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“Dona,” Nari scoffed in disbelief, reminding me of Tobias when I’d told him something was off with Marco’s death. Taking the dress from Helen’s hand, I turned to face Nari and looked deep into her brown eyes.
“Are you laughing at me?” I asked her.
Nari lifted a brow and stood straighter. “No, I just find it hard to believe—”
“That’s your first mistake,” I replied coldly. “Nothing should be too hard for you to believe by now.”
“If there is anyone you can trust, it is Evelyn,” she replied.
I stepped closer, so close I could feel her breath, “Me. Myself. And I. That’s how far my circle of trust goes. I’m almost one hundred percent certain my grandmother wouldn’t do anything to harm us. However, I’m also certain she’s hiding something…when she left here she was on the edge of death and not a word since then. Now, all of a sudden, a man shows up in our house at her request! Why? No answer. Who is he? No answer. What is he doing here? Again, no answer. And I’m supposed to be alright with that? Fuck no. My instincts tell me this is bigger than she’s explaining. How big, I’m not sure. Which is what I plan on finding out… That is, if you are done laughing at me?”
She smiled and nodded, “I apologize if I insulted you, cousin.”
“You’re forgiven, cousin,” I smiled back.
“I’ll see you downstairs.”
“Of course,” I said with the same politeness and she turned to leave without another word. I turned back to the mirror only to see Helen’s brown eyes glaring at me. “Yes?”
“I don’t know what he said to make you so upset this morning,” she said walking over to hand me another outfit. “But it isn’t her fault which means she didn’t deserve that bullshit.”
“Perfect, thank you,” I said, taking the black satin wrap from her hands, ignoring her comment as I held the clothes up. “Black really is my color.”
She didn’t say anything more, knowing I wasn’t going to talk about it. Instead she just picked up her small purse and walked out the door. When it closed, I inhaled deeply, tilting my head to the ceiling. It was so easy for them to see me as the villain, the raging bitch.
“You were
never meant to be the Ceann na Conairte.”
“So why do you keep running head first into the wall?”
“You enjoy the pain.”
His words felt like ants on my skin, crawling all over me and each time I tried to brush them off, they came back. The whole day, all I could think of was him. O’Phelan had let us know he’d gone to sleep; apparently, he was jetlagged. That, plus his odd accent, made it clear he wasn’t from America and had only come here recently. Ethan hadn’t been able to get any information on him. Nor could Helen or even Jackal, which was unheard of. Perhaps my grandmother was hiding who he really was, making him even more dangerous.
He knew everything about us.
He was under my grandmother’s protection.
And we knew nothing about him…for now, I reminded myself. I stripped down, changing into the satin romper, the shorts stopping mid-thigh; it was casual enough that it looked like I didn’t put effort in, but sexy enough to catch his attention…once I had that, I’d see if he “enjoyed the pain”.
Not wasting any time my bed spun around, I grabbed my favorite pair of black heels with gold straps, before heading back to the bathroom. I skipped make-up completely and only put on lip balm. I couldn’t make it too obvious.
Pulling my hair back into a messy ponytail, I only stopped to pick up my cellphone before exiting my room. Just as I stepped out, so did he, dressed in an oversized gray sweater and gray gym shorts that stopped at his knees. He wore vintage round-framed glasses and carried a red book, which he didn’t look up from, as he walked to the elevator. I watched him, stunned, as he waited quietly, getting in when the doors opened. When it began to close, he finally looked up at me.
“You’re a little overdressed, don’t you think?” Just like that, the doors closed and I had no words. Well, that was lie. I had words. Three of them actually.
“Go fuck yourself.”
GABRIEL
Lifting my glasses up, I pinched the bridge of my nose, trying to get the image of her out of my head. Her legs were so bloody long, and that outfit! If it could even be considered an outfit and not just a fucking too-thin robe… I could easily see all the lines of her body.
Well, at least you know you’re attracted to her, I thought, trying to be rational. Lust was good thing. Lust was a good starting point…however, it was just my starting point. I didn’t get that feeling from her yet; all I got was rage. I could work with rage; it was just a step ahead of passion. She needed to be reigned in a little. I’d been warned about her. How Donatella Callahan was like a siren, her beauty so enchanting she drew men in and pulled them to the deep before they’d even realized. I’m sure men before me, lesser men, easily walked into her trap, the thought of being with her was worth the risk of death. I, on the other hand, wasn’t a lesser man nor were her looks worth losing everything I was fighting for. I needed her to get what I wanted; what she looked like was irrelevant…but fuck me, she wasn’t holding back.
“It’s just the first day,” I whispered to myself, stepping off the elevator. I glanced back down at the book I could no longer concentrate on reading. Part of me wanted to try and see how she’d try to trap me in her web, to play her game, but I just didn’t have time for that.
Work first, play later.
