Page 28 of Savage Proposal

“Imprecazione,” he swore, flicking his eyes over to Damian. “Are you driving or what?”

Damian glared at him. “Like I would let you behind the wheel of a car that I’m in.”

They headed for the door, bickering all the while. “Can we?—?”

“No, I am not taking you to fucking Starbucks.”

The office door shut behind them, and I was left in silence. Normally, it would be a blessing. Today, the quiet pressed in on me like a vise, and I had to get out of my officeimmediately.

I went to the kitchen and found Amalia prepping for dinner. She rolled her eyes when she saw me. She hadn’t spoken to me more than absolutely necessary in the last week. “You’re just going to keep ignoring me?”

“Are you going to pull your head out of your own ass and apologize to Isabella?”

There was no way in hell that was going to happen. Beyond taking her to and from doctor’s appointments in the near future, I hadn’t planned on interacting with her at all. Once she delivered, I planned to put the baby with one of my relativesin New Jersey until it could be sent to boarding school. Then I could wash my hands of this whole fiasco.

“I don’t need to apologize.”

Amalia looked at me, and something about her gaze pierced into my very soul. “She told me that you had sex with her.”

God, now she was going to be on my ass like Cristian. “When has my sex life ever been any of your business?”

Amalia stopped dredging chicken and turned so that she was actually facing me. “Don’t make me say it,” she said. “We’ve summoned her ghost one too many times recently. I don’t think it’s doing anyone any good.”

“I didn’t have sex with her because of that.”

She scoffed. “I don’t believe that for a second, and neither would anyone else.” Amalia turned back to her breading station, clearly dismissing me.

I wasn’t one to tolerate disrespect, but her words dug into my chest and wouldn’t leave me alone.Goddamnit. I turned and left the kitchen. The walk to Isabella’s room should have taken a minute, tops, but I stretched that walk for almost five and stood outside her door for another ten.

Her door wasn’t locked, but she had remained grounded, so to speak. I turned the knob, and she barely looked up from where she was sitting by her window, looking out.

“It’s too early for dinner,” she said, turning her head. I watched her body freeze when she saw me, and then she rolled her shoulders and forced herself to relax. “Do I have an appointment with Dr. Coleman?”

I shook my head. I hadn’t actually called him yet. Every time I thought to, I couldn’t make myself dial the number. “We’re going on a drive.”

She stared at me, mouth agape. “The hell we are.”

Once a brat, always a brat. But it was good to see her attitude flare up again. I wanted fewer reminders of Sienna, not more. “Get up and get changed, or I’ll put you over my shoulder.”

Isabella stood. My eyes landed on the yellow marks that encircled her throat; the bruising was healing, then. “If you touch me, I’ll scream.”

It wasn’t great as far as threats went, but I backed up, hands raised. “You have five minutes to get ready,” I said. “Hurry.”

Some twenty minutes later, she was in the passenger seat of my Bugatti, shaking. “Where are you taking me?” she asked. It was the first time she’d spoken since I led her out of her room.

“This isn’t the car I would use if I was going to kill you,” I said, and Isabella’s head snapped almost painfully as she looked my way.

“What the fuck iswrongwith you?” she demanded. “Why would you say something like that?”

“Because you were thinking it,” I said, weaving through traffic. She didn’t protest, which meant my hunch was right. “This is a fifteen-million-dollar car,” I said, and her eyes bulged. She looked around like she was suddenly afraid to touch anything. “Everyone notices this car. I would sooner commit a crime directly in front of a cop than kill someone in it.”

“That’s...oddly soothing,” she said, and her shoulders relaxed. “Thank you.”

I grunted in response and kept driving. I had a fifteen-minute window I had to hit to pull this off, and that required some offensive driving on my part. Isabella didn’t try to keep the conversation going. She contented herself with subtly pushing every button around her to see what it did. When she turned on the seat air conditioning, she let it go for a few minutes and then switched it off with a frown. “That was invasive as hell,” she said, more to herself than to me, and squirmed in her seat.

Don’t think about her pussy, I told myself. But it was nearly impossible with her rubbing her bare thighs together like that. The dress she wore rode up a little, giving me a glimpse of smooth, perfect skin. I reached over and turned her seat warmer on to the lowest setting. “That should help.”

The rest of the car ride into the city was quiet, but that didn’t bother me. Incessant chatter had never been a favorite of mine. I didn’t mind simply existing in the same space as another person.

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