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I opened my mouth when Luca threw the door open and dumped a plastic bag full of ice and a kitchen dish towel on the bed. Without another word, he stalked out, leaving the door open once again.
“Asshole,” Nicu muttered at Luca’s back.
Without turning around, Luca gave him the middle finger over his shoulder before disappearing again.
Placing a butterfly strip over the cut, I stood up and shut the door again.
When I returned to Nicu, he swooped me into his embrace and settled me back on his lap. Resuming where we’d left off, I prodded, “Anything else you’re sorry about?”
His ice-blue eyes narrowed as he reflected on my question. The fact that he had to think about it aggravated me, and my anger shot to the forefront.
“No, I don’t think so,” he replied.
Incredulous, I threw up my hands. “What about the fact that you knew where I was or that you followed me and broke the door of my best friend’s house, violating her home? What about destroying property and beating up a guy simply for flirting with me?”
“Relax,” he tried soothing me. “Cristo and I have been at it for years. Where do you think half the scars on my body came from?” He pointed to a little clip near the corner of this top lip that I’d noticed, assuming it was from a rowdy childhood. “This is from him during a bar fight when I was eighteen.”
“I’m not a tool you can use in your epic feud with Cristo,” I snapped. His lack of awareness was kicking my temper higher and higher.
“This isn’t about Cristo,” he instantly replied. “Well, it’s mostly not about him. This is about another man touching you. It riled me up worse because it was him, but mostly because I’m certain he did it on purpose.”
“That’s impossible. Even Cat didn’t know about us.”
“We spy on each other constantly, Jewel,” he said dismissively. “He’s had someone on me ever since my engagement to his sister. I got a video sent to me of the two of us. He was taunting me with that, and then again tonight. Let me ask you this, has he ever been touchy like that with you before?”
“No, this was the first time,” I replied tentatively.
Shit, I was so naïve when it came to their society. Cristo and I had flirted and teased each other in the past, but he’d never made a blatant move like he did tonight.
“Even if he didn’t know I was outside his house watching him, hitting on you would’ve gotten back to me. He would’ve made sure of it, if only to antagonize me. He doesn’t do anything without a purpose. Believe me, it’s my business to know my enemy almost as well as I know myself,” he proclaimed.
“Great, so I was a pawn,” I griped.
“Yes, but not to me. Jewel, you know how I feel about you. This isn’t a fucking game to me. I may have lost my temper, but I’ve always been straight with you about who you are to me.”
I flashed him an irritated look. “Have you been completely honest with me, Nicu? Because you’ve messed with my phone. You tracked me down here, and that wasn’t a coincidence—”
“Actually, it was.”
I slitted my eyes at him, scrutinizing every inch of his face. The muscle of his jaw spasmed. Yeah, I didn’t believe him. He was lying to me, and I didn’t like that one bit.
“You’re lying,” I called him out.
He let out a growl of frustration. Unfortunately, the sound was also sexy, and my tummy fluttered in reaction.
He threw up one hand. “Fuck, okay, I was lying.”
I slid off his lap and stood in front of him. Fists on my hips, I snapped, “Dammit, Nicu. How can I trust you if you lie to me?”
“There are lies, and then there are lies. Some are for your own good,” he replied as he jerked at the collar of his shirt, clearly uncomfortable. As he should be. The arrogance, the sense of entitlement to make decisions on my behalf, stunned me.
“You’re kidding me, right? If that’s what you expect of me if I date you—”
“You are dating me,” he replied instantly. “We are together. Period.”
“Don’t hold your breath on that one, buddy,” I snapped. “Because I’m not about to allow a man make unilateral decisions for me, even if it is for my safety.”
My father had made decisions that irrevocably altered my life, and not for the better. My mother dumped me at a boarding school without asking me or so much as getting my feedback. It was their way, no matter what the cost was to me. Regardless of how I felt about Nicu, now that I was finally an adult, I sure as hell wasn’t going to turn my agency over to him, especially with the way he was acting.
