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“Got it,” Rocco said.
“Never forget, boy, that enemies come in all shapes, sizes, and sexual orientation. But the most dangerous enemy of all is a woman. Never allow yourself to fall in love. You’ll regret every day for the rest of your life.”
It had been the most profound advice my grandfather had provided before his death. I’d never thought much about it until today. And I knew exactly why his stark statement had rolled through the back of my mind more than once.
One redheaded beauty with a heart of gold and a wicked kiss.
Fuck me, I was falling for the girl and that couldn’t happen. No matter what I’d said. If I’d listened to my grandfather’s advice years before, I wouldn’t have lost millions and come close to landing in prison for the rest of my life.
I wanted to laugh, but the ugliness of my stupidity was something I’d never forget. I longed to hunt down Margaret myself, destroying her world as she’d attempted to do to mine, but that would only provide some twisted level of satisfaction to the woman who was likely living in the Cayman Islands off half my fortune.
Ah, fuck her. My grandfather had been right after all, the bastard.
Memories of my grandfather were fleeting, the man not personable in the least. He’d acted as if he’d never wanted to have children in the first place, which had made my father cold at first. Yet the love of my mother had pulled him out of his shell. I’d seen the change in him as a small child, the man barely tolerating his own children getting underfoot. Then he’d started attending our birthday parties, no longer at the request of our mother.
What I didn’t like was the sickening feeling someone close had betrayed me. That happened all the time in my family’s line of work, but the actions weren’t usually so egregious.
I swirled my drink, concentrating on the ice clinking against the sides of the dense crystal. I’d grown restless almost immediately after making… fucking Delaney. I refused to use the term ‘love’ under any circumstances. Although every time I glanced atSadie, I was reminded that a true beast without any capability of loving someone couldn’t care about an animal.
My pup had remained on the foot of the bed after I’d left, barely lifting her head when I’d tried to get her to follow me. Traitorous bitch. Weren’t they all?
The last thing I needed was to sacrifice myself to a bottle of liquor, but damn, the bourbon tasted good.
Exhaling, a tight grimace formed across my face, and I rolled the glass across my forehead, hoping for some relief from the pain piercing the back of my eyes. At this point, I wasn’t certain anything could.
Sleep had evaded me, even though I’d tried. With Delaney curled up next to me, I should have felt some sense of peace, but it was just the opposite. I’d remained edgy, furious with myself for allowing my guard to fall.
Love. Hate. Sex. Pain. They were four powerful moments a man could reel from. I’d felt all of them, experiencing the highs and lows of caring about someone, the need that furrowed deep inside, stealing every chance of thinking about the situation rationally. I’d done so with Margaret, her lies so intricate that I’d believed every word dropping like honey from her mouth. And like some fucking dog in heat, I’d lapped it up, the poison slowly eating away at my insides.
And my resolve.
Arman had tried to warn me. Hell, Rocco had told me the woman was no good for me. Yet for six months, I’d lost my mind.
Margaret had managed to get so far under my skin she’d gutted me slowly, her poison working all too well. Then she’d driventhe dagger inside, twisting and jerking it upward, at least in a metaphorical sense. When I’d come home to find an empty house, I was certain an enemy had taken her.
How wrong I’d been, the damage she’d done taking me months to clean up. I was no longer the man I’d once been, now devoid of anything but brutality.
I’d considered women possessions, refusing to give a shit if I hurt their feelings after fucking then tossing them aside. Then the unexpected had happened.
A red-haired vixen had waltzed back into my life.
Delaney had managed to see right through my façade, noting that I was hiding from myself as much as I was with her. Now she was the one crawling under my skin, tearing away the scar tissue.
“Fuck,” I mused, unable to get the beautiful doll out of my mind, the need festering to the point of sheer madness. I’d claimed her. I’d fucking told her I’d claimed her, threatening any other man who touched her. What the fuck was wrong with me?
There wasn’t enough liquor in the house, hell, maybe in New Orleans to be able to expunge the taste of her from my mouth, the sweet scent of her lingering, painting my skin. My cock continued to ache, the desire building all over again. I could just as easily return upstairs, tying her to my bed and keeping her there, fucking her relentlessly as I could sit here and brood.
But what was I doing? Feeling sorry for myself.
Classy as fuck.
Somehow, I needed to keep my physical reaction to her in check without hurting her any further. She was still vulnerable, nomatter how easily it seemed she could slip behind yet another mask. This go-around, she’d acted as if the danger didn’t bother her. If that was the truth, the girl had changed dramatically. What troubled me almost as much as being around Delaney was that her sudden appearance in my life had brought up ugly feelings and emotions about Margaret, something I’d fought to keep from happening.
I took another long pull of the bourbon, yanking the bottle from the floor and refilling my glass. I’d sat in my favorite leather chair, one that had been well worn by my use, staring out at the bright moon orbiting a cloudless night. Hell, the stars even seemed brighter, or maybe it was an illusion given the opulence of fornication occurring only a few miles away on Bourbon Street.
Even worse than sitting in the dark pining away for the girl, I was feeding the obsession, the laptop I’d placed on the table running a slideshow of some of the modeling pictures from her most recent shoots. While I was also studying the people surrounding her, trying to determine if I noticed anyone had been shadowing her, the God’s honest truth was that I was transfixed by her beauty, so much so that I’d been here for two fucking hours rewatching it.
My obsession for her was getting out of hand.
