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I watched as they had their little talk. I watched as Luca touched her, practically crawled onto her fucking lap. It was a good thing they couldn’t hear me scowling, because if expressions could talk, mine would’ve said more than enough. Obviously, I didn’t like seeing them together. It was… a stupid, strange sort of jealousy that reared its head inside me.
Fucking stupid. I didn’t own Giselle. She could talk to whoever she wanted. If she wanted Luca Moretti, she could have Luca Moretti. That didn’t mean I had to be happy about it, though—because I wasn’t.
I really, really wasn’t.
As I glared, I knew I shouldn’t care. But that was just it, wasn’t it? I did care. I cared about that girl more than I wanted to. I thought about her a hell of a lot more than I should. It had taken every ounce of restraint in me to not visit her while she was in the hospital. I knew if I did, I would’ve wanted to tell her the truth, and telling her the truth while she was hopped up on drugs and basically tied down to a hospital bed was not what I had in mind.
After a while, Giselle got up, and she didn’t even throw a look in my direction as she headed toward the stairs, leaving Luca. I couldn’t help but wonder what they’d talked about; whatever it had been, it looked like a serious chat, and that made me curious. I wanted to know more.
Mostly I wanted to know because I wondered if Luca was competition. I wasn’t used to having competition. Not that I’d call myself a lady’s man or anything; I was always so focused on whatever job was at hand that I didn’t let myself relax too often. That included dating, fucking, seeing women.Like I’d said before: relationships just never worked out for me.
This was all Archie’s fault. My fucking brother.
Luca remained sitting in the booth for a while, and then he leaned his head back and shut his eyes. I’d bet anything that he was thinking about Giselle, for it wasn’t a bad expression on his face.
The idiot probably liked her, and I couldn’t blame him for it. How could I blame anyone for liking Giselle when she’d somehow caught me in her web after one encounter? Granted, it was perhaps the most intimate encounter I’d ever had, but that shouldn’t matter.
Luca opened his eyes, slow to get to his feet after sliding out of the booth. For a moment, it looked like he was going to trail after Giselle, but in the end, his head turned toward me. He saw me, grinned, and came sauntering over to me like he and I had to talk.
We didn’t. As far as I was concerned, I had nothing to say to him. Nothing at all. He could rightly fuck off and leave me to my thoughts. At this point, I didn’t know whether I wanted to talk with Giselle tonight or not, if I should give her more time to recover before jumping at her. Obviously I couldn’t jump on her…
Luca plopped himself down in the booth with me, though he sat across from me in the half-circle. He rested his arm on the leather seat’s back, staring at me. “That girl drives me crazy, but I think it’s a good kind of crazy.”
I harrumphed, hoping he would get the hint I didn’t want to talk and get the fuck out of here.
But he didn’t. He remained there, saying, “I’m glad she’s doing okay, though. I mean, I don’t know what I’d do if she wouldn’t have made it. That girl got me.” Luca shrugged.
“I bet a lot of girls get you,” I grumbled.
“You’d think that, wouldn’t you?” He chuckled. “Girls do like me a lot, I think—” At that, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes, but he didn’t seem to notice, plowing on. “—so you’re not wrong. Girls like me, probably for the money. Or my last name. But I never… I never really saw myself with anyone long-term until Giselle.” The corners of Luca’s lips curled upward in a tiny smile. “Ironic, since Giselle doesn’t want to get tied down.”
I didn’t say anything to that, but his words did cause memories to surface in my head. Giselle in the Playground, when she’d told me she’d never been with anyone of her own volition. I’d known what she’d meant, and I’d respected her decision to come to the Playground and force herself to make her own choices.
So, no, it didn’t surprise me she didn’t want to get tied down.
Did it upset me, knowing Giselle had basically used me for my cock? It shouldn’t, but… yeah, it did. As much as I wanted to deny it, I couldn’t.
“There’s so much I don’t know about her,” Luca was busy saying, and I snapped back to reality, wondering if I’d missed anything. The guy seemed quite chatty, like he could talk and talk and never run out of words to say. “But I want to get to know her more.”
I didn’t say anything, because there was nothing to say. The only person here I wanted to speak to was Giselle, and who knew where the fuck she’d disappeared to after her little talk with Luca.
But, maybe I should guide the conversation. Maybe I could poke Luca and find out what they had talked about. I had to be cautious, though, make sure I wasn’t giving off the vibe that I cared or anything. Having Luca know that I had a connection with Giselle would be fucking awful.
“What were you two talking about? It looked like you were comfy over there,” I said slowly, fighting the inner wave of jealousy that threatened to take over. I wanted to sit by her, I wanted to touch her, and, as wrong as it was, I wanted to throw the girl over my shoulder, take her someplace private, and shower her body with so much pleasure she would forget all about getting shot.
“I don’t think it’s my place to say,” Luca whispered, “but let’s just say it’s something serious that involves both of us.” He shook his head, a sigh escaping his lungs.
Something that involved them both? What could that be? I tried to think of possibilities, but I couldn’t think of anything. Whatever it was, it was a private matter. What kind of private matter would involve them both? Giselle and I had a private matter to discuss; there was no way Luca meant anything remotely close to that, right?
Luca warped the intent of the conversation, turning it back to me. “Why do you care what we were talking about? Jealous that she was spending time with me instead of you?” He laughed. “I don’t know if I’ve seen you two have a single conversation together. I’m actually surprised you came. I didn’t think you’d care, since this party is for her.”
“Why wouldn’t I care?”
“You don’t know her. Like I said, you never really talked to her before—unless you two are hanging out behind everyone’s back.” When I didn’t say anything to that, he went on, “And you didn’t even visit her in the hospital. Come on, man. That was kind of a dick move. She could’ve died.”
“From what I hear, you took up most of her time in the hospital, anyway.”
Luca grinned, like he knew something I didn’t. His grin ticked me off, and I felt the annoyance swelling inside of me. That grin was dangerously close to a smirk, and if that fucker started to smirk at me, I was liable to punch it right off his face. “Careful, you sound a little jealous, Cade.”
