AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter Eight
- Sebastian -
Icouldn’t let anothernight go by without her near me. I’d relived the night we spent in my home in Connecticut every night for over three months. My head never hit the pillow without the image of her black hair fanned across the bleach white of the pillowcase.
I couldn’t look at a fireplace without remembering the way the light from the flames had licked across her skin.
She’d ruined my sleep; ruined my train of thought and my plans for revenge. Lilly Calegari had ruined my life, and she lived her life with no fucking clue, while I lived every day knowing every detail of how miserable she’d been. I couldn’t take the credit for all the events that had made the last three months hell for her, but I certainly had laid the foundation for it.
That was the point the whole time, wasn’t it? Decimate Lilly and her emotions so I could then destroy Gabriel.
Things hadn’t exactly gone as planned. Oh, I knew how attracted to her I was. I’d known that before I ever met her in person. I was not prepared tolikeher or to enjoy her company. Fuck her and leave her, was the plan.
So far, I’d only accomplished the first task because, despite the time lapse, I’d never really left her. I kept tabs on Lilly. I knew all about the demons she’d faced, about her solitude, and about how hard she had worked to get her business off the ground.
I knew there was a period of about four weeks where she never left the fucking house. Not. Once.
Could have been my fault. Maybe Gabriel wasn’t taking any chances, but the word from my intel was that something else had occurred in the Calegari household, and I was the last of Gabriel’s worries at that time.
That “something” made him leave town frequently that month. Made Lilly spend days in tears in her bedroom. Apparently, it was bad enough that it made Dante Calegari disappear. Dante’s absences were frequent and for extended periods of time, but for some reason, this excursion of his was different. His absence had rocked his family.
And then the clincher came: the lovely Noemi disappeared as well. With all these Calegaris turning into Houdinis all the sudden, my treachery had been pushed to the wayside. I had to do something to get their attention.
That something was still in my arms as I reached for the handle to barely turn it before kicking the door to my suite open.
Lilly gasped loudly as the door banged into the wall and bounced back to hit me in the arm.
“Well, now, Rhett,” she laughed in what I thought she intended to be a southern accent.
Only I wasn’t in the mood to play.
At least, not that type of play.
I set Lilly on her feet as gently as my overexcited libido would let me. She was still laughing, a beautiful sound that sang to my soul, bringing the smallest amount of light into its darkness. I cupped her face in my hands, searching her expression for the answers I needed...for permission to be myself...She already thought I was a liar, but there was never anything more honestly raw than what I felt for her at that moment.
Lilly stopped laughing and met my gaze. She tilted her head to study me, her expression morphing as her eyes clouded. She covered my hands with hers.
“I should be angry with you,” she whispered.
I tipped my head down and traced her lips with mine. “But you’re not.”
She sighed and leaned towards me. “No. Not at the moment.”
This was the moment. I had desires...certain things...experiences I wanted to share with her. I believed I knew how she would respond, but one ever knows for sure. I’d be able to tell. I could read her. Her eyes would tell me everything, even if words failed her. She’d either meekly accept, or she’d tell me to fuck off.
“You might change your mind in a minute. I have something for you.”
I walked to my bedside table and took a black velvet box out of the drawer. Lilly watched me through narrowed eyes.
When I approached her with the box, her eyes lit up, but she also looked doubtful.
“A gift for your prisoner?”
“A gift for you, if you choose to accept it.”
“Why wouldn’t I accept it? I haven’t turned down many gifts in my life, especially when they come in a velvet box from...”
Lilly took the box I handed her. “From Lady M? I’ve never heard of her.”
