“You left me,” he growled, pressing his forehead against mine and breathing in deeply. “Never do it again.”
“I—” But I didn’t know what to say. He didn’t want me the way I wanted him, so what was the point? I couldn’t continue to wear out my heart on him, slowly dying a little more every day without him. I wanted more than just for him to save me when I got into trouble.
I wanted…everything.
He tightened his fingers around my hand. “No,” he said in a voice that had grown deeper, almost animalistic. “You left me, and I lost my mind looking for you. You will never do that to me again. Do you hear me, precious?”
“You don’t want me,” I whispered, stuck between hurt and angry with him. Did he want to torture me with what I couldn’t have? Was that the whole point to all of this? To make me suffer?
If so, then it was working. He was winning. Because I couldn’t ever remember hurting so badly in my entire life.
Releasing my hand, he lifted both of his and placed something around my neck. “Don’t ever take this off again, Monroe.” His voice dared me to defy him.
I wrapped my fingers around the comforting feel of the medallion hanging from its chain.
G stepped back. I could feel him slipping away from me before he even turned to go, and the anger won. “If you go—if you leave me—I’ll run. You won’t ever find me.”
His head reared back as if I’d slapped him. “Do not test me, precious. You are pushing for too much. There are things you don’t know.”
“I don’t care,” I cried, taking a step forward. When he took one back, as if he couldn’t bear for me to be so close, my heart broke all over again. “I don’t care,” I whispered. “I want to be with you, G. Nothing else matters. Please.”
His face twisted as if he were in physical pain, and I had to swallow a sob. “Take me with you,” I begged, tears spilling down my face.
“I cannot,” he growled, his hands balled into fists at his sides.
Something in me shattered. I felt utterly broken as my tears fell so fast, my vision blurred. Reaching for the chain of the necklace, I jerked it off, breaking the clasp, and dropped it on the floor between us. “Goodbye, G.”
He stood there, frozen, but I couldn’t see his face through my tears. Blindly, I pressed my hand to the wall to guide myself away from him, but still, I stumbled as I tried to put as much distance between us, as fast as I could.
I’d barely taken a handful of steps before he wrapped his arms around me from behind. “Don’t do this,” he breathed against my ear, the heat of his breath on my skin making me shiver.
I wanted to lean back into him, absorb his strength and warmth, beg him never to let me go again.
But I’d already begged once. I wouldn’t do it again.
Chapter 2
Gian
Don’t go. Don’t leave. Don’t do this.
I wanted to shout, beg on my knees if I had to. I would do it if that was what it took for her to put the necklace back on and never do this to me again. Anything…but what she was asking. I couldn’t give her what she wanted.
If I did, she would only grow to hate me, and I couldn’t watch what she felt for me turn cold and empty.
“I love you.” A sob left her, making my knees weak.
Fuck, but I’d longed to hear those three words from her lips. They soothed and healed something within me, but if I returned them as I longed to, it would only cause her more pain in the end.
Time sped by, and when I kept my mouth clamped shut, refusing to give her the words I knew she ached for, she jerked away from me.
This time, I let her go.
When some drunk girl came down the narrow corridor, I faded back into the shadows before she could even see me. I left the way I came, through a back entrance and out into the humid city night. Coming to New York was dangerous for me. If any of my enemies knew I was within a hundred miles of the state, they would have every available man out hunting for me.
But once I’d unlocked the GPS on Monroe’s phone, and then her sister’s just for good measure, and saw she was in New York City, there was no threat strong enough to keep me from going to her.
The entire flight across the country, I’d gone back and forth with myself. I needed to take her with me, lock her away in the villa in Tuscany so no one could get to her. Keep her safe. I would give her enough love, time, and affection that she would never want to go back to her family. Only to realize moments later that, no matter how much I loved her, she would hate me once she found out who I really was.