Page 21 of The Temptation

“Where are you?—”

My words catch in my throat as he spins back around, eyes sweeping the room like he’s looking for something, anything but me. Confusion twists in my gut when hepointedly avoids meeting my gaze. Did I misread why he came in here?

He pauses as soon as his gaze lands on the table beside my bed, and when his frown deepens, I know he’s found whatever it is he’s looking for.

Without a word, he strides forward, snatches up the book I was reading and storms out of the room.

“Hey!” I shout, quickly yanking up my underwear, throwing back the covers, and scrambling off the bed.

I dart out of the room just in time to see him re-emerging from his own bedroom. Big-O and my book are still clutched in one hand as he brushes past me, stalking down the hallway like a man on a mission.

I have no idea where he’s going or what the hell he plans to do with my stuff, so I follow him.

“Hey!” I shout again, but he doesn’t stop; he keeps moving forward, heading towards the rear of the house.

When he unlocks the back door and steps out into the night, I break into a jog. If he thinks dumping my things outside is going to stop me, he’s dead wrong. I’ll just pick them up and bring them right back in.

The sensor light flicks on as he crosses the lawn. Ki-Ki starts barking from somewhere inside just as I yell, “Romeo, give them back!”

Of course, he ignores me as he drops the book and Big-O to the grass below.

He reaches into the waistband of his boxers to pull something out. When he starts screwing it onto the tip of the gun he’s holding—the one I didn’t realise was in his other hand—it all suddenly makes sense.

This motherfucker is about to do a hit.

I leap over the three steps and sprint across the lawn, hurling myself onto his back. My knees grip his sides as I try to haul my body upwards by climbing him like a tree.

“Don’t you fucking dare!” I shriek, but the son of a bitch doesn’t even flinch. To my utter horror, he calmly aims the gun at the ground and fires.

The silencer muffles the bang somewhat, but it still releases a loud pop that echoes in the still night.

The shot is loud enough for one of our neighbours to hear, especially those who live closest. That doesn’t deter him in the slightest.

Big-O is the first to go as the red silicone toy explodes, shattered pieces flying everywhere as she’s blasted into oblivion, and my damn heart cracks right along with it.

He moves to the book next. The one I haven’t finished reading yet.

“Nooooo! Not Damien and Rosie,” I plead, but again, he ignores me as he blows a hole straight through the centre of the book. “You fucking,stronzo,” I scream, grabbing a chunk of his hair and tugging his head backwards. “You are going to pay for that,” I growl through gritted teeth.

When thebastardochuckles, something inside me snaps. I lean in and bite the fleshy part of his ear. Not hard enough to draw blood, but my teeth will definitely leave a mark.

Serves him right.

I should bite it right off.

“Ouch,” he groans, pulling his earlobe free from between my teeth.

I release my grip on his shoulders, slide down his back, but when my feet hit the ground, I clench my hand into a tight fist and punch him right in the left kidney. His body is so hard I think it hurt me more than it did him.

I hear his laugh as I storm back towards the house. I hope he enjoys sleeping under the stars, because that’s precisely where he’ll be spending the rest of the night.

I march up the back stairs, and the last thing I hear as I close and lock the back door behind me is, “Lucia!”

I’m banging and slamming everything I touch as I stand in the kitchen cooking breakfast.I am still mad.Furious may be a better word.

At least I don’t have to worry about waking Romeo with my noise this morning, because I doubt he can hear me from the backyard.

When I returned to my room last night, he started banging on the back door, demanding I unlock it. I ignored him, even when he moved to my bedroom window.