"Why not?"
"He is a private person."
"But you two seem so close," I said.
Gabriel just offered me a small smile.
"Even friends can have secrets," he said.
I could only believe his words. I had never had a very close friend. I had actually never had someone as close as Gabriel, and we had only known each other for a few days. We just ... clicked. I hated I couldn't stay. I really did. I swallowed the last piece of the burger and then finally said:
"I need to pee."
Gabriel just nodded and let me go to the bathroom on my own, but his eyes were on me the whole time. I just hoped the bathroom had a window or something like that. My heart felt heavy though, and all I wanted was to go back to the table and act like nothing was wrong.
Chapter 35
-Dominic-
I had to make sure Arianna knew not to go mess with my mate again. She had upset Lara, and I couldn't allow that to go unpunished. So, I found out where she was staying, which was a mansion her family owned in the suburbs. They only came here once or twice a year. They liked to be in their homeland more. I understood that. I didn't want to live anywhere else but here, but I couldn't allow them to come and step on my territory, thinking they could tell me what to do.
Arianna would learn that right now, I thought as I walked up the steps to her house. A servant quickly opened the door, before I even got to knock. It seemed like I was expected. Arianna knew what she had done would lure me here ... I should have thought about that. I was giving her what she wanted, wasn't I? No chance to turn back now. I stepped inside the beautiful mansion and was led by the servant to a living room on the ground floor, where Arianna was already waiting, dressed in a lovely dark purple dress, and her hair was pulled up into a tight ponytail. It was clear she had dressed to impress me, but I wasn't at all impressed. I was pissed.
"Tea?" she asked, as I came inside the living room.
She was giving me one of those alluring smiles, but they did nothing for me. They never really had, but now that I had met Lara, they meant even less to me.
"No," I said and stopped in front of her.
"Come now. You came all this way to see me. The least I can do is offer you something to drink. I got alcohol too," she said and snapped her fingers.
Two servants were hiding behind her, and one quickly moved to find some alcohol for me to drink, but I wasn't accepting anything. I was only here to make some things very clear to her.
"I don't want alcohol," I told her, and the servant froze, looking from Arianna to me.
Arianna didn't look pleased, but then just sent the servant back to her place.
"At least sit down," she said and held out her hand to the couch in front of her.
"I am not staying," I told her harshly.
The happy mood she had been in changed, and it was clear she knew things weren't really going according to plan.
"That's too bad," she said. "I had something in mind about what we could do to pass the time."
I could hear the hidden meaning in her words, but they did nothing for me. I wasn't even interested before I met Lara. I was fucking someone else in a bathroom at the very party, where I was supposed to be talking to Arianna. Did she not see I was not interested at all?!
"Don't ever suggest something like that again," I told her.
She looked up at me angrily.
"Everyone knows you like to fuck, and what a surprise, so do I," she said, with a little smug smile.
"Really? Thought your father would have kept every suitor away from you in hopes to please me," I said.
"Well, what he doesn't know won't hurt him," Arianna said, leaning back on the couch and throwing one leg over the other.
She looked so confident right now. At the party, I had barely even talked to her. Only met her shortly, and she had seemed so careful and almost shy, but it was clearly all an act, thinking that was what I wanted to see. Now, she was changing her strategy, making it more aggressive. Smart plan, but it wouldn't work. Lara was the one.