by Bella J.
“You really expect me to believe that?”
She flicked a strand of her hair back. “I don’t expect anything from you.” Her gaze moved to where Matteo was standing with a crowd of men. More flicking of her nails.
I cocked a brow. “You’re afraid of him.”
She looked back at me. “What? No. Of course not.”
“Then why do you look nervous?”
She swallowed, and my eyes caught the movement of her throat. An image of us, of me lapping my tongue down the skin of her neck, tasting her, coaxing her body to ready itself for me. A memory of my lips kissing their way over her naked shoulder and down to the swell of her breast. Oh, I remembered her soft moans, the subtle noises that rolled over her heart-shaped lips, causing me to want to claim her in every way humanly possible.
Fuck. I wasn’t even having a conversation with her for ten goddamn seconds, and already she was seducing me back to the past without even trying.
I stepped closer, my hand touching her elbow. She sucked in a breath at my touch, and I was sure she shuddered before me. “What are you doing, Layla? You disappeared for years, and now you walk in here like nothing has happened.”
Inconspicuously, she removed her elbow from my grasp. “I’m not doing anything, Dante. It didn’t work between us, so I left. Now I’m back, and I’m with Matteo. There’s really no mystery to solve.”
I inched even closer. “I’m not buying it.”
“You don’t have to.”
My gaze flitted from her eyes to her mouth, red lips tempting me to succumb to their invitation, right here, right now, in turn causing mayhem and guaranteed carnage.
Layla leaned closer, the scent of her perfume bombarding all my senses. “Walk away, Dante. Do not pursue this.” Then she walked away.
I stood there as if I had been bolted to the fucking floor. It felt like I had been sucked through a giant black hole, then spat out in the goddamn Twilight Zone. Nothing about the last hour of my life made any sense. Within the blink of an eye, my life went from uncomplicated to super fucking complicated. My past had just stepped right into my present, and somehow I was sure it was about to fuck up my future.
I gestured for the waitress to bring me another drink, then glanced over my shoulder just as Layla whispered something in Matteo’s ear then headed in the direction of the ladies’ room, clutching her purse in her palm.
“This has trouble written all over it,” Antonio said when he joined me at the bar. “I don’t know what he’s playing, but I have a bad feeling about this. We need to figure out what the fuck is going on.”
I tossed back my drink and walked after her.
“Dante, where are you going?”
“Finding out what the fuck is going on.”
I heard Antonio curse behind me, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was the woman in front of me. I needed to find out what the fuck was going on, and I was going to find out right now.
Chapter 7
Layla
He was following me. I could feel it. I felt his eyes on my back, his presence coating my skin like it was the goddamn air I breathed. How was it possible for me to be able to feel him as if he were still a part of me after we’d been apart for so long?
My pulse raced, my heart beating rapidly with every step I took. It was working just as he said it would.
I pushed open the door to the ladies’ room, and as the door swung back, he knocked it open behind me, the door slamming into the wall.
The women in front of me gasped, and I closed my eyes without looking back.
“Get out!” His voice boomed through the room, his anger echoing off the walls. All the women scampered around as they rushed out. I still didn’t turn around. I was struggling to breathe as fear gripped my lungs.
I heard the door swing closed, and then the click of the lock. I sucked in a breath, knowing I was alone with him, locked in with nowhere to go. I could feel his resentment from all the way across the room. It burned right through me, causing an ache to crash against my chest.
My thoughts were scrambling, my emotions scattering all over the place. It was almost time. I just needed to get through this. He promised.
I glanced over my shoulder. “Don’t do this, Dante.”
Silence. Cold, hard, deafening silence.
I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders, grabbing hold of every ounce of courage I had left in me.
As I exhaled, I turned to face him. The second our eyes met, my heart shattered into a million pieces. Memories of our time together came rushing back, blasting through my mind and causing me to become unsteady on my feet.
Dark eyes, strong jaw, broad shoulders, and a presence which held the power to seduce and intimidate at the same damn time. Dante was a force to be reckoned with. A man who had the ability to speak a thousand words without saying anything at all. He was also the man whose touch set my body on fire, whose lips kissed me into submission.
More memories, images of sunsets and silk sheets possessed my mind the longer I stared at him. I could see every trace of anger and pain swirl around in his beautiful dark irises, and it killed me. It killed me to know I was the cause of it, and that I’d be the cause of so much more.
Tears stung the backs of my eyes. “Dante, I’m—”
Without warning, he rushed forward, grabbed my shoulders, and crashed his lips against mine the same time my back hit the wall.
A whimper rolled over my lips as tears moved down my cheeks.
His tongue didn’t beckon. It didn’t tease. It possessed while it moved with vigor against mine. Nothing about his lips was soft or subtle. It was hard and heady. Desperate and angry.
My body had no choice but to melt into his, my legs weakening by the second. The familiar scent of vanilla and musk carried me back to the past. Memories of what my sheets used to smell like whenever he left flooded through my mind. I remembered how his scent clung to his shirts—shirts I would wear whenever we slept apart so I could feel like I was close to him.
More tears slipped down my cheeks, the saltiness of my regret mixing with the eagerness of his kiss.
I should have stopped him. I should have pushed him away, but by God, I was powerless against him. Against the way my body, my soul…my heart reacted to him. Every ounce of longing I had felt ever since I left came back with a force so strong, it was impossible to fight it.
His greedy hands slipped down to mine, fingers wrapping tightly around my wrists. Abruptly, he jerked my arms up and pinned my hands above my head, causing me to gasp as he pressed his body harder against me. I could feel it in the way he touched me, kissed me, in the way he forced his hard thigh between my legs that he was pouring everything he felt into this exact moment.
Anger. Jealousy. Possessiveness. Lust. It was all there crashing between us with reckless waves of desire.
He moved his thigh, pushing it harder against me, lifting my feet off the ground and leaving me no choice but to rock my hips back and forth, desperate for release from the bounds of his seduction. I was losing the fight. I was losing my will to do what needed to be done.
One touch, one kiss, and every ounce of resistance crumbled to nothing but dust.
“Layla,” he breathed against my lips. “Why? Why the fuck did you leave me?”
But his lips didn’t give me a chance to answer as they reclaimed mine, his tongue sweeping through every inch of my mouth.
It was only when his lips moved down my neck that I finally had a chance to reply. “I’m sorry, Dante,” was the only thing I could say. Nothing else mattered but the remorse, and the guilt I felt for leaving him. For breaking his heart.
More tears, more heartache, more regrets. Every second I spent with him so close to me, consuming my body and igniting my desire for him, caused me so much pain, it felt like it had the power to break me in two.
His tongue lapped against the hollow of my neck as one hand moved down my arm, his touch burning me from the inside out. My skin came alive as it y
earned for his familiar caress, my body demanding to be sated. The second he cupped my breast, pushing it up so his lips could claim the soft flesh through the fabric of my dress, I moaned out loud.
“Dante, I’m so sorry.”
His kissing seized, his grip on my breast loosening. The warmth of his breath coated the skin of my neck, and I felt the rapid beating of his heart against my chest. He removed his thigh from between my legs, bringing my feet back to the ground. And I whimpered, knowing that it was over. The moment. It shattered along with the desire that almost consumed us both a second ago.
He didn’t look up, one hand still gripping my wrists above my head. “Why now?”
Of all the questions he had, that was the one he demanded an answer for. Why now? Why did I decide to return now?
Because I need to ruin you.
Another tear moved from my cheek, lapping over my top lip. “We do not decide our own fate, Dante.”
“Bullshit!” He slammed his fist into the wall right next to my face, and I yelped, my entire body numb with fright. “Why the fuck are you back, Layla?”
I closed my eyes, turning my face away from his. Slowly, painfully, reality started to seep back into the moment. My desire for this man still pulsed through my veins, but the mind-numbing craving crept in as well, reminding me of what was at stake.
I bit my lower lip, my determination the only thing that would save me from this moment.
I turned back to face him, my gaze etched on his. “I’m here with him.”
His eyes searched my face for a second before a smile crept up at the corners of his lips. “Like hell, you are.”
“You asked, and I gave you an answer.” The more I played the part, the easier it became. Not to mention that my veins were starting to scream for relief.
Dante took a step back, releasing my hands. For the first time since he locked us in here, it felt like I could take a breath.
I rubbed my hand around my wrist where his grip marked my skin.
He kept his gaze pinned on me. “It was you, wasn’t it? It was your voice I heard over the phone. Why did you call me, only to hang up?”
I remained silent. Those phone calls were nothing more than moments of weakness.
He exhaled with a huff. “Fine. Don’t answer me. But you expect me to believe you came back so you could be with Matteo?”
“I don’t expect you to believe anything. You can do what you want.” I straightened my dress and squared my shoulders as I stepped away from the wall.
He didn’t move back an inch. He just stood there towering over me. “Fine. Let’s say I believe you—which I don’t. You need to stay the fuck away from Matteo.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s dangerous. You don’t know him, what he and his family are capable of.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Funny you should say that since I never knew you at all either. Or what your family is capable of.”
For a second, his confidence faltered when he realized what I was saying.
I smiled. “That’s right. I know who you are, Dante. Who you really are. And I also know what it means to be a Valenti in this city.”
His eyebrows slanted inward, anger forming grooves on his forehead. “You know nothing.”
“I know you lied to me. Pretended to be someone you’re not.”
“He filled your head with lies.”
“No. In fact, he didn’t tell me anything I hadn’t already known. I knew about your lies before I left.”
He took an intimidating step forward, dark eyes glaring down at me. “I lied because I was protecting you.”
“From what? You?”
He looked away, his jaw tense and eyes angry.
I needed to continue. I needed to keep using my pain if I wanted to pull this off. I stepped forward. “That’s why I left, why I decided against having a life with you. Because it all would have been a lie.”
“No!”
“Yes! Yes! You lied. You kept secrets from me, the woman you claimed to love.”
His eyes met mine. “The woman I still love.”
I faltered, his words piercing my heart like a thousand daggers. Everything about him was breaking down the walls of my resolve. I was such a fool thinking I would be able to pull this off, counting on his anger toward me to make this easier. Unfortunately, failing was not an option for me. I needed to see this through. I needed to stay strong if I intended to survive long enough to save what was most important to me.
I wiped at my cheeks, trying to get rid of the traces of my tears. “You never loved me, Dante. And unfortunately, the man I fell in love with never really existed.”
I brushed past him, knowing the longer I stayed here with him, the better the chance I had of failing.
“He will ruin you, Layla.”
I stopped without turning around.
“You are not meant for this world. That’s why I kept the truth about me and my family from you. You’re just too damn precious to be ruined by this world we live in. Now he’s sucking you into it, and once you’re caught up in it, Layla, there’s no escaping.”
I glanced down at the hollow of my arm, the blue vein bulging under the skin. “That’s where you’re wrong, Dante. The day you made me fall in love with you was the day you made me a part of your world. Matteo can’t ruin what you’ve already destroyed.”
And with that, I stormed toward the door, unlocked it, and left.
I choked back the tears that threatened to escape. I pushed back the pain, fought the regret, and grabbed hold of the one thing that numbed it all. The craving. The need.
The poison.
Chapter 8
Dante
I couldn’t move. I stood there and watched her leave, the door slamming shut behind her.
Her words rang over and over inside my head. Matteo can’t ruin what you already destroyed.
In the past, it had crossed my mind that maybe she found out. That she discovered I was lying to her, keeping the secrets of my family from her. But I had hoped if that was the case, she would have come to me, confronted me, demanded answers and an explanation. Instead, she fucking ran from me. Disappeared.
Finally, after all these years, I had my answer. I knew the reason she left…and it was me. I was the fucking reason she left.
“Fuck!” I screamed like a fucking animal and slammed my fist against the wall, cracking the tiles, the pieces cutting through my skin. But I felt nothing. No pain. Well, not physical, anyway.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.” I pulled my hands through my hair and started to pace. My blood was boiling, my insides twisted in barbed wire. When I locked us in this room and stared into her amber eyes, her lips parted, all the anger I felt over her leaving morphed into a need I was unable to control. All those nights I longed for her, for her touch, and the sight of her succumbing to me came rushing back, and the desire it ignited exploded into one moment of extreme insanity. I didn’t care about the questions I had. About the betrayal I felt over her leaving. And I sure as fuck didn’t care about her showing up here with the enemy. All I cared about was having her, feeling her, and losing myself in her.
I wanted to consume her, just like I wanted to be consumed by her. I wanted to erase the past and completely annihilate the fucking reality.
I wanted her.
She knew all about me. Knew who and what I was. There were no more secrets—from my side, anyway. But I knew she was holding back something from me; she was lying. The way her body reacted to my touch, how easily she submitted to me proved she still felt something…something for me. Then why the fuck was she here with Matteo?
Nothing made sense. But true as fuck, I would figure it out, even if it was the last thing I did. I would find out what the hell was going on.
I stormed out of the room, almost knocking over two women who came walking in.
“Look where you’re going, asshole.”
I snapped my glare in the woman’s direction, and I could see the exact moment she re
cognized me, panic causing her to pale.
“Sorry, Dante. I didn’t mean—”
I walked away before she had a chance to finish her sentence. It was always the same, people thinking they could talk to you and treat you like shit…until they realized who and what you were. A Valenti. A mobster. A fucking prince.
As I stepped out of the hall and into the bar area, I immediately saw her in her red dress sitting next to Matteo on one of the leather couches.
Her gaze met mine briefly before she looked away, pretending to be engrossed in their conversation.
And then Antonio came storming my way like a pissed off animal. “What the fuck, man?”
“Not now, Antonio.”
“Yes, now. And why the fuck are you bleeding?”
I looked down at my hand, my knuckles cut and bleeding. “I had a confrontation with the bathroom wall. The wall lost.”
Antonio didn’t look amused. “Now is not the time for jokes. You and Layla disappeared for like ten fucking minutes. Could you have made it any more obvious?”
I looked at him questioningly. “Did Matteo notice?”
“I’d say he’s a special kind of stupid if he didn’t.”
I glanced their way. “And he didn’t confront you, or attempt to come looking for us?”
Antonio crossed his arms. “No. In fact, he sat by the bar the entire time swirling his fucking whiskey in his glass, looking smug as hell.”
Warning bells rang like shit in the back of my head. “Something weird is going on.”
“I take it you talked to Layla?”
I turned my attention back to Antonio. “Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“She knows. She knows about us and our family.”
“Of course she does. I’m sure Matteo had the time of his life while he told her everything.”
I shook my head. “No. She found out before she left.”
“So, that’s why she left?”
“That’s what she says.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. If she left because she found out who you really are, why is she dating Matteo?”