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His mouth flattened. “I told you not to mess with Franco or his crowd.”
“I wasn’t. I was avoiding him. Th
en Evangelina went off to talk to someone and he just swooped in.”
“What did he say to you?”
She frowned. “Something just seemed off in the way he was looking at me. I told him I wanted to go, but he wouldn’t let me... He started touching me. He said it wasn’t a crime to look at another man’s wife. That—” her chin dipped “—you were a smug bastard who should learn to share.”
Black heat shimmered in his eyes. “He said that?”
“Sì.” Her stomach clenched at the sudden stillness in his tall, lean body. “I’m sure it was all, what do you Americans call it? Bravado?” she said hurriedly. “That I was overreacting. I—I saw Silvio in my head. I went back to the night he hit me and I froze. I told myself to walk away, to come find you, but my legs wouldn’t work.”
The aggression in his gaze softened. “It’s common for a person put into a threatening situation to freeze. To shut down.” He shook his head. “It’s my fault. I should never have left you alone with this crowd.”
He wrapped his fingers around hers. “Let’s go.”
She followed him out of the tent. Balked when he headed toward the exit. “I don’t want to ruin your evening. I’ve already caused enough problems between you and Franco.”
“Franco and I already had issues. And you did not cause that scene. Franco did.” He put a hand to her back and propelled her through the crowd. “I was coming to find you to leave.”
The lights of Capri glimmered around them as they rode the glass elevator up to their penthouse suite. She started to feel silly as she studied Nate’s grim face. She had totally overreacted. Franco hadn’t really been a threat. He’d been trying to push Nate’s buttons. Hers. And she had let him.
Nate was probably wondering what in Dio’s name he’d signed on for with her.
“You okay?”
She sighed. “I feel like you’re always rescuing me. You must think I’m some kind of damsel in distress who can’t take care of herself.”
He shook his head. “This was my fault tonight, Mina.”
“No. It’s just—” She bit her lip. “I’m not normally like this.”
“What are you normally like?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Self-sufficient. Strong. I was eight when I was sent to that boarding school in France. I didn’t speak the language. I was brutally lonely. I learned to be a survivor.”
“You are,” he pointed out. “You could have allowed yourself to be a victim with Silvio. You could have married him and suffered a lifetime of abuse. But you didn’t. That took guts.”
She nodded. It’s just that she hated that person she’d been tonight. Hated everything being so out of her control. That she couldn’t seem to trust her instincts anymore.
“You’ve had your life turned upside down over the past forty-eight hours, Mina.” Nate rested his gaze on her face. “Cut yourself some slack. You need to honor your fear as well as put it behind you when you’re ready.”
He was right. She knew that.
“Have you ever considered taking martial arts?”
She frowned. “I’m not sure it’s my thing.”
“You should consider it. It’s very empowering for a woman to learn how to defend herself.”
“Do you do it?”
He nodded. “Karate.”
“How good are you?”
“A black belt. But you don’t have to be skilled to defend yourself. You just need to know the basics.”
