Page 13

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KILIAN

I smile at her as she says my name and I watch as a million emotions flash over her face. Anger, fear, confusion and my favorite, lust. The hazed look in her eyes that I caused so many times for nearly two years. I wonder if she is remembering those moments now. Of us fucking all over my house. Against the front door, on the dining room table, the couch, the study, the kitchen, the balcony, the shower. We fucked in every room of that house and on every surface. The thoughts sending blood straight to my dick, I have to will it to calm down.

“Did you miss me, doll?” I ask as I take her in. She is wearing one of those damn silk robes again and it causes memories to hit me all over again.

She blinks like she was lost in thought then a sassiness takes over. “What are you doing here?” Her voice is like venom.

I lift the fifteen-year-old Redbreast in my hand. “I heard you ordered room service and I couldn’t possibly let you have wine. I know where your taste truly lies.”

She pushes against my chest. “You can’t be here.”

I grab her wrists and walk her backward as I kick the door shut behind me and set the whiskey on a table. “And why is that, doll?”

“Don’t call me that!”

“Nice to see things haven’t changed.”

She struggles against my hold. “I mean it, Kilian, you have to leave before…” She trails off.

“Before what?”

She shakes her head.

I hold both wrists with one hand then grab her hip with the other, walking her backward until she hits a wall. I can’t help but lean in, placing my nose in her neck, smelling her. My favorite smell in the world.

She freezes at my touch and I feel her heart rate picking up. “Before your uncle finds out I came to visit you?”

I pull back just as her eyes go wide. “What… how… that’s not—”

“I saw you drop off that envelope in the bar. And I saw the man that sat down ten seconds later to pick it up. What are you up to, Mirabella?”

She pinches her eyes shut and I feel the fight go out of her. I let her go but lean my hands on either side of her head. “Tell me.”

She shakes her head and I see tears fall down her cheeks. I can’t help but comfort her. My hand goes to her jaw. “Bella,” I whisper, lifting her chin up so she has to look at me.

She opens her eyes and I see them filled with sorrow. I quickly brush away her tears, the moment intimate but it doesn’t feel wrong or foreign. It feels like us, like what we became before she disappeared.

“I know who you are.”

She visibly swallows.

“I’m not here to hurt you.”

She takes a deep breath. “How did you know I was here?”

I let go of her knowing she isn’t going to do anything rash, like throw a knife at me, although I am sure she has one somewhere in this hotel room. “I’ve had one of my men watching you since that night.”

She stays pinned against the wall. “Why?”

I back up and sit on the corner of her bed. “Because for some reason, I can’t get you out of my fucking head.” I pause as I look up at her. “And you lied to me. You said your brother wanted you in Venice. But you are Mirabella Renzetti. Your family is based out of Genoa.”

Her dark eyes stare into mine, the emotion she had earlier is gone, her eyes lifeless now. But I look at her fist and see it curling tightly into a ball.

“I want to know why you lied.”

“You said you weren’t here to hurt me.”

“I’m not,” I say as I lean back onto my palms.

“How did you find me in this hotel? How did you know—”

I smile at her with a crooked grin. “You know who I am. You let that little fact slip when I came to visit you.”

“You had me tied to a chair, Kilian.”

“Safety first.” I shrug. “Anyway, you don’t think I have men that can find this stuff out? You should actually be thanking me.”

She raises a brow at me in confusion. “Why would I be thanking you?”

“Because I had my men change your room number from where Giancarlo thinks you are staying. He won’t know I’m here, well he doesn’t know I am alive. And you’ll be safe.”

She edges her way toward the small table and chairs by the balcony doors. “And why wouldn’t I be safe?”

“The man that picked that envelope up from the bar is a known associate of Giancarlo Renzetti. He’s an assassin. And I wasn’t risking the chance Giancarlo set you up to kill you.”

“He won’t.”

“How can you be sure?”

“He’s looking for my brother just like you are.”

I run my finger over my lip as I watch her subtle movements. I hold in my smile, knowing exactly what she’s doing. “Interesting. Are you working for him?”

She shakes her head. “I’m not a Renzetti.”

I snort. “Technically you are.”

“I dropped that name the second my parents were killed.”

“When you moved to Dublin?”

She nods. “They died the year before, so as soon as I was eighteen, I left.”

“But you are still a Renzetti.”

She clenches her jaw and takes a step toward me. “No, I’m not. Only their blood runs through my veins. I’m Mirabella Di Masio.”

“Not Bella Gallo?” I ask.

She swallows and takes one step closer. “She was never real.”

“I am pretty sure she was real when I had her screaming my name as I ate her cunt out so hard she blacked out.”

She growls at me and pushes me into the bed, a knife at my throat, but I catch her wrist a few inches above my neck.

“That wasn’t very subtle,” I say. “I saw you pick up that knife.”

She doesn’t say anything, just straddles my hips and glares at me, pieces of hair falling out of her messy bun and into her face. I will my dick to stay down. Because having the sexiest woman in the world straddled on top of you with a knife to your throat is a fucking turn-on. “Why are you doing this?”

“I don’t trust you.”

I laugh at that. “I didn’t mean this, doll,” I say as I point to the knife. “It’s actually turning me on.” I thrust my hips into hers to let her feel what she is doing to me.

She guffaws and tries to pull away from me but I let go of the wrist holding the knife and grab her hips quickly, flipping her onto her back so I am straddling her. I grab the knife out of her hand and toss it to the floor as I pin her wrists on either side of her head. “Why are you working for him if you say you aren’t a Renzetti?”

She sighs, knowing she is trapped under me. “I didn’t have a choice.”

“You always have a choice.”

She pinches her eyes shut. “Not when it comes to him. Not when he threatened my daughter.”

I frown at her words and let go of her wrists. The idea of her having a kid hurts me in a way I would never tell her. I thought we had something between us, something we never admitted to but then she disappeared. I felt things for her I never felt with any other woman I’ve been with. And that list is long. She is also the only woman I ever slept with repeatedly. Besides a few girlfriends in high school and college. And to think she shared what she and I had with another man causes something to stir in me.

I run my hand along her cheekbone where a cut is healing. “Who did this to you?”

“Kilian, let it go,” she sighs.

“Did he do this?” I ask, rage burning through my veins.

She gazes into my eyes, a feeling of hopelessness overtaking them. “Why do you care?”

“Bella, I’ll always care about you.”

“Even if I’m a Renzetti?”

I brush the loose pieces of her hair across her face. “Especially if you are. They are dangerous.”

“Aren’t you?”

I don’t answer her.

“You can’t save me, Kilian. Not from this life. I was born into the mafia. I will die by their hand. There is no escaping it. I’ve accepted that path. Just like you’ve accepted yours.”

I close my eyes as I accept the truth she has already come to accept. I move off her and walk toward the open doors of the balcony, letting the smell of salty air overtake my senses.

We are both quiet for a long time, neither of us talking. I don’t look at her. Because I don’t know what there is to say. I know I can’t save her. Hell, I shouldn’t even be here. But I took the precautions I needed to keep myself in the shadows, my presence unknown. I just can’t keep myself away from her. She’s forbidden fruit. I’ve had my taste of her and one taste is never enough.

I hear her moving behind me. But I don’t have the energy to worry if she is picking up a knife, ready to kill me. The sound of a bottle opening and liquid being poured acts as a white flag.

She moves to stand next to me, handing me a glass of whiskey. “For what it’s worth, I never wanted to leave you.”

I close my eyes at those words. “Then why did you?” I finally ask as I turn to look at her.

She gathers her thoughts carefully. “It’s a long story.”

“I have nowhere to be.”

A short laugh falls from her lips. “Maybe another time.”

I feel something break in me, to know this woman who used to tell me everything as we had lain in bed late at night, won’t tell me the reason she disappeared on me. I swirl the whiskey around in my glass before I toss the entire glass back at once.

“You know someone always told me you are supposed to savor it,” she teases.

My lip curls up at her. “I did.”

She throws her head back in laughter then tosses her own drink back. “I missed you, Kilian. I wish I never had to leave.”

“I thought you said that story was for another time.”

“It is.” She looks at me then looks out at the water below. “But I have nowhere to be tonight. And we have an entire bottle of whiskey.”

I raise a brow at her. “Drink for a story?”

She smiles at me and I can feel it all the way in my bones. “Just like we used to.”