Page 16 of King
His straightforwardness is sexy as hell, leaving me speechless. And I’m pretty sure he’ll be able to tell if I lie or not. If I say I haven’t been thinking about him, then it absolutely will be a lie. A lie I think he’ll have no problem calling me out on.
“What are you doing up?” I ask instead of denying he’s the thing occupying my mind and keeping me up.
I lean back in the chair, resting my head against the backrest too. It looks like he’s getting comfortable I might as well too.
I look up at the starless night sky to keep from staring into his eyes. I’m very aware of my weaknesses when it comes to men like Matteo. Like King. And he’s exactly the kind of man I can lose my soul to. Not the right time nor the right place. I already have one dangerous man to deal with no need to add another one to it.
“I could ask you the same thing.”
He turns his head towards me, and that beautiful white smile has my panties melting. Jesus, he’s dangerous. I know it. He knows it. And I can’t seem to not think about how much I would love to have this man under me. On top of me, and everywhere in between.
“Touché.”
“I don’t sleep much,” he says, answering my question after a few minutes. “So, I took care of some club business instead of staring up at the ceiling wondering about a certain beautiful woman and what she may be doing in the room not too far from the one I’m in.”
“And what did you think I might be doing?”
“Hopefully, dreaming about all the nasty shit I want to do to you,” he says with a straight face. “Maybe touching your pussy to the images.”
I haven’t gotten to that point yet, but I’m really close.
“Why don’t you sleep?” I ask, changing the subject and ignoring the fluttering in my stomach, the itch to see if he can live up to the fantasy I’m creating in my mind.
His smirk lets me know he’ll let me off the hook, not because I want to talk about something else but because he’s allowing me to talk about something else.
“Dagger was right. You are a talker. Full of questions, aren’t we?”
I roll my eyes. “Anyone would be a talker with that man. He couldn’t string together two sentences if he wanted to. Grumpy ass.”
His laugh is deep, warm, and rich, touching every part of my body.
“I’m just curious about the man they call King. But you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”
“Insomnia.” He sighs. “I rarely sleep more than two or three hours unless I’m plastered which isn’t often, or if I’ve fucked someone’s brains out. Then I crash which is an entirely different story. Why aren’t you asleep?”
“Didn’t you already ask that?”
“Technically no, but like you, I’m just curious about the woman who’s in hiding.”
“New place.” I sigh. “And you know, worrying about the unknown. I do have an insane person looking for me.”
All the humor and lightheartedness drains from his face and in its place is a cold and calculating look. One that can make a grown man piss his pants.
“You have nothing to worry about here, Alana.” He reaches over and places his hand on top of mine, giving it a little squeeze, then pulling away taking the warmth of his touch with him. “I swear nothing’s gonna happen to you or Amelia. We protect our own.”
Our own.
While I like to believe what he says is true, I know Matteo. He’ll stop at nothing until he finds me. Or he’ll at least die trying.
At the beginning of our relationship, we were happy. In the later years, we constantly fought about everything. It almost got violent a few times. The only thing that saved my ass was his brother, Emilio stepping in.
Matteo started spending more time away from home, probably cheating, and being an all-around shitty boyfriend. And anytime I tried to leave the more explosive our arguments became. The shit he’s involved in was the last straw. It gave me an opening to get the hell out of there and I took it. Now it’s up to Fate whether I have to pay with my life for that decision.
I sigh. “I hope you can live up to that promise because if not, things will not end well for me that’s for sure.”
“Don’t worry. I got you.”
I rise from the lounge chair with my laptop, and he follows behind me. I’m not getting any work done, and it’s too late to be out here bitching about the shit I’ve gotten myself into and hoping King can protect me from it. But if I have to pay the piper, it’s my own damn fault. I should’ve stayed away from Matteo. What will happen to me if he finds me is something I need to come to grips with sooner rather than later, because I can hear the clock ticking. My time is running out. Matteo will find me. It isn’t a question of if but when. I can only pray I make it out alive.
