AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Both.”
This might be one of the strangest conversations I’ve had with him. “I’m twenty-three. I can do what I want.”
Another silence, this one shorter. “You want him?”
“Dad.”
“Is that it?” He sighs. Long. Loud. Exaggerated. “I want you home.”
“Can’t always have what you want.” I clench the phone hard, and try not to think about the warmth of it, warmth that came from Nicolo. “Right now, Dad, I don’t know anything except that. And the fact I’m sick and tired of men pushing me around. Even Nicolo pushes me around. But . . .”
He’s watching me, sipping his drink and the casual stance and intense air about him is utterly compelling. Try as I might, I can’t block Nicolo out.
“But right now if I have to be pushed around, I’d rather it be with Nicolo.”
Then, to put the fat cherry on top, I hang up on my father.
“Babe.”
I glare up at Nicolo. “Don’t. I hate you. I hate him. I hate everything. I hate my life.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Take me to the airport. I’ll go away. I’ll—”
“Stop that bullshit, right now.” He finishes his drink and sets it down with a click on the coffee table. “I’m not taking you anywhere until this is over.”
Anger boils up. I don’t even know why I’m so angry and my cheeks are hot, radiating a miserable, horrible heat like a haze around me. Maybe it’s because he’s here, and he heard me say all that. Maybe it’s because Dad calling was the last straw. I don’t know.
But I like Nicolo way too much and I shouldn’t. It’s going to undo me.
“Just—”
“What?” His voice is low and dangerous as he comes up to me. He plucks the phone free and tosses it, then hauls me in his arms, a hand tangling in my hair to tilt back my head.
It’s rough, hard, erotic.
“What?” Nicolo’s tiger gaze is that of a dark predator as it rakes over my face to linger on my mouth. “You want me to become some beta shit like your boss? Bow and scrape to your father? No fucking way. He’s not my boss. I get he’s protecting you, but I’m here, and you need to stop being a brat.”
“Or what?”
“Or maybe I fuck you.”
A shiver slides through me and his mouth turns up slowly. “Oh, you’d like that, wouldn’t you,Tesoro.” He keeps his hand in my hair and backs me through the room.
Every time I stumble he doesn’t let me fall. He’s there, so close, breath warm and tinged with the tequila. It’s intoxicating that mix of him and the liquor, and my lungs tighten.
“I hate your life.”
“I’ve had enough, Avah. I know that. I’m not offering you a fucking ring. I told you that. But right here, right now, you’re mine. All mine. And you want that, don’t you?”
“No—”
“Don’t fucking lie, Avah. I bet if I put my hand in your jeans you’d be hot and wet. You’re already panting.”
He pushes me away, only to haul me back and rip my T-shirt from me, and then he ruins my bra.
I am shaking, with need, with want, with all the things he stirs up in me. I’m throbbing. Next is my jeans. He pulls them off with my underwear and then he tosses me on the bed, stripping himself.
