Page 13 of Bitter Lies

I shake the bottle at her. “You could have picked literally any other place to go play. Your family owns a thousand clubs. For that matter, so does mine. Pick your poison, Isabella. Know your enemies and know they’re lurking around every corner.”

Not an enemy yet, I remind myself, but I’ve seen the type before, and whoever her new friend might be, he presents an issue. Either he is a nobody who is after Isabella for her sex, or he’s a name who hasn’t been introduced. In my mind, one option is just as bad as the other.

“You don’t get it.” She pushes up to her feet and wraps her arms around her torso.

“Then tell me why.”

“I didn’t want to be me tonight. Okay?” The words spill out of her. “Tonight, I wanted to be anyone else, doing anything else. Which is why I—” she breaks off, biting her lip. “It doesn’t matter.”

Is she talking about the bathroom? The flush on her cheeks gives me a good idea.

“It seems to me you are playing at things beyond your capabilities,” I say with forced ease. Just to get under her skin.

Isabella bristles, sneers, flashing her teeth at me. A step away from trying to take a bite out of open air. “Don’t insult my intelligence. Whatever else you want to say, don’t go there.”

“Like I said earlier, stop making it easy for me,” I snap. “Now finish your statement. Which is why I…what, Isabella?”

“Absolutely fucking nothing, Ricardo. Drop it.”

The more I press, the more she’ll unravel. I’ve watched her long enough over the years to understand the process. No one ever takes her to the brink, which is why she hasn’t explored her full potential yet on any front.

I’ve got just enough of a buzz going on to want to test her. “What were you doing before I found you? You ran out of the bathroom. Did you somehow discover a run in your stocking? Did someone insult your makeup or your hair tonight?”

She shakes her head, her hair loose and waving wildly around her face, sweat having curled some of the rich strands.

“You’re dancing around instead of answering my statement. What were you doing in the bathroom?” I pause and then move in for the kill, angry enough with her to make it harsh. “Were you with a man in there?”

Her face flushes, but she doesn’t drop her head. Does not try to hide. She juts her chin out stubbornly and glares at me.

I’ve won.

“Oh, wow.” I force out a laugh. “You were with a man in the bathroom. How interesting. Was it your new friend? Is that how you know each other?”

Her fingers curl into claws where they grip her arms. “None of your damn business.”

“You putting yourself in harm’s way by fucking a stranger in a club bathroom is most certainly my business. Do you know what kind of trouble I would get into if your father found out—” I start.

“I didn’t fuck anyone.” She’s seething, her movement barely restrained when she surges toward me. “Stop making it sound so crude.”

“Then what did you do? And I suggest you tell me the truth.”

The air in the room grows thick, tension snapping and crackling between us. “Or else what?”

No one gets under my skin like this woman, and she seems to know that refusing to tell me something outright will only enrage me further. I push the frustration aside and focus on getting her to come clean. Because if she’s griping at me then she isn’t worrying about the club being shot up once I got her out of there.

“I’m not going to be able to help you with Daddy Dearest unless you tell me what you were doing in the bathroom.”

“I’m telling you right now, I didn’t have sex with anyone.” She pauses, tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. “I just wanted a little adventure. There is nothing wrong with it. We were in a neutral place. I thought it was safe to let go.”

Let go? Is that what she wants? “A little adventure can mean a whole lot of things.”

“I didn’t realize you were this interested in my extracurricular activities.” She turns her nose up at me.

“Let’s call it an oral fixation.”

Her gaze jumps to mine, her surprise evident. “Ah, you want to know if I went down on someone? Then yes.” She sounds obstinate. “I did. Now you can go off and have your weird little fantasies about me and leave me the hell alone. I’m an adult, and what or who I choose to blow is none of your business, Ricardo. You certainly never bother to tell me what you do.”

Little pit viper.

---