Page 69 of Ruthless Mafia Daddy

“Mikhail, I don’t think this is a wise conversation,” she replied, her eyes darting between me and the door.

“Just answer the question, Arielle,” I hissed, taking a step forward?”

“It’s useless,” she shot back, taking a step backward.

Tension rolled off me in waves as I stood in front of her, watching as her chest rose and fell in anger. “I deserve to know. Telling me the truth is the least you can do after what you put me through.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore,” she muttered, looking everywhere but me.

And I don’t know why I was pushing the conversation. She was right. It didn’t matter if she meant it or not. The end remained the same, but for some reason, I couldn’t drop it. I needed to hear her tell me to my face that everything was a lie, and she felt nothing for me.

I hooked a finger beneath her jaw, forcing her eyes to mine. I could see little specks of blue through her contacts, and I found myself getting lost in them again. “Tell me some of it was real, and I’m not making up these things in my head.”

“It doesn’t matter,” she maintained, trying to force her eyes from mine but I held her in place.

I could feel my heart pick up at a faster pace as we stood there staring into each other’s eyes. The tension between us grew so thick you could slice through it with a blunt knife, and at some point, I don’t know which one of us moved, but I felt her take in a sharp inhale as my nose brushed against hers, her eyelids slowly dropping.

The need to kiss her became suddenly overwhelming, and just as I dipped my head to capture her lips in mine, the doorbell rang so loud we practically jumped away from each other, and Arielle was out of the office in a flash, taking the moment along with her.

After my brief meeting with Antonio, I sent a text to Enzo to get some of his men to tail Arielle.

I couldn’t shake off the feeling that she was hiding more than just the agency.

CHAPTER 31

Arielle

I successfully limited my contact with Mikhail to mostly emails, and only attended to him physically when there was someone else in the room with him after the incident in his office.

My weakness embarrassed me, and I scolded myself endlessly for almost putting my son in danger. While I still harbored some feelings towards him, mostly guilt and chemistry, I didn’t expect a heated fight between us to quickly escalate into a near make-out session. If Antonio hadn’t knocked at the time he did, there was no telling how far things would’ve gone between us.

“You look like a pwincess mama,” Jason said with the brightest smile as he walked in on Annalise adding final touches to my makeup.

“And you are my Prince Charming.” I beamed back at him. School was doing him well, and interacting with kids his age and older had improved his speech. He was home with something new to chatter about, and he asked questions about everything and anything.

“Can I follow you?” he pouted, batting his eyes at me.

“No baby, it’s a work thing, and it’s for adults,” I replied, holding out my arms for him.

“What’s adults?” he followed up immediately, and Anna let out a small laugh.

“An adult is someone who is up to eighteen,” Anna replied, handing me a mirror to look at myself. Her English session with Jason slowly dulled into an echo in the background as I watched my reflection. I had grown so accustomed to being brunette that I might feel like a fraud if I ever returned to my blonde hair.

A sudden urge to tap into my original self seeped into me, and I reached out for the makeup wipes on my vanity. I cleaned off the nude lipstick I was wearing and reapplied my signature blood-red lip stain. A small feeling of freedom settled into me, and I had to fight the urge to take out my contacts.

“Red is definitely your color,” Anna exclaimed, and Jason gave me the tiniest thumbs up.

“I’ll be home by ten, try not to give Aunt Anna any trouble,” I said, picking up my purse and placing a kiss on Jason’s forehead.

He let out a tiny giggle and planted a very sloppy kiss on my cheek. “Bye, Mommy!”

“Bye, sweetie,” I replied, making my way to the door.

“Let loose and have some fun tonight, and if you can’t make it home, I’ve got him,” Anna called after me. I ignored the double meaning behind her words and walked out the door. She’s been hounding me to get a man since Jason turned two.

A smile touched my lips as I heard Jason ask her what it meant to let loose. I hope she never finds her way out of that one.

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