Page 8 of Unresolved

Chapter Five

Gemma

Iwas frozen, caughtsomewhere between petrified and a terrible yearning.Then the man stepped closer behind me and I was like a mouse in the presence of a cobra that was about to strike.

He clucked his tongue.“All this amazing talent going to waste.You hated me for my criminal life, but hiding your talent from the world is a far bigger crime as far as I’m concerned.”

I didn’t speak.Icouldn’tspeak.Not when his big body throbbed with menace and desire, a chemistry I’d tried so hard to forget.He closed in on me from behind, millimeters away from touching me completely before he reached out and clasped my jaw.I moaned a little at his touch, at the forbidden feelings I’d imagined I’d gotten over.

Need flooded through me, a dark and dangerous desire I didn’t ever want to end even as I wished I’d immediately packed my bags, scooped up my cat, and gotten the hell away before it’d been too late.

Had I subconsciouslywantedto be caught?

I shook off the fleeting thought.No.I hated this man.Hated him for what he did to others in his criminal world, even as I hated him for what he did to me...to my hungry-for-him emotions.

His clasp tightened and my blood heated even as my stomach clenched, right along with my core.

Holy fuck.I didn’t want this.Icouldn’twant this.He was off-limits.He was mafia and I had to stay well away from him and his kind.If I didn’t...everything I’d ran away from, everything I’d tried to protect was at risk.

“Why did you run?”he growled.“What did I do to make you think I wouldn’t move mountains for you?”

I stood my ground, though everything inside me trembled with fear and a constant, shameless need.“It’s not what you did to me,” I finally managed.“It’s what you do to others.”

He didn’t need to know it was mostly what he did to me via association.It wouldn’t take much for someone to put two and two together.I shivered.I’d contemplated cosmetic surgery for that reason.Perhaps I should have gone ahead with it.

“I don’t do anything bad to anyone unless they deserve it.”He chuckled darkly.“Right now I’m contemplating what punishmentyoudeserve after your betrayal.”

“Betrayal?”I gritted out.“You don’t own me.I’m free to do what I want with my own life.”

“You were my woman, we were happy together.Untilthe moment I told you about my family.”His breath touched my scalp, hot and angry.“Your betrayal cut me deeper than a knife wound.”

“Your family wasn’t some ordinary, run-of-the-mill folk.Your family is the mafia.”

“That is who I am.You insulted me by leaving me.”

Anger churned in my gut.Did he realize how hard it’d been for me to leave?To run away from the man and the life I’d fallen in love with?It’d broken my heart into a thousand pieces, so much so I was still sticking the fragments back together.

I finally managed to move, to snap my head out of his grip before I turned around and looked up.I was made instantly dizzy by his proximity, by his height and his power, my senses drinking him in like water in the desert.His fitted dark gray suit reeked of wealth, of success and control.“I betrayed you because Idaredto leave you.But how many women have you loved and left?”

His eyes darkened, his teeth barely a glint behind his shadowed stubble and hard lips as he stared down at me from his lofty height.“I didn’t have feelings for a single one of them.They weren’t the love of my life.”

“Neither was I,” I stated softly, though my voice lacked conviction.Ihadmeant something to him, just as he’d meant everything to me.I just didn’t want to accept it now.I didn’t want to accept it...ever.

“You and I both know that’s not true.”He interlaced his fingers behind my ass and pulled me closer, pressing my feminine curves against his masculine hardness.My heart jerked in my chest as he held my gaze with his merciless stare.“I don’t tolerate liars.”

I lifted my chin.“More punishment?”I asked sweetly, even as my heart jerked harder still.

His hands moved apart, then drifted to the front of my body.They cupped my breasts and I couldn’t help but breathe heavily, helplessly as he asked, “Do you remember how you used to moan when I did this?”He circled my nipples with his thumbs through the fabric of my paint-stained T-shirt.“And this?”he added, pinching them hard enough to sting.

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