Even while Oswald was yelling, he looked at where my towel was sliding down my body. This is life with men. Even the most polite are perverts given half a chance.
I glance back to prove myself right, but he’s looking at his watch, not me.
“Is that a Submariner?” I ask.
He climbs in beside me. “You know your timepieces. Notice anything special about it?”
“Shit, that’s a Milsub, isn’t it?”
“It is indeed. You’re an observant one.”
“My boss had me bid for the last one that came up for auction. I had instructions to go up to one-fifty. It went for one-eighty in the end. Telephone bidder.”
He taps his chest.
“You? You won the auction?”
“Small world, isn’t it? One hundred-and-eighty-six thousand Euros was my winning bid.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because I am passing the time.” He taps the watch, laughing at his own joke while I groan. “What would you prefer to discuss? The weather?”
2
Bex
* * *
He’s too close to me. In this space, I feel overwhelmed by his sheer bulk, his head brushing the ceiling.
His cologne is more potent this close up, cedar wood and leather, intoxicating my senses.
His shoulders are so broad that his arm touches my own whenever he shifts despite the car’s spacious interior.
He stares at me, saying nothing.
Suddenly I imagine him pouncing on me, ignoring my protests, pulling up my dress, plunging his hand into my panties, those soft-looking lips brushing my neck. I squeeze my thighs together, trying to ease the throbbing pressure as he towers over me.
I don’t want him. Just my body betraying me, that’s all. My outstanding ability to fall for a bad boy who ends up fucking me over.
Not again.Never again. Not after Oswald.
I force myself to break the tension. “Not curious at all to know why he was trying to break into my room?”
“He told me why he was there.”
“He did?”
“Not with words but with his sense of entitlement when I opened the window. Combine that with his tenacity in climbing up a locked fire escape and his bloodied knuckles while trying to get inside, and it all screams whiny ex-partner. How’d you end up with someone as stupid as him? No fist can get through safety glass. You need explosives or at least a proper cutting tool.”
“You sound like you speak from experience. Broken into many places?”
He ignores my question. “Let me guess. He love-bombed you at first. First relationship, was it? You broke up with him when the shine fell off. He didn’t believe you meant it. Thought he could win you back by being persistent, like you’d find that romantic instead of creepy. He’s what, ten years older than you? Bad sign, trust me. Age gap relationships never work. Stalked you all the way here to Rome and freaked you out when he appeared outside your hotel room. Right so far?”
“How do you know all this?”
“I can read people. It helps in my line of work.”