Page 26 of Corrupted Heir (Mafia Kings: Corrupted 1)

Fallon took a step back, but I still had her wrist firmly clasped in my hand.

“I don’t hide, Emmanuella, and you know that,” I said. The woman had been a mistake, far too interested in sinking her claws into a mafia man for the luxury he could provide her, but I’d made it clear after a lackluster fuck that nobody was sinking their claws into me.

She smiled, a sultry look on her face that I’m sure was supposed to be enticing. “I know a lot of things.”

She was an attractive woman, no doubt, but she was seriously fucking with what I’d been about to indulge in. I could feel the heat from Fallon getting cooler by the second. I had the sinking feeling that her and I were going to be back on opposite sides of the battlefield by the time I got Emmanuella’s ass out of here.

“Then I’m sure you know to go dig your claws into someone else,” I said, but she made no move to leave.

“Don’t be like that, Dominic. I don’t mind if you want your friend to join us. A party for three?” she said, eyeing Fallon from head to toe. I didn’t miss the way her eyes settled on Fallon’s chest.

Fallon gasped, and I could imagine the indignant look on her face so well I had to stop myself from smiling.

No man in his right mind didn’t give Emmanuella’s kind of offer a moment’s contemplation, but before she could read into it, I shook my head.

“Leave, Emmanuella,” I said in a tone that brooked no refusal, and even she wasn’t stupid enough to push me any further. She turned around with a huff and stormed back inside the restaurant to a table by the door where a man sat waiting for her.

I didn’t need to turn back to Fallon to know Emmanuella had just managed to fuck up my night. I could practically feel the winds of the Arctic blowing off of Fallon.

“I can’t do this,” she said and tugged her wrist out of my hand.

“Everyone has a past, Fallon,” I tried to reason with her.

“It’s not your past, it’s you,” she said, throwing out her arms in exasperation. “I don’t know what I was thinking. We have nothing in common. We come from two completely different worlds. Call me stupid and ignorant, but I’d rather be happy in my optimistic view of the world than live in your dark, dead one.”

I sighed. My “dark, dead world” was reality. It wasn’t my fault she was too naïve to see it. Besides, that wasn’t even what she was pissed about.

“Admit it, you’re jealous,” I said, nodding toward the damned woman sitting inside.

“Jealous?” she railed.

The incredulous look in her eyes was enough to make me second-guess myself—not something that happened often. But that meant Fallon was seriously going to walk away from the chemistry between us because we had different worldviews? Was she insane?

“If you’re not jealous, then you’re crazy.”

“Ha!” she scoffed. “Now who’s being delusional? I’m not crazy, you’re just pissed because you thought you were going to get your dick wet, and now you’re in for a dry spell.”

“If all I wanted was to wet my dick, I have no shortage of options,” I said, glancing over at Emmanuella to make my point.

Fallon’s eyes widened even more and her chest heaved with every deep agitated breath. This would have been far more entertaining if I could have stripped her and watched her rant and rave naked.

“You know what, Dominic, screw this. I hope you live a long, miserable life in your dark world.” She scooped up her purse from the table and stormed off the patio. Half-stunned, I watched her disappear around the corner of the restaurant. No woman had ever walked away from me before. And this was the second time she was doing it. Fallon was fucking infuriating.

I left money on the table for the waiter and went after her. She could damn well stand outside the McLaren until I got there. But when I rounded the corner, she wasn’t anywhere near my car. She’d reached the sidewalk and stared out at the passing cars.

“What the hell are you doing?” I barked at her once I’d caught up.

“I’m waiting for a cab,” she said without turning to look at me. “Not all of us drive around in hundred-thousand-dollar cars.”

A hundred-thousand-dollar car? Try four-hundred-thousand, not that it was relevant to this fucked-up conversation.

“You’re suddenly opposed to my car?”

“No, I’m not-so-suddenly opposed to spending another minute with you. Goodbye, Dominic.” She held out her hand, and a yellow taxi slowed to a stop.

I could have stopped her. Hell, if I’d really wanted to, I could have turned on the charm and had her naked and breathless beneath me before the night was over, but fuck it. I was done trying to deal with this woman whose sweet side just wasn’t worth the bitter aftertaste.

I watched her get into the cab’s back seat, tamping down the ridiculous urge to pull her back. And then I watched her drive off, refusing to even think about just how pissed my father was going to be when he found out what a total failure tonight had been.

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