Page 111 of Seeking Vengeance

“I wasn’t forced to do anything. You don’t think I could’ve convinced you your original assumption was right? That you were the target of the shooting? That the Costas were behind this?” He lowers to sit on the edge of the bathtub, his penetrating eyes all the more commanding in the candlelight. “I could’ve hidden for a lot longer. I could’ve hidden forever if I wanted. But I brought you here because I was done with the secrecy. Shooting or not, I would’ve told you who Lorenzo is before we returned to D.C.”

Pain radiates beneath my sternum.

Burning, branding pain.

“Did you do it for information?” The question sears my throat. “To get insight on my family?”

“Fuck your family,” he spits. “I said I was out, Layla. And despite knowing how much you love to question me, it’s the fucking truth.”

I want to deny him. To deny all of this.

I sink against the vanity, then slide to the floor, my ass planting on the cold tile.

“We both had our reasons to keep quiet,amore mio. There’s nothing wrong with that. It doesn’t mean what we have isn’t real. I fell for you long before I found out who you are.”

I swallow over the mint taste dominating my tongue, wishing I was somewhere else.Anywhereelse… Yet somehow I still want to be here with him. To remain where attraction rules and affection flows.

“Well…” I lick the dryness from my lower lip, committing the sight of him to memory. “It was fun while it lasted, I guess.”

He presses his mouth closed, the tilt of his chin swift as he narrows his stare.

“My family can’t find out about this. I need you to let me walk out of here and pretend we never met.” My heart squeezes with every word, hating their necessity.

“They can and they will. And I’ll be right by your side when they do.”

I whisper a pained laugh.

He continues to believe we have a future, and my heart wants to believe it, too. If only it were possible.

“No.” I shake my head. “I’m begging you. You have no idea how my brother will treat me if he learns I’ve been sleeping with someone who worked for the Cappellettis.”

“Lorenzo and Cole aren’t enemies.” He slides from the edge of the tub to sit on the tiled floor opposite me, bolstering my naivety with statements that simply aren’t true. “As far as I know, they’ve never had anything to do with one another.”

“Doesn’t matter. Competition is competition. And stupidity is still stupidity.”

“You say that as if either one of us had any control over this.” He stretches one suit-covered leg toward me. I’m sure it’s to test how jittery I am at the proximity. “Do you think I’d be here if I had the ability to walk away?”

“We’re not star-crossed lovers, Matthew.”

“Aren’t we?” He raises a brow.

I’m not sure if he’s being derisive or insane.

I glance away, hating how he makes me feel warm through the icy chill of reality. We’re not star-crossed anything. No matter how much I crave the opposite.

“You’re mine.” He leans over, grabbing my ankles to slide me forward between his open legs, my dress bunching beneath me. “I’m yours.”

“Don’t.” I plaster my hands to the tile. His thighs cage me. His chest is within reach. “I’m not doing this with you.”

“You have no choice. You walk, I follow. We won’t be apart.”

I glare. “How predatory.”

“It would be if you didn’t crave me, too, Layla. If you didn’t want this, I’d let you leave. But you do. And I won’t allow you to give up on something we both want just because of what your brother may say or do.”

“My brother may say or do something that puts you six feet under. Do you understand that?”

“I have no issue with Cole and he has no need to have one with me. If he wants his sister to be happy, he’ll give us his blessing.”

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