Page 19 of Love Without Control

“Are you taking me to New York to my family?” I asked, and he glanced up at me with a furrowed brow.

His reply seemed distant and laden with something I couldn’t quite define. “New York? Yeah, I’ll get you to New York.” With his eyes still on mine, he cupped my chin with one hand, angling my face to the side so he could see my cheek. “Swear to god, if those fuckers weren’t already dead, I’d kill them for marking you like this.”

The words were muttered but no less fierce as he smoothed the arnica over the bruise from the backhand I’d taken to the face. I wasn’t sure why he was acting like Ethan and Felipe had hurt him personally, but maybe it was just his nature. Protectiveness as a result of his job.

With tender pressure, Damiano tilted my head until I was facing him again, and his eyes dropped to my mouth. “I’m sorry they hurt you,” he murmured, smoothing some of the arnica over the split in my bottom lip.

“It could have been worse,” I whispered, and his gaze locked with mine.

“Yeah, it could have been.” A muscle clenched in his jaw as we stared at each other in what felt like a very intimate moment. Then he dragged his eyes away and reached for another of the bags, pulling out a cool bottle of water and some ibuprofen. “Take these,” he said, spilling four of the tablets into my palm.

The bandages made me clumsy, and Damiano caught the pills I dropped before they hit the floor. To my surprise, he held two of them to my lips with his long fingers, and I took a drink of the water to swallow them before he repeated it with the other two.

“Thank you,” I told him. “I feel like I keep saying that, and I know it doesn’t come close to being enough. I’m just too tired to think of anything else.”

“It’s okay, Evie. Why don’t you get some sleep now?”

I nodded. “I need it. I don’t remember the last time I slept.” I attempted a small smile, but I could feel that it was weak.

Damiano took the bottle of water from me and placed it on the small table beside the bed before pulling back the covers for me. I slid my legs beneath the cool sheets and rested my head on the pillow.

The man stood and pulled the covers up over my body. “My room is next door if you need me. Is there anything else I can get you right now?”

My tired mind could think of only one thing. It was probably wholly inappropriate, but fuck it. Sitting up, I held my arms wide. Damiano didn’t even hesitate. He sat on the edge of the bed and allowed me to hug him, his large hands finding my back in a soothing up and down movement.

A sigh escaped me at the comfort a simple hug brought me, but I couldn’t muster up any words. So I clung to this man. This stranger. My savior.

Damiano’s deep voice rumbled his chest and vibrated low in my ear. “Do I need to pull a chair in here and stay with you?”

Yes!

But I couldn’t ask him to do that. He needed to sleep too, so I shook my head and reluctantly pulled back. “No, it’s fine.”

With one hand on the back of my head and one pressing against the center of my chest, he guided me down until I was once again resting on the pillow. “I’ll stay till you get to sleep.”

My eyes closed instantly, and I felt fingers brushing the hair from my face as my exhausted body finally relaxed. And then… I slept.

Chapter 7

Lookingdownatthewoman in the bed, I wondered why the hell I was running my fingers through her damp hair. I was pretty sure I’d never done that before.

Pulling a woman’s hair while fucking her from behind? Yeah, I’d definitely done that. And thoroughly enjoyed it. But somehow not as much as I enjoyed stroking Evie’s hair with a tenderness I didn’t think myself capable of.

What the hell is it about this chick?Shit, I didn’t even know her, but for some reason, she’d gotten under my skin with her boldness, her tenacity. I… admired her.

Now fully asleep, Evie’s face had relaxed into pure softness, making her look like an angel. But I knew beneath that sweet, pretty face lay a fierceness that drew me in. She was an angel all right, but one forged from fire and ice.

I mean, I should be pissed at her because she was going to totally upend my life. Once I returned her to New York, I was going to have to go on the run because there was no way Luca Cappitani was going to let this shit go. Stealing his new “toy” and his money? Nope. I was a dead man.

It was March now, and I probably wouldn’t make it to the end of the year before he found me and killed me in the most heinous way imaginable. Probably tortured for days by his men before he personally decapitated me. That was Luca’s specialty.

There would be no reprieve for me because I was his son. No, that would only make the betrayal more malignant in his eyes.

Nevertheless, I planned to give Evie the seven million dollars. Poor kid deserved it after what she’d been through. She could use the money to go to school or buy a house or whatever. She would always have mental scars from the past few days, but hopefully, the money would change her life for the better and allow her the financial freedom to move past this in the best way she could.

But first, I needed to get her back to New York, the last damn place I wanted to go. Why couldn’t she be from Kansas or Oregon or fucking anywhere else but where my father lived? Luckily, he’d still be in Las Vegas and not waiting at the airfield for us when we arrived. I’d get Evie to a safe place and then haul ass to…somewhere. And then I’d bide my time until he came for me.

I’d never held any notion that I’d live a long and happy life. Fiero played his part well as the eldest son, but I was a bit more rebellious. And as the youngest child, I was pretty much expendable in my father’s eyes.

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