Just like in real life.
And I was struck with such resentment that the only reaction I was capable of… was anger. “Are you going to move?”
Valentina jumped a bit, her hands clasping in front of her as if she was afraid to touch me. Then, with a slow nod, she moved out of the way. It wasn’t until she left that I was able to breathe again.
But when I did.
I really wish I hadn’t.
She smelled…
Exactly like Andi.
Jack shall have Jill;
Nought shall go ill:
The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well. —A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Valentina
TEARS OF EMBARRASSMENT stung the back of my eyelids, making it impossible to see straight as I ran away from one of the most dangerous and sexy men I’d ever encountered in my life.
He’d been perfect.
Until he opened his mouth and basically demanded I move.
I’d never actually been spoken to that way before. Did that make me soft? Or maybe just stupid. Maybe I was so ridiculously sheltered that I couldn’t go to the bank by myself, and I stared at complete strangers with such rapture that I basically blocked them from being able to take care of a basic human function.
Ugh… more embarrassment came as I cringed and slowly unclenched my hands. My nails had made actual imprints into my palms.
He was just a guy.
A really good looking guy. So gorgeous that, when he made his entrance into the party, I’d nearly stumbled backward into the dessert table.
He came in with the same man from the bar.
Both of them were of the same transfixing beauty. One was older, rougher, while the other was probably in his late twenties, with haunting dark circles beneath his eyes and a strong jaw. I couldn’t even comprehend how a man could appear so beautiful yet so masculine at the same time.
Full lips had pressed into a hard stare as he silently dared anyone to say something to him. And he didn’t march into the room, he seemed to glide, as if he owned the entire house, as if the house was no longer a house but a castle and us his servants.
Had someone bowed I would have thought he really was royalty.
It was unfortunate he was so rude.
Then again, I had been blocking the way. Oh no! I stomped my foot. Had he been talking to me that whole time and had I done the whole stare off into space thing that I often did when Dante talked to me? Bad enough that I’d escaped to the bathroom to add more perfume, perfume one of my best friends had gifted me with before basically disappearing out of my life forever. That’s so not what I needed to be fixating on.
“Shoot,” I grumbled then started basically tearing off my thumbnail with my teeth.
“Bella,” Nico said in a heavily accented voice. It was the first time that night I’d actually heard him before I smelled him, so either he’d showered or I was becoming immune to his scent. A shudder rippled through me. That couldn’t be a good sign. The last thing I needed was to be used to his musk. “You look so stressed! You should be celebrating with me!” He let out a low chuckle then, kid you not, licked his forefinger and thumb and patted down his own eyebrows.
Was he for real?
His suit was black velvet; he wore a red tie.
I wanted to strangle him with it.
He was the reason I had been hiding in the bathroom in the first place. I’d seen the two men enter, and he was as transfixed as everyone else, so I’d quickly bolted as fast as I could to the nearest bathroom, only to remember, as I was halfway out the window, that my uncles would be sorely disappointed in my behavior, even if all of this was really their fault. Then my eyes had fallen to the perfume, and a hair tie, the rest was history.
“Nico,” I said his name curtly, like I was ready to give him the speech, when all of a sudden he looked behind him, then backed me up into the corner and tried to kiss me.
I wasn’t tall, not by any means, so when I shoved him, it only made him chuckle and try to kiss me again.
Wanting to puke, I tried turning my head as his lips landed on my neck.
“I knew you would be so soft.” He licked me. The bastard licked me!
I was just getting ready to knee him in the balls as a total last resort when I heard a throat clear.
Nico backed away.
And the same guy, who I’d just embarrassed myself in front of, took a step forward.
“I don’t think she wants you to kiss her,” the man said in a very calm, yet coolly detached voice that had me wondering if he even had a heart in that chest or just a soulless box that collected dust.
“But she does,” Nico argued.
“She doesn’t,” I argued right back. “You were hurting me, and I don’t even know you!”
“We are to marry!” he announced loudly.
“Oh, dear God, save me,” I moaned. “What’s my middle name?”
Nico appeared perplexed. “We do not need to know such things to make babies.”
“Joyce,” the man next to me whispered. “It’s Joyce.”
“Who are you again?” Nico demanded to know as he puffed up his chest, it only made him look more stupid, if that was even possible.
The gorgeous man smirked. That was the only flash of amusement I saw before he put an arm around my body and said in a completely lucid voice. “I’m her fiancé.”
I nearly choked on my tongue as Nico sputtered and thumped his chest. “I am her fiancé!”
Something flashed in the guy’s eyes as he reached for Nico’s jacket and, literally, lifted him two feet off the ground then slammed him into the nearest wall, a few pictures crashed against the floor, glass went everywhere. “And now, you’re leaving. Touch her again, and I’ll reach into your weaselly little chest and pluck out your ribs. One… by…one.”