Page 6 of Savage Heart
“Suspect? Why?”
As much as I want to say I checked him out and found he’s in league with her family back in Italy, that’s not true. The fucker seems utterly clean. No police record. No hint of ties to Matteo and the rest of the Rossettis. Fuck, on paper, he’s the perfect guy for Sienna.
So, naturally, I hate him.
“Let’s just say I’m suspicious,” I answer, avoiding her gaze as I pretend to look out the window.
“Suspicious because he’s a bad man, or suspicious because you just don’t like him?” she asks with a smile in her voice.
I turn around to see her grinning at me. Jesus, she’s even more beautiful when she smiles.
“Let’s just say I don’t like him and leave it at that.”
Sienna brushes her fingertips along my forearm before she pulls me back to her. “I never thought of you as the jealous type. I have to admit I’m a little surprised, and not only because it’s downright presumptuous of you to expect me to wait forever and be alone that whole time.”
As much as I want to control my temper, I can’t stop myself from asking, “So does he rock your world, or is this just another guy like the others?”
She looks past me, unable to meet my gaze when she answers, “I can’t compare every man to you for the rest of my life. I’d be alone forever then. You know that, so it’s cruel to even ask such a thing.”
Good. I want her to do just that every time she meets someone new. I want her to compare everyone to me because I do the same thing every time I meet a woman.
It’s the reason there’s been no one since Sienna.
“Did you keep your promise not to kidnap any other women? I hope so because you’re not good at it,” she says with a hint of a smile, still not able to face me.
I move toward her, loving the feel of her body pressed against mine when I stop right in front of her. “I haven’t kidnapped any women. I swear. I haven’t been with anyone since you, hostage or not.”
My confession comes out far more serious than I intended, and finally, she turns her head to look at me. “You haven’t been with anyone for the past two years?” she asks in amazement.
With a shrug, I try to play off my celibacy. “It’s not like I have time to be seducing women. I’m a killer. That’s a full-time job.”
Every word of that other than my being a killer is a lie. Killing people is my job, but it’s not like it’s something that takes up most of my time. For the past two years, what I’ve done mostly is think about Sienna back on the island.
“Stop acting like it’s nothing. You just told me you haven’t slept with anyone else since we were together two years ago. Is that the truth?” Sienna asks with eyes full of disbelief.
“I don’t have the time to go around bedding other beautiful women. Maybe if I had the time, but you know how it is.”
She shakes her head and sighs. “Always with the cavalier attitude. I don’t believe you anyway. There’s no way a man like you hasn’t been with even a single woman in two years.”
We stare into one another’s eyes while she waits to hear the truth from me. I’m not lying, though. I’ve met my fair share of women in the past couple years. Some I even considered sleeping with. But I didn’t.
When someone has your heart, it’s next to impossible to forget that or them.
Sienna’s eyes grow big, and she asks, “Why? Why did you consign yourself to being alone? You owed me nothing. If anything, I owe you. You saved me and gave me the chance to have a life away from my family. I know Helix only did all of this for me because of you. Why wouldn’t you find happiness with someone, even if it was only for a night, since you chose to not come to me?”
“I didn’t want anyone else. Plus, I’m busy,” I say, again pretending I’m so preoccupied with work that I don’t have a few spare minutes in my days or nights to sleep with someone.
“Stop acting like this!” she cries, slapping me across the face. “Stop making it seem like it wasn’t important!”
Her anger surprises me for a moment. I open my mouth to make another lame attempt at a joke, but I’ve got nothing. She wants honesty? Okay. She’s going to get it.
“What do you want me to say? That I couldn’t stop thinking about you and the thought of being with another woman left me feeling empty? That I wanted to come see you and feel whole again? That I’ve come back here to Connecticut to be sure you’re okay so many fucking times that I could probably fly the plane myself I know the route so goddamned well? It wasn’t important that I didn’t sleep with someone in all that time. I couldn’t because all I could think of was you.”
Her mouth drops open, and for a second or two, I think she’s about to cry. Instead, she pulls me to her and kisses me like I’ve fantasized about every day we’ve been apart. I take her in my arms, desperate to show her how much I’ve missed her.
Words aren’t enough. She needs to feel it.
God, she tastes as sweet as she did back in Italy. That place where we spent those hours together is thousands of miles away, but I still would swear I can smell a hint of lemons surrounding her just like it did back there.