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I eyed him warily. “I’m still feeling resentful that you basically tried to knock me out without my permission, but okay, shoot.”
“How did you find out about the other men?” He eyed me suspiciously.
I swallowed hard. “I... there was a vent in the bathroom wall. I overheard you talking to the resort manager, or whoever that was.”
His jaw clenched. “I see that hearing things not meant for your ears is going to be a habit with you.”
“It wasn’t like I locked myself in the bathroom. You’re the one who put me there,” I reminded him.
“That’s true.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Another in what’s turning out to be a long line of mistakes.”
From a heart beating too rapidly to one that skipped a beat. “What does that mean?”
A clenched jaw and narrowed eyes loomed over me. “It means I’ve made too many mistakes where you’re concerned, Noemi. I’ve let you distract me.”
“Distract you?” I interrupted. “It was your idea to take me on this island-hopping cruise of yours. There are countless different ways we could have fulfilled our contract.”
“Exactly,” he growled. “But I was too caught up in you to think straight.”
Dante leaned over me, forcing my body back against the desk. He braced himself on his arms as he hovered over my bent body. His voice dropped to a near whisper.
“I wanted to show you what it would be like. I had one chance to make you mine, knowing it would only last a short while. I wanted to make you feel what you’d never felt before. I know you didn’t need all of it - the resort, the yacht, the designer clothes - but I needed to give it all to you, and I’ll be damned if I understand why. Just like I don’t understand why you’ve gotten under my skin. You make me careless. You make me sloppy. You make meweak. You don’t understand how dangerous that is.”
“Then explain it to me.”
“I’ve told you not to ask things you don’t really want to know.”
“By your own admission, I know that you’re an assassin. You kill people for money.”
I thought the words spoken aloud would get a reaction out of him, but that was my own naive expectation. He continued to watch me with a blank expression, but as I studied him in return. His clenched fists and squared shoulders gave him away. He wasn’t as removed as he wanted me to believe. His secret was out. He never wanted me to know this much about him. Who would?
“How many people know this about you?” My stomach started to churn.
“Almost none. Michael is a rare exception. Of course, now you know his secret as well. I really wish you hadn’t come looking for me,bambina.”
I was an idiot. I sucked in a breath as the enormity of the situation took hold. A bad dream. This all had to be a bad dream. My mind bounced from one frenzied thought to another as my heart pumped furiously. He was a murderer. He was a friend. He was the hottest man I knew. He was my... lover?
The air around me grew heavy. I don’t know if it was from the heat, or dehydration, or my body’s reaction to my newfound insight into who Dante Calegari really was. When the room started to spin, harshly whispered words came back to me.“He’s not who you think he is. Stay away from Calegari.”
Was I going to faint? People didn’t really faint, did they? I’d never fainted before in my life but Dante’s harshly muttered, “Shit,” brought back another phrase of his. “A lifetime of firsts.”
Strong arms surrounded me as darkness took hold and I fainted for the first time in my life.
