‘How dare you, I have respect for myself… you know nothing about my life.’
‘And that’s your first mistake… a lie… I know everything about you.’ The disappointment in his voice left me stunned.
‘Why? How do you know anything about me? Why would you want to?’ I was shaking my head from side to side as I reeled out question after question in disbelief at what he’d just said.
Does Brody know that I’m back in this position?
The humiliation I felt at his statement and my subsequent worry, caused an almost instantaneous reaction inside me. The pressure behind my eyes began to build until all my previously held in pain, terror and disgrace, began to run down my face in rapid, thick rivulets. I tore my eyes away from his and placed my hands over my face as I tried, to no avail to hide my feelings from him. A few minutes passed without anything more being said between us. Eventually, my tears subsided and comprehending that he hadn’t moved from his earlier position, I slowly rolled my head to look at him again.
My tear-filled eyes met his and the air in the room changed suddenly.
‘Why are you that interested in me? No one is that interested in me, other than my feral cat and my neighbour…’
‘Pearl and you’ve called the cat Tiger; I presume because of his colouring.’
The view that met my eyes was completely different to what I was expecting. The previous air of arrogant indifference that I knew Nico Morello was renowned for showing to the world, had been replaced with a look of concern. He pushed himself off the wall behind him and shrugged his broad shoulders out of his suit jacket, throwing it over his desk as he walked past. My eyes immediately jumped to the brown leather shoulder holster that had been exposed by his action.
What the hell?
Nico continued to cross the large room and finally, when he’d nearly reached me, he took hold of a nearby chair, twisted it around on one leg and straddled it. Folding his arms, he rested them on the seat back and looked down at me.
‘You don’t take care of yourself, Barbara. You’ve lost weight since I saw you last and judging by the way you passed out in here tonight, I would say you’re also dehydrated.’
‘You’ve been spying on me, why would you do that?’
‘Call it keeping an eye on you.’
‘I prefer spying,’ I retorted.
‘Call it what you want, I obviously haven’t done a good enough job, have I?’
‘I’m nothing to you, it’s not your responsibility to look out for me. So, I appreciate your weird concern, but I need to go home.’
‘Home to what? A cat and an older lady with a brightly coloured clothing obsession?’
‘You really have been spying on me,’ I spat out in disgust.
‘No.’ He shook his head, ‘Call it due concern.’
I sat bolt upright and as my head protested, I quickly comprehended that I’d moved too quickly. Slowly, and reluctantly, I lowered myself backwards to the prone position I’d previously been in and started to take some deep breaths to calm my erratic heart rate. The deep breaths I was attempting to inhale were my second big mistake, the smell of the man permeated my nostrils. He smelt fresh and clean, like the ocean after a storm and the aroma of the man rapidly became something I needed more of. Fear of looking like even more of a loser in his eyes, I stopped myself inhaling through my nostrils and started to take in air through my mouth.
‘Is this the position you sit in when you interrogate people, Mr. Morello?’
I wasn’t quite sure where my sassiness was coming from tonight, but maybe it was a primal instinct. I knew his reputation and felt I needed to fight fire with fire.
‘I want to help you, Barbara.’ I couldn’t believe what I thought my ears had actually heard.
‘I’m sorry…I… What did you just say?’
A sigh left him and then he cleared his throat loudly, his previous look of concern was gone and replaced by his mask of arrogant indifference. ‘I have a proposition for you.’
‘Well as you’ve brought a gun to a tiddly wink competition, I can hardly not hear you out, can I?’
He twisted his head slightly and his left eye narrowed on me as he took in what I’d said. I could have sworn that the corners of his mouth twitched with a grin he managed to supress.
‘Twenty minutes ago, I paid Antonio Barzini the money you owed him.’
‘WHAT?... Why on earth would you have done that?’ I sat up quickly in response to his words, ignoring the pain in my head. It was difficult to blink as my eyes felt dry after crying so much, but I forced my eyelids together in order to sever our connection.
‘Because now I own you, Barbara.’
The chair creaked as he shifted his weight around while he waited for his statement to filter through to me.
An incoherent noise left my lips, followed by a whispered, ‘I don’t understand.’
‘It’s straightforward. Your life was in danger, and now it’s not.’
‘You could have fooled me… I’m here with you, and your reputation is far worse than Barzini’s.’ I emitted the words rapidly.
Terror and a feeling of downright stupidity unravelled inside of me at the situation I had willingly placed myself into.
Again, his head twisted to the side as he mulled over what I had just said. ‘That’s true, but I want to marry you, which is definitely not what Barzini and his men had in mind for you.’
Chapter Seven
Nico
‘I can’t marry you!’
I could see she was still struggling. I could see the flight response captured in her bluey green iridescent eyes. The same eyes that had captivated me the moment she’d finally looked at me properly. The woman wanted to sit up, she wanted to stand and to run away. She wanted to escape the large room we were in and I knew why. I too could feel how the walls felt like they were closing in on us. The temperature in the room felt like it was increasing rapidly when it was normally controlled to the absolute degree, even I was beginning to feel uncomfortable. And, in probably what was the most important business meeting I had ever conducted, I appreciated that I was staring at her breasts as her chest rose with each and every unpredictable breath she inhaled. The briefest glimpse of her white, lace bra showed each and every time she drew in a breath as her buttons strained and a small gap appeared between two of them. She’d lost weight everywhere else, but the man in me had already noted that her breasts were still beautifully round.
‘You don’t know what you’re asking,’ she stated after I made no reply.
‘That’s where you’re wrong, Barbara. I plan everything down to the last detail.’ I forced my eyes back up to hers once again, to make sure she understood the power behind my last sentence. She didn’t need to know that this plan of mine had only come into fruition less than an hour ago.
‘We can’t get married, we’re not in love,’ she uttered, shaking her head ever so slightly at me as she contemplated just what I was demanding of her.
‘That’s what makes this proposition that I’m offering you perfect.’
‘I don’t understand…’
I sat up straighter and pushing my arms straight on the back of the chair, I leant backwards, pulling myself away from the woman who was drawing me in closer with each breath she took.