Page 33 of Savage Proposal

His eyes seemed to press into mine. “Or we can just keep trying. Things like this could take a while.”

To say that I was surprised was an understatement, and it made me immediately suspicious. Lorenzo wasn’t exactly the most patient, tolerant man that I’d ever met. “Really?”

He stared at me for a moment, and then he grabbed my wrist and tugged me out of Amalia’s room. I thought he might drag meto my room, but we ended up in his bedroom. I hadn’t stepped foot in here since the singular time that I’d slept in his bed.

“Are we going to?—?”

Lorenzo smirked and pulled me against his body. I shivered as his heat seemed to envelope me. “Is that what you want,dolcezza?” he asked.

Sinking my teeth in my bottom lip, I shook my head. “No.”

That only made his smile deepen. “Is that so?” He leaned down, skimming his nose over my cheek, his lips across my neck. “If I were to touch you, Iwouldn’tfind you dripping for me?”

I resisted the urge to squeeze my thighs together on instinct. “No,” I insisted.

He nipped at my earlobe, just a hint of teeth that brought a soft sound from my throat, before he backed off entirely. “If you’re sure,dolcezza. You can let me know when you want me.”

“What if I never want you?” The question was out of my mouth before I could think, and I winced, knowing that it would sound like a challenge.

Surprisingly, Lorenzo didn’t call me a brat or any of the other things I imagined that he would say. Instead, he shrugged. “I’m not worried about it,” he said.

I scoffed. “You’re cocky.”

“Think of it how you like, Isabella. I’ve had you already, remember? It won’t be long until you’re begging for me again.”

“You’ll be lucky if I ever let you touch me again,” I said with a sneer.

Still, Lorenzo didn’t seem bothered by my declaration. Instead, he touched my cheek with the pads of his fingers. “We’ll see how that goes tonight,dolcezza.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re going to be moving in here,” he said.

I blanched. “You want me to sleep with you?” It wasn’t too long ago that this same man kicked me out of his room because he couldn’t bear to sleep beside me. “Why?”

Lorenzo clicked his tongue against his teeth. “I’ve already told you,dolcezza,” he said. But he hadn’t. Why was he dead-set on being the most irritating person in the entire world? I could feel my eyebrows pulling inward. He ran his thumb between them, smoothing my brow. “I get what I want. Simple as that.”

“You want?—?”

“I’ll have your things moved.”

CHAPTER 21

Lorenzo

“Don Vitali,” Don Gallo greeted me when I picked up the line. Damian had motioned for the phone the second I stepped into the office this morning. “I want to call in my favor.”

“We haven’t finished our investigation yet, Don Gallo.”

The older man let out a deep, irritated sigh. “We both know that my family isn’t stealing from yours, yes? Regardless of the outcome, you owe me for Dante.”

I ground my teeth together. “What can I do for you, Don Gallo?”

“My Gia is of age now,” he said, and I bit back a groan. I should have known that the Gallos would try to unload one of their daughters on me. The Bianchis had been successful in that endeavor, after all. “She’s a pretty thing,andshe’s untouched. I guarantee it.”

“I’m sure,” I said, bored. I had heard this sales pitch before: the virginity, the exclamations of beauty, the list of accomplishments. None of it mattered to me. I would neveraccept any of them anyway. “How long do you want her to stay in my home?”

“A month.”

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