Page 33 of Dating the Don

Whether he likes it or not.

So that night, I wait for him to get back. I am willing to wait all night long if that’s what it takes but I’m not going to let him ignore me any longer. I’m done. When Cristiano walks into the room, he seems surprised to see me awake and waiting for him.

“What are you still doing awake?” He asks as he removes his jacket and starts undressing.

“Can’t a girl wait up for her fiancé?” I say playfully with a smile that doesn't quite reach my eyes.

Cristano’s brow lifts.

He pulls his shirt over his head and wads it into a ball.

No, Maeve, focus. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted by the sight of him shirtless or the fact that it’s been days since you’ve last felt him inside you.

I’m on a mission here. I can’t let myself get distracted.

Cristiano unbuttons his pants and lets them linger on his hips as he crosses the room to where I’m sitting on the bed wearing one of his shirts and only that. I am willing to debase myself a little bit if it means that I’ll get the information that I want out of him.

He presses his knuckles into the bedding on either side of my legs and leans closer until he’s only an inch from my face. “Want to tell me what this is really about?”

My chin lifts until my lips nearly brush against his own. “This is about you cutting me out.”

Cristiano exhales roughly and rolls his eyes before pulling away from me. “I’m doing no such thing.”

Something inside of me snaps.

“Oh, so you’re doing it on purpose. I was hoping that I was just reading into things but your reaction just proved it. If youweren’t,you wouldn’t blow me off like that. You made a promise! You promised and, what, your word just means nothing?” I shouldn’t follow him when I’m angry.

He turns on me, his hand finding my neck and pinning me to the closest wall with a snarl.

That mask of his that’s always so carefully in place slips. This is the version of him that I found in that basement. This is the ruthless version of him that’s the head of the Dominio clan.

It shouldn’t be so fucking sexy.

The concentration of fury that he’s aiming at me and me alone should terrify me.

Instead, arousal rushes between my legs and it takes just about everything that I have left in me to keep from moving. I want to keep poking the proverbial bear. Half to see what he does, and half to get my point across.

“Careful what you say,” Cristiano warns in a low voice.

“Or what?” I push. “Is this how you treat all of your partners?”

Cristiano doesn’t answer at first. Something I don’t recognize is on his face.

I mock him with a bitter laugh. “Oh is it? I see. Then I guess you’re really just as sexist like the rest of them, aren’t you? You just pretend to be above it all to fuck me, isn’t that right? Get what you want and say what you have to in order to shut me up.”

That does it.

Hurt flickers over his face before he forcibly lets me go. “Jesus, Maeve.”

“Oh, don’t back down now! Where did the fire go? So big and tough, aren’t you?” I push him in the chest, trying to get a rise out of him. I will do whatever it takes to get an explanation from him.

“I don’t have partners, Maeve!” Cristiano shouts in response. “Do you think that my mother was apartnerto my father? That they went to business meetings together? No! She was awife.”

He could have slapped me and it would have been kinder.

“So I’m right then,” I say bitterly. “You’re just as sexist alike everybody else in Cosa Nostra. Only you’re worse because you pretend that you’re not.”

“Are you fucking serious right now?” Cristiano rebukes.

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