Page 489 of Hate Mates

“Steal any more, and you’ll be the one to lose a finger.” He waved his knife in the air with a smirk on his face.

I swiped another piece and stuffed that one into my mouth, too. “Oh, please, you wouldn’t hurt a fly,” I said, forgoing all manners and talking with my mouth full.

In fact, Massimo was the second-nicest person in this whole house. The trophy for nicest went to Aurelio, based purely on the merit of his older age and reserved demeanor.

Massimo was my only friend. Our visits had become a high point in my day. He was funny, charming, and void of the toxic masculinity that filled this place like smog. He made mealmostforget that I was here against my own free will. But sadly, that gray cloud was always hovering overhead, and knocked me back to my senses. No matter how much I wanted to trust Massimo, he was still Lazaro’s employee and his years-long fidelity to his boss would always loom over our relationship of only a few weeks.

“What are you cooking today?” I had just finished breakfast and half of a plate of prosciutto, but my belly was already growling for lunch from the tantalizing aroma of Massimo’s cooking.

The knife dropped with a clatter, and I jumped back instinctively. Massimo bit his lip, then exploded in a violentoutburst of verbal diarrhea. “Okay, okay, you don’t have to beat it out of me. I can’t keep it in anymore!”

“Beat what out of you?” He was acting like a squirrel who had just had a hit of cocaine, and I was utterly confused.

He let out a heavy exhale. “I overheard you and Signore getting it on in the dining room.”

I gasped in horror. “Me and Lazaro?”

He nodded and resumed babbling. “I wanted to keep it to myself because, you know, I’m a professional and it’s none of my business, but I can’t, and I’m dying to talk about it. So, please, can we talk about it?!” He sucked in a huge breath until his cheeks puffed out, then put his hand over his heart and exhaled it.

Embarrassment. Shock.Neither of those words accurately described the nauseating feeling in my stomach. My eyes shot to the door. Thankfully, we were alone, with no guards in sight. “Who else knows?” I whispered.

Judging from how wide the dark blue waterlines of his eyes stretched, he wasn’t the only one.

“Angelica?” Lazaro’s maid was nosey, so I already knew the answer.

He nodded.

“Aurelio, too?” I held my breath. I’d die if that sweet old man had heard me moaning and rutting like an animal as my captor ate me out in attempt to squeeze information that I didn’t have out of me.

“Everyone,” he admitted, grimacing.

“Oh, God. Oh, God.” I paced back and forth, pressing my temples. “This is bad.”So bad.

“Calm down, signorina. It’s really no big deal.”

He must have been truly high, when just seconds ago, he had been ready to burst at the seams. “No big deal?! You were just freaking out to tell me!”

“I’m sorry. I tend to overreact. And I don’t blame you. Who can resist hooking up with a handsome, eligible man like Signore?”

“Me!Especially when he’s keeping me captive here.”

Massimo stared back at me as if it were the first he had ever heard of the matter. That I was a prisoner.

“You think I want to be here? That I’m just a guest at Hotel Cosentino?”

It was ludicrous that he was oblivious to what his boss, Lazaro Cosentino, had done to me. I had made no effort to muffle my screams when his men had assaulted me or to silence my retorts when Angelica had tried to argue with me. And Massimo had even witnessed Lazaro’s assault on me in this very kitchen. Money must really blind and deafen people, which made this even more messed up.

At least Massimo had mentioned the part about being eligible. I didn’t think my stomach could have held out much longer if I had found out I’d let a married man touch me.

Massimo extended a hand toward my shoulder, as if he were going to touch me, but he never did. It was effective in halting my pacing. “Look, I know you have some preconceived notions about Signore Lazaro, but trust me, he’s a good man.”

Yeah, because he paid you to say that.“Listen to yourself! Good men don’t kidnap innocent women and threaten to kill them!” There was no way he could convince me otherwise, so he would have been better off saving his breath. “You must have seen hundreds of women in my place to be this...unaffected...this jaded!” My voice was loud enough that I was sure Lazaro could hear it from his office, even with the door closed.

But Massimo’s voice remained quiet. “No. You’re the only one.”

I glared at him. As if that should have meant the world to me. I was his one and only prisoner he sometimes groped.How cute.I clapped my hands together while screwing up my face. “Ahh, gee. I must be so fucking special.”

“You are.”

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