Page 39 of Scorned Beauty

“And I’m sure the women you take to these events want to sleep with you.”

“But I’m not remotely attracted to them.”

“Neither am I with Phil and if you say he’s a man and he could take advantage of me, see yourself out.”

His jaw clenched. “I’m worried about you…what if I assign you a bodyguard?”

“Hell no.”

His phone went off. Taking advantage of his distraction, I slipped out of the room and into the bathroom. Physically, I was feeling much better, but my brain was fuming at Dom’s double standards and it was giving me a migraine.

I was already in the shower when Dom came in.

He yanked the shower curtain aside. He was dressed.

“You’re letting out the heat.”

His answer was to grab the back of my skull and plant a forceful kiss on my lips.

“That was the club. I’m going to call or text you tomorrow. I’m not disappearing for weeks again.” He released a fractured breath. “We’ll figure this out.”

He followed that with a lighter kiss and closed the curtain.

There was something in Dom’s voice that sounded like surrender. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it because that wouldmean I needed to give in a little, too. But what he didn’t understand was I had more to lose.

Right now, I needed rest and to prepare for a week of tests.

Chapter

Eleven

Dom

“Thirty minutes to ball drop,Zio. What are you doing out here?”

Luca was standing on the balcony of a private room at Cardo. It was New Year’s Eve and the party was getting too loud and too festive for my uncle. Since he arrived last week for Christmas, it had been gut-wrenching to witness his struggle. He smiled only for his son, and at times, sadness would cloud his features. It didn’t take a genius to guess he was thinking of Natalya and wishing she was at his side. The second Elias was out of sight, Luca’s face transformed into a remote, chilly mask.

I debated whether it was wise to secretly feed that cam sighting of Natalya to his hacker team back in November. It might not even be Natalya, just someone who looked like her. Now, weeks later, and without further leads, I worried about Luca’s sanity.

He turned to face me. “I checked on Elias.”

Luca had brought his longtime housekeeper, Martha, and his soldier, Tony, to help look after Elias. For this visit, they stayedover at Sera and Matteo’s Fifth Avenue penthouse so Elias and Gio could hang out together. “He should be asleep by now, right?”

“No, Samantha insisted on a pillow fort. They are watching the ball drop, too.”

Second to Luca, my cousin Renz and his wife, Liz, took some convincing to leave their seven-year-old, Samantha, on New Year's Eve to celebrate with adults.

“I shouldn’t have left Elias at all,” Luca grumbled. He checked his watch.

“He’ll be fine. Even Matteo and Sera were relieved to have an evening out.”

Luca’s mouth twitched as he glanced past my shoulder. “Sure about that?”

I turned around to see Matteo, Sera, and Liz already wearing their coats.

“Ready, Zio?” Sera asked. “Renz is waiting with the Expedition.”

“Why are you guys leaving before the ball drops?” I glanced at Matteo. “Didn’t you say you were looking forward to adult time?”