He sighed and handed her one of the tumblers. “You’re right, of course, I didn’t have to fuck you.” Bullshit. Deep down, he still felt as if he’d had no choice. Liking that his crass description had made her blush, he went around and took his seat. “But I did, and we can’t change that now.” He put his glass down and gave his eyes a rub with the heels of his hands. “Listen, the bottom line here is, you have to stay with me. I can protect you because I know the threat that’s coming. I gotta stop fighting me on this.” Even though I get off on butting heads with you. “I don’t even want to think about what your father will do if something happens to you on my watch.” It would kill Vasily. Gabriel knew that without having to be told.
Eva slowly lowered her feet to the floor and stared into her glass. She took a sip, shivered a bit. Didn’t have a clue his mouth started to water because her nipples were now visible and he wanted at them.
“What if I get away from you and go to the police.”
“We all have connections. Including Stefano. Word would get back to him before you could spit and, depending on whose payroll the cops in question are on, you might find yourself in the back of a squad car being delivered to my brother with a pretty bow on your ass. Who would help you then?” He was her only option. He had to make her understand that.
“Fine.”
Thank fuck. He celebrated the relatively easy win by taking a drink. “You’ll stay?” he confirmed. “Without screaming the place down or trying to take off first chance you get?”
“Yes.” She placed her glass square in the middle of a coaster on the table next to her and sat there with her back arrow straight. Her hands came together after a second and she began linking and unlinking her fingers, her tapered nails clicking as she drummed one set on top of the other in that way he’d noticed she did when she was nervous.
She finally looked at him. “Would my father hurt you?”
Concern? For him? “If something were to happen to you on my watch?”
She nodded.
“Absolutely.” Probably gonna kill me the second he sees me.
“What if it isn’t your fault? What if I decide to sneak away? He shouldn’t make you pay for something you have no control over.”
Swallowing a growl because she was too fucking precious for words, Gabriel stood and went to her, covering her hands with one of his to still her fingers as he knelt at her feet. “Eva, if you sneak away and my brother or Furio—the guy that broke into your house—finds you, the least of your worries will be how painful your father will make my death. You will be in the presence of men who—”
“No, no, no.” She shook her head violently, her hand turning so she could grasp his fingers. “I…I don’t want that. I don’t want you to even be hurt. No matter what’s happened between us, I don’t want that. I don’t want you to die.”
His fucking heart squeezed at her words and he reached out to trace his knuckles down her cheek, rubbing a lock of her dark silky hair through his fingers. She didn’t flinch away from his touch. Now whether that was because she was on her way to forgiving him or just too tired to care, he didn’t know. But he’d take it.
“As long as you stay by my side, everything will work out as it should. But you have to stay right by my fucking side,” he stressed. “And, Eva?”
She made a little sound as she looked into his eyes.
“Don’t think badly of your father. He isn’t the only one who would kill for you.”
She winced and turned toward the window; her profile was as perfect as the rest of her. God, she was flawless. From her beauty to her spirit to her guarded heart.
“Your word, Eva. I want your word that you’ll stay.”
She squeezed his fingers, her voice cracking when she gave it. “I swear, I’m not going anywhere.”
He had a feeling he was going to hold her to that.
FIFTEEN
Eva was sitting with her legs tucked under her, the light of morning streaming into the main room, when the bedroom door opened and Gabriel came prowling out.