Page 49 of Between Us

“I blocked your number.”

His jaw set, but he didn’t reply to that. “I came by last week, but you weren't home. I found out later from Matteo that you were in Europe.” There was an urgency to his voice that sounded alien coming from him. In the time she had known him, he’d never been the emotional type. None of the men she grew up with were.

“Matty knows you're here?”

She was going to kill her brother if he was somehow involved.

“No. Nobody knows.”

“Luca,please, you have to leave. If someone catches you here...” she trailed off, gaze drifting back to those damn doors.

“It's been driving me crazy,” he continued as if she hadn't spoken, his voice taking on a raspy edge. “Knowing you're here; that he's touching you.” He shook his head, and the motion made Alessandra lookat him again. “It's all I can think about.”

“I'm his wife now. There's nothing to be done about it.”

“Run away with me.”

Were she not so distressed by his presence, she would have laughed at the audacity of his proposal. But as it was, she didn’t feel amused in the least.

“What?” Her stomach clenched with anxiety. She needed to make him leave before disaster struck. “I can't do that. I don'twantto do it. Think about what you're saying.”

“I know what I'm saying. I don't give a shit about your father's deal with the Russians. He took you from me. It's not fucking fair. You weremine.” He spoke feverishly, eyes roving over her face, watching her reaction.

“And then things changed. From the very start, it wasn't up to either of us to decide our fates. Our fathers negotiated our engagement on our behalf. It was them who decided to break that engagement in the end.”

“And now we can say 'fuck you' to the both of them and make our own destiny.”

Alessandra shook her head, taking a step back, desperate to put some distance between them. “It's too late for that.”

Luca's face clouded with suspicion. “Are you in love with him? Is that it?”

“How I feel about myhusbanddoesn't concern you,” she snapped in return, her anxiety giving way to irritation. She didn't want to talk to him about Roman. She just wanted him gone.

He stepped closer, his hand finding her upper arm, squeezing the wet flesh there. “Fuck,bella, don't do this.I know I made a mistake. I shouldn't have let things get this far in the first place.”

Feeling like he'd burned her with his unwanted touch, Alessandra tried to pull her arm away, but he didn’t let go. With a frown, she attempted to talk some sense into him. “Please, I'm begging you, don't make this more difficult than it has to be. You need to move on and forget about me.”

He swallowed thickly, drawing her a little closer still. “I can't. You're still mine.”

“Luca, please,” she pleaded, a terrible feeling of dread settling in the pit of her stomach, making her nauseous.

They stood, facing each other, their eyes holding a silent conversation. He was still looking at her as if by some miracle she would come to her senses and follow him to the end of the Earth if needed be. She, instead, was on the verge of a nervous meltdown.

“Is this what you do behind my back?”

The low rumble of a voice startled both of them. Alessandra wrenched free from Luca's grip, her heart nearly exploding inside her chest as her eyes found Roman standing on the patio. The look on his face was murderous, and if it weren’t for that ice-cold gaze that pinned her to the spot, her knees would have collapsed the second she heard his voice.

“Roman,” she whispered, fingers tightening around the towel wrapped around her body like a shroud. Her husband reached behind him to pull out his gun, pointing it at Luca so fast she barely had time to react. Horror and adrenaline filled her bloodstream, and without even thinking, she stepped in front of Luca, one hand raised up defensively. “Wait, please, no!”

Behind her, another gun cocked with an ominousclicking sound. She tried to ignore it, keeping her attention on her husband instead.

The expression on Roman's face went from angry to incredulous before he caught himself. “Get the fuck out of my way, Alessandra.”

“Please, let me explain.”

“Explain what?” he seethed, voice filled with venom. His eyes flicked to her face briefly, and what she saw in them made her want to cry. “That you're meeting with your ex-fiancé in my fucking home?”

“It's not like that.” Her voice trembled, and she hated that she could barely gather her thoughts enough to form a single coherent sentence.

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