“I can’t do that…”
“Baby, I don’t know what’s going to happen between us. But you’re focused on the very end of the relationship, marriage and kids and shit. I don’t even know if I want those things. All I want right now is you. So, let’s do this, ride it out, and see if it even goes anywhere. Not every relationship ends in a happily ever after. Most don’t. So stop thinking about what may or may not happen. Let this relationship run its course.”
I couldn’t let that happen. If I already felt this way, I couldn’t even imagine how I would feel months from now. “I should go to bed…” I couldn’t listen to him persuade me anymore. If I listened to it for too long, he might actually convince me.
Bones didn’t argue with me.
“Matteo will never call me again, so you don’t have to worry about him. I’m not ready to date…not even close. I thought I could just push through this, but I obviously can’t.”
“Why do you think he’ll never call you again?”
I chuckled even though I didn’t feel an ounce of happiness inside me. “I was a horrible date who was constantly distracted by my phone, I told him I was still hung up on my ex and I was doing everything I possibly could to get over him, and I invited him over to screw and then abruptly changed my mind. I looked like a dumb girl who has no idea what she wants. A guy like him would never call me again.” He was wealthy and handsome. He could pick up a woman at a bar in ten minutes and take her home. Maybe that was what he did after he left my place. Wouldn’t judge him for it.
“Baby, he’ll call you again. Trust me.”
“I don’t think you understand how badly that date went…”
“And I don’t think you understand how hard he was staring at you all night. I don’t think you understand just how charming, sexy, and beautiful you are. I don’t think you understand that every man in this world would kill to have a woman like you.”
Three
Bones
A week went by, and Vanessa didn’t call me.
I spent my time working, trying to stay busy so I wouldn’t have to acknowledge the pain deep inside my chest.
I hadn’t gotten laid in three weeks, and I was starting to lose my mind.
My hand was losing its effectiveness.
I needed Vanessa’s mouth, pussy, or ass—something.
I was entitled to go out and pick up some woman or pay for sex, but I didn’t want that.
There was only one woman I wanted. Everyone else would just be a letdown.
I was the kind of man who was brutally honest, and I didn’t regret saying the truth to someone’s face. But I regretted telling Vanessa how I felt about her. Even though she felt the same way, it was the wrong move. I’d still be waking up next to her every morning if I’d just kept my big mouth shut.
Now I was living in hell.
I stayed at my place in Milan, wanting to be close to her instead of far away in Lake Garda. A part of me agreed with Vanessa that we should just forget about each other and move on. I would always hate her, regardless of how much I loved her. I didn’t want a future as a husband with kids. All I wanted was her.
But forgetting a woman like that was impossible.
She cast a spell on me that would never fade away. Even though she wasn’t mine anymore, I still considered her to be my property. When her GPS had headed to that restaurant, I feared the worst—that she was going on a date. I should have stayed home and let my rage simmer in privacy.
But, no, I snapped.
I didn’t want some other dog sniffing around my woman.
My woman.
My only other option was to change Vanessa’s mind.
But damn, she was so stubborn. So fucking stubborn it drove me crazy.
When a week turned into eleven days, my patience cracked. My dick was hard all the time, and I missed her like crazy. I didn’t just miss the sex, but I missed talking to her. I missed existing in silence with her. She was one of the few people in this world who really understood me, who accepted me for who I was.
If our families didn’t hate each other so much, I’d be buried between her legs right now.
Fucking nightmare.
After everything I did to her, keeping her as a prisoner while holding her family’s lives over her head, I should just leave her alone and let her move on. If that’s what she wanted, I should step aside and let her leave.
But I wasn’t a good guy. I never pretended I was. Vanessa knew exactly what I was.
A possessive, overbearing psychopath.