Page 20 of Savage Proposal

I whirled around, nearly careening into him with how close he was standing. “You don’t justforgetto use a condom, Lorenzo. That’s a thing for horny, irresponsible teenagers to do.”

“You agreed to be my surrogate. Why would we bother with condoms?”

I could feel my brow wrinkling inward. I was going to get worry lines by the age of twenty-three if I stayed here. “We’re supposed to see Dr. Coleman about all of that. There’s supposed to be cups and petri dishes and the whole thing, right?”

“Or, we could just fuck and save on the doctor’s bills.”

Do you need me to show you how beautiful you are, my ass. “Why bother bringing in a doctor at all if you were planning to get me into bed? Why bother with making me feel—” I cut myself off, sinking my teeth into my bottom lip.

Lorenzo’s eyes darkened, and he stepped closer, crowding me back against the sink. “What did I make you feel,dolcezza?”

My throat felt like it was being squeezed shut from the inside. “Like you actually wanted me,” I said.

Lorenzo stared at me for a heartbeat. Two. Then his hands were hooking beneath my thighs and lifting me upward. I let out a squeak and wrapped my legs around his waist, my arms around his neck, to stabilize myself.

Leaving the dishes half done, Lorenzo carried me out of the kitchen, up the stairs, and down a hallway in the opposite direction of my room. A moment later, he toed open a door, and we were stepping into what could only be his bedroom.

I saw that the furniture was dark wood, and that he had dark curtains hanging over the windows, but then he tossed me onto the mattress, and my focus narrowed to the man who was currently shedding his clothes.

I had seen Lorenzo shirtless at the urgi-care, but I hadn’t gotten time to truly appreciate his body. Broad shoulders and thickly muscled, there was not an ounce of softness to this man. A shiver ran through me.

Get up and go to your own room, I told myself. He couldn’t just drag me around however he liked and get away with it. But no matter how much I commanded my body to move, it refused to obey. Instead, I met Lorenzo’s gaze. “We’ve done this already today.”

“And, yet, the lesson didn’t sink in,” he countered and shoved his jeans down. Once he was naked, he grabbed my ankle and pulled me across the mattress toward him. I tried to struggle, but he only tightened his grip on me. “I don’t do anything that I don’t want to do, understand? If I touch you, if I fuck you, it’s because I want to. If I didn’t want to, I wouldn’t. There doesn’t have to be any big reason behind it.”

“But—”

“I’ve thought about your pussy all day,” he said bluntly. Like he didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding between us. “From the moment I had to leave this house until I stepped into the kitchen, I was thinking about the next time I would get to bury my cock inside of you.” His fingers tightened around my ankle before sliding up my calf, massaging through my jeans. “Tell me that you want me,dolcezza. Tell me that I can have you. That’s all you have to do.”

I hated myself…but a part of me wanted Lorenzo Vitali more. “You can have me.”

CHAPTER 13

Lorenzo

Iwas somewhere between sleeping and waking when I heard it: a whimper, frightened and small. I rolled over, telling myself that it was nothing, but then it happened again. Louder this time. And then there was athudas something small smacked into my leg.

I groaned and turned back over, wincing as the scratches that Isabella had left on my back pulled tight, and cracked one eye open. Isabella lay beside me. She was asleep, but her face was twisted into a tortured frown. She threw her head back against the pillow, and her whole body jerked, and she kicked me again.

I sat up. “Isabella.”

Her forehead wrinkled inward, and she let out a pitiful whimper, but she didn’t wake up. Instead, she curled into a ball, and her whimpers became cries of fright. I reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, and she yelped. “No,please!”

“Isabella,” I said a little louder, shaking her gently. “Dolcezza, wake up.”

She jolted into consciousness, yanking herself away from my touch. Her breath came in pants; she couldn’t calm down enough to take in a deep breath. Isabella looked around, sightlessly, like she wasn’t taking in a bit of what she was seeing.

When it became clear that she wasn’t going to calm down on her own, I pulled her against my chest. She stiffened, fought me, but I didn’t let her go. “Breathe with me,” I told her and started taking deep, steady breaths.

It took her a moment to catch on, but then she matched my inhales and exhales, and I watched as she visibly calmed. Her fingers dug into my skin, holding me close now instead of trying to push me away.

“Good girl,” I said, smoothing my hands down her back. “Keep breathing for me.”

After a moment, she shifted so that she could look up into my face, and it struck me all at once just how beautiful she was. Her eyes still had a faraway look to them, and she wasn’t scowling for once.Sienna, I thought and cupped her cheek with my hand. This was the same look Sienna would give me on nights when we were extra soft with one another, after we had fallen in love.

I didn’t think anyone would ever look at me that way again.

The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I tried to shake away that thought. “Did you have a nightmare?” I asked her.

---