Page 24 of ‘I Do’ for Revenge

Vito said from behind her, ‘Where are you going?’

Without turning around, she said, ‘I’m going to Diablo. I hear it’s the best nightclub in town.’

‘Do you know how much it costs to get in?’

Aiming for more confidence than she felt and going off what she’d heard about the club—that if they deemed you alluring enough they would let you in for free—Flora said, ‘I don’t think it’ll be an issue, do you?’ She really hoped it wouldn’t be. She was counting on this dress being enough of a distraction to get her in.

‘That place is full of sharks.’

Flora was in the entrance hall now and she turned around. ‘You’d know, I guess.’ She didn’t mean it as an insult, merely as a fact.

Vito’s face was stony. But he said, ‘Something like that.’

Then he shook his head and came towards her. Flora stood her ground. He said, ‘You won’t find the kind of man you want in a place like that, Flora.’

‘You don’t know what kind of man I want.’

I want you.

She turned around again and was almost at the private elevator doors when Vito said from behind her, ‘This is crazy.’

She pressed the button and the doors opened. He said, ‘You wouldn’t dare.’

She just said, ‘Watch me,’ and stepped into the elevator.

CHAPTER SIX

VITOENTEREDTHEdark decadent space, lit up by strobing lights. The thumping bass of the music reached all the way down to his bones, but he noticed none of it. He was looking for a wild-haired temptress in a glittering excuse for a dress.

‘Vito, man! Where the hell have you been?’

Vito ignored the greeting.

He got to the other side of the bar where he stood at a railing. The dance floor was below and thick with people, their sinuous bodies moving in time with the music. Heads thrown back, arms around necks, bodies pressed together. It was temptation and sin and decadence and he wondered what he’d ever seen in it. It all seemed a little desperate and tacky to him now.

Full of predators.

Like you.

Vito made a face, scaring off one woman who had been approaching him.

And then, a flash of silver caught his eye and he saw her. She was on the edge of the dance floor, surrounded by a group of men. Of course she’d got in. He couldn’t imagine a bouncer in the world denying her entry. She was holding a delicate flute of sparkling wine. She laughed at something one of the men said but Vito could see that she didn’t look entirely comfortable. They were hemming her in.

Then she looked up and over their heads, straight at him. She lifted her glass in a salute and then downed the drink in one, handing her empty glass to one man while taking another by the hand and leading him onto the dance floor.

The man looked as if all his Christmases had just come at once. Vito was going to kill him. He refrained from vaulting over the rail onto the dance floor and took the stairs.

His blood was pounding along with the music, but with one refrain,Mine, mine, mine.He had forgotten all about his conscience. The minute he’d seen Flora in that dress his conscience had turned to dust.

She was his and he was going to have her, over and over, until he could breathe again.

Flora was feeling a little dizzy after downing that drink in one go. A little reckless, but when she’d seen Vito standing at the railing scouring the crowd for her, she’d wanted to taunt him.

She was done with men trying to keep her in a box. First her uncle’s palazzo and now Vito’s plush apartment. She wanted to live. She wanted to be devoured. The only problem was that the only man she wanted to devour her was more likely to drag her out of here and scold her than devour her.

The man she had pulled onto the dance floor was now dancing energetically opposite her, his avid gaze firmly fixed on her breasts. She smiled weakly. This wasn’t panning out exactly as she’d hoped. It felt a bit tawdry.

But suddenly he was gone and in his place was a man about a foot taller, and broader and altogether more dynamic.Vito.