He scoffs and the urge to slap him hard across his beautiful face scares me it’s so strong. No, I have no doubt I won’t get away with it again. Can’t believe he let it go the first time.
“Fuck you. I’ve heard of you and all the women you’ve been with. There is no way you could want someone like me when you’re used to gorgeous women. You are so far out of my league we aren’t in the same hemisphere. If even for one insane second I would consider this marriage, I wouldn’t trap myself in a marriage to someone who would feel like he married beneath him.”
Dominic slaps the ceiling and a light goes on. His eyes pierce me with a dark glare. “What the fuck are you talking about? I don’t want to marry anyone. Least of all a twenty-two-year-old girl so desperate for affection she’ll cling to a piece of shit like Richard Taylor despite proof so solid the cases against him are moving forward as we speak.”
His jaw clenches. “I’m thirty-nine years old. In a few months I’ll be forty. Yeah, there are guys into fucking girls young enough to be their daughters, I’m not one of them. I prefer women who know what they want and what the fuck they’re doing. That is my problem with this. Everything else you said is bullshit. I wanted you the moment I laid eyes on you.”
Almost forty? He doesn’t look that old. There had been men in and out of the condo who were younger yet looked older than Dominic. None of them had a body as big and muscled and powerful as his. Then he admits he doesn’t want to marry me either, which came as no surprise to me. It’s in the same breath he blows my mind, telling me he wants me. It’s marriage he doesn’t want.
Even though I want to call him a liar, I can’t—there’s too much heat in his eyes when he says it. Instantly, I’m wet between my legs. No. I don’t want him, want this. And fuck him, I’m not a girl or desperate for affection...am I?
He hits the ceiling again and the car goes dark. “I’m going to warn you right now. If you really love Richard Taylor then you’ll forget him, for his sake. Because if you don’t, I’m going to have to kill him.”
My blood runs cold as Dominic starts the car. His words were brutal, final; he meant them.
***
Regina
Almost an hour later he pulls into a gas station. It’s well-lit. I scan the parking lot; it’s also empty.
“Don’t. You won’t get far. I told you I don’t want to hurt you but if you don’t leave me a choice, I will.”
I shiver, he’s so damn cold. Defeated, I sag against the door. He gets out and I wonder if there’s any escape at all. If I ran, I know I won’t get far. I don’t even know where I could run to. Richard isn’t an option. I love him and I won’t put him in danger.
If I tried to go back to Italy, they would find me in a matter of days. So...don’t go back to Italy. I have over twenty thousand in my checking account. From all the stuff they found electronically, my guess is they would be able to track me easily if I relied on it, but if I went in and pulled all my cash out then I could maybe find somewhere to disappear to. But where?
***
Dominic
As I fill the tank, I fight the anger threatening to consume me. Regina really fucking believes she loves that moron. At least all her talk of loving another man, a piece of shit who doesn’t deserve to breathe the same air as her, has helped get my cock firmly under control. The only thing worse than being forced to marry any woman is marrying one who thinks she’s in love with someone else. How the fuck is this my life? I take a deep breath, then another. It doesn’t help.
I make a call. Mary answers, her surprise clear. “I need you to go make the spare room guest proof. I’ll be home tomorrow with a woman, my fiancée.” The word doesn’t come easily.
Mary gasps.
“Exactly, not interested in talking about it, both of us are less than thrilled. I mean guest proof. The lock on the outside, the cameras on and air out the extra room on the second floor. I’m going to need someone there to watch her at all times. I’ll be making use of Dario and Marco. So stock the kitchen as well.”
“I’ll take care of everything. Tomorrow?”
“Yeah, I’m driving back, it’s the safest way to get her there. I’ll drive through the night—”
“No, you won’t, young man. You need to stop and sleep. If you drive straight through you’ll enter the worst traffic half asleep.”
I shake my head. Mary was my babysitter and one-time lover of my father, a long time ago. She’s never gotten over taking care of me. Once when we were both deep into a bottle of scotch, she admitted she only stayed with my father because she had hopes of becoming a mother to Anthony Junior and me. There were medical reasons she couldn’t have kids. She wished we were hers, but Pop refused to leave our mother so after five years she gave up.
“I mean it, Dominic. You drive straight through and I use too much starch on your boxers for a month.”
The last damn thing I want to do is be stuck any longer in a confined space with Regina than I have to. Mary is right though, I’m not used to driving as it is. “Fine. It’s after eleven now. I’ll stop around six in the morning and try to get some sleep.”
“That should put you in... Youngstown is right about there. Would you like me to make you reservations at a hotel?”
“Find one with the rooms out onto the parking lot. Something where I don’t have to go into the building with her. She might run on me.”
“Hmm, will do. I’ll call you with the details as soon as it’s done.”
Getting back into the car, I see Regina is pretending to sleep, or plotting her escape. Her breathing catches when I start the car—plotting her escape it is.