Her Dad’s Best Friend novel Chapter 43

The mug of cider is empty. She puts it down. Her eyes flick between my plate and hers.

“So, I guess I should say goodnight?”

“We’re going to talk about your time here. With me.”

She flinches, her eyes blinking. “What are you going to do to me?” I can hear a slight quiver in her voice, a little breathiness that says that she’s scared.

And turned on.

I drink a little more of my wine. “What do you imagine your life here is going to be like?”

“I don’t understand any of this, to be honest. I thought I was going to be…a prisoner or something, but you just served filet mignon.”

“What if I’m just treating you like this, stroking you with a velvet glove, so that you’re caught unaware?”

She pushes back from the table and hugs herself. “You could.”

I can see from her posture that she’s feeling vulnerable, which is the point. The question is how much of a bastard I want to be.

“You are here to repay your father’s debt to me.” The wine is dry. I savor it. “How do you think that will happen?”

Her small fists are clenched on the table now. I have the feeling that she wants to spring across the table, and what? Slap me? The idea of a tiny thing like her trying to assault me is hilarious. I smile, which just makes her eyebrows furrow.

Then she’s shooting to her feet. “I don’t have to stand for this.”

I take another sip of wine. “Feel free to leave. Your father will be dead by morning.”

Chapter Eight

Cat and String

Kelly

I feel like Iacopo is toying with me, batting me around like a cat with a piece of string. He’s amused, this fucker. I’m so mad that I’m going to blow.

I almost wish that he did just tell me that I was going to pay back the debt on my back. At least that would be straightforward. But he isn’t saying that, only asking me what I think will happen.

And the honest truth? I don’t know. The uncertainty is killing me.

It’s making me mad. I walk over to Iacopo. “Why don’t we just agree that I’ll repay the debt the way that I thought I would, hmm?”

I jump into his lap and straddle him. My hands go to the back of his head. I pull him in for a kiss.

My world is literally being turned upside down now. His mouth is hot and hungry, which I wasn’t expecting. I was just teasing, but he’s pulling my shirt off.