The Filthy One

Marco pulls me into him, my back to his front as he strokes his hand down the side of my face, across my shoulder and over my arm, reaching my hand and interlinking his fingers with mine.

“I know. But you’re mine, and we come as a package deal now.”

“Only for another month.” I say the words, barely above a whisper, but he hears them and spins me to face him. His eyes look dangerous, and his lips are tilted up only ever so slightly at the corners as he lifts my hand to his mouth, placing a soft kiss on my wedding band.

“We’ll see.”

Before I have a chance to respond, he begins to lead me toward the bar in the corner of the room. There are too many people around for me to argue with him like I want to, and the fucker knows it.

“Lina?” She’s leaning against the bar, and the silhouette of a man I know very well is talking to her with his back to us. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be in Monaco.”

Her face pales, briefly, before a blush begins to creep up her chest, almost matching the scarlet of the beautiful gown she’s wearing. “Hey, Marco. I came back early. Surprise!”

The guy moves to stand beside Lina, resting his elbows on the tall bar behind him.

“Tyler.”

“Marco.”

They shake hands and do the whole pat each other on the back thing that men do sometimes.

“You were in Monaco this week, weren’t you?”

The impenetrable mask that is Tyler fucking Walker, falters briefly before he reins it in. Not a lot can pierce his facade, but it seems Marco Mancini is one of those things that can.

“I was.”

I’m not sure whether a fight is about to break out or not, because from what I’m hearing, Tyler and Lina were in Monaco together. I don’t feel the pang of jealousy I felt when I heard about Kai’s engagement. Instead, I’m just happy for them both. Lina is a beautiful soul, and Tyler could really use a strong woman like her in his life. The way he looks at her reminds me of Ev and Petal. I’m ready to defend their budding love if Marco decides to go all batshit on us, but he surprises me yet again.

“You look after her with your life, protect her, worship the ground she fucking walks on. Because she deserves nothing less. I don’t need to tell you what would happen if you hurt her, so we’ll leave it at that… Brother.”

“Understood.”

Men are such strange creatures. All their posturing and threats, it’s like something from an animal documentary.

I make eye contact with Lina, raising a brow at her in surprise and mouthing, “wow.” She doesn’t need to hear from me that I used to sleep with her new boyfriend, and though I’m sure Marco knows I did, he’s also choosing to ignore that in favor of their pending love. Which is pretty sweet, considering he’s usually a giant asshole.

“I need the bathroom. River, you coming?” I’m not usually a ‘girls go to the bathroom in packs’ kinda girl, but for Lina, and this juicy gossip she no doubt has, I’ll make an exception.

“Sure.”

Marco pulls me into him for a long, slow, devouring kiss, accompanied by words of discouragement from his sister, before letting me go. He pats me on the ass as I walk away, and I’ve got to say, I’ve begun to quite like it.

After hearing all about Tyler and Lina’s budding relationship, which is a whole story in itself, I realize I really need to use the toilet. Lina is eager to get back to Tyler, so I tell her to go while I sort myself out.

As I exit the bathroom, someone grabs my arm and pulls me to the side, pushing me against the wall. It’s not rough or hard, but the flashbacks to the night in the alley are real. My breathing speeds up and I lose focus on my surroundings for a moment.

“River. Listen to my voice…” He places my hand on his chest and takes deep breaths, encouraging me to follow. “That’s it, Skittles. There you are.”

“Nathaniel?” I’m either hallucinating, or Nathaniel is really in front of me, one hand on my head, the other holding mine to his chest. “What are you doing here?” This gala is becoming an awkward-as-fuck walk down memory lane.

“My mother is a benefactor to the Senator. She needed a date.” His blue eyes focus on my green ones, and I wish I could take back what happened, apologize… something. But I can’t say anything because of my contract with Marco. Which is frustrating as fuck.

Mr. Bobby’s voice echoes in my mind. “Big picture.”

“That was nice of you. And I’m good now, thank you. You can let me go.”

Something passes over his eyes that I can’t describe, but it’s gone before I can analyze it properly.