Page 12 of Cage of Thorns and Blood

What Renata doesn't understand is that she's mine one way or another anyhow. I've decided I want her, and I always get what I want.

What Renata doesn’t understand is that there is only one person in charge here, and it isn’t her. I will decide the game rules, when the game starts, and how it ends.

I could take her to bed tonight, and if she tried to refuse, I could knock those walls down in minutes. I don’t intend to.

It will be fun to drag this out some. I like the idea of building some tension between us, and I love the idea of her going to bed tonight confused and wondering what the hell happened.

“Would you like a ride?” I ask.

“Where?” she replies.

I look at her as if I think she's stupid. She's an incredibly bright woman, an ambitious woman, and as beautiful as she is, that makes her a threatening woman to a lot of men. Not to me. It makes her even more attractive. Still, I like to mess people about a little, so I play my games.

“Home, of course.” I shrug, controlling my smile at the flicker of confusion and disappointment that crosses her features. “You can take a cab if you'd like. Or, I can give you a ride.”

The valet hands me the keys, and I palm him a twenty pound bill.

“Would you like a ride, or are you taking a cab?” I don't press the issue because I'm not going to insist she rides home with me. If she takes a cab, I'll simply follow her and make sure she gets home safely.

Starting tomorrow, there won't only be my private investigator following Renata. I'm going to always have two security detail on her. I'll tell them to hang far back and not let her see them, because I'm sure she'll have an issue with it. The fact that her family doesn't have her surrounded by security has my teeth grinding.

“I'll take the offer of a ride, if you're sure that's okay?” She smiles at me, uncertainty coating her features.

“Of course.” I hold the door open for her and close it after she's climbed in, then jog around to the driver's side. As I get in and fasten my seat belt, I glance at her briefly.

“Where to?” I ask, as if I don’t fucking know.

Of course, I know exactly where I'm taking her. She lives in an apartment not too far from her parents’ mansion, but it’s in town, not a quiet little market village. I believe she's renting the place, because she does own a home, but it's in the country. She also seems to spend a lot of time up in Scotland at the house Nico now lives in with his bride.

That was something I never saw coming. Nico was supposed to marry some aristocrat’s forty-year-old daughter to appease the board. Instead, he went and fell in love, and married the young twenty-something daughter, or rather stepdaughter, of the woman he was initially meant to be engaged to.

From everything that I hear, he's genuinely in love with her too. That's good for me because it's a weakness. It makes him vulnerable. The moment a man loves something, cherishes something, and can't live without something, you have a weapon to use against him. Not that I have any plans on doing anything to harm a hair on pretty little Cindy Andretti’s head, but it's good to know that I could if needed.

“I've rented an apartment for the moment,” Renata says. “It's a bit of a way out, which is why I don't mind getting a cab.”

“How far out?” I ask, as if I don't know.

“I'm renting a place in Windsor,” she says.

“That's fine,” I reply. “You know I’m now living in the family home. It’s not too far from Windsor to leafy Surrey.”

She's been there before, of course.

The last time, which is etched in my memory, was at my birthday party, when she busted up the service restroom in a fit of uncontrollable rage. A sharp but brief twinge of something that may be guilt pinches at my chest, but I brush it aside. I'm not the one in the wrong when it comes to that time in our past. Yes, I might have had the DeLuca girls falling over me, and Renata may have seen things that upset her. All she had to do, though, was talk to me. Just a conversation, and I could have explained everything. Instead, she slept with my best friend.

Worse, she let it be known that she’d fucked him. She made a fool of me, and no one has done that before or since.

She shifts in the seat beside me and crosses her legs. I can't help but glance at the top of the lacy stockings now exposed as it caresses her silky thigh.

God, she's delicious. Who wears stockings these days? There's something so old school about Renata, and I like it. She has full glossy hair that reminds me of a movie star from the golden era of cinema. Her features are striking, but her makeup is classic and toned down compared to what a lot of younger women wear these days. Her nails are short and neat and polished a dark red. Her skin glows, and I bet she gets regular treatments and massages. When she’s in my bed, I’ll pay for her to get her body oiled weekly, so she stays soft and supple. For a moment, my mind goes to the gutter as I imagine walking in on her massage and ordering the masseur to leave as I use that oil for other things.

Getting my revenge sure is going to be enjoyable.

Chapter 5

Matteo

I glance in the rearview mirror and check that the dark shape of my security detail’s Mercedes SUV is following close behind. Tomorrow morning, Renata will have her own such detail following her. Except, she won't know about it.

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