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“You find me amusing?” He didn’t look happy about the possibility.
She grabbed at her self-control and reined in her laughter, humor that had taken on a slightly hysterical twinge. “It’s not you. It’s this situation. Don’t you think it’s funny that you’re standing here asserting rights over me you can’t possibly want?”
“If I assert them, I want them,” was his arrogant rejoinder.
All the humor fled, hysterical or otherwise, and she swallowed the words that would beg him to repeat what he’d just said. He simply could not mean it the way she wanted him to.
“This isn’t about me. This is about David and your reaction to him. You acted like two dogs fighting over a bone back at the Parthenon. Now, you are trying to bury the bone, not because you really want it, but because you don’t want him to have it. Well, I’m not going to stay buried just to please your sense of male superiority.”
She’d spent most of her life in the background and she was tired of it. Why the realization should come now, she didn’t know and she didn’t care. Luciano didn’t really want her. He wanted to one-up David. She wasn’t entirely sure about David’s motives, but that wasn’t the issue. The issue was her life and what she was going to do with it.
The simple answer was live it.
On her terms.
Starting now.
“I’m going back to my hotel. You can have your chauffeur drive me or I can catch a cab, but I’m ready to leave.”
Her determination must have gotten through to him because his jaw tightened, but he nodded. “I will return you to your hotel.”
“There is no need for you to accompany me.”
“There is every need,” he growled.
Since she was getting her way about leaving, she decided not to argue about this. If he wanted to waste his time riding in the limo with her to see her to her hotel, then let him. She was also through trying to protect everyone but herself from being put upon.
The ride back to her hotel happened in silence. Luciano was too angry to talk without giving away the state of his emotions and no way was he going to allow her to know the extent of her effect on him. Shy she might be. Innocent sexually, even. But still she was a woman and emotions were the weapons of choice for the female of the species.
He could not believe the turn the evening had taken. He had thought after their kiss, she would recognize his claim on her. Her assertion that she did not belong to him had both shocked and enraged him. His quiet little kitten had claws and an independence he would not have suspected.
He needed to rethink his campaign. The time limit her grandfather had set was fast approaching. He had to get her agreement soon in order to have sufficient weeks to plan a Sicilian wedding. Anything less would hurt Mamma.
Hope reached out to open the door the minute the car stopped. Luciano allowed her to exit the car without protest, but he followed her.
She turned, her pansy eyes widening when she realized he was right behind her rather than seated safely in the car. She would not get rid of him so easily.
She put her hand out. “Thank you for an interesting evening. The food was wonderful and you could charge admission on the view from your terrace.”
She said nothing about the company and he felt the urge to smile at her spirit in spite of his anger.
He took her hand, but instead of shaking it, used it to pull her into his body, so he could walk her inside. “I will take you to your room.”
Her small body was stiff in his hold. “I won’t argue because it won’t do me any good to tell you I would rather walk alone.”
His lips twisted wryly. “You have said it.”
“And it didn’t do me any good.”
“I would be a poor escort if I did not see you to your door.”
“Cro-Magnon man has nothing on you for primitive.”
“Good manners are the mark of civilization, not the lack of it.”
Her response to that was a disdainful sound that could only be described as a snort.
He led her into the elevator, not displeased by the lack of other guests in the small space. He had indicated to his security team that they should wait outside, so no one was with them to witness her obvious irritation. She was staying on the fourth floor and the ride up in the elevator was charged with silence.
As the doors slid open, he asked, “Which room?”
“Four-twenty-two.” She pointed the way with a flick of her hand.
As they walked to her door, he noticed another one further along the hall opening. Blond hair above glowering masculine features identified the spying neighbor as David, the man from Texas. Hope might not accept Luciano’s possession, but he was determined that David would recognize the fact of it.
