I removed my hand from her back and turned to face her. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Does it look like I’m laughing?”
“It looks like you managed to get yourself into a shitload of trouble.”
She took a sip from her white wine, and my gaze settled on her lips, the way they kissed the rim of the glass. It was one simple act, yet it had the effect of a thousand aphrodisiacs, making my cock harden. Amazing how she disappeared from my life for years, then walked right back and turned me the fuck on within five goddamn minutes.
Finally, she turned toward me, her amber eyes settling on mine. “I don’t know why you would assume I was in trouble simply because I’m dating Matteo. But I can assure you, I’m in no trouble at all.”
From the corner of my eye, I noticed her flick her nails as her palm lay on the bar. Dead giveaway.
“You really expect me to believe that?”
She flicked a strand of her hair back. “I don’t expect anything from you.” Her gaze moved to where Matteo was standing with a crowd of men. More flicking of her nails.
I cocked a brow. “You’re afraid of him.”
She looked back at me. “What? No. Of course not.”
“Then why do you look nervous?”
She swallowed, and my eyes caught the movement of her throat. An image of us, of me lapping my tongue down the skin of her neck, tasting her, coaxing her body to ready itself for me. A memory of my lips kissing their way over her naked shoulder and down to the swell of her breast. Oh, I remembered her soft moans, the subtle noises that rolled over her heart-shaped lips, causing me to want to claim her in every way humanly possible.
Fuck. I wasn’t even having a conversation with her for ten goddamn seconds, and already she was seducing me back to the past without even trying.
I stepped closer, my hand touching her elbow. She sucked in a breath at my touch, and I was sure she shuddered before me. “What are you doing, Layla? You disappeared for years, and now you walk in here like nothing has happened.”
Inconspicuously, she removed her elbow from my grasp. “I’m not doing anything, Dante. It didn’t work between us, so I left. Now I’m back, and I’m with Matteo. There’s really no mystery to solve.”
I inched even closer. “I’m not buying it.”
“You don’t have to.”
My gaze flitted from her eyes to her mouth, red lips tempting me to succumb to their invitation, right here, right now, in turn causing mayhem and guaranteed carnage.
Layla leaned closer, the scent of her perfume bombarding all my senses. “Walk away, Dante. Do not pursue this.” Then she walked away.
I stood there as if I had been bolted to the fucking floor. It felt like I had been sucked through a giant black hole, then spat out in the goddamn Twilight Zone. Nothing about the last hour of my life made any sense. Within the blink of an eye, my life went from uncomplicated to super fucking complicated. My past had just stepped right into my present, and somehow I was sure it was about to fuck up my future.
I gestured for the waitress to bring me another drink, then glanced over my shoulder just as Layla whispered something in Matteo’s ear then headed in the direction of the ladies’ room, clutching her purse in her palm.
“This has trouble written all over it,” Antonio said when he joined me at the bar. “I don’t know what he’s playing, but I have a bad feeling about this. We need to figure out what the fuck is going on.”
I tossed back my drink and walked after her.
“Dante, where are you going?”
“Finding out what the fuck is going on.”
I heard Antonio curse behind me, but I didn’t care. All I cared about was the woman in front of me. I needed to find out what the fuck was going on, and I was going to find out right now.
Chapter 7
Layla
He was following me. I could feel it. I felt his eyes on my back, his presence coating my skin like it was the goddamn air I breathed. How was it possible for me to be able to feel him as if he were still a part of me after we’d been apart for so long?
My pulse raced, my heart beating rapidly with every step I took. It was working just as he said it would.