Page 86 of Ruin
“Could you put a little umbrella in it? It’s her birthday.”Antonio smiles back, and I raise my eyebrows.
“Good memory.”
He shrugs off his jacket, and I avert my eyes as he rolls his shirt sleeves up, revealing tattooed muscular forearms. His whole body is bigger, sharper, harder. My gaze snags on the label inside his jacket. “Tom Ford?”
“Thought I’d switch it up. You like it?”
I nod. “It’s nice. I like the fabric.”
He gestures at my ripped dress. “Looks like you’re showing a little more than you intended.”
I flush with embarrassment as I realize the rip is so big that my thong is showing. He looks away, his face darkening, as he hands me his jacket.
I shrug into it. It smells like him. “It happened when you pulled him off me.”
“Guess he was holding on pretty tight.” His tone is icy.
The waitress arrives and sets my water with an umbrella and cherries in front of me, then pours two glasses of the white wine for us. Albarino. He has good taste.
Antonio pushes one of the glasses toward me. “It’s light, with fruity notes. I thought you might like it.”
“I think I’ve had enough tonight,” I say, toying with the umbrella in my drink.
I can feel his eyes on me, steady, unflinching. I’m not sure if I’m more embarrassed that he watched Tommy fuck me outside the restaurant all those years ago or that he had to rescue me on the dance floor tonight. I’m always such a mess around him.
Cutting into my thoughts, he says, “I want to apologize for being a dick to you.”
I look up sharply. “Don’t do that. What I did was shitty.Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t let that guy rape me on the dance floor. Thank you for that, by the way.”
He shrugs. “We weren’t exclusive. We were barely dating, and obviously you were meant to be with Tommy. I mean, yeah, fucking another guy on two dates in a row with me is kind of a dick move—”
I duck my head and pinch my lips together, and he puts his hand on top of mine then taps my chin to get me to make eye contact.
“—but I got the point, right? And you did apologize. We were friends first, Giovanna. We don’t have to lose that. We don’t have to lose anything—”
“GIOVANNA!”
I whip my head up at Lexi shrieking my name from across the room. Her eyes are wild and lock on mine, secretively pointing behind her frantically. I wrinkle my brow in confusion. What is she trying to say?
“Hey!” She bounds up to the table, giving me a meaningful look, her eyes growing wider when she sees Antonio’s hand on mine. She smacks his hand away as she throws herself into the booth. “Look who I found!” she says brightly.
Tommy is standing behind her with an icy glare.
35
Tommy
Giovanna doesn’t get up when I bust her sitting in a booth with Antonio. In fact, she’s glaring at me like I’m the one playing games, like I’m the one caught cozying up to someone else at three in the morning.
I don’t know a lot about what’s okay and what isn’t in relationships, but one thing I know for fucking sure is that my woman should not be staring me down while drinking with Tony the fucking Hack and wearing his jacket.
“Let’s go.” I’ve had a long night. I’ve lost my ability to feign graciousness, and if I don’t get her out of here now, I’ll beat Antonio into the ground and won’t stop until his smug face is unrecognizable.
“Mr. Personality,” Lexi slurs, rolling her eyes. I don’t even glance in her direction. I’m locked on Giovanna, waiting for her to get the fuck up. She doesn’t.
Antonio gestures to the space on the other side of Giovanna. “Hey, Tommy, have a seat. Unless you’re here to fuck my date again.”
He smirks, and Lexi cackles like he’s hilarious. He’s not.
