Page 13 of Dating the Don

“Ten minutes, Maeve.”

“Excuse me?” I whip around to face him as he leans against the wall with his hands in his pockets. “You’re going to time me?”

“Any longer and it would seem strange. As if you were avoiding me. You’re not avoiding me, are you?” Cristiano’s brow lifts in accusatory curiosity. How did he know that’s exactly what I was going to do? I wanted to go down to my own room and scream into a pillow for a good long while. At least until I could feel a little bit more in control of myself than I do right now. As it stands, I feel like I did this morning; frazzled, like I’m falling apart at the seams. Everything is moving too quickly. It’s too much too fast and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be slowing down any time soon either.

I don’t have an answer for him.

“Anything longer than ten minutes and I’m going to come looking for you. Understood?” Cristiano says in a commanding voice that I’ve only heard from him once before, earlier today in his room. A secret thrill rushes through me that I will deny until the day I die.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, pushing the envelope.

“I suppose if you’re willing to risk the consequences, then be my guest,” Cristiano answers as his expression darkens.

Something low in my belly curls in anticipation as I start to walk backward and away from him. Do I want to push it? I sure as hell could use the distraction. My head is already spinning a mile a minute and I don’t rightfully know what to do with myself. I know that I can’t risk making him angry on top of everybody else that I’ve managed to piss off today, but oh is it tempting.

I almost want to make itexactlyten minutes to see if he’s actually timing me or not.

“I suggest you move that perfect ass a good deal faster, Maeve,” Cristiano calls out to me as I pick up my speed and move through the halls at a light jog.

I don’t have much here. Decoration and trinkets and stuff. I gather up my sketchbooks and materials just in case, the small things that are important to me. I stuff them into a bag before hauling them all up the stairs again.

I make it about halfway back to Cristiano’s room before Justina stops me.

“What on earth are you doing out of your room?” Justina folds her arms across her chest and arches a thin brow at me. Her face is stern enough that it usually makes me spill before I evenrealize what I’m doing. But, in this case, I’m speechless. “Just where are you going with all of that anyway?”

Two issues are immediately present: I have no idea how to tell her that I’m engaged to Cristiano and the other is that this conversation is very likely to push me well past my ten-minute limit.

“You’re not heading to the master, are you? I have it on good authority that he’s had a very long, taxing day. I promise you that he’s not in the mood for one of your little pranks or tricks tonight. Turn around and march back into your room at once. We’ll talk about boundaries in the morning,” Justina commands.

“Well… you see…”

Will she even believe me? I just assumed that somehow Cristiano had taken care of all of this. Is he going to make me be the one to tell Ada too? How the hell am I supposed to have that conversation with her? Is Justina going to be mad? I can’t imagine this announcement going very well. She’s going to call me overly ambitious. What if, like Annalisa, she implies I’m a money-hungry whore? Unease settles heavily on my shoulders as I fumble for words. Not a problem that I usually have.

Cristiano appears down the corridor at that very moment. I swear that I may have drooled a little. Plain black sleep pants, velvety and hung loosely across his hips. Justina pulls awayfrom me and gives agentle bow as he stops a short distance away.

“Mr. Dominio,” she greets him pleasantly.

“Is there a reason you’re detaining my fiancée?” Cristiano continues, his voice the picture of irritation.

“F-fiancée?!” Justina stammers and looks between the pair of us and then at the objects in my arm. There are many emotions rolling quickly over her face and I’ll admit it’s a little satisfying to see her jaw drop open like that.

“Maeve? To bed.” Cristiano commands and holds a hand out for me. I smile sheepishly at Justina and scurry past her like a little rat. I feel like one, kinda. I didn’t even once pause to think about what the other staff was going to think about this. I’m sure that Rocco in the security room is already in the process of telling as many people as he possibly can.

I reach for Cristiano’s hand, only to have mine snatched. I stumble a few steps forward and have to nearly jog to keep up with his long strides as we go back to his,our,room.

“Come on, you can’t really be mad about this, can you? It’s not like it was my fault that Justina stopped me!” I laugh nervously. “Cristiano?”

“I gave you a task and you disobeyed me,” he says flatly as he pulls me into the room somewhat roughly and locks the door behind us. He pulls my personal items out of my hands and sets them on top of his dresser.

“Justina stopped me! I didn’t know what to say!” It’s the truth.

“I’m hearing a lot of excuses from you, Maeve. Take responsibility for your actions.”

I’m frozen on the spot as he walks in a half circle around me. I canfeelhis eyes raking over me. “What did you want me to do?”

He doesn’t answer but I know exactly what he expected. He’s never been the sort of man who likes to repeat himself. I know in my bones that he fully expected me to have been here in the doorway no more than nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds later.

“Do you think this is a game?” Cristiano asks as he circles me again.

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