Page 24 of Hot-Blooded Killer

As I slide off the counter and straighten out my dress, my legs are still shaking. I turn to the mirror. My cheeks are flushed, and my hair mussed.

I definitely look freshly fucked.

The last thing I need is to rejoin the party looking like this. So once again, I redo my makeup and fix my hair, smoothing the tangles out of the curls.

As I bend over to swipe my ruined panties off the floor, the door opens and Sarah and Adele sweep into the bathroom. I wad the ripped silk in my hand, clenching it in my fist.

Adele takes one look at me and bursts out laughing. “Oh my God. You really were in here getting laid, weren’t you?”

My cheeks burn with a hot blush.

“So how is Lorenzo Beneventi in bed, anyway?” Sarah asks, moving to the counter and leaning in toward the mirror to touch up her lipstick—the same mirror I was resting back against just moments before.

I move to the trash receptacle and toss in my panties with more force than necessary, hoping the white scraps look like paper towels.

But Adele catches a glimpse of the lace as it flutters into the trash can. “And he ripped off your panties, didn’t?”

Sarah let out a low whistle. “Damn, girlfriend. That’s hot.”

I finally grin and shake my head. “You two are terrible. And none of that is any of your business.”

By the time we leave, we’re all laughing, but I know they haven’t given up trying to find out more about Lorenzo. They’re confused about this sudden supposedly whirlwind romance. They haven’t seen me much in the last three weeks, and they’ve spent too much time quizzing me about my relationship with him.

I’ve tried to gush about him, to make it seem like I’m absolutely smitten.

The problem is, they know me too well, and I know they’re wondering what the hell is going on.

Finding me in the bathroom disheveled like that actually seems to have given them more certainty about my relationship with him than all my words could have.

But there’s another, much bigger problem.

I’m suddenly less certain about my plan to take him down than I was before.

I knew letting him touch me before the wedding was a bad idea.

Especially since now I want him to do it again.

CHAPTER10

LORENZO

Iexpect our interlude in the bathroom at the country club to assuage my desire for Gia.

It doesn’t.

Instead, I spend the next three weeks aching for her even more than before—even though they’re a whirlwind of wedding planning. Mostly on her part, not mine.

I already own a tuxedo, so my role is mostly a matter of agreeing to the various things Gia asks my opinion on.

The truth is, I don’t care. Not about the wedding itself—she’s determined to be married in a Catholic church, she says because it will help sell the story that she’s marrying me of her own free will.

Even though we both know that’s not entirely true. There will be people who never believe our story.

And of course, there are people who already know the truth.

I keep waiting for the day she learns that her father lost her to me in a poker game. No one has told her yet about that game. Somehow, I don’t think she will react well if she ever discovers that her father bet her in a game and lost.

But apparently, he’s told his men to keep their mouths shut, and word hasn’t gotten to her yet.

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