The obsession I have for her, the need, the rightness of it, grows inside of me. I fumble in my drawer and pull out a thumb drive, taking a moment to make a copy of the moment Lily thinks she can use to not trust me along with my vindication. I don’t bother to look at Sergio.
Getting to Lily is the only thing which matters right now and I’m not going to stop until I’m in front of her. Then she’s going to listen to me. I knew I shouldn’t have let her push me away.
So many emotions burn through me and I’m not sure which is going to dominate. I’m pissed that she thought so low of me. I’ve shown her how much she means to me. I’ve told her.
I fucking love her and she’s not going to shut me out. Not anymore.
Getting home feels like it takes forever, but does time have meaning when the woman you can’t live without, the one you crave, thinks you’re capable of being unfaithful to her? Clearly, I haven’t communicated to her just how much she means to me. It’s a problem I’m going to rectify right fucking now.
Everything is dark when I get home, the door slamming open and hitting the wall. Not like I give a fuck. I’ll leave evidence of my destruction in my wake. It helps to curb the rioting thoughts in my head and the fucking fear that my woman, myGattina, my Lily, could think there is anything less than fate at play between us.
Fate and a little extra nudge from me. But, considering I shouldn’t have had leverage on Jericho in the first place, maybe that was fate as well.
I march to the bedroom and find Lily sitting on the bed, her eyes wide and round and a book on her lap. This is one of the many ways she’s shut me out the last few days—by burying her nose in a book. I don’t stop until I’m standing above her, air sawing in and out of my lungs as if I’ve just run across the city and scaled The Empire State Building with her in my hand to show everyone she belongs to me, and no one will take her away.
There’s a bite to her question as well as a healthy dose of fear, “What are you doing?”
After unbuckling my belt, I let it fall to the ground. She watches me with wariness in her eyes. I fucking hate it.
There’s an edge of steel to my voice, “You’ve been avoiding me, Lily. I want to know why and then I’m going to put an end to it.”
She huffs slightly as she pushes herself back against the headboard. I swear she wishes it would swallow her whole, but she’s not going to find any such reprieve from me. I strip my clothes methodically because I want to turn her on and I want to give her a chance to answer for her actions.
There’s a twisted part of me which likes to watch her squirm as well.
When her eyes meet mine, they’re filled with determination and a healthy side of disgust and resignation. I almost bark out a laugh, but I keep it inside. “I haven’t been avoiding you, Constantino. I’ve been right here, next to you, unless you’ve been at work.”
I cock my head to the side, my voice calm and sure, “Your body might have been here, but we both know you haven’t exactly been present.” She opens her mouth, but no words escape her lips when I reach down and grip my cock, stroking it slowly. Her eyes are riveted, and it gives me a perverse feeling of power. I’ve been hypnotized by this woman since the moment I met her, obsessed and scheming to make sure I have her right here with me. It’s only fair she feels even a sliver of the same now. “Don’t lie to me, myGattina. I’ll know it.”
She scoffs, “You don’t know shit, Constantino.”
The moment the words leave her mouth she lets out a small gasp and her eyes get bigger as she meets my gaze. I grin at her and by the way she gulps, it looks as feral and fucking devilish as it feels. The look on her face has me tipping my head back and laughing.
I rip the sheets away from her body right before I lunge at her, my movements too quick for her to anticipate. Even while she bucks underneath me, I manage to snap the two thin straps to the negligée she has on, ripping the top from her body and exposing her perfect tits to me.
“Fuck, you’re perfect,” I groan. When she bucks again, I remember that this isn’t going to be easy. She has claws and isn’t afraid to use them. “Gattina, I know you came by Sala the other night.” She lets out a gasp before looking away from me, but that won’t do. I grip her chin with one of my hands, the other pushing into her hair and grabbing hold. “What you saw is not what it looked like.”
Lily rolls her eyes, but before she can second guess my words, I slam my lips down on hers. She might think I’m a bastard right now, but she still lets me kiss her. Fuck. Did I just find nirvana?
“I don’t care,” she grits the words out through clenched teeth, “this isn’t a relationship, it’s convenience and business.”
I’m not prepared for the hurt which flows through my body. I almost climb off her, but when her eyes come back to mine and I see the longing there, the hope for me to prove to her she’s wrong, I know I can’t give up. It’s not in my nature to do so either. It never has been. When it comes to Lily, I’ve already proven that I’m willing to go above and beyond what I ever have before.
I’ve never killed someone to get closer to any other woman. Only her. Not that she needs to know.
I trap her wrists and pull them above her head, pinning her in place underneath me. I groan,“The fire in your eyes only turns me on, Lily. Be careful when you taunt the devil.”
“Fuck. You.” The words might as well be an aphrodisiac.
My lips skim along her jawline and then down the slender, creamy column of her neck. When I get to her collarbone, I bite down hard enough to make her gasp, but not break the skin. As much as I would love to mark her as mine and leave scars behind, I can’t bear the thought of her skin being marred. She makes contradiction look like a way of life.
“Oh, my littleGattina, I intend to be fucking you,” my voice is a gentle rasp. “You’ll be screaming my name soon.”
When I suck one of her nipples into my mouth, her back arches. She might not like me right now, but I’m going to change it. I’m going to prove it to her. I’m going to show her she’s the only woman for me. Her existence will be so full of me that she won’t have room to doubt me.
“You’re mine,” I growl the promise.