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“Okay, I’ll bite. What the fuck are you talking about?”
I shrug. “You’re smart, figure it out.”
I turn to go into my room, but suddenly he is between me and the door. I freeze.
“Please, step away, Valentino. I don’t want you in my room now or ever. Stay away from me.”
Valentino grabs my arm. “I’m not in the mood for games, Francesca. I was worried sick when I came home and didn’t find you here. No one knew where you were. I don’t want to have to worry about that while I’m out there-”
“Fucking?” I spit.
“What?” he explodes.
“Where were you on our wedding night?”
He frowns. “Gambling.”
I begin to laugh sarcastically. “That’s a new name for it.”
“What the fuck?”
“I told you I smelled another woman on you. And I was right. That brazen hussy came to see me today.”
His eyes widen with astonishment.
“Yes, that’s right, Casanova. That whore you were fucking on our wedding night came to visit me. But don’t worry I’m not mad about that, honestly. However, if you’re going to sleep around, can you please tell them all to stay away from me?”
He frowns. “I never cheated on you with Nina.”
“You know I didn’t need to know her name.” Placing a name to the beautiful face causes fresh hurt to spring up in my chest, and I decide to lash out at him and hurt him the same way he’s hurt me.
“I didn’t cheat on you,” he says. “I gave you my word this morning and-”
“Your words mean shit when you come to me on our wedding night smelling like another woman, and suddenly, the woman shows up at our house telling me about how you love fucking her and questioning how well I satisfy you in bed.”
He says nothing, but his face darkens.
“I was a virgin, but I really thought you were satisfied and happy with me and-”
“I am.” Valentino’s eyes shine with what I would normally have called honesty, but he is a liar on another level. He won’t fool me a second time.
“Since I set my eyes on you, I have never wanted another woman,” he declares. “And neither have I slept with anyone else. All you have to do is walk into a room, and I stop seeing anything else but you.”
Sweet words… and I can feel myself falling shamelessly for it. Oh, how I want to believe him, but I catch myself just in time. I push him away. “This is a transactional marriage, Valentino. I’d be foolish to believe you didn’t have someone else before you met me. I don’t care who you mess around with, but tell them to stay the hell away from me.”
“Francesca…”
“This marriage will soon be over. When it is-”
“Francesca!” His eyes flash with fury. “We made a deal in the house of God. Till death do us part. We are not-”
“Bullshit. You say that like you respect God. Those vows mean nothing to you. You’re a killer, a liar, a cheat!”
His eyes narrow dangerously, but I’m in no mood to stop. He turned my hate into love and back to hate.
“This marriage will soon be over, and when it is, you can go back to your women and I’ll go back to the man I love.”
His lips thin and his eyes become hard and glinting. “Thomas the cowardly maggot?”