A well-kept, flourishing garden with a small pond in the center was the focal point of the roundabout drive.
“Whose house is this?”
“My parents,” he replied smoothly.
“Excuse me?” I questioned with a short laugh. “Did you just say your parents?”
“You’re right, I should have said your in-laws.”
Seriously? What was he thinking? Every time I thought this man couldn’t do anything else to knock the floor from beneath me, he sucker-punched that motherfucker another ten levels lower.
He did it completely unremorseful. Judas made no excuses for being a domineering asshole. If anything, he shamelessly embraced it.
“Why would you bring me here? Your family hates me!”
“No,” he rebuked almost coldly.
“My famiglia despises the weak and bottom feeders, more specifically people like Marcus and Evie Clermont. You’re a Saldaña.”
“That name means shit to me. Marcus and Evie may be giant pieces of rat shit, but they raised me. Did you choose to forget that fact?”
“They stole you, just like they did my sister. You made it out far more unscathed than she did. How long are you going to throw a fucking pity party for yourself?”
I clamped my mouth shut and pulled my sunglasses off. I’d nearly forgotten his sister was caught up in this mess too. Maisie was her name. I had yet to get the full story on that. And my mother, she’d been a victim of Evie’s too.
I was constantly reminded of all the things I didn’t know.
Sometimes it felt like I’d been tossed into the middle of the sea and now had to figure out which way to swim.
I turned my head and looked at him, fighting against the urge to cry. “You are such an asshole.”
“Principessa, I’m much worse than that.” He removed his shades and hit the button on the dash to cut the Bugatti’s engine off before giving me his undivided attention.
Time itself seemed to stop. We stared into each other’s eyes and neither of us spoke. I feared he would hear the pounding of my heart within the silence.
“You are incredibly resilient, intelligent, infuriatingly stubborn, and possess all the qualities men like me can only hope to find in their partner.”
He reached out and gently skimmed his fingers across my cheeks before taking hold of my jaw.
“You’re beautiful too. If I didn’t want you to stand by my side so badly, I’d lock you inside our house and never let you out so that only I could look at you.”
I sensed what was coming next and did nothing to avoid his soft lips when they brushed against mine. His kiss was firm, but not demanding. It wasn’t the way I’d fantasized when I dared to think of touching him intimately again.
It was over before I could come to my senses or anything happened. He pulled back with a contemplative look on his face that was quickly masked as his hand fell away. It felt like we were picking up right where we left off.
In a way, I suppose we were. The experiences we had during the last few years merely contributed to the people we’d become. They didn’t erase the past we shared or the tumultuous bond that tethered us together and refused to break.
I swallowed and turned away from him, fixing my sights on the large home again. Two additional luxury cars were parked in the roundabout, both unoccupied. The SUVs that had followed us the whole way here hadn’t appeared yet. They were either gone or taking their sweet ass time to get this far.
Without a word, Judas got out and just like before, came around to open my door. I undid my seatbelt and joined him outside the car. Thanks to the trees surrounding the Italian-style estate the temperature seemed a few enjoyable degrees cooler.
Judas pushed my door shut and made no attempt to move out of my personal space. All I smelled was his masculine scent. I wanted to lean in and press myself against him, but I resisted the urge to find comfort in his embrace.
“What do you think?”
I looked towards the house. “It’s pretty.”
“This was once a vacation home but my madre fell in love with it so the whole place was renovated and made the main residence shortly after she got pregnant with me.”
“You’re speaking a language I don’t understand. Vacation home? Main residence?”
He glanced down at me. “Give it time and you’ll be fluent.”
And entertain his idea of us living a lavish life together? I drew a breath and exhaled it in a short huff. “Let’s just get this over with, k?”
Moving away from him, I successfully made it a few steps before he was right back by my side. He grabbed my lower arm and forced me to stop walking. “We’re doing this together.”
His fingers skimmed down the inside of my wrist, softly skating over my palm as he weaved them between mine and held me tight.