𝐃𝐄𝐂𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 - 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐘𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐘 𝐎𝐍𝐄 - 𝟏𝟖+

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

A N D R E A

Lorenzo was the only man who'd managed to push my buttons the way he had. He was awfully sure of himself and always kept the ball in his court. He thrived on owning everything about a situation, and I hated him for it. I hated myself for giving him my attention more than I hated him for his apparent desire for me. I'd spent the rest of the drive looking out of the tinted glass windows because I couldn't face him because despite everything, being around him always had my insides clenching in anticipation as everything inside me buzzed to life with just one look from him.

I knew I was nothing more than a business transaction to my husband, but I couldn't stop the kaleidoscope of butterflies from fluttering in my stomach whenever his ice-cold gaze kissed me. Perhaps Lorenzo was right. I had been lying to myself, yet I couldn't accept that I wanted the very hands that'd killed my father to touch me. To caress my skin.

Lorenzo Santini had the power to consume me like the fire did the forest, and the epiphany was paralyzing at best because even when he was nowhere near me, I kept thinking about him.

I'd ignored him even after we'd gotten back, and he tried to start a conversation with me, not that he needed to with the way I could feel his searing gaze on me until he left the room, closing the door behind him. It was only then that I took a deep sigh, and I fell on my back on the bed.

My thoughts still lingered on him, I wondered why I kept gravitating towards him when I'd tried everything in my power to hate him. In all honesty, I hated that he'd killed my father, so ruthlessly, so mercilessly, however, the darkness he hid under that mask of indifference beckoned me for reasons entirely unfathomable to me.

Lorenzo was used to spinning every table in his favor so he was the only one commanding every situation he'd find himself in, but I couldn't understand if that was just who he was or it was his aversion to being helpless that'd turned him into this calculating person that he was. He was like an ethereal song, you didn't always understand it, yet you kept playing it over and over again.

The door creaked open, and I pulled the sheets over my face as I rolled over to my side of the bed. Lorenzo's footsteps echoed against the floor until they stopped beside the bed. The mattress dipped under his weight as he laid down on his side. I had yet to see Lorenzo asleep. Until now I'd been so afraid to see him when he slept even when I'd pretended to be asleep when he'd gotten around to being back at ungodly hours of the night. Not tonight though. Tonight I just had to see a glimmer of him being human just so I could understand what it was about him that lured me in like a siren call.

I'd waited for his breathing to even out, and when it did, I turned towards him. A few strands of his hair had fallen onto his forehead giving him that rouge handsomeness that poets wrote sonnets about. His long eyelashes that undoubtedly made many women jealous cast a sullen shadow on his sharp cheekbones, and his stubble only added to his allure. It looked like the gods had taken special time to carve this man just so his looks would contrast with the sheer cruelty that ran in his veins. I'd wanted to touch him. But I knew he'd wake up if I did, and I quite liked watching him like this, so serene. I lowered my gaze, gasping when I realized he hadn't been wearing a shirt. I didn't even know when he'd gotten rid of his shirt. However, I didn't think I was complaining. The muscles of his abs moved as he breathed, and as I slid my gaze back towards his face, I could make out the shadows of ink on his chest. It was hard to make out exactly what it was, but curiosity got the better of me, and I leaned forward on my elbows to read what the small intricate tattoo on the left side of his chest read. It was the smallest of daggers with a clock reflecting on the metal and a bullet embedded in the hilt of the dagger. Upon squinting, I could make out the words written intricately in Italian around the dagger.