated.
Besides, I’m not interested in what he has to say. It’s obvious these feelings don’t run both ways, which only confuses me more. I can’t make him like me, but I’m also not a plaything he can toy with whenever it suits him.
All he wanted to do was give me a foot massage, why did I have to spread my legs for him like some desperate hoe? I’ve thrown myself at him twice now. I can only imagine what he thinks of me. Did he go down on me out of sympathy?
I swear this man hurts my head at times.
My chest tightens as soon as he glances away from the screen. His dark eyes peruse the length of my body before resting on my face. “You going somewhere?” he asks with a frown.
“Yes.”
He sits up straighter in his seat and lifts Lil’ Peach off his lap. “Where?”
I don’t owe him anything. Not my time, not my attention, nor my forgiveness. He’s not my keeper, my boyfriend, and after last night, I’m not even sure if I could call him a friend. “Out.”
“With who?”
“The girls.”
“What girls?”
“My friends.”
“Names, Emily,” he growls. The arsehole tone in his voice makes me not want to answer, but that stupid submissive side of me won’t allow it.
I lift my chin and inhale a sharp breath of air through my nose before replying, “Lucia and Arabella.”
“Hmm,” he hums, reaching for his phone and starting to type what I can only assume is a message. To whom, I have no clue.
Does he not believe me? Or is he putting plans in place to stop me from leaving the house? He better not.
I’ll always be grateful for him getting me out from under Mick’s hold and giving me somewhere safe to stay, but I think it’s time I started looking for a place of my own. I’m not sure I can stay here much longer.
Dominic’s phone dings a second later, and his frown deepens as he glances at the screen. I don’t stick around to see if he has anything more to say, taking it as my cue to leave.
I pause briefly before leaving the room, but don’t bother turning around. “I’ve made sandwiches, they’re on a plate in the fridge.”
With that, I head for the front door. I’ll wait outside for the girls to arrive.
I’d like to claim I don’t know why I made them lunch, but despite how I’m feeling, looking after Peach and Dominic is one of my favourite things to do.
My sandals crunch softly over the grass as I cross the front lawn and open the back door of the sleek black limousine when it pulls up to the kerb. It’s crazy that people get around like this, but I guess Arabella is the wife of the Don.
I glance to the side of me when a second car stops behind it. Two men step out before the engine has even properly died. They scan the street like we’re in some action movie. Their hands are tucked neatly inside their jackets, eyes skimming over every window and parked car.
The fact that they’re clearly guards should calm me, but their presence does the opposite. Seeing them up close is a reminder of the kind of life these people actually live, the kind where danger is expected and planned for.
It reminds me of the day Mick’s bikie mates came intoLa Riviera and threatened me, and that’s enough to send a chill down my spine.
I’ve been living in a safe little bubble here with Dominic, but the reality is he and his organisation are far more dangerous than the Steel Reapers ever were.
I duck my head as I slip into the back of the limo and take a seat. Arabella is sitting across from me, perfectly composed, like this whole circus is just another normal day for her.
I give her a small wave before my attention shifts to the burly guy beside her, with his arms crossed over his chest. His scowl might be intimidating to most people, but after living with Dominic for the past month, it barely even registers.
