Page 38 of Passion and Revenge

My hands clench, fingernails biting into the flesh of my arm. “Your insides are rotten. You’re not the man I thought you were.”

“Well, I do live to disappoint spoiled little girls.”

I’m a full-grown woman who worked for every dollar in my bank account, but far be it from me to argue about who I know I am with a man whose hands were stained with more blood than an entire nation’s army. His opinions of me are useless.

“You clearly don’t know me,” I inform him coldly.

“Don’t I?” His mouth tickles up in one corner, and then he does something unexpected.

He reaches for something at his back and then produces a gun, holding it in the air between us. Looking at me, he takes his time turning off the safety before placing it on the table beside him.

“Take charge of your own destiny.” He nudges the gun forward. “Shoot me or yourself. Either way, you will have done something more than whine and wait for Daddy Dearest to come save you.”

Suspicion makes my brows draw together, and I glance at the gleaming metal. My father tried to get me to take shooting lessons. I only went once due to almost having a mental breakdown about actually hurting someone.

Alessandro is right, and we both know it. I’m a coward, and I can’t take what he’s offering. I can’t take control. At least not like that.

He watches me closely, his gaze intense. The flash of heat in his gaze makes my throat feel suddenly dry.

And then it hits me.

With a shaky breath, I untangle my fingers from where they have a death grip on the knot of my towel, and I ignore the way my heart is drumming against my chest.

As he eyes my movements, the curl of his lips disappears, and I feel a smug sense of achievement as the white fabric drops to the ground soundlessly.

“Sienna.” My name is a warning on his tongue, and if I have two brain cells to rub together, I’ll cover myself back off and flee from that incinerating gaze.

This is reckless, stupid, and out of character.

My hands are clammy, and my nipples are as hard as bullets. But I stand my ground.

Electric blue eyes drink me in like I’m an oasis after months of walking through sandy dunes. A single drop of water falls from my hair down to my collarbone, and I watch greedy eyes follow the trail of that innocent-looking droplet, down, down, down, until it falls on my ample bosom.

I hear him curse silently.

“What are you doing, Sienna?” he asks, his voice tight.

“Showing you who’s in control.”

“You’ll regret this,” he growls, his eyes darkening. I can see his chest swelling with labored breaths, a savage glint in his eyes.

“The only regret I have is meeting you.” His gaze is still on my heaving breasts. My nipples are tight and pointy with their hard peak. For a moment, we seem to be the only ones who exist. Nothing else matters. We’re paused in time.

Then he glances back up…and there’s a shift. Something palpable, carnal…and so damn animalistic.

I feel it, he feels it, and we both know what’s about to happen. We’ve danced around this for too long. It’s inevitable.

“Well, I guess I’ll have to give you another reason to regret meeting me then,” he says with a smirk.

One second, I’m watching him, and the next, he’s prowling toward me and dragging me roughly against him in a fierce kiss.

CHAPTER 13

Alessandro

Ishouldn’t be doing this.

I shouldn’t be kissing Sienna D’Addario like my life depends on it.

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