Once she ended that call, she swiftly moved on to the next one. As usual, he picked up the phone with an attitude.
“Wow, to what do I owe the pleasure of this call?” he asked in mock disbelief.
Anastacia rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Angelo, you know we’re supposed to be checking in with each other.”
“Honestly, bella, I didn’t think you cared for my safety this much. You keep this behavior up and I might start thinking you like me again.”
“Stop being a jackass and tell me where you are.” She hated when he played his stupid games. How were they supposed to build a good friendship if he continuously teased her with his sarcastic flirting? It was infuriating.
“Bossy,” he muttered, chuckling. “I’m on the highway, love. I’m going home to my big, empty house, to sleep in my big, empty bed alone … again. If only I had someone to join me …”
Anastacia groaned in frustration. “Can’t you just be serious for one second, Angelo?”
“I am being serious, Ana. Come home with me.”
The moment his voice had dropped to that familiar deep, husky baritone, Anastacia knew he was indeed being serious. She called on whatever Gods would listen to her for strength. No matter what he said or how he said it she would not give into temptation. She was a new woman. Plus, she was in love with an amazing, perfect man.
“I’m hanging up now.” She’d said the words, but she didn’t hang up … even though she really should have. Hang up Anastacia! What the hell?
“Stop threatening to hang up and come home with me, Ana. You know you want to.”
No, she didn’t … well, not really. Okay maybe just a bit. But for Anastacia, that was improvement. It meant that slowly but surely, she was getting over her addiction to sin, and sin was Angelo fucking Salerno.
A hard, determined expression masked her face. “You’re an arrogant ass. I have no desire to go home with you,” she semi-lied. Maybe a part of her was a little interested in going home with Angelo … just maybe. “I’m not single anymore, remember. I’m not lonely or horny.”
He laughed, which pissed Anastacia off even more. He was such an ass.
“My goodness, Ana. You almost sounded convincing that time. Go ahead and keep trying to convince yourself that you don’t want me. One day you may actually believe it.”
“I don’t want you!”
There was a moment of silence before he sighed. “Of course you don’t, bella. And I bet you don’t love me either.”
Anastacia took a deep breath and swallowed before she replied, “I don’t.” She hated herself for how weak her denial sounded, even to her own ears. She arrived to her cottage and turned into the driveway. Shutting off the car, she slumped back in her seat and groaned. “I hate you, Angelo.”
It never failed. Every time she told him she hated him, it hurt like hell. She was pathetically trying to force herself to believe something that wasn’t true. She didn’t hate Angelo, and she never would. But that didn’t mean they should be together.
“I know, Anastacia,” he said with a bit of somberness in his voice. “And I deserve it …”
And just like that the arrogant asshole that she needed to remain determined was gone. Anastacia closed her eyes and willed herself to reach forward and hang up the phone, but she couldn’t move.
“Ana?”
He had said her name softly, but she didn’t answer. Instead, she continued to stare at the phone, hating herself, detesting the stupid woman she was. What the fuck was so hard about letting him go? She was with Cesare for heaven’s sake! He was perfect. He was … everything to her.
“Ana, will say something? Please … at least give me that.”
She looked away from the phone with a frown. “I don’t know what you mean by that.”
“I mean you’ve been torturing me for over a year now.”
“I’m not torturing you, Angelo. I’m happy. I love Cesare.”
“More than you love me?” he asked in a pained voice.
She didn’t answer that. She didn’t ever want to have to answer such a question.
“You love him enough to hurt me like this, Ana?”
“What about the way you hurt me?” she argued, shaking her head firmly. “This was your choice, not mine.”
“No it wasn’t, stop saying that!”
“It’s true!” she yelled, emotion causing her voice to shake. “We finally had a chance, Angelo. A real chance to be together again after so many years of being apart, and we spent most of the time fighting!” She glared at the phone as if it were his face. “That’s all we do. Don’t you remember what I said the night of Carterina’s birthday?” she whispered. “God made a better you, and a better me, then he put them together to fix his mistake.”
“So loving me was a mistake?” he asked softly.
Unable to fight it, Anastacia covered her face and let the tears fall freely. She knew no one was around to see them, but she still hated that she was crying. She was supposed to be over him. She wasn’t supposed to love him this much anymore, but he had this unbreakable hold on her. It was so ridiculous because she was happy. She was in an incredible relationship with a man she loved almost desperately, and was deliriously happy for the first time in her life. She didn’t like that Angelo still effected this much.
“Ana—”
“Angelo, stop,” she whispered, removing her hands from her face. “I’m sick of this.”
“Sick of what, Ana, loving me? How do you think that makes me feel?” he asked angrily. “I love you to the point of physical fucking pain and you just want to hate me—”
“I don’t hate you, okay,” she sighed. “I don’t. And loving you wasn’t a mistake. I’m sorry” she whispered. “I know that our separation has been hard, and I’ll admit that it’s still not easy for me either. But we have to figure this out for our children, and grand-children. Our romance is over. I’m not leaving Cesare. I just … can’t. He’s my …” God, she didn’t know how to say what she needed to without hurting him.
“Your love for him is greater than your love for me …”
He’d said the words with so much hurt in his voice. Anastacia’s heart twisted into a painful knot. Shit. She hated this.
“My love for him isn’t greater, Angelo. It’s just different. I love you both, but I would never leave him to be with you, just like I would never have left you to be with him. I can’t betray him. Losing Cesare would destroy me …” She meant the words with everything in her heart. She and Cesare had only become closer in the past year. She couldn’t even imagine going through the rest of her life without him. He was her soul-mate.
“Tell me where you are, we need to talk face to face” Angelo said, sounding upset by her words.
Anastacia shook her head no. “No, we don’t, Angelo.” She had nothing else to explain to him. She belonged to Cesare, plain and simple.
“Tell me where you are Ana. We need to talk this out.”
“Nothing else needs to be said. I’m not leaving Cesare.”
“Tell me now, Ana. You can tell me, or I’ll just call Claude and ask him.”
Claude was one of her men. Angelo could call him if he wanted to, but Claude wouldn’t tell him where she was anyway. Plus, he wasn’t even with her tonight. “Claude’s not even with me, Angelo. He’s protecting Carterina and Nathan’s home. I’m alone.”
“Alone? I don’t like that, Ana. You should have someone with you.”
Anastacia rolled her eyes as she unlocked her front door and opened it. She walked into her dark little house and shivered, closing the door behind her. It was freezing—
“Ana!” Angelo yelled, making her jump.
“What?” she asked with a frown. “Why the hell are you yelling?” The damn phone was against her ear, so it wasn’t like she couldn’t hear him.
“Why would you go somewhere without protection? Where are you now? I’m coming there with you.”
“I’m nearly forty-six years old, Angelo. I can take care of myself.
Plus, I’m only at my house. Calm down.” As she felt the wall for the light switch something caught her eye. The light in the kitchen … it was on. Frowning, she muttered, “What the hell?”
“Ana! Jesus, will you say something.”
The frown never left her face as she walked toward kitchen. “Angelo, I need to call you back—”
“No you don’t—” His words cut off abruptly when a noise sounded through the phone. “Ho–hold on, Anastacia,” he said, sounding distracted. “There’s something going on at the S.O. building. I’m going to send some men over there to see what’s going on, then I’m coming to you. Where are you—”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Angelo” Anastacia whispered. “I don’t need you to come out here with me. I’m fine. Go check on your business. I’ll call you later, and we’ll finish talking.”
She hung up the phone before he could protest any further.
After slipping her phone in her pocket she continued to walk toward the kitchen. She hadn’t wanted Angelo to come over because there was some secrecy as to why she was at her little home in the first place.
“Hello,” she called. “Robert, are you here?”
Movement heard in the kitchen made her move faster. It was him! It had to be. He was the only other person that had a key to her cottage.
“Robert …”
Anastacia burst through the swinging door into the kitchen with a smile on her face. Just like she’d hoped Robert stood in the middle of the kitchen floor looking as perfect as he had the day he’d left over a year ago.
Anastacia squealed and jumped into his arms. She clung to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist as she grabbed his face and kissed him. She felt his hands on her back right before his arms wrapped tightly around her … very tightly. Almost painfully tight.
When she broke the contact of their lips, Robert let out a low grunt. His eyes remained closed for moment before he opened them and pinned her with an intense stare.
Anastacia inhaled a slow breath as she gazed into his eyes. She didn’t know why, but for some reason she was unable to speak. She couldn’t even move. She wasn’t aware of how long they just stared at one another, but she didn’t make any kind of move until he did.
Robert took three slow steps forward until Anastacia felt her back pressed against the wall. Confused by his silence, Anastacia opened her mouth to speak, but was silenced when he leaned forward and kissed her again.
It felt as if an electric shock shot through her body when his lips touched hers. It was so … different from their previous kisses. She didn’t remember Robert being so … passionate, so possessive. His kiss consumed her. Nothing else around them existed as she became enraptured in the moment. Anastacia held on to him with every bit of strength that she had in her body, refusing to let him go, hating just the thought of any distance being between their bodies.
Robert kissed her with a fierce, seemingly uncontrollable hunger. He touched her like he’d never touched her before, his hands moving expertly over every curve of her body. Logic, reason, and any thought of how utterly wrong this was flew straight out of the window. It was another level of intoxication. Anastacia couldn’t think, she couldn’t do anything but feel. Feel his lips against hers, his tongue caressing her mouth, his hands slipping under her shirt and gliding up her belly to caress her breasts.
So good. God, it felt so incredibly good. It felt as if she were flying, but she had no idea what the hell was happening around her. This just didn’t … feel like Robert. Only one man had ever made Anastacia feel so lost, so powerless, so separated from what little sanity she had.
“Silas!” a deep male voice roared from across the kitchen, effectively yanking Anastacia out of her daze and back to reality.
Her eyes shot wide open at the same time his mouth pulled back from hers. His head turned to the man that had shouted his name, and Anastacia’s eyes followed until they laid upon … Robert?
“What, Robbie?” he asked in a clipped tone. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“Are you out of your fucking mind? What the hell is going on in here?”
“She’s my wife!”
“I don’t give a shit, Silas! She most likely had no idea it was you …”
“Trust me! She was about to figure it out.”
Back and forth they shouted at one another. Meanwhile, Anastacia glanced back and forth between them, trying her best to keep up with the events happening right before her eyes. Her heart rate sped up as her eyes darted around the kitchen. It was like she’d entered the fucking twilight zone. For decades she’d known them both, but never before had she been in the same room with them at the same time. They were fucking identical on a level that Anastacia had never seen it before; same face, voice, body structure, and black attire. The only thing separating the two was the scar, which was meant to be Anastacia’s decipher. The long scar that she hadn’t even thought of looking for when she’d seen him standing in the middle of kitchen floor.
Robert.
Robert had not been in the kitchen, had not held her in his arms and kissed her breath away. Nor was it Robert that was still holding Anastacia tightly at this moment. No. Robert was standing in the doorway with vicious anger masking his face.
Anastacia cocked her head to the side, and frowned in thought. If Robert was standing on the opposite side of the kitchen shouting, and not holding her in his arms, then the man that was holding her had to be … “Silas.”
The second she whispered his name his head snapped in her direction, a look of concern in his light brown eyes … “Yes, pet?”
A piercing scream tore loose from her lips, filling the entire cottage.
Chapter 29: It was still a dark and stormy night
Gabriel locked the gate on the twins’ playroom door. “Be good you two. And no fighting.”
“Fighting,” Maksim repeated with a smile as he ran around the room pushing his fire truck.
Gabriel chuckled softly and started to walk away.
“Zio!” Aleksandr called.
Gabriel turned back to find him standing on his tiptoes, leaning over the gate. “Aleksandr, please get down.”
Obediently, he did as Gabriel had instructed.
“Now what can I do for you?” Gabriel asked.
Aleksandr smiled a big, cheesy grin, rocking back and forth on his heels. “Some cookies for Maksi and Sandr?” he asked.
He shook his head in disbelief. The child never stopped eating. Gabriel had no idea where the boy put all of the food he ate throughout the day. Aleksandr stood, waiting patiently for his response as he twisted the silky curls of his hair with his adorable little fingers. How the hell could he say no to him when he stood there looking so damn cute? He knew Carter wouldn’t approve, but what she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.
“Yes, Uncle will bring Sandr and Maksi some cookies.”
Aleksandr rejoiced, jumping up and down shouting cookies until one of his toys stole his attention. Gabriel sighed and strolled downstairs to the kitchen. He wanted to clean up the mess from dinner before Nathan and Carter got home from their dinner party.
Once he made it to the kitchen he removed the baby monitor from his pocket, flipped it on, and checked on the boys. Gabriel loved that the monitor had a screen on it so that he could actually see what the kids were doing. Maksim was still playing with his truck, and Aleksandr had sat down in the corner with a box of crayons and a Spider-Man coloring book.
After checking on the kids he went about cleaning up the dinner mess. They’d had the boys’ favorite for dinner: some of their mother’s homemade chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes and gravy, cornbread, and collard greens, with some chocolaty chocolate chip cookies and milk for dessert. Carter had pre-prepared everything the night before, so all Gabriel had to do for dinner was pop everything in the oven and serve. The boys devoured every bite of their food just like Carter had said they would, but they’d also gotten a good amount
of crumbs on the floor.
Gabriel took his time to make sure every part of the floor was cleaned, then he went to work on the dishes.
Sometimes he wished that Carter would just hire a maid. He hated seeing her rush around this big house cleaning up after Nathan and the boys alone. Therefore, whenever he had time, he’d come to the main house and help her out some. He didn’t agree that she could do it all alone, but he also understood her hesitation to bring some unknown stranger in her home. Silas had been sending the boys gifts, yes, but that didn’t mean he had really changed. He had minions everywhere, and bringing someone in the home where she and Nathan raised their children that could possibly be working for Silas wasn’t worth it.
“Well, don’t you look very … domestic.”
Gabriel gave him a quick glance, and then resumed washing the dishes. He’d known that he had been watching him, but he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge Dante. Leaning against the wall of the kitchen entrance with one hand in the pocket of his suit pants, and the top three buttons of his shirt undone … and his hair all messy and tousled perfectly, he looked frustratingly sexy.
Okay, maybe Gabriel had acknowledged his presence once or twice.
“I’ve never seen this side of you before,” he said as he walked into the kitchen and sat in one of the stools on the opposite side of the counter.
He looked up from the dishes in annoyance. “What the hell do you want, Dante?” Gabriel hadn’t been in many relationships in the past, but he was pretty sure that there was some kind of rule against talking to your significant other while he or she was still pissed over a huge fight you’d had just the night before. “I’m not ready to talk to you yet, so just … go back to the gate and do your job.”
Gabriel lowered his eyes and continued washing the dishes, admittedly scrubbing them a little harder than he needed to.
“Gabriel.”
He ignored him, hoping that it’d make him leave. The last thing he needed was to be in the room with his fucking addiction. Gabriel had never been one to allow himself to be used. He was always in control because he was always the object of everyone’s affection. Both men and women, Gabriel had control over every encounter he’d had in the past, but now things were different.
Dangerous Beauty: Part Three: This is War Page 55