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Chapter Twenty
- Sebastian -
While Dante sat andNoemi fussed, I had one advantage they didn’t: the code to the lock on Lilly’s door.
When she stepped through the steam that preceded her out of the bathroom like a theater curtain opening on the star of the show, I was sitting in the ugly black leather chair to greet her. She wore her towel turban like a crown when she saw me, paused, rolled her eyes, and walked into the closet.
I smiled at her disdain. Leaning on the doorjamb, I watched as she rifled through the clothes I’d bought for her. She didn’t say anything as she shuffled through the racks and finally settled on a black velour tracksuit. Completely ignoring me, Lilly dropped her towel. I sucked in my breath as she walked proud and naked around the closet, selecting a lacey black bra and panty set from the lingerie chest before taking her sweet time slipping into it.
“I understand why you’re angry with your family, Princess, but I have to admit I wasn’t expecting to be included in the final ‘you suck.’”
She looked at me over her shoulder. “Help me with this.” She pulled her long, damp hair aside and backed up. With the other hand, she held her bra in place while the clasps dangled loosely down her back.
I started to do her bidding, but instead of hooking her bra, I cupped her shoulders and pulled her backwards against my chest.
“Talk to me, Lilly. I told you my secret. Isn’t it time you shared yours? If you don’t, you’re no better than them, are you?”
Lilly stiffened in my arms, but she didn’t move away. I massaged her shoulders. My lips settled into the crook of her neck, and I kissed her lightly, softly, inhaling the perfect clean scent of her.
“I don’t have any secrets, Sebastian. I’m an open book. What you see is what you get.”
“That’s a lie,” I whispered against her skin. “What I saw the first night I met you was the stereotypical Italian spoiled princess. She was so fucking hot I was willing to suffer her rotten personality to get the chance to fuck her.”
She tilted her head, allowing me further access to her throat, an invitation I wouldn’t pass up.
“Even that woman was a surprise to me. She wasn’t partying and whooping it up in the crowd. She was cozied up to the bar with her friend, not dancing under the lights like she was the center of attention. You put on a good show, but when the chance came to put it all aside, you wanted coffee and a walk in the park. You might like the clothes and the jewels, but the woman I fucked that night wanted someone else to call the shots. She wanted what I wasn’t ready to give, donuts and coffee in the morning. Sweet nothings whispered in her ear.” I ran my lips over the shell of her ear, and she shivered. “She wasn’t the vacuous waste of air I expected her to be.”
“Gee thanks. Is there a point to all this?”
I turned her in my arms, pinning her half naked body against mine. “The point is that you can’t hate us for our lack of transparency when you’ve been living the exact same lie, pretending your someone you’re not, revealing yourself to those you trust. You use your Italian princess image as a shield to keep assholes like me at bay. It was only the Noemis of the world who got to know the real woman behind those lacquered nails, but there’s only one Noemi out there and she’s with your brother now. You’re hurt. You feel betrayed. Your best friend abandoned you. Your brother left you. The other one - well, you know my opinion of him. The only person you have now is your mother and she has to be protected at all costs.”
“You don’t know—”
“You’re wrong. I know. I know about your mother, Lilly. I know what she’s facing right now. Her diagnosis—”
Lilly stiffened in my arms. “How? How could you know that?” She struggled to push me, but I held her tighter, circling my arms around her.
“I told you. My plan has been in place for years. Stop fighting me and I’ll tell you the truth. That’s what you want from now on, isn’t it? Nothing but the truth? Then you have to be woman enough to face it.”
She stopped moving. “I’ve faced worse, and you know it.”
“Then listen to me. I can’t apologize for what I’ve done in the past, or for what I’m doing right now, because I don’t regret any of it. But I am man enough to admit that things have changed. You came along with your alter ego, but I’ve come to know an entirely different woman. Both are strong, witty and don’t pull any punches, but one of them has been hiding the other, protecting her from getting hurt again, building up barriers and walls to keep her out of harm's way. You were there the day your father was murdered. I can still see the impact of his death in your eyes. It’s part of what brings us together. It’s a pain we both share.”
“It’s not the same,” she whispered hoarsely. “I don’t know who killed my father. I don’t know why he was murdered. I’ve been sheltered my entire life because no one knows whether the next person who asks me on a date is out to...”
“Finish it,” I demanded when she faltered.
“To hurt me.”
Fuck me.
Lilly and I had come full circle in the trap of our despair, as I was left dealing with the pain I had purposefully created. How could we move forward? Would we ever be able to be more than the monster and the mob boss’ daughter?
I didn’t know the answer to that, but as she trembled in my arms, I knew I had to try.
“Lilly—”
A sudden banging on the door interrupted me.
