She had to shut her eyes as she turned her head away from his incoming kiss. “Don’t,” she whispered.
He gently grabbed her chin and turned her face to look at him. “Why not? I know you want me, too, sweetheart.”
Lake didn’t want to tell him the truth, but she knew if she didn’t, he would kiss her. Vincent wasn’t a man a girl could say no to, either.
She had to look at his chest, unable to look him in the eye. “Because you’ll just tell me it’s a mistake and leave me again.”
Vincent dropped his hands from her and took a step back, running his hand through his hair. “You’re right; that’s not fair to you. I’m sorry.” He went to the hood of the car and started to work on it.
She knew she had made the right decision by how quickly he had changed, no matter how much it stung. He obviously only wanted a quick fuck from her, nothing else. It was the same thing he got from every other girl, and Lake wasn’t going to be merely a number to any guy, even if he had descended from the gods. I doubt he can even keep count anymore.
Watching him, she noticed she had seen her father do what he was doing.
“You know exactly what’s wrong with it, don’t you?”
“Yep.”
Oh, my God! Lake hit at his arm. “You’re such an ass. You did that so you could get a better look at my butt, didn’t you?”
Vincent looked up from under the hood of the car and flashed a smile. “Sweetheart, I’ve warned you twice not to dress like that, and trust me, your tight little ass was begging for it in those shorts.”
She didn’t comprehend exactly what he said to her at first, still finding him irresistible when he talked to her like that. No, he isn’t!
“Well, your sister didn’t exactly tell me I was going to the mall with you all, and I didn’t exactly know my car was going to do this, either.”
“Is this the car you’re taking with you to college?” he asked, sounding almost concerned.
Lake looked down at the pavement as the realization that she no longer had the money to go to college finally hit her. She had no idea how she was going to tell Adalyn—or anyone, for that matter—too embarrassed of why she could no longer go. That was why she wasn’t going to tell him.
“No, it’s my dad’s car. I’m planning to get an apartment just a mile down the road, so I won’t need one.”
“You mean, you’re going to a new fucking city where you don’t know anyone, and you plan to walk everywhere?”
She didn’t like the way it had come out in a yell, and if she didn’t know any better, she would think he almost cared.
“That or take a bus. Or, what the hell, I’ll find someone to give me a ride.”
“You better be fucking joking, Lake,” he growled at her.
“Don’t pretend like you care about me.” She turned to go sit back in her car. She could wait there for him to fix it.
Vincent quickly grabbed her hand to stop her. “I do care about you, sweetheart.”
She still got amazed by how quickly his voice could turn from furious to smooth as butter. Looking into his baby-blues, she believed him.
“You do?” she quietly asked, wanting to hear him say it again.
“Of course. You’re my sister’s best friend.”
That was when the moment died for her. He only cared about her because of Adalyn. Of course it wouldn’t be because of me. Finally, she understood the difference between them. She cared about Vincent because she liked him, not because he was her best friend’s brother.
Lake felt stupid, knowing he would never like her based on her alone. Lucca had made it clear to her that only Italians could be in the mob, and Vincent could only love one thing—the mafia. If he ever settled down, it would be with some sexy Italian woman, so if they ever had kids, his sons could follow in his footsteps. I would only taint the Vitale family’s name.
She jerked her hand from his grasp. “Is it fixed?”
“Yes. What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing,” she said, trying to pull out the stick the hood was balancing on.
Vincent quickly grabbed the hood of the car. “Jesus fucking Christ, you’re going to chop your fingers off!” he screamed at her.
“If I did, you would only care for Adalyn’s sake, right?”
When he simply stared at her without saying a word, she stormed off and got in the car, slamming the door shut. Quickly, she turned the key in the ignition, and it finally started.
Vincent was barely able to shut the hood and move safely out of the way before she could run him over.
Dammit, God! You couldn’t have let me win once today?
Luckily, the look on his face as he jumped out of the way gave her some peace.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Nightmare on Fourth Street
She just fucking tried to run me over, didn’t she? She fucking did!
Vincent was doing that girl a favor, and she didn’t even know it. He didn’t enjoy telling her he only cared about her because she was his sister’s best friend. Hell, he wanted himself to believe it.
‘Because you’ll just tell me it’s a mistake and leave me again.’ That one sentence had about ripped his heart out, and he had previously been certain he didn’t even have one. She had one foot already out of Kansas City, and when the time came for her to go to college, he couldn’t leave with her. Lake would never budge about getting out, and he would never budge about leaving.
Sure, he could play with her, have his way with her for a little while, but he could see the outcome of it all. Vincent would destroy her; completely and utterly destroy something precious which was already on the verge of breaking.
Seeing that bitch talk to her that way at the mall, he had finally seen an ounce of why she had said she could relate to Chloe. His gut told him she might have had it bad her entire life, and he had been too stupid to see it.