Page 61 of My Ghost

“Not today.”His gaze is dark.“Now, you do as I say.”

I grit my teeth, weighing my options.I could tell him to go to hell.Bet then again, my hunger is gnawing at me, making me almost lightheaded.

He seems to read my dilemma and holds the bite to my lips with a knowing look.

“Open,” he orders in a low voice.

After what feels like an eternity of indecision, I scoff and part my lips to let him push the bite in my mouth.

The crust gives way and the smooth interior flows over my tongue.The flavors explode in my mouth—truffle risotto with melting Parmesan.My eyes flutter shut and I let out a moan despite myself.

“Good girl,” Matteo murmurs hotly into my ear.Then he brushes his finger over my lower lip, as if to catch a stray crumb.I feel a flutter in my belly and squeeze my thighs together to alleviate the fire he ignited with just two words and a touch.

I am in so much trouble.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Erin

Once my belly is full, I shake my head when Matteo holds up another strawberry.He pops it into his mouth then watches me with a pensive look while he chews.

He had alternated between feeding me and taking a bite himself, holding a glass of red wine to my lips between bites.And I had complied.Not because I surrendered.No, my mind had been replaying the events of the last twenty-four hours and I had felt too dazed and untethered to offer any resistance.And also because I was hungry and the arancini were delicious.

Then a thought crashes into my mind and I turn to Matteo so suddenly his hand reflexively tightens around my middle.

“Matteo, we didn’t use a condom.”I gasp, feeling my hands become clammy.

“No, we didn’t.”His reply is clipped and detached.

I gape at him.“Wh-what do you mean ‘No we didn’t’?You… We can’t just—”

“We don’t need any, since you have an IUD,” comes his offish reply.

My brain glitches for a second.“Why— How…how do you even know this?”

His dark gaze pins me with its intensity.“Because there’s nothing about you I don’t know, little ghost.”

My heart drops further and I suddenly need to put some distance between us to clear my head.I push against his chest, but he doesn’t let me go.“Matteo, that’s insane!We still need to use protection, if this…if this happens again…” I trail off, feeling the heat creep up my neck.

His jaw tightens.“Whenit happens again, you mean.”

I open my mouth to argue, but he cuts me off with a low, measured tone.“I’m clean.I’ve always used protection, always.And I know for a fact that you are clean too, because I saw your medical records.”

“You what?”I shriek.My heart is pounding so hard in my chest that I can hear it drum in my ears.“Youhackedinto my medical records?”

“Of course,” he says with a huff, as if I were the unreasonable one.“I need to know everything about you, there’s nothing you can hide from me.”

“Th-that’s insane…you’re insane,” I hiss.

He doesn’t reply, he merely watches me with that unreadable look of his.

This man, he is clearly deranged.I need to break free from his madness, find my normalcy again.

I lean back as far as his tight hold lets me, to look into his face.

“Matteo, I need to get back to work.The clinic…I can’t just vanish.They’ll wonder, and Lily is counting on m—”

“You won’t be going back there,” he snaps.