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“You stayed willingly even after you knew I wasn’t going to put out?”
He widens his eyes and nods sarcastically. “It appears so, Giana.” He pauses, almost like he’s thinking about his words. “I like to fuck. Love it, actually. Would probably be fucking someone right now if I weren’t here with you. But I’m here with you because I want to be. I left my own fucking party because you intrigued me. Everything about you. You’re a very peculiar woman, Giana Carey.”
I flinch at his use of my fake last name.
I should tell him.
Be honest.
I feel like he’s done nothing but give me his raw self, even though it seems difficult for him, and here I am, hiding behind a mask. A façade. A disguise.
“I’d still like for you to be my first. I feel like we’re kind of connected now, in a fucked-up way.”
“Sharing dark secrets on a city rooftop will do that to you, I guess.” Dante chuckles, but there’s not an ounce of playfulness in his tone.
“The gilded cage,” I say. “Your club did pique my interest.” I clear my throat. “I don’t know that I’d be down to be with multiple people or anything, but the more I think about people watchingus…the more I kind of like it.”
Thinking back to last night, watching those people in that room and being as turned on as I was… I want to experience that. I trust this man. I don’t know why. Because everything in my bones, everything I’ve grown to know, tells me men are not trustworthy opponents.
And that’s exactly what they are—opponents.
He grabs my cold hand with his swollen one and kisses the back of it. A gesture a man like him should be incapable of, but he does it with ease. Like it’s just muscle memory.
And I wonder if he used to kiss the back of his wife’s hand.
“I’ll take you in any way you’ll let me, kitten. Occupy your time until you go back to that gilded cage of yours.”
* * *
Johnny walks me safely into the house only a few hours later. My father is clearly none the wiser. If he had thought I was up to something, he would have sent one of his minions out for me last night. I’ve learned how to work around his games.
Although that doesn’t mean I don’t nearly stop breathing each time his name flashes across the burner phone.
“Princess.” My father sits in a high-back chair in his office, a smile on his face.
He’s getting older. One day, he’ll pass the throne down, and I’ll be under less scrutiny.
Maybe.
Somehow, I think this is just meant to be my destiny.
I shudder to think about who’ll be perched on his throne, no doubt flicking his switchblade with a sinister grin adorning his face. My palms ache with the phantom sting of my flesh being sliced.
But I’ll be safe by then.
Safe fromhim, anyway.
After all, by the time he passes the torch, I’ll be married off and probably popping out little heathens left and right.
Just more children who will grow up in this life.
More children who will grow up around bloodshed and violence.
“How was your night with Remi? Has her family received their wedding invitation yet?”
My father doesn’t think I know this, but his bribes in the politician underworld are something I’m privy to. He’s inviting her family for a reason, for an in with Remi’s father. But little does he know, Remi still has no idea about the wedding because I didn’t exactly have a chance to come clean to her last night.
Dread settles in my bones as the wedding slaps me in the face once more. The reality is something I know I can’t keep hiding from.
