Page 74 of Scorned Beauty

I glared at him. “I was just taking a swim.”

A muscle pulsed at his jaw, and his gaze studied me. I discerned a softening in his eyes and the shuddering of his body before his forehead dropped to mine. “Thank God.”

“Get off me,” I snapped.

He raised his head to look at me, regret etched on his face. “I’m sorry, Sloane.”

I wasn’t even going to pretend not to know what he was sorry about. He obviously found out I never betrayed him. “If I give you blanket forgiveness for all the nasty shit you said to me, will you leave me alone?”

He sighed and rolled off me to stand up. He extended his arm to give me a hand up, but I ignored it and pushed to my feet on my own. I grabbed the sarong and tied it around my waist as I started for the house.

“That right there says you’re lying,” he said, following me.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I worried about the deal with that woman. It wasn’t any written contract, but the fact that Grigori gave me up to her meant she could return me to Grigori any time. And the efficiency at how she got me medical help, took care of Harriet, and transported me while unconscious told me everything I needed to know. She was a pro at relocating people. Maybe she was a branch of witness protection.

Did I break our unwritten contract if it was Dom who followed me here? I didn’t even question how he found me.

“What do you think?” he responded as if him being here was the most natural thing in the world.

I walked briskly to put distance between us, but his long easy gait kept pace with me.

When we reached the white picket fence of the house, I spun on him. “You’re not coming inside.”

His gaze shot to the beach cottage behind me and then shifted to rest on my face with a longing that made me squirm with the first hint that this was once a man I was strongly attracted to.

But he cut me off so ruthlessly when I asked for his help.

My eyes swept him from head to toe. His shirt and shorts were plastered to his body as if he hadn’t been expecting to take a dip in the ocean. They also revealed how he seemed to have lost weight. The blades of his cheekbones were starker as was the hollow within them. “Have you been watching me?”

“Maybe.”

“Dom!”

His lids slammed shut and his body shuddered with his inhale and exhale as if he was a man given oxygen after being starved of it. But when he opened his eyes, anguish flooded the darkness within its irises. “I missed my name on your lips.”

“What are you doing to me?” My voice cracked out of fear. Because I couldn’t go through what I did with him again, but Dom was the mafia. What would stop him from taking me from here by force? So I appealed to whatever empathy was within him. “I’m doing fine. If I ever meant something to you at all, you will leave me in my peace.”

He took a step forward. “I can’t.”

“Why? Because you feel guilty?”

“Because I don’t think I can survive without you.” He said those words without blinking, staring straight at me as if he believed them.

But I’d lost belief in everyone including myself. Dom was not good for my recovery. He didn’t directly cause my problems, but he couldn’t upend my life again if I had any hope of moving on with it.

“That’s just guilt,” I scoffed. “You have a need to take care of everyone. Remember what you once told me…you don’t have room to worry about me too. Well, I absolve you of all responsibility.”

He took another step. I took three steps back.

“Don’t run away, please.” His throat bobbed. I had never seen Dominic De Lucci this vulnerable. Despite my enmity toward him, it was uncomfortable to see him this way. This was not him. Dom was self-assured and in control. This reiterated just how bad we were for each other.

“I’ve said some awful shit to you and I’m sorry. I wasn’t going to rush you, but I was terrified when you went into the water.”

“How long have you been watching me?” My eyes flared. “And don’t deny it.”

His eyes dropped to the ground before looking at the beach house to the right. My jaw dropped. I stared at him, and then at the property beside mine. “Do you live there?” I pointed to it.

“I’m renting it,” he mumbled.