My heart’s coded for destruction, but this girl mixes the algorithm up. What she does to me is criminal, both in sleep and when she’s wide awake.
In a few long strides, I’m at the bars where I’d left a bottle of water for her. As if sensing my approach, long inky lashes flick up and I’m graced with a bright blue gaze.
She eyes me quietly, pretending to be unfazed by her surroundings.
“Good morning.” I nod to the plastic bottle on the floor. “Drink up. It’ll help your hangover.”
India pushes to sitting and stretches her arms above her head as if she’s well-rested like sleeping fucking beauty. “I’m not hungover.”
“Remember what I said about obeying me?” I remind her.
She scowls. “You’re impossible, Giovanni.”
“And you’re the one who’s locked up… so… if I were you, I’d drink the water.” My eyes roam over her bare legs.
I can’t fathom why her feistiness makes me hard, but every time she challenges my authority, I want to fuck the attitude out of her.
Her eyes blaze as she stands and shakes out her hair. “I take it you’re here to let me out now that you’ve made your point and had fun at my expense?”
She stares at me for a second before padding barefoot to the water bottle, swiping it from the floor and pulling open the sports cap with her teeth.
“I haven’t had any fun yet. Have you?” I ask, studying how her delicate throat works as she swallows.
Her eyebrows pop up. “Really? You’re actually asking if I had fun sleeping on the floor of a cell.”
“Well, now you’re awake, we can focus on the fun part.”
I wrap my hands around the bars, my jaw tightening when she catches a bead of water escaping the corner of her perfectly lush mouth, and sighs loudly.
“Get lost, Gio. Unless you’re going to let me out of here, then I have nothing more to say to you.”
“You don’t need to say anything.” She rolls her ethereal eyes. Had it been anyone else, I would have sliced their throat and strung them up to bleed out—but she appears to be the exception. “You just need to do as you’re told.”
15
INDIA
I inhale sharply at his comment, my heart racing. Remarkable jade eyes darken under the half-light, making them sinfully mysterious.
“Let me out or leave me alone.”
The carnal hum he makes tells me there’s no room for negotiation.
His hands slide down the metal and he steps backward. I squint to focus on his movements, finding it hard to make out his silhouette from the shadows he moves in. Had he not been bare-chested, he would blend completely into his territory. Forever the stealth predator he was raised to be.
“Giovanni!” I fold my arms over my midriff when he doesn't reply. “You’d better be looking for a key. I want to see Daenis.”
He prowls deeper into the bunker, skirting cabinetry covered walls, and opening a thin door to extract something from inside. When he turns around again, he stuffs it in the pocket of his joggers and stalks closer.
“Come here.” He crooks his finger, his husky voice distracting me from my simmering temper.
The sound of his throaty command said in a thick accent tugs a fine thread within me, so I’m helplessly drawn towards him.
But he can’t do anything to me when I’m behind bars. I pull my shoulders back, fix a scowl on my face, and stare at the vein-like scar on his cheekbone. It’s incredibly sexy.
“What do you want?” I glare at him.
A large hand slides through the gap and hitches the hem of the t-shirt he’d made me wear. He imprints his fingertips on my thigh, tracing a shivery path to the edge of my ass.
