Page 37 of Breathtaking

I’d be impressed if it didn’t drive me fucking crazy.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Beneventi.” She blushes as he takes her hand in both of his.

“What brings you to our beautiful city, princess?”

I clear my throat, and the old man grins. “Any chance you’ll give us a few minutes?”

He drops Lennon’s hand with a smirk and a dip of his head. “I’ve got to be going anyway. Your mother is expecting me soon. Maybe I’ll get to see you again before you leave. I know my wife would love to meet you as well.”

Christ. Could he lay it on any thicker?

I’m surprised the fucker didn’t just bow to her.

She smiles, but it’s forced and doesn’t meet her eyes, and as he walks away, those green eyes narrow on me.

“I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” I tell her honestly as I move around the table and stop in front of her. The urge to touch her is strong and warring with the urge to ask her what the fuck she’s doing here. Because every time this woman steps into my life, she leaves a fucking path of destruction in her wake.

“Well, let’s see.” Her cheeks flame red, and my cock immediately hardens in response. Damn, she’s sexy when she’s pissed. “I flew halfway around the world because I thought it might be fun to fuck up your life the way you’re constantly fucking up mine.”

“That’s rich, coming from you,princess. Pretty sure I’ve ever only done what you wanted me to.” I move closer until mere inches separate us. “Which is ironic, considering I’ve never done a goddamned thing I was told to do a day in my whole fucking life. I do what I want. When I want. But with you—fuck, Lennon. Everything I’ve done since the day I met you was what you wanted from me. So you feel like telling me just how I’m fucking up your life? Because I’m pretty sure it’s the other way around.”

This woman is infuriating.

And beautiful.

Her pale skin flushes, and the delicate freckles dusting her collarbones rise and fall with each deep breath as she fights to maintain control.

Even if she’s so much hotter when she loses that tightly held control.

“Oh, that’s funny. How exactly have I fucked up your life? Obviously, being with me or without me didn’t stop you from fucking other people or having other relationships. I asked you to walk away so you could have a life. Not so you could fuck my cousin.” She doesn’t even realize she’s taken another step closer until our breath is mingling between us. “But you know. . . Can’t have one princess, let’s replace her with another. We’re all the same, right? Interchangeable? Pretty little redheads with tiaras and titles. And now...”

Her chest heaves as she shakes her head, putting words and thoughts in my mouth that I’ve never had. Never said. Never wanted.

“And now what? Did you think you’d come back and what, we’d pick up where we left off? You yelling at me about something I did when we weren’t together? You pushed me away, Lennon. And I didn’t know she was your cousin.”

There’re other things I could say to defuse the situation.

But I don’t.

I harness the anger because it’s easier than the other emotions I feel when I see this woman. So many fucked up emotions.

She steps back and reaches into her clutch, then smacks something against my chest.

Fury radiates off her, but neither of us move.

As if held in place by an electric shock that’s reached around us, holding us frozen in place. . . Locked in the pain, refusing to let go.

I don’t know whether to kiss her or kill her.

But living in a world without Lennox Windsor isn’t an option.

I cup her face in my hands while she still holds her own flat against my chest.

My thumb grazes her cheek, and fuck, I don’t want to kill her.

“Tell me no, Lennon. Tell me to stop,” I groan.

Her eyes soften, and she removes one of my hands and lays it over the paper against my chest, then slips away. “No, Maddox.”

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