Page 51 of Hostile Rival
Biting her lip, she plays with the diamond on her necklace. “Have you attended any other functions recently? Maybe we crossed paths and didn’t realize it?”
Bored, I scan the room, hunting for Dani. She’s around here somewhere. “I don’t go out much. I’d rather spend time at my brother's estate.”
Giana slides her hand inside the crook of my arm. She uses her body to push me to the edge of the room, positioning us between a gaudy golden eagle holding up a marble top with its wings and a portrait of her father.
Lifting herself higher, she whispers in my ear. “When you do leave the estate, do you wear a black ski mask with a creepy crow on it?”
My spine stiffens and I turn my face into hers, catching the glint of fascination dancing in the depths of her eyes. “I don’t do role play.”
She laughs at that. “Well, not intentionally, but you do play the hero very well.”
Fuck, she knows something. My best bet is to stay cool and deny everything. “What are you talking about, Giana?” I frown, my eyes drilling into her. “I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”
She shakes her head. “No…no it has to be you. You have his eyes. I memorized the exact color of brown. As rich and sweet as chocolate, but dark like his soul…except something good was there too…something heroic.”
“Christ. I heard our guys had rescued you from a bunch of assholes. It must have really messed with your head.”
“Matheus,” Giana takes my hand, curling her fingers with mine. “I know it was you.Yousaved me.”
I’m losing my patience with this girl. She’s like a damn bloodhound sniffing out lies. Checking my wristwatch, there’s only a few minutes left before I need to be on the balcony. Until then, I have to throw Giana off the scent and offload her onto someone else, so she doesn’t follow me.
I remove my hand from hers and smile. I’d rather not be a dick about it. Not when my family are guests in her home and she’s all starry-eyed over my alternate persona.
“If you ever need a top-class lawyer to step in and save the day, then I’d happily be your hero. Otherwise, I’m all outta capes and masks.”
Giana cocks a brow at me and pouts her lips. “Ha ha,” she mocks. “My hero also spoke with the same accent as you. I’d goas far as saying it was the exact same tone and had that sexy rasp too.”
I chuckle. “We have plenty of trained soldiers from Colombia. They have brown eyes and an accent just like mine. I’m not your hero, Giana.” I shrug. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
“Oh, you don’t disappoint me, Matheus. Not at all,” she croons, her vigilant gaze sincere. “I’d like to see you again under different circumstances. When we don’t have to wear tuxes and gowns. Behind all of this…” She motions to the grandeur around us. “I’m just a normal girl. Mypapàwants me to marry a powerful man and I’d prefer to marry a man with a good heart. You’d think that would be easy to find. But it’s not.”
I look around, nodding to the room full of affluent men, the women next to them probably paid escorts or mistresses.
And then, I see her. Across the room, standing next to a Carrara marble statue of a goddess, Dani keeps her eyes diverted like I don’t exist.
Unfortunately for her, I do, and I won’t let her forget it. My brain drops to my dress shoes and all rational thought leaves me.
Fuck behaving myself.
“Knowing what you want is half the battle,” I say honestly. “For years, I never really understood how it felt to reallywantsomething. Toneedthings, you know?”
She nods. “We have everything…yet we have nothing if we don’t have to work for it.”
“Precisely.”
“I like you, Matheus. I’d like to get to know you better.”
I casually throw an arm around her shoulder in a side hug and notice how her bodyguard shifts to the right of us, clearly unhappy. If I cared, I’d let go of her. But my veins are pumping because I’ve spotted my little firecracker climbing the staircase.
“Our families are friends now. That makes us friends too. When you find your hero, invite me to your wedding and I’ll bring my girlfriend.”
Her brows snap together. “Girlfriend? No one said you were involved with anyone.”
“It’s complicated.” My chest tightens and my dick twitches, thinking about Dani. “She’s complicated,” I mutter, smiling.
“Is she here?” Giana’s tone hardens, and she eyes the faces around her. “Did you bring her?”
Inwardly, I debate the answer and decide to keep my cards close to my chest. When people find out about the things that matter, they try to destroy them. Knowledge gives them the upper hand, whereas secrecy allows me to control my own power.
