Page 50 of Savage Prince

“No, I don’t accept that.”Cazzo, this is all my fault. I made Mariuccia come here. I dragged her back to this inferno, to the fucked-up dark world I inhabit. Spinning the boat around, I push the engine to maximum speed and curve around the bend once more until we’re out of sight. I only pray no one saw us approaching and with the dense smoke and the chaos of the fire, the probabilities are good.

“Where are you going?” she screeches.

“I’m dropping you off somewhere safe, and I’m going back.”

“You can’t!” She whips her head back and forth, blonde hair lashing across her face.

“Ihaveto.” I sear my eyes to hers, forcing my hands at my side to keep them from touching her. “My father was apezzo dimerda,and I went back for him. Mariuccia was like a mother to me, and she deserves better. And Fabi… If there is any chance they survived, I have to try.”

“Then I’ll go with you.”

“Absolutely not.” I glance down between us at her ankle. Even now as she stands holding onto the stern, she can’t put all her weight on it. “I have no idea who is behind this, and there is no way I’m putting your life at risk again. Not when we’re so close to an agreement…”Could Dante have double-crossed me?

“Papà.” Her voice is so low I’m not certain I hear her. “You think it’s him, don’t you?”

“I never said that.”

“But that’s what you’re thinking. I can see it in your eyes. You really think my father would do that to a house with me in it?”

I shake my head slowly. “I honestly have no idea what to think,tesoro. But no one knows about this house.”

“So how could my father?”

“Maybe he tracked my phone somehow…”

“I thought you had some sort of untraceable VPN.”

“I thought so too, but?—”

“No! It’s not the Kings. I know my own father and he would never,” she grits out the last part as I slow the boat onto the shore.

“Now is not the time to argue.” I cut the engine and turn to face her. “Just stay here. I’ll be right back.”

“You can’t be serious?” She glares up at me, eyes narrowed. “You want me to just sit here and wait?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I want.” I eye the rope coiled around the metal cleats along the side of the boat. “Don’t make me tie you up, Serena.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” she hisses.

I tower over her, my hands clamping around her shoulders. “Give me your word that you won’t move.”

“And if I don’t? You’ll tie me up and leave me here knowing there’s a very real possibility you won’t come back?” Her wild eyes meet mine, and I catch a glimpse of worry. Not just for her, or the situation, but for what she just said, the chance of me not returning.

I loose a frustrated breath, and my hands move to frame her cheeks. I’m surprised she doesn’t slap them away. “Just promise me you’ll stay.”

She clucks her teeth, muttering a curse, then lifts her watch between us, wriggling free of my hold. “You have thirty minutes, Antonio. If you’re not back, I’m out of here.”

“There’s nowhere to go…”

“I’ll find a way, hitch a ride, do whatever it takes.”

My head dips because I don’t doubt her one bit. Even with that sprained ankle, I’m sure she’ll find a way out of here. “Thirty minutes,” I repeat.

Her eyes lock on mine, and a whirlwind of emotions streak across the typically brilliant blue of her irises. I’m filled with the most overwhelming urge to drag her mouth to mine and devour her lips just one time.

Because she’s right and there’s a very real probability that I won’t make it back. And it would be a sin to die without ever having tasted those lips.

Fuck it.

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