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She was trying to needle him. A thought flashed through his mind that maybe there was some part of her that wanted to go sliding off the damn roof. And maybe she wanted him to hurt her. She was a weird mixture of contradictions, and he was a simple guy.
"Just stay inside," he said firmly and simply. "Let's start with that."
Unexpectedly Nice
Ouch.
Gemma's rear was burning, but she wasn't mad about that. She was confused. Bobby had seemed actually concerned about her being in danger, which made no sense given he was supposed to be an entirely remorseless, emotionless, cruel, and sadistic little bastard.
There was nothing little about him. He towered over her, his legs long and his expression inscrutable. She wondered if he'd always looked like this or if Angelo had somehow infected him the way powerful men seep into others.
"Fine," she said. "I've never been a prisoner before. I didn't know the rules. I'm sorry."
Bobby snorted at her. She liked how he looked right now. Sort of amused, and sort of caring, and… she really had to ensure she didn't start falling for him. Certainly not within mere hours of meeting him. That would be the sort of thing silly women with no personal direction did, and Gemma liked to think she had oodles of personal direction.
She tried to get up, but Bobby shook his head.
"No," he said. "Stay down."
"On the floor?"
"Angelo gave you to me as my pet," he said. "I think I'll treat you like one."
Wow. He was really fucked up and twisted. The prospect of treating her like an animal seemed to genuinely excite him.
"What are you smiling about?" Bobby asked the question when Gemma failed to freak out.
"Just that this isn't the worst date I've been on."
"This isn't a date," Bobby said, though a smile teased the corner of his mouth. "What kind of dates have you been on, if almost throwing yourself off a roof, having your ass beat, and being treated like an animal doesn't count?"
"Once, I spent fifty minutes listening to a guy tell me all the ways his ex annoyed him. Every single second of every single minute felt like an eternity."
"Why did you stay?"
"I didn't want to be impolite."
"So that's what it's like to be a normal person," Bobby laughed. He sat down on the bed which occupied the room in a manner Gemma suddenly found very suggestive.
"Being normal is awful," Gemma agreed.
Nothing would ever be normal again; she knew that much. Having been sucked into the world of Vitali meant being forever changed. She could feel it in her bones and smell it in the wind.
"Are you hungry? I'm hungry," Bobby declared. "Do you want a sandwich?"
"Yeah, for sure."
"Come on," he said. "Let's eat."
He stood up and crooked his finger at her, something in his dark gaze making her feel very warm inside. She had expected to be terrified, humiliated, and ashamed. She had been some of those things for sure, but she was more than that. She was… what was the word? Connected. With Bobby Vitali, of all people. Kind of the last guy she'd ever thought she'd have anything in common with.
She couldn't forget that he was the enemy. Even if he was now the enemy making her a PB&J in a country kitchen which was absolutely gorgeous, with shining copper pans hanging on a brick wall and old cabinets restored with care.
"This is a really nice house. We didn't know anything about this place," she said conversationally, shifting uncomfortably on the barstool at the kitchen counter as her ass throbbed.
"I doubt you know much of anything about anything," Bobby said, slathering bread with condiments. "Angelo is always fifty steps ahead of everybody. There's no way to beat him."
Gemma gave a little shrug. Maybe that was true. Maybe it wasn't. Bobby believed it, though; that much was obvious. They weren't really a couple, Angelo and Bobby; they were more like master and apprentice who happened to also be lovers. She doubted they did dates, or talked about having a family, or took pictures of themselves and put them on the wall. There was none of that going on here.
"Here," he said, cutting the sandwich in half. "You can have the bigger piece. You look hungry. I bet Willow doesn't feed you."
Then and there, Bobby Vitali revealed a secret about himself that almost nobody on the planet knew. He was sweet. He was considerate. And he might even have been nice.
Just You And I
"So," Angelo said. "It is just you and I, Miss Willow."
"Lady Willow," Willow corrected. Formalities still held sway, even in this backwoods lair. The blood of kings ran in her veins, and she wanted Angelo to remember that fact. She and Digby were noble, and nobility did not forget, not for generations. However he crossed her now - whatever indignities he made her suffer and whatever pain he inflicted would be visited on him many times over.
