Page 71 of Dark Breaker
He stops to look over his shoulders at me. “What is it?”
“Nothing,” I tell him. “Just felt like giving you an impromptu hug. I do that from time to time.”
He laughs and I feel his chest rumble beneath me. It’s a nice feeling. Then he gently extracts my hands and we sit down to finish our meal.
“You’re certainly an enigma, Rosa. Though I suppose you’re just happy that I showed up the competition.”
I can only nod my head. Maybe I was wrong about him. About us. Maybe this might work.
He sighs. “Still can’t believe she followed me here.”
“Maybe it really was a coincidence,” I tell him.
“It’s possible,” he says. “Though to be honest I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t. I’ve had my fair share of stalkers over the years.”
I have to smile at that. “Somehow, I think that you’d have an easier time with stalkers than me. I mean, you should seemystalkers. You saw what those two did at the party, dragging me into the pool. There’s a reason why I carry Mace with me at all times.”
I shake my head before continuing. “Earlier that day I bumped into Carlo atScogli Patti, an out of the way, quiet, rocky beach I used to go to on Ustica when I wanted to get away from everything and everyone. Because let’s be honest, even though you have a beach in your backyard, sometimes you don’t want to bump into your brothers.
“So anyway, yeah, Carlo shows up. Kind of suspicious, considering he lives on the opposite side of the island. He claimed he saw my Vespa while he was passing by. I suppose it’s possible. But he would have no reason to be on that side of the island, not unless he was stalking me. And that’s only the latest in a long string of previous appearances on his part. I mean, I’ll give him credit, I haven’t seen him in a while. But I tell ya, for a while there it was pretty bad. I’m grocery shopping, suddenly he’s there, too. I’m at a party, lo and behold, Carlo shows up. I’m leaving university, Carlo just happens to be walking by.
“I thought he’d placed some kind of spyware app on my phone at first, but when I switched phones the random appearances continued. Nunzio wasn’t any better, to be honest. He’d show up at my house in the middle of the night and almost get himself killed courtesy of my trigger-happy brothers. Luciano finally had a little talk with them both, and Carlo and Nunzio have left me alone since. For the most part. Until the beach incident,and Nunzio’s stupid party, anyway.”
“You want me to take care of them?” Fabio asks.
“You mean make them disappear?” I reply. “No. Stalking isn’t a death sentence.”
“Maybe it should be,” Fabio tells me. He’s gripping his fork so tightly I can see his knuckles turn white. “I don’t want those fuckers following you.”
“Well, you’ll be happy to know I haven’t seen either of them since the party. Suppose it helps that Massimo put a guard on me, and then you.” I finish my plate of ravioli and lean back. “I never loved either of them. I dated them at the same time. They knew about each other, but I was careful to make sure they never met, not when I was with either one. I thought it was clear that what we had was only casual. Butstillthey got attached.”
I rub my forehead, then look into the distance, my mind faraway. “Carlo used to talk about how he wanted to marry me. How he’d take me away to the little beach property he owns just outside San Vito Lo Capo. He used to show me pictures. It was fairly charming, but he didn’t understand, I already lived on a beach, and had no intention whatsoever of marrying him.
“I did my best not to lead him on. Do you think it was a mistake to keep the relationship going as long as I did? Six months. I slept with him for six months. And Nunzio four. I think breaking up with Nunzio before Carlo was a bad move. It only emboldened Carlo. He thought he’d won.”
Fabio’s staring at me with a strange light in his eyes. “You know, you shouldn’t give me too many details about your past relationships. It only makes me want to kill them.”
I realize he’s right. How would I feel if he went into detail about his relationship with Gina? While a part of me would be fascinated to hear all the gory details, I’d probably want to kill her by the end, too.
He finishes his pasta and gulps down his wine. “Let’s go.”
He stands, and when I rise, he plants his hand possessively on the small of my back. We stride between the tables. This time, I’m not getting looks of disdain from those around me, but rather respect. Whenever I meet someone’s eye, they don’t hold my gaze this time, and quickly look away. I don’t like the way some of the women are eying Fabio, but I try to ignore that.
Fabio pauses at the entrance to hand the manager several hundred Euros. After the manager thanks him profusely, we leave.
Outside, Fabio escorts me to my Vespa, and then turns me toward him.
“Thank you for the wonderful evening, Wife,” he tells me.
“Thank you as well.” I glance at his lips, and can’t help a flirtatious smile. “Husband.” I lean forward, kiss him, and nibble softly, pulling his lower lip away from his mouth as I release him. “A little preview of tonight.”
I turn away to get onto my bike, but then he grabs me again, pulling me into him to kiss me fiercely. He slides me onto his upper leg so that I can feel his hard cock pressing into my thigh.
Oh my God. I want him fucking right now.
I’m panting by the time he lets me go.
“That’s your preview,” he tells me.