I wrapped my arm around her waist, swirled her around, and pulled her closer. “I’d have to kill anyone who set eyes on you looking like this.” And that was God’s honest truth. If any man had to see her in the tiny little number she called a nightgown, with her hair all disheveled and that sexed-up look on her face, I’d have no choice but to pop his goddamn eyeballs out of his skull.
Gently, I ran my finger over the red marks around her neck, staring at it. “Why do I like hurting you so much?”
“For the same reason I like being hurt by you so much.”
My gaze shot up to hers, and her blue eyes searched my face. “Someone once told me to not complicate the answers to simple questions.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “He must be a smart man.”
“Smart and stubborn.”
I crouched down and picked up the torn panties, sticking them in my pants pocket.
“Wouldn’t want to leave any evidence behind.”
She let out a soft laugh, and the sound penetrated the stone-cold heart I carried around inside my chest. I had no idea what was happening to me, to us…but by God, I knew that whatever it was, it was something I never wanted to lose. For the first time in my life, I was starting to feel like I was living and not just existing. All because of her, because of the way she was changing me. The best part, she wasn’t even aware she was doing it. It was just fucking happening.
In silence, we walked out of my uncle’s study. This was the first time Tatum had left the room ever since we arrived here. She refused to come out of the bedroom, giving me all kinds of excuses. But I knew the real reason. She feared the unknown and refused to face reality. And the reality of the situation was that her father had died. My mother had died. And there was a full-on war raging between me and my younger brother.
All this would be a lot for one person to handle, especially since she had been protected from it all her entire life. She knew nothing of a world where loyalty was worth dying for, yet a life held no value. Finding out that your father hired an assassin to kill the man you thought you loved, a man who also turned out to be a blackmailing gold-digger, had to be a bitter pill to swallow.
Maybe that was the reason for me feeling so protective over her. It was her innocence that pulled me toward her—the fact that she was so pure yet had a hankering toward the darkness.
Fuck, I don’t know.
I closed the door behind me, turned around, and saw Uncle Gino smiling at both me and Tatum.
“Uncle Gino.”
“I see you finally decided to take Tatum on a tour of the house.” He glanced down at her naked legs. “In her nightgown, no less.”
I cleared my throat uncomfortably. “Yes. It was a spur of the moment decision.”
He gave me a knowing look. “I’m sure it was. Anyway, do you have a moment? There are a few matters I’d like to discuss with you.”
By the look on his face, I knew it wasn’t something he’d like to discuss in front of Tatum.
“Sure.” I let go of Tatum’s hand, thinking she would get her own way back to the bedroom. But then there was the familiar hammering of doubt at the back of my skull.
What if she decided to leave?
What if she decided to walk out the front door and leave me behind?
What if…
Fuck that.
I grabbed her hand again. “Just give me a few minutes to escort Tatum back to our room.”
“It’s fine, Castello. I can manage finding my own way back.” She smiled, but it did nothing to silence the voices of doubt swirling around inside my brain, threatening to drive me mad.
“No. I’ll take you.”
We started down the hall, and it was like I could hear the wheels turning in Tatum’s head while she walked beside me. And the fact that she was staring a hole through my forehead didn’t help.
“Why are you staring at me?”
“Are you afraid that I’ll try to leave?”