Page 45 of The Price of Power
A part of me hoped the idea would make him sweat, even just a little. But Gabriel just shook his head.
“Not even your brother is that stupid,” he said confidently. “And even if he was, the feds would have showed up to check by now. Trust me, those bastards are always looking for any excuse to knock on our doors these days.”
I had no trouble believing that. Which meant the only other scenario—besides the one where Gabriel was right, and my family simply saw me as disposable—was that they hadn’t gotten around to checking my many, many messages. But since theory didn’t make them sound much better than his, I kept it to myself.
“So what’s your point?” I asked, letting all of the venom I felt in my blood flow into my voice. “That it’s okay that you’re an asshole because I’m a sucker?”
He didn’t answer that.
Instead, he held my gaze for a long second of silence before finally letting me go and walking toward the bed. “Come here, dolcezza.”
After getting off relatively easy for the uncle comment, I decided not to push my luck and followed him. Though I stopped a few feet away when I saw him sit down on the edge of the mattress.
“What?” I asked when he looked over at me expectantly.
“Come closer.”
I shook my head. “You want me to follow your demands after calling me a doormat?”
His expression hardened. “Closer.”
Apparently, that was a yes.
And God help me, I did what he said.
I didn’t know how much closer he wanted me, so I shuffled forward, inch by inch, until my thighs brushed against his knees. Only then did he appear satisfied.
Slowly, he raised his hands and cupped them around the swell of my hips. Then, looking up into my eyes, he said, “Did I tell you how beautiful you are in this dress?”
Despite all my anger and frustration, my heart started to pound with a new rhythm at his words. He sounded like he meant it.
“No,” I answered. “You didn’t.”
“Well, you are.” He continued, his hands moving in small, slow circles over the silky material. “Absolutely gorgeous. I’m sure every woman in that club was jealous of you tonight, just like every man was envious that I was the one by your side.”
I wasn’t sure what his angle was, but he was laying it on a little thick. “Are you trying to sweet talk me out of thinking that you’re a total jerk?”
“No.” His gaze was honest. “You’re right. I am an asshole. It’s not just how I was raised; it’s who I am. I can’t be any other way. Good men don’t last long in the world I was born into….and neither do naive suckers.”
My eyes widened as I sucked in a breath. “Is that a threat?”
“Not from me.” He shook his head. “I need you to realize that if I had any intention of hurting you, I wouldn’t have waited until now. I would have done it the second I walked into that office this morning.”
Okay, then. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Because it’s time for you to face some hard truths of your own, Liv. Ones that are just as rough as the kind you’ve been casually tossing in my face since we met.” His hands started to move in bigger circles, stroking from my hips toward my lower back. “Why did you disappear on me last night?”
Oh, God. I really wasn’t ready for that question.
“I…I…”
Gabriel must have taken pity because he shook his head. “It’s okay. We’ll work up to it,” he said. “Let’s start with something easier. Why did you agree to go out with me in the first place?”
“Because I was upset with my family,” I said without hesitation, trying to prove this wasn’t half as hard as he was making it out to be. “It was the last thing on Earth they would have expected me to do.”
That alone should have proved that I didn’t spend all my time trying to make them happy.
“It wasn’t because you wanted to?” he asked.