Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
But that made no sense.
We’d been having a good time.
Even if she’d been really careful to keep steering the conversation herself because she clearly didn’t want to talk about the attack in the woods, about what had led up to her running, quite literally, for her life.
It was fine.
There was time.
Even if I was eager to know more in an attempt to keep her safe.
“Right,” I agreed, voice tight as I glanced from her to Lorenzo, whose head was tipped to the side. Like maybe he was sensing a false note in all of this too.
Or was I just being paranoid?
“Poor Sil here has been needing to walk our dog since,” she added, making my stomach tense.
“You got a dog?” Lorenzo asked, even more perplexed.
“Oh, Sil loves Storm!” Millie gushed. “They’re best buds. He baby-talks to him constantly. Oh, sorry,” she said, shooting me a guilty look. “You probably didn’t want that getting around, huh, sweetie?” she asked,
What the ever-loving fuck was going on?
“Are you guys going to Twelve Tables?” Millie asked, leaning back into me. And my damn hand rose by itself, resting on her hip, further selling her story.
“Yeah,” Giana said, smiling.
“We just came from there. This guy, always trying to show me off,” she said, turning to give me squinting eyes, like I was just so silly. “Don’t let us keep you. It’s getting late. We need to get home to our puppy,” she said. “It was so nice meeting you,” she added, still beaming as everyone said their goodbyes, then Lorenzo and Giana moved into the restaurant.
She waited until they were out of sight before she pulled away, turning toward me.
All of those fake smiles were gone.
Her entire face was stony.
“That’ll teach you for being embarrassed to be seen with me,” she snapped.
Before rushing into traffic, arm raised, and sliding into a cab before I could even think of stopping her.
Her gaze was stubbornly turned away from the window as the cab pulled away, leaving me to wonder where the fuck she was going, since she didn’t know her way around the city. And had no money.
Fuck.
“Follow that fucking cab,” I snapped at Venezio who pulled up to scoop us up after dinner.
Venezio’s lips twitched, like he’d seen her flee from me, but he was smart enough to keep his mouth shut.
We followed for a minute before we hit a crush of traffic.
“One second,” I told Venezio as I climbed out, rushing toward the cab, and wrenching the door open.
Her whole body stiffened, but she refused to look at me.
I tossed a stack of cash into her lap, then rattled off my address before slamming the door again, and heading back to Venezio’s car.
“You’re just letting her go?” he asked, brows raised.
“Yep,” I said, even if everything in me wanted to grab her, pick her up, and toss her in the back of Venezio’s car until I could get her alone to talk to her.
Because… what the fuck?
In what fucking universe could I ever be fucking embarrassed to be seen with her? She was the prettiest goddamn thing I’d ever seen. She was the kind of woman you were proud to have at your side.
That wasn’t the issue.
The issue was fucking Lorenzo.
A man who had a knack for seeing when shit wasn’t quite right.
I didn’t want him getting suspicious. Looking into shit. Calling me in to answer questions I knew I couldn’t lie to.
I guess, in a way, her little show kind of saved me from that. Sure, maybe I might have looked blindsided. But Lorenzo and Giana might be able to believe that was because I was being caught keeping a long-term relationship secret from everyone.
Weird, sure.
But not completely out of character for me.
I’d always been more of a recluse, someone on the fringes of the family, rather than smack-dab in the center of it.
She’d been so damn convincing that I really doubted Lorenzo and Giana would have a reason not to believe her.
Which left me with another uncomfortable feeling.
Because it wasn’t exactly a good thing that she was such a damn good liar.
Could she lie that well to my face?
When I finally got around to seriously asking her about what was going on, what and who she was running from?
Those were questions and concerns for another day, though.
Right now, I had to worry about the woman fucking missing in an unfamiliar city.
Sure, I’d given her enough cash to pay for anything she could possibly need for the night. But still. I wanted my eyes on her.
Hell, I wanted a fuckuva lot more than my eyes on her, I thought as I climbed in the elevator of my building, feeling my cock start to stir at just the memory of the taste of her, the sound of her as she moaned, the feel of her walls tightening around my fingers like they would around my cock when I slid inside of her…