"Not bad for a spoilt playboy," he snickers.
Saint steps forward, until his chest slams into Antonio’ "If I see you anywhere near her again… I’ll—"
"You’ll?"
"I’ll beat the fuck out of you."
Antonio chuckles. "I’ll have to take you up on your challenge one of these days, knowing fully well that you won’t be able to win."
Saint snarls. He raises his arm. I jump forward and grab his shoulder, "Let him go," I pant. "He’s baiting you. Can’t you see that?"
Saint shrugs off my hold, "I gave you a simple command. If you don’t obey it—"
"What are you going to do?"
His jaw tics, a nerve throbs at his temple, and his entire body goes rigid. Anger thrums off of him, mixed with…an intensity that had not been there before. If I’d thought Saint had been upset earlier…that was nothing… Nothing compared to how every muscle in his body is wound up, tightened, coiled into a mass of lethal fury that could plough down anything that gets in his way. He could kill Antonio; I have no doubt about it. There is no way I am going to let him do it. I won’t let him get into trouble because of me… And yet, you are going to sell him out. I don’t have a choice about that. I have too much at stake. But I could buy him a little more time…a few more days of freedom. For myself...for him.
"Tell me what you’ll do to me if I don’t follow your orders, Saint."
His gaze flicks to me, "I’ll make you regret this."
"Without giving me a chance to say ’yes’?"
"What did you say?"
"I said ’yes.’"
Saint frowns.
Antonio steps back, "I’m sorry."
Saint turns to him, as if I hadn’t accepted his proposal. Maybe he doesn’t understand what I am alluding to? Perhaps he already regrets asking me to marry him? Either way, this lack of surprise or any kind of response from him is…strange, to say the least.
"Didn’t realize the lady was taken," Antonio raises his hands. "I never meant to trespass on what’s yours."
The two men exchange a glance.
Saint wraps his arm around me and pulls me close. The heat of his body slams into me, his big frame dwarfing me. I melt into him, and for a second pretend that I am his. That he belongs to me, that I am a woman who agreed to marry a man who in a few short days had stripped back the layers I’ve shown to the world. Who’d known how to arouse me with a look, a touch, a spanking across my backside. My nerve endings crackle and my scalp tingles. I swallow, force myself to stay where I am.
"No hard feelings, ol'chap?" Antonio holds out his hand.
Saint sets his jaw, "Leave before I have you thrown out."
Antonio chuckles. "It won’t come to that." He glances down at me, and Saint’s hold tightens, until I can barely breathe.
"Good luck, my dear, though by the looks of it, it will be your man who’ll be needing it."
He brushes past us.
Saint stiffens. I peer up at him to find the pulse racing at the hollow of his neck. I lift my fingers to touch the skin, and he releases me. My knees threaten to give way. I put out a hand and brace myself against him.
"Who was he?" Saint asks.
"No one." I retract my arm, press my elbows into my side. "He was no one."
"He didn’t seem like nobody. You guys seemed to be engaged in intimate conversation when I arrived."
"How did you find us?" I ask.
"Meredith called me."
"Right," I shuffle my feet. "Did you hear what I said earlier?"
He frowns.
"About my saying 'yes,' I mean."
"Your agreeing to marry me?"
I nod.
"I didn’t expect otherwise."
I glower, "Very sure of yourself."
"Always." He widens his stance. "Unlike you."
"What’s that supposed to mean?"
"You can’t lie to save yourself… Tory."
"Don’t call me that. I told you I don’t like it."
"So I can’t, but he can?"
The blood rushes from my face. "How…how much did you hear?"
"Enough."
"It…it’s not what it seems, Saint."
He chuckles, "You can do better than that."
"No, really," I grip his arm.
He shakes it off, "Don’t come near me."
My heart begins to thud and sweat beads my palms. This is not good. I can’t afford to have Saint angry with me. Can’t have him put distance between us—not when I am so close to getting everything I want.
"I’ll do it, Saint."
He regards me from under those thick eyelashes.
"I’ll do anything you want."
"What does that mean, exactly?"
"I’ll marry you. I’ll obey you. I’ll give you anything you need from me."
He drums his fingers on his chest, "You’ll agree to everything I ask?"
I nod.
He walks a slow circle around me. I stare ahead. Allow him to take his measure of my body, my curves, welcome his heated gaze that flows over my waist, down the cleft between my arsecheeks, around my thighs to the front, where he pauses, his gaze fixed on the triangle between my legs.
"You’ll strip for me?"
"Of course."
"Let me slap your pussy?" His voice lowers to a hush.
I shudder. Squeeze my thighs together.
"Answer me."
"Yes," I snap out.
He tilts his head to the left, then the right.
"I’ll take your arse, of course," he assures me.
My sex clenches and my heart begins to race.
"Of course," I tip up my chin.
His lips curl. "Wasn’t asking you for your permission."
I draw in a sharp breath.
"In fact, I won’t be giving you much of a heads-up on anything I have in mind. Suffice to say, Gigi, by the time I’m done with you, you won’t be able to remember your name, let alone how you deceived me."
"D…deceived you?"
He doesn’t know. No way. He can’t know the true reason for my having approached him in the first place. "Wh…what do you mean?" I whisper.
He jerks his chin to the side, "Why him… Your former lover, who you invited here to meet you publicly, and all because you wanted to make me jealous, hmm?"
I blink. Is that what he thinks this
