Page 30 of Defy

The only questions are; is she here for me or Luis, and is she here because she wants to be or because my mother told her to be?

I’m tiptoeing around her, getting a feel for our new dynamic, testing the waters slowly.

“I hear Libby’s to be a bartender.” I fidget with my coffee cup so I don’t look too eager for her response.

“And?” she replies rather shortly. There is a tone of something in her voice I can’t place. Bitterness? Jealousy? Anger?

I smile at the thought of Libby and Camila going at it like cats.

Unfortunately, Camila catches the smirk.

Damn it.

“You like her.” Not a question.

Camila slides off her barstool and comes to stand in front of me at the counter. She raises her hands to touch my bare skin but pauses, her question clearly written on her face. I don’t know what to do with Camila yet, but not wanting to push her away too much in case I need her, I look down at her and slowly nod my head in consent. Even after all this time, her touch is familiar, it’s just no longer desired.

Her ragged inhale as she touches me communicates the effect I still have on her as if I didn’t already know. She closes her eyes and I briefly think about removing her hands, but in some fucked up way, I owe her this. “Dom, it’s good to have you back,” she says, completely ignoring my words about Libby. “Though you’re no longer the boy I remember so well,” Camila whispers, the desire clear in her voice. When she starts fanning her fingers out across my pecs and sliding them down toward my stomach, I gently pull her hands away and turn my back to her, facing the coffee pot instead, pretending to be occupied with disposing the grounds and filter.

The devil on my shoulder speaks up.

You shouldn’t hesitate to use Camila’s desire to your advantage. The old Dominic would have done it. The man you need to be if you’re going to get Libby out of here should too.

But damn if I don’t want to be that man anymore.

Not to be deterred, Camila wraps her arms around my waist from behind, an aggressive move but not necessarily a shocking one given our history. She’s boldly inching her way toward my waistband, clearly taking my earlieryesto mean that she has a greenlight for exploring the rest of my body as well.

How easy it would be to slip back into a familiar embrace. Someone who knows my world already. All the guesswork about what she likes gone, while time apart makes it feel new again.

She presses a kiss to the bare skin on my back and the previous guilt vanishes as quickly as it came. This is a decent plan. Get Camila in my good graces. Make her workforme instead of against me. If I can get the help I need then maybe I can level the playing field.

It’s all for Libby.

In that moment, I decide not to stop Camila’s hands as she rakes her nails down my abs from behind me as she pushes herself against my ass. Instead, I plant both my hands on the counter in front of me and drop my head, trying to plan my next move when a voice breaks into the moment.

“Well, isn’t this cozy?” Luis doesn’t even try to hide the contempt in his voice as he enters the kitchen. I assume he’s just getting in from the club.

Camila turns us to face my brother, pulling me into her chest as she now takes my position against the counter putting me between her and Luis. The sensation sends an involuntary shiver through me and I feel her smile at my back.

“Luis, mind your own business,” she quips at my brother as she peers around my shoulder. Her hands slip inside the pockets of my sweatpants and I watch Luis’s eyes follow the movement.

I hear the playful, yet completely evil banter in his voice as he responds. His jealousy shining through loud and clear. “Is this why you haven’t married, Camila? You’ve been pining overDominic? Thiswholetime?”

“Of course, Luis,” she coos, her sarcasm dripping. “Who do you think you are compared to Dominic? Let me tell you. You’re second best. At everything. And the best you can do are your brother’s leftovers.”

Whoa. There is some serious bad blood between these two. She just tapped into every insecurity my brother has and it sounds like she remembers his futile efforts to best me at anything when he was a kid.

I hold my hands up in mock surrender. “I don’t know what I’ve missed, but I want no part in this…whatever this is.” I wave back and forth between the two of them as I try to pry Camila’s hands from my pockets and step out of her grip. I briefly consider letting out a chuckle at her anger toward Luis… until her fangs are turned to me and I realize she isn’t joking.

“You’re turning me down? Again? Is this about thewhoreupstairs?” Camila’s voice is hard and laced with poison and I no longer recognize the friend and place of comfort I once knew her to be.

Abruptly, I realize that there can be no middle ground here. I’ve been playing it too safe. The lure of this world is greater than I expected but I can no longer straddle the line of who I was and who I should be. I need my family to trust me in order to get what I need and I can’t do that if I’m still clinging to the goodness and simplicity of life I found in Aruba because that man won’t survive here.

Nothing is simple.

Nor is there any goodness.

If I want to get out of here alive and with Libby, then it’s painfully clear that it’s now time to play to win. It’s time to step back into the skin of the player…partier…ruthless assassin.

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