Page 138 of Driftwood Daffodil

Goosebumps trickled across my skin as Gio brushed his lips off the shell of my ear and whispered, “Where’s your smart mouth now?”

It left. Fucked off and jumped on the first train out of town.

“Look at me, Nova.”

Nope, not happening. His face was way too close to mine for me to risk that.

When I didn’t answer Gio swept his hand down my side and purred, “What are you afraid of.”

This, you, everything. The fact that he was able to literally purr out a growl. I could feel the vibrations of it flow out of his chest into my back.

“You know what I think?”

Oh, I had a good idea. Histhoughtswere digging into my thigh.

“I think you like this.”

“And I think you’re delusional.” I tried to add a snort to my response but it came out more like a whimpered garble. It wasn’t my finest moment.

“You think I’m delusional?”

Let’s see, over inflated sense of entitlement combined with a God complex and violent tendencies so…“Yeah.”

Gio’s hand suddenly shot between my thigh and cupped my mound, making my eyes fly open as I tried to frantically shoot forward. I didn’t make it far. Maybe half an inch before his weight stopped me.

“Nice try,” he growled. “You’re not going anywhere.”

As true as that statement may be, the truly mortifying part of my situation was that I knew Gio could feel the dampness on my panties. His lips were so close to the back of my neck that I could feel smugness curl them.

“It’s sweat.” It was a lame excuse but it was all I had.

“Sweat?” He leaned over and arched a brow down at me. “That’s the best you got?”

Unfortunately, yes.

“Okay,” Gio tsked and let out a breath. “This is how this is going to go. You are going to tell me who drugged you…”

Not a chance.

“Or… we’re going to play a little game of how sweaty can I make you.”

I froze.

He wouldn’t. One look at the determination in his eyes told me that yes, yes he would.

“I don’t know. I didn’t see anything.” That was believable, right? Clearly I was lacking in the situational awareness department, otherwise I wouldn’t have woken up here.

Gio wasn’t buying it. The arch in his brow deepened. “You wanna try that again?”

Not particularly. If I had a choice it would be for Gio to just let it go. Was that too much to ask? I wasn’t dwelling on it, so why should he? Come to think of it, that was a good question.

Looking back at him, I asked, “Why do you care?”

What was he hoping to get out of this? Tips?

“Why are you protecting them?” he asked back.

I wasn’t protecting them, I was protecting myself. Simon may be a lying, cheating, skeevy weasel, but I trusted him more than I trusted Gio.

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