Page 137 of Love Among the Ruins
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SEVEN
DOMINIC
God help him if he ever caught Ioannis within an inch of Eleni.
Something had twisted deep in his gut when he’d seen the man grabbing her by the wrists. Fury had blinded him, but somehow he’d made it over to her side, not before he’d sent the motherfucker flying.
Some men were the scum of the earth. All he’d wanted, all he’d tried to do, was to make Eleni feel at ease, but Ioannis had smashed all of that carefully built-up confidence in a second.
Men didn’t do that. Notrealmen. Cowards, men who were weak and afraid of rejection, resorted to those bullying tactics.
Resentment simmered beneath his skin. Contempt and hatred, too, that yet again, Eleni had been subjected to such an assault.
His natural reaction had been to protect her and keep her safe, but Eleni didn’t need his protection. She didn’t need anyone to take care of her. She’d taken care of herself against this type of predator before, but a kick to the balls would have been an impossibility given her dress.
And what a dress.
He couldn’t focus on the journey back. A hot numbness swept over him. He tried to think, to separate his emotions, from the way he felt about Eleni this morning when he’d helped her with her dress, to how he’d been shaking all over when he’d found Ioannis pestering her again. It had been like a fist to his throat, he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t swallow.
He’d wanted to shed blood. Ioannis’ blood.
Eleni was the only thing that mattered. He didn’t want her to hurt any more than the poor girl already was. And when they arrived back at the villa, he came to her side of the car, to help her out.
“I’m not injured, Dominic,” she said, lifting up her skirt with one hand as she climbed out, revealing more of her leg than was good for his health. “I can get out of a car unaided.”
She was a stubborn mule, but a beautiful one, and he cared for her more now than ever.
“Take my hand anyway,” he insisted. His voice shaky, as if he couldn’t trust himself to sound normal. Her soft hand clasped his and he tugged her gently noticing that her wrists were still red.
That asshole.
He didn’t let go of her until they were back in the house. But once they were in the hallway, Eleni moved her hand out of his.
And just like that, the spell was broken.
Cinderella was back home, and it was past the stroke of midnight.
There was something he wanted to know. “I didn’t ask you but it’s eating away at me. What did he say to you? I could see that he was saying something. What was it?”
“It’s not important, Dominic. Let’s not talk about that.”
“Did he remember you from before?”
“He remembered that I was a waitress.”
“Tell me what he said.” It killed him, the not knowing.
“I don’t want you to get angrier.”
“Then tell me and put me out of my misery.”
“Your misery?”
“He hurts you, he hurts me.”
She looked confused, as if she didn’t understand. How could she have any idea of how he felt about her? “Please, Dominic. Leave it be.”
“The piece of shit,” he snarled, and wished he’d landed a punch across the man’s jaw.
