Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Then wordlessly, he picks up his razor and continues shaving.
Which pisses me off even more.
“Don’t you think I deserve some answers?” I demand. “It’s the very least you could do.”
The sound of the razor dropping against the porcelain basin clangs around the room and makes me jump.
He looks like a wild storm about to hit an unprepared coastline, brewing in the distance and pregnant with chaos. A promise of destruction ahead.
Yet he remains silent.
And the silence is deafening.
God, it’s like I’m not even here.
He picks up a towel from the countertop to wipe his face.
Fed up, I throw my arms in the air. “Jesus, Nico—why was it so easy for you to forget me?” I cry.
Without warning, he moves at the speed of a tornado. Grabbing me by the throat, he forces me backward until my shoulders hit the wall behind me.
It’s like a bomb has gone off in the bathroom.
All bright light and white heat.
He brings his face close to mine, and the possessive fury in his expression is frightening.
“You think I didn’t lie awake every night after you left remembering every tiny detail about you? Your smile. Your hair. Your eyes. Your body. You think I didn’t remember how your lips tasted?” He moves his hand to my jaw and squeezes. “Or how it felt to be inside you? How hard you made me. How I died with pleasure every time you came on my cock.”
I grit out, “Stop.”
But he has no intention of stopping.
“Do you know what it was like for me when you left? The crushing ache I felt for you. The need to touch you. The desperate longing. Do you have any idea what it did to me remembering those whimpers you made every time I slid my cock inside you and know I’d never hear them again?” His black eyes burn with raging fire. “And the way you’d cry out and scream my name when I made you come over and over and over again.”
I clench my teeth. “I said stop.”
“I remembered everything, Bella. The way you moved. The way you felt. The way you tasted. The way you told me how much you loved me.”
I try to swallow, but the pressure of his fingers around my jaw makes it impossible.
“But you know what I remember the most? I remember how I wanted you so desperately that I was ready to go against my father’s wishes and betray my family for you.” His teeth glint in the dimly lit room. “How I was prepared to defy him and run away to find you, only to have you replace me the moment you left. So don’t talk to me like I was the one who forgot a goddamn thing.”
He releases me, and I sag against the wall, and my hands go to my jaw. “I didn’t forget anything.” I study him as I rub my jaw. “Arianna told me you came looking for me. But I never saw you.”
Nico moves away from me, his muscular frame tense. “I’m not doing this right now. Go get changed. We have a dinner to get to.”
Apparently, the conversation is over. But I’m not ready for it to be over, so I step in front of him. “No, I want to know what you mean when you say that I replaced you?”
His jaw clenches. “Move out of my way, Bella.”
When he tries to move around me, I push my palm into his chest to stop him. “You started it, and now we’re going to finish it. I never replaced you.”
He looks at my hand in the center of his chest, then slowly raises his stormy eyes to me. I imagine it is very intimidating when he does this to his rivals. And I’m no different. The cold fury in his gaze is a stark warning that this man is dangerous.
“You don’t want to do this now,” he growls. “It’s not going to improve my mood, and you don’t know what I am capable of doing when I lose my temper.”
“Okay, Dr. Banner, but I’m beyond caring right now. You can turn green and grow an extra set of muscles, I don’t give a goddamn. But at least do me the courtesy of answering my question. How did I replace you?”
He raises an eyebrow. “Are you denying that you did?”
I open my mouth to deny it but close it when a long-forgotten memory falls into place, and I remember David.
A boy I tried to move on with.
And so everything falls into place.
My hand drops to my side.
“So you came to America and saw me with a boy,” I say with the sudden knowledge.
The stony silence from Nico tells me I’m right.
“But you didn’t just see me with a boy, you saw me kiss a boy.”
Nico’s voice is low and dangerous as it cuts into the silence. “Yes.”