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“It suits you. Makes you even sexier.” She moved close enough that her lips pressed into my ear as she whispered. “She has no idea what she’s missing.”
“Isn’t Ariella your best friend?”
“Shewas.” Britney’s gaze flicked over me as she stepped away. It wasn’t enough space. Miles wouldn’t be enough to get the scent of her rancid perfume out of my nose.
I’d be a fool to let my guard down and think she was giving up. She wouldn’t. Not until she got what she wanted. Whatever that was this time.
She walked backward until she reached the closet door. Without looking away from me, she reached behind her and opened it. She couldn’t have been more obvious unless she stripped off her clothes and bent over. The whole act repulsed me.
I stayed utterly still and unaffected as Britney raised a brow in question. She didn’t need to ask what she wanted. This whole setup said it for her. “Aren’t you with Gio?”
She swiped her hair off her slim shoulders as she shrugged. Her hand lingered on her neck like she was trying to draw my attention there, but I felt no flicker of interest. “You could say that.”
I shook my head as she ran her hand down, toying with the necklace that fell between her breasts. “So where’s your loyalty?”
“To myself. Just like you.” She moved closer again, grasping my jacket as she attempted to yank me across the hall towards the open closet. “Come on, don’t you want to get her back for what she did? All the times she used you to piss off her father.”
I was enough of a monster to admit revenge sex might feel good. The look on Ariella’s face when she knew I fucked her best friend might satisfy the pain inside me. At the very least, it would be something.
I never even tried to get revenge for what she’d done to me. She’d taken my future and my past. She’d ruined me. I no longer had a single decent feeling inside. I was cold and empty because of her.
Britney pressed up on her toes, not leaving a single inch between us. “I’d let you use me.”
But as I looked down at what she was offering, all I felt was disgust. The world was fucking corrupt. No one had any loyalty. Matteo was trying to save something that was already dead.
She gasped as I gripped her arms, turning her until her back hit the door frame. Her eyes gleamed with excitement as I leaned forward. But all I felt was hatred as I whispered in her ear. “I wouldn’t touch you even if you got on your knees and begged for it.”
She was an opportunist. She’d toss Gio aside for a bigger fish and do the same to the next poor bastard. I had no interest in her or any woman.
The guy I’d been before might have fallen for this. Might have believed she cared about me over the man she claimed loyalty to. But I wasn’t dumb anymore. I saw the world for what it was now. Saw the people for who they were.
All of us were monsters fighting for a spot at the top. Crushing those beneath us without a second glance. We sat on a pile of bones and broken hearts. And no one cared.
I once thought I was different. That I loved someone, and she loved me. That we’d give this all up and be together.
But she turned out to be the worst of them all. She’d killed the most innocent of lives to gain her power.
And I hated myself for wishing I’d never found out.
18
Adam
Ididn’t feel a drop of remorse as I watched Britney stomp back into the ballroom. I chuckled as I leaned against the door jamb. It only occurred to me right now that Gio could’ve sent her to get information. Either way, it hadn’t worked.
I had no interest in being with anyone. Even if I could forgive the betrayal I’d suffered and learn to trust again, my body wasn’t on board. I’d spent seven years trying to get it up for anything other than my hand and memories of Ariella, but it never happened. She’d broken more than just my heart.
As if my thoughts conjured her, Ariella walked out of the door Britney had just disappeared behind. She hadn’t noticed me as she sighed deeply, pressing her back into the wall. I took the opportunity to watch her.
Even from this distance, I could see the exhaustion on her face. Read it in the lines of her body. But like the doll she’d been trained to be, she straightened again and headed down the hall.
The closer she came to me, the more I reacted. My fucking useless dick jumped to life as I watched her move. Her breasts bounced, and her hips swayed with each step. Her heels clicking gave me visions of her in nothing but them, screaming my name. I was imagining things I shouldn’t.
Especially when she’d spent all night being the daughter her father had raised. The mafia princess who was going to sleep her way to the top.
Rage and jealousy coursed through my veins. My mind was drowning in it. All I saw was her coated in a red haze.
She still hadn’t noticed me or the open closet as she approached. Without conscious thought, I grabbed her arm and yanked her inside. Ariella yelped as I closed the door and slammed her against it.
