Page 114 of Dominance

“I told you before that I am in just as much of a predicament as you.”

Let him think what he will.

“Oh, so I should just take that on faith? That we’re thesame. What does Dom have on you? To make you cave and sleep with me, manipulate me into trying to give him a child, for God’s sake?”

“Who says he has something on me? The pay is good. He’s my father. I don’t have to like him to do what I need to do to survive.”

“You play that part too well.”

“How dare you.” My control wavers, my hands clenching.

Adriano shakes his head. “You’re just as manipulative as he is. Every time. You suck me in, hook, line, and sinker. Just before you pull the rug out from under me. How long until it’s more than that, and you leave me hanging by a noose?”

“It crossed my mind, you know,” I snap, regretting the cruelty of it but pushing through. “Finding dirt on you, catching you in a lie.”

“Dirt? You’re living in a fucking movieland, Gloria.”

“I know you’re a traitor.”

“Look in the damned mirror.”

“Don’t try to turn this around on me.”

“Says the woman trying to deflect, mislead, run me circles.”

“Circles is right. You’re a traitor to the family. To my father. And if you aren’t, then you’re a traitor to your brothers, to your old life. Either way, you have no honor.”

“Honor. That’s rich coming from you. I’ve known Dom my entire life. He never gave any indication that he had a kid. Then you show up out of nowhere. What are you, a con woman? Or an idiot who saw dollar signs and didn’t know what the fuck you were getting into?”

“Iaman idiot. For thinking that we could work together. That we could work at all.”

“The only reason I considered keeping you around was to keep up appearances, to stay close to the people my family swore to protect. Our assets, our interests.”

My chest cracks, my heart fractures.

“No surprise there. I knowexactlywho you are Adriano. I know what you’vedone. I’ve seen the files, the photos. And don’t even try to deny that you’re working on a plot against my father. I’ve seen your little secret hideout at your old house.”

His eyes widen at that, staring with uncertainty, growing colder, toward fear, then rage. Every pretense of our flirtation, the tension between us, heightens past the point of tolerability and my whole body starts to tremble.

I’ve never seen him like this.

He’s a cold, calculating criminal. And I’m just some stupid girl.

“Tell me exactly what you know.”

“I know you go there. Late at night. I’ve seen you go down that hatch.”

“And that’s your proof?” He laughs in my face, throwing up his hands. “And here I was worried. But it’s just more bluster. Trying to lay a trap for me to walk into.”

Adriano shrugs, pretending to blow me off. Still, I can see the spark of suspicion in his stiff posture.

“A trap like you tried to set for that guy in Orvieto? Looked more like he got the drop on you.”

At that he smiles, taking me aback. “You saw that?”

“Some of it.”

“Then you know exactly how far that gothim. And you should know not tofuckwith me.” He’s turning the tables, upending my anger and trying to roll over me.

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