Page 36 of Ace of Hearts

I don’t know what gets into me, but I breathe against her mouth, “This evening, in our room, you can do that yourself.”

Her eyes look straight into mine, as if to ask if I’m serious. I don’t even know that myself. I suppose I must mean it, given that I’m physically incapable of resisting her charms.

I hold her closer, pressing my erection against her stomach, and she starts to breathe more deeply. I’m sick of only fantasizing about her, and even more sick of masturbating in the shower as I replay the one intimate experience we’ve shared.

“On one condition.”

I raise an eyebrow, swallowing as she runs her hands underneath my swimming shorts. She presses my buttocks, her pupils dilated.

“That you take a photograph of me just afterward, for a souvenir.”

For a souvenir , as though she already knows it can only happen once. As though she’s planning to run away soon. I’m about to ask what she means when a familiar shape appears behind her, distracting me.

I grow tense in her arms. Tito is walking along the side of the pool, his eyes fixed on us. Rose follows my gaze and freezes too.

“Hey,” she murmurs to get my attention. “Relax.”

She puts one hand on my cheek and turns my face back toward hers, forcing me to look away from him. I look deep into her eyes, just as she leans forward and kisses me. My heart catches fire. I entwine my tongue with hers, my hand resting tenderly on the back of her delicate neck.

I know I shouldn’t, but I hope Tito is burning with anger at the sight of us. I hope he hates seeing me with his precious little daughter. And I hope he knows I wouldn’t hesitate for a moment to use her against him if I had to.

But after a few seconds, I forget all about Tito. There’s only her, me, and my excitement, pulsing painfully against her thighs.

“Feel this,” she whispers, seizing my hand and putting it on her breast.

I moan involuntarily, first from desire and then in despair as I feel her heart beating frantically under my fingers. Is this really happening? Is this more than a game to her? I find myself hoping against hope that it is.

“You know,” I say, whispering against her moist lips, “I don’t think it’s got anything to do with Rose, or about how much room there is on the goddamn door.”

“Oh yes?”

“Yes. I think it was all about Jack and the fact that he would have done anything for the woman he loved. He wouldn’t have risked taking turns on the door. He would have kept her on it no matter what, to make sure she survived. He wouldn’t have accepted any other option.”

She stares at me in silence. At just that moment, Li Mei calls my name from over by the deck chairs. She’s got my phone in her hand. Someone’s calling, probably Thomas. I pull away from Rose reluctantly, placing one last kiss on her delicious mouth.

“I’ll be back. Don’t do anything crazy while I’m gone.”

“That’s exactly what I’m going to do,” she jokes with a wink.

I shake my head in amusement as I climb out of the pool, then dry my hands on my towel and take the phone. Thomas asks if he’s disturbing me, and I make my way to the exit to find somewhere quiet, still keeping my eyes fixed on Tito.

He’s staring at his daughter with a menacing expression on his face. I don’t like it one bit.

“What’s going on? Can’t it wait?”

“I just wanted to know how the call went earlier.”

I stay in the corridor, dripping water, and tell him all about it. It takes me a good five minutes. The editor was reticent at first, but the evidence convinced him in the end.

“He’s interested, then?”

“Of course he’s interested. This is Tito Ferragni we’re talking about. He wanted to publish the article next week, but I talked him out of that, and he’s going to wait.”

I know Thomas is probably nodding his head at that.

“You did the right thing. The timing needs to be perfect.”

I ask him why he didn’t come down to the pool with us, and he says he’s not interested. That makes me laugh. I didn’t think I’d be interested, either, but I surprised myself. Rose makes everything fun.

“No worries. See you later.”

I hang up and go back to the pool, where I’m taken aback to see a little group forming around our deck chairs.

I slow down, frowning, and stop when I see Rose standing in the middle.

She’s drawn up to her full height in front of a young man, water still dripping off her bare skin, and she’s shouting and gesticulating.

“Ci fai o ci sei? Pezzo di merda! Cazzone! Figlio di puttana!”

I look at her in shock, recognizing enough of the words to know they aren’t good. Something about the guy being crazy. A piece of shit, a dickhead, a son of a bitch. The man’s face darkens, and I see his lips moving but can’t hear what he says.

Whatever it is, it enrages Rose. I don’t have time to react before she rams her knee into his groin, hard. He groans with pain and doubles over, grabbing roughly at her arm, but she jumps onto his back, shrieking, her hands yanking his hair.

Li Mei and Lucky throw themselves into the fight with a piercing war cry.

A woman, the man’s girlfriend by the look of things, shoves Li Mei, but Li Mei grabs her ponytail, and they yank on each other’s hair while Li Mei shrieks that she’s fought worse in prison.

Lucky assumes a boxing pose but doesn’t actually join in the action.

“Help me out, you useless piece of shit!” Li Mei shouts at him before her adversary silences her with a punch in the chest. “Ow! Not the breasts! That’s cheating!” Reverting to Mandarin, she calls the other woman a slut.

“I’m coming, Li Mei!” Lucky calls, throwing punches into empty air. “It’s just that ... Oops, sorry, miss ... My mother always told me not to hit girls ...”

“Lucky!” Slipping into Mandarin again, she threatens to hit him next.

I cross my arms and frown at this infernal spectacle. Everybody watching is laughing—that’s how ridiculous it is. I should probably intervene. Rose seems to be holding her own, though. In fact, she’s wiping the floor with the guy.

“I’m engaged to her,” I say to the man next to me with a proud smile.

He looks at me with an expression of deep compassion. “Good luck.”

Rose hangs on as the man spins around, trying to shake her off. She bellows at him to apologize, but he calls her a nutcase.

I walk over casually, intending to separate them. All eyes are fixed on me as I stop in front of them, my face expressionless, and say to him coldly, “That’s my future wife you’ve got on your back. I’d appreciate it if you’d put her down. Now .”

The man’s eyes widen, and he tugs on Rose’s hands, which are still buried in his hair.

“I’d like to, I swear! Get down, you crazy witch!”

“ Lyubimaya? Would you mind leaving this poor guy alone?” I ask Rose tenderly, my head tilted to one side.

She grunts, her cheeks flushed dark—crimson, I assume.

“He said something really rude about Li Mei, and when I told him to apologize, the bastard told us to ‘go back where we came from’!”

“I said I was sorry,” the man whimpers.

“Once I’d kicked you in the balls you did!”

One look from me, and the man gives another groveling apology. I decide that’s enough and reach up to Rose to lift her down. She sets her jaw as her feet touch the ground, her back against my chest.

“OK, let’s go.”

I take her hand and pick up our towels with monumental calm. Li Mei loosens her grip on the poor girlfriend, who’s probably lost quite a lot of hair by now, and releases her. Lucky is panting as though he’s run a marathon.

“That was intense . . .”

“Shut up,” Li Mei snarls, her cheeks red and scratched. “You were useless as always.”

We leave together, our departure followed by amused gazes.

Near the exit, I sense Tito watching us and instinctively hold more tightly onto Rose’s hand.

I want to leave without any trouble, but as we pass in front of him, I hear him murmur, so only I can hear, “She’s a fiery one. You need to train her better.”

I stop short, my heart pounding. Rose looks up at me questioningly, but I’m completely focused on Tito. I can hardly believe he’d talk about his own daughter like that.

“She’s not an animal.”

I’m about to leave when he adds, in a vicious whisper, “I hope so, for your sake. If she’s anything like your mother, you’ll suffer the same fate as your father.”

My anger, always cold and implacable before now, bursts into flames, blinding me with its force.

Without pausing even for a second, I let go of Rose’s hand and jump forward like a tiger, grabbing Tito by the collar and hitting him in the face as hard as I can.

He staggers under the force of the blow as Rose pulls me backward, shouting my name.

“Say that again, you piece of shit!” I bellow, my throat constricted.

Tito regains his balance, touches his bleeding mouth, and smiles triumphantly at me. The effect is like a bucket of cold water. I retreat, still looking wildly at him. I can barely hear what Rose is saying as she drags me toward the exit.

Tito’s words won’t stop echoing in my mind. He knew that mentioning my mother would drive me over the edge. It’s exactly what he wanted. I’m trembling violently, regretting having lost my cool.

“Are you OK?” Rose asks when we get to the changing rooms. “What got into you?”

My three friends look completely taken aback. Lucky murmurs what everyone’s thinking.

“Woah ... that’s the first time I’ve ever seen you lose your shit. You scared me. I thought you were going to ...”

He doesn’t finish his sentence. Li Mei stands on his foot, very obviously, to shut him up. My chest tightens.

I thought you were going to kill him . That’s what he was about to say. And who could blame him? Because that’s what I do, isn’t it? Kill people. Fuck . I need some air. I need to be alone. I need to ground myself somehow.

I turn away abruptly without replying, ready to make my escape, but Rose catches hold of my arm. I pull away, more roughly than I meant to.

“Leave me alone.”

“Why?” she says, walking by my side.

What exactly doesn’t she understand? I don’t want her there; that’s all! “Because I’m angry.”

“Well, that’s fine, because I’m angry too. Let’s be angry together,” she says, trying to joke.

I clench my fists and stop, turning to face her. I stare right into her eyes. “No, Rose, I’m angry with you .”

“Me?” she exclaims in surprise. “What did I do?”

“I got into a fight because of you! Couldn’t you just stay out of trouble for five minutes, for God’s sake?”

This time, she opens her mouth wide, on the defensive.

She’s not used to seeing me angry, even less so to me talking to her like that.

I feel bad for lashing out at her when it’s Tito I’m really angry with, but still I’m not ready to back down.

I’m angry with her for being that man’s daughter.

I’m angry that I can’t trust her. I’m angry because she makes me feel all these things that make me miserable when I’m with her.

“Because of me ? But I didn’t ask you to do it! I was getting on fine until you came along. And what’s Tito got to do with that, anyway?”

“I hit him because of what he said about you . I haven’t lost my temper like that for years, because I hate fighting, because you never know what could happen, and then you fucking show up and ...”

“Stop!” she interrupts, furious. “So it’s my fault if someone insults me ? It’s my fault if you see red? You know what I think? I think you’re in denial because you’re angry, but that doesn’t give you the right to take it out on me, just because what he said touched a nerve.”

She hands me my towel and turns to join the others. But as she walks away, she stops once to look over her shoulder and add one more thing, still fuming.

“Oh, and we both know that what you just said was a lie. What Tito said that made you so angry ... has absolutely nothing to do with me.”