Page 58 of Ruthless Prince (Dark Syndicate 1)

“No. Told you I’m not a liar, so stop with the questions about her. You’re a clever girl, Emelia,” I taunt and run a hand through my wet hair. “You know who I am. You know full well if I wanted Gabriella, I wouldn’t be standing in the shower naked with you. You know full well that I’m exactly where I want to be.”

When I move back and stare at her, I get the answer I’ve wanted all fucking day. She wants me too. I wish like fuck Riccardo could be here to see his daughter look at me the way she is now. I don’t have to take anything. She wants to give it to me.

I grab the shower gel and the washcloth, squirt the gel on the cloth, and rub it over her breasts, cleaning the sand from her skin. She turns when I urge her to face the wall, and I run the cloth down her beautiful back.

“Why do you work so hard? Why when you don’t have to?” she asks.

I linger at the small of her back.

“It takes my mind off shit,” I answer, sharing a little piece of me.

; “Shit like what?”

I move her hair out of the way, pushing it over her shoulder. “Shit I hope you never have to deal with.”

There’s too much to say more than that.

She glances over her shoulder and looks at me. “That tells me nothing. Is this what it will be like every day? You gone for days while I don’t know where you are because you have shit on your mind?”

Her question surprises me, so I stop and turn her to face me. She presses her back against the wall. Her gaze clings to mine.

“No, it won’t be like that.”

“What will it be like, then? I imagine being ordered around like a child and being cooped up here like an animal waiting for its master to return.”

I deserve that. Once again, she’s brought out that person in me. The person I was before I saw darkness.

“No, it won’t be like that. I’ll take you everywhere I go. Here in LA and in Italy.”

Her face brightens at the mention of Italy. “You would take me to Italy?”

“Yes. And show you off so people know you’re mine.”

“Oh… of course, the trophy wife. The thing you took from my father. You would show me off, so people know you conquered him.”

Lowering my head again, I hover inches away from her lips. “No…” I sound like an echo. “That’s not why I would show you off, Emelia. I would do it because you’re the kind of woman you show off.”

She blinks then focuses on me, surprised by my words. Her eyes become more open, less guarded the longer she stares back, and the twinkle of desire sparkles back at me.

My eyes drop to her lips again. This time, looking at the plump flesh makes me think of kissing her. Taking her first kiss, stealing it.

Or maybe… she’ll give it to me. Willingly.

When I move to her lips, the innocence in her eyes dissipates into thin air and the beauty moves toward me too.

Chapter Sixteen

Emelia

Earlier, when I first saw him on the beach, my thoughts immediately jumped to the plan of escape. Get him to trust me, and it would open the door to freedom.

All the ideas that came to me over the last few days came rushing back to my mind, and I saw my chance.

A chance that faded the second he spoke those words and I no longer felt like the nothing he described me to be.

Desire flickered in the depths of his eyes. Compelling and magnetic, it reeled me in like bait, and I could no longer bridle my curiosity or the attraction I felt for him.