“Italy.” A skeptical look crosses Orlando’s face as his brow rises, and a slight frown tugs at the corners of his mouth. He doesn’t believe Romeo? Is that what the look is? I can’t tell.
“What? What would Syd go to Italy for?” I ask, needing answers desperately.
He looks out over the ocean, leaning back on one hand as he thinks. “We’re still working on that part. Romeo said there hasn’t been another body found since he flew out of the country.”
“That’s good news then. It also means he was the one doing it, right?”
“He was the one doing it alright, I saw him.”
One of my brows rises. “On your creepy video surveillance?”
He nods, his eyes not returning to mine, and I feel like he’s keeping something from me. They were on the phone a long time, and this is all he can tell me?
“If he’s gone then I can go home,” I say, a little more hopeful.
He squeezes my hand tighter, and I already know it’s a hell no. “Just as easily as Syd left, he can fly back in. You’re not leaving this island until that man has a bullet in his head.”
My heart kicks up a beat, ready to fight him. I stand in a rush, my eyes locking with his. “They might never catch him.” I cross one arm over the other, trying to keep my cool even though right now that is nearly impossible.
“Then you stay with me forever,” he says, a casual shrug accompanying the monumental words.
My glare intensifies, his relaxed attitude to my situation getting under my skin. “You know I can’t do that. My life is in Ravens Hollow,” I snap back, so much tension radiating through my body I feel like I might snap a tooth.
He tilts his head, searching my face. “It doesn’t have to be.” He extends his hands, fingers slightly splayed, a silent invitation to take them back. Like he’s offering me something different for my life, something he thinks is better.
I stare at him, my gaze unwavering, trying to decipher his expression. Is he actually kidding me? “Yes, it does. I have worked for years to create my business and make it something I’m proud of. I have people who rely on me. I’m not leaving it for your brother to fucking run. My whole family is also there and my friends. My life is important to me.”
His lips form a thin line, and I feel the tension between us intensify. “Unfortunately, treasure, you don’t have a choice in the matter. You’re staying here and that’s final.”
A cold anger floods through my veins, and the ridiculous guilt I was feeling for going behind his back and messaging his brother vanishes in an instant. Fuck him for trying to control my life. He has another thing coming if he thinks I’m just going to shack up here with him forever. Fucking around because there is literally nothing else to do. I mean, that part is fun, but a few more weeks of no work and I’m going to go insane. He might like the life of solitude, but I need my people around me. I’m no queen without my loyal subjects. And I fucking love being their queen.
He stands beside me, slipping his hands in his pockets. “Stop looking at me like you want to kill me, Sloane,” he mutters, unimpressed.
“Is it that obvious?” I sneer back, feeling the steam coming from my ears. My body is all of a sudden so tense I feel like I’m going to break something. Probably his nose.
Quickly he grabs my hands, the unexpected contact sending a jolt through me. In one quick move he pulls me in close to him, our bodies chest to chest. His head drops to my neck, his breath warm against my skin as he breathes me in, unaffected by myhostility toward him and his fucked-up ideas for my future. “I can make you happy and keep you safe, treasure.”
I soften a little at his closeness, his damn scent having a stupid soothing effect over me. “Not if you take me away from my life,” I whisper, pain choking up my throat.
He pulls back a little, his hand brushing down the side of my face. Collecting up a strand of hair, he slips it behind my ear. “I should have permanently chained you to my bed when I had the chance.” A cruel laugh escapes him before he roughly scoops me up and carries me away over his shoulder.
“Put me down, asshole,” I warn him, hate in my voice.
He swats me on the ass. “Nope, you just set me with a challenge. I’m about to prove to you I’m all you need.” The next thing I know, I’m being hauled through the house and thrown down on his giant bed, with him glaring down at me like the damn devil himself.
Chapter 17
Orlando’seyesburnwitha predatory hunger, a chilling glint in their depths that sends a wave of arousal through me. We have unleashed something burning with white-hot fury, a force that’s absolutely beyond either of our control. Regardless of the lingering tension and unspoken animosity, no matter the years of bad blood between us, the undeniable lust between us is a raw, primal urge that even I can’t deny. Even now when I’m furious with him for trying to keep me here against my will, I want him like crazy and if he wants to prove something to me, let him. I will find a way out of here eventually. He will see.
“You have one minute to get that dress off or I’m going to take great pleasure in punishing you, instead of pleasuring you.” He strips his belt from his pants and lays it on the bed in warning.
His dominance sends a chill through me, a good one. Why do I want to push him so he will punish me? Slowly I unzip my dress, letting it pool on the plush carpet below.
He produces a silk tie from his pocket, his eyes alight with mischief. “You don’t trust me yet, but you will. Turn around so I can show you I know what’s best for my treasure.”
I stare back at him, a bitchy-as-fuck smirk on my face. “How is your belt and a silk tie going to help me trust you?”
His fingers dust up my arm, lacing into my hair, then he pulls me closer into him as our lips meet. “Let go, Sloane. Give me your body for the afternoon, and I’ll show you what you need.”
