“Dominant males and their overprotectiveness. Yawn,” I state, staring at Luca.
Fly snorts.
“That right, Butterfly?” Marco asks, and they go at it again.
“Is Mario in town?” I ask Luca as he reaches the door.
He turns my way slowly, so slowly it makes me hold my breath. “Try running away again and?—”
“I’ll sleep with the fishes.” I nod. “Tell me!”
“Don’t turn me into a third-rate villain,” he growls.
That’s funny. The sudden thought makes me gasp. Do I really think this six-foot-four sadistic giant is funny? No, he’s annoying as shit, still evading my question about Mario. I need to know, the uneasiness is killing me.
“You are a second-rate villain, now answer me.” I look straight at him. The challenging stare loses effectiveness since I’m still confused by my previous funny-related thought.
“You heard me, Enzino.”
“Why would I run away when I hate even getting out of bed?” I tell him, exasperated by his stubbornness. “I deserve to know if he’s here.”
The wacko is looming over me a moment later, big and intimidating. His hands on the back of the sofa are caging me in. “You are a revolving door of expressions, but I can read them all.” His green eyes bore into mine. I can feel them piercing through my skull. It’s unsettling. “Stay. Put,” he rasps.
It’s not safe,his eyes seem to silently add. Mario is in New York. Fuck! Staggering fear is spreading quickly inside my chest, but it’s the overpowering fury inside Luca’s gaze that makes my heart race. It’s burning so strongly I believe it might incinerate him. I…don’t like it.
I grab his tie once again, using it to pull myself up until my lips are an inch from his. I inhale his scent, quickly feeling a little less anxious and a little more annoyed. “I heard jumping from the Empire State Building is fab this time of year, darling. Why don’t you give it a try?”
Boy, I really like the three-day stubble on him and that cleft on his chin. His eyes clear a little. The corner of his mouth twitches. Twitches! This close, I see it clearly. An itsy-bitsysmirk. It disappears in half a second, but it was there. The sight of it makes me unbelievably proud, and eager to make it happen again. Why? Fuck if I know.
Before I can do anything else, he pulls back, almost dragging me up all the way with him. I let go of his tie and drop my ass back on the sofa’s leather cushion. He straightens his suit and then just walks away. No cuffs?
“Baby, don’t you want to show your friends how kinky you are?” I lift my wrists in the air when he turns to glance at me.
I see his jaw tick as he repeats, “Stay. Put. Enzino.” I give him a military salute.
“It seems there’s another married couple here,” I hear Marco tell him before the front door closes behind them.
Fly lets out a melodic, short laugh. “Marco is right. You do banter like an old married couple. I’m glad.”
“Glad? Pff.”
“Yeah. I was worried he was treating you badly.”
“He did, but since we came here, he just stopped. Kind of,” I tell him.
“Is it true you moved him from a bullet trajectory?” Fly asks, curious.
“Yes. And did he thank me? No.” He’s rejected me too many times to count. Even when his humongous dick was practically kissing my ass!
“Maybe the way he’s treating you now is his way of thanking you.”
I frown at that. Could it be? And I thought I was emotionally constipated.
“He’s still turning me down.” Inner rolling of eyes.
I get to the kitchen island and look inside the bag Fly brought for me until I find the charger. After sliding my phone out of my panties and hearing his chuckle, I plug it in and check my messages. Rami’s text makes me release a long, relieved sigh. Mario’s digital footprints are in Boston. He attached a grainy pic of my brother sitting in a bar with today’s date on it. Boston is still too close for my liking, but far from me, thank fuck.
Should I tell Luca about his whereabouts? He must know already. Wait, are they going to Boston? Hopefully, they’ll take care of Mario and then let me go.