Page 23 of Coerced Kiss
He’s on top of me in a wink, pulling me close to his chest, smothering me in the woolly fabric of his jacket and the expensive smell of his spicy cologne.
“That’s not going to happen, my treasure,” he whispers in a low and dark voice in my ear. “You’re stuck with me, whether you like it or not.” His deep timbre washes over my senses, sending goosebumps over my skin, but it’s the underlying warning in his words more than the raspy quality of his baritone resonance that makes me shiver. “I suggest you get used to the idea.”
As suddenly as he grabbed me, he lets me go. The minute I’m free, I backtrack and gulp in a lungful of air.
He’s dangerous, this man, so much more than just on a physical level. He scares me, and not only because of his strength. I’m terrified of the power he holds over me.
We simply stand there and look at each other, measuring one another as the pedestrians part around us and carry on without paying us attention. Despite the hundreds of people surrounding me, I’ve never felt more isolated or vulnerable.
I take another step back, the urge to flee pumping adrenaline through my veins.
He’s quick to close the distance between us, not allowing me space. “Do you understand me?”
I stare up at his face, fearing and hating him at the same time.
“Come on,” he says, cupping my cheek. “You’ll give people the wrong idea if you look at me with so much animosity. I’m sure you can find it in you to like me if you try.”
“Like you?” I stammer, jerking my face away. “Are you out of your mind? You were going to kill me. If I weren’t your alibi, I’d be on the bottom of the river with a stone tied around my ankle.”
“No,” he says softly, giving me a long, intense look. “A river is too sloppy. It’s too easy for a rope to deteriorate or to get chomped through by fish. There’s always the risk of a body surfacing. Besides, a water burial isn’t pretty. If I were going to kill you, I’d bury you in the woods near a beautiful site with flowers, somewhere on a hill overlooking the sea.” Taking a strand of my hair, he rubs it between his fingers. “I’d plant thorn bushes on your grave so that wild animals couldn’t dig up your body and eat your bones.” Something dark passes over his features. “I think I’d visit that place often.” Saying more to himself than to me, he continues, “Yes, I don’t think I would’ve been able to stay away.”
I gape at him in horror, unable to believe my ears.
“But I’m not going to kill you.” He releases the lock of hair he’s been twisting around his finger, tilting his head to study the curl that bounces back like a spring. “As long as you behave, you have nothing to fear.”
Nothing to fear? No statement can be further from the truth.
“Now,” he says, taking my hand and fixing me with that intense gaze that’s gone from dangerous to deviant in the blink of an eye. “You owe me an answer. Do you understand how this is going to work,tesoro?”
Frightened out of my wits and unable to do anything else, I nod.
“Good.” He traces my jaw with a thumb. “Let’s get you home.”
Not waiting for my compliance, he turns me in the in the direction of my apartment building and drags me along with him.
“How did you know?” I ask.
He looks down at me with the same indulgent smile of earlier. “Know what?”
“When the police were going to question me.”
“That’s how these investigations work.”
“But you arrived just at the right time.” Then it hits me. “You have a spy in the force.” I swallow hard before choking out, “Someone there works for you.”
He only continues to smile, answering my question with his silence.
Just how powerful is he?
In front of my building, he stops to face me. “That brings up an unpleasant matter, but we’ll discuss it inside.”
My pulse spikes when he unlocks the exterior door. I don’t want him to come inside, but I can’t stop him from doing so.
In the lobby, we’re met by a tearful Livy who’s on her way out. She tells us she learned the news of Mr. Lewis’s murder from his widow. We exchange a few words, Saverio doing most of the talking. He consoles her and asks if she needs anything before excusing us, saying that I need to rest. This time, he refrains from mentioning that I’m pregnant.
We take the stairs to my floor with Saverio’s hand wrapped firmly around my elbow. He unlocks my door with his own key and steers me inside before locking it behind him. When he takes off his jacket and unbuttons the cuffs of his sleeves, I really get scared. There’s something about the look in his eyes that seems too intense. The glint that flickers in their depths seems too wicked. Too eager.
I lick my dry lips. “What are you doing?”