Dating the Don (Savage Crime Lords #1)

Chapter 7

CHAPTER SEVEN

MAEVE

Later that Night

I feel like I’m frothing at the mouth.

Who does she think she is? Have I ever given the impression that I am a woman who can be bought? Is this truly what she thinks of me? My whole life has been spent with this family and after my mother’s death, Annalisa did so damned much for me. I thought she cared about me, I thought it meant something?!

Cristiano’s hand bands around my arm, stopping me in my path.

I hadn’t even realized that I was automatically heading in the direction of my own bedroom until he stopped me. It is just habit. He said that I should move in with him. While I do agree that his bedroom is in desperate need of color and decoration, I can’t even begin to think about all of the other things that sharing a room with him is going to imply. Assuming, of course, his mother doesn’t storm the place. I had no idea that she hated me so damned much.

I spin in Cristiano’s hold, my eyes still blurry with angry tears as I look up at him.

“You’re heading the wrong way,” he says softly. “This has to be believable to everybody. Including my mother, Ada, and the rest of the staff. I hope I don’t need to keep saying that, but you must sleep in my room. As far as everybody in this house is concerned, we have only just decided to take our love public. In for a penny…”

“In for a pound,” I mutter automatically. The same phrase that he’s used countless times.

Usually, the words are followed by him doing something daredevil or foolish, but almost always highly entertaining.

“If it bothers you so much, you can have the bed. I can sleep on the couch just as well as anywhere. It would hardly be the first time,” he says softly so that the cameras throughout the house can’t possibly pick up what he’s saying. “No one in this house will know what happens behind closed doors. As you are aware, my bedroom is one of the few places without monitors in it.”

I do. Cleaning the security room is one of my least favorite things to do. All of those employed by the Dominio family know exactly where all the cameras are and the very, very limited blind sports available to them. I’ve never had anything to hide from the family so I’ve never needed them, but the bedrooms of the family are not monitored.

“Fine, but I need to get the rest of my stuff,” I answer with a sigh. It’s not him that I’m mad at. Not necessarily. But, it’s still hard to keep my temper in check all the same.

“Ten minutes, Maeve.”

“Excuse me?” I whip around to face him as he leans against the wall with his hands in his pockets. “You’re going to time me?”

“Any longer and it would seem strange. As if you were avoiding me. You’re not avoiding me, are you?” Cristiano’s brow lifts in accusatory curiosity. How did he know that’s exactly what I was going to do? I wanted to go down to my own room and scream into a pillow for a good long while. At least until I could feel a little bit more in control of myself than I do right now. As it stands, I feel like I did this morning; frazzled, like I’m falling apart at the seams. Everything is moving too quickly. It’s too much too fast and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be slowing down any time soon either.

I don’t have an answer for him.

“Anything longer than ten minutes and I’m going to come looking for you. Understood?” Cristiano says in a commanding voice that I’ve only heard from him once before, earlier today in his room. A secret thrill rushes through me that I will deny until the day I die.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, pushing the envelope.

“I suppose if you’re willing to risk the consequences, then be my guest,” Cristiano answers as his expression darkens.

Something low in my belly curls in anticipation as I start to walk backward and away from him. Do I want to push it? I sure as hell could use the distraction. My head is already spinning a mile a minute and I don’t rightfully know what to do with myself. I know that I can’t risk making him angry on top of everybody else that I’ve managed to piss off today, but oh is it tempting.

I almost want to make it exactly ten minutes to see if he’s actually timing me or not.

“I suggest you move that perfect ass a good deal faster, Maeve,” Cristiano calls out to me as I pick up my speed and move through the halls at a light jog.

I don’t have much here. Decoration and trinkets and stuff. I gather up my sketchbooks and materials just in case, the small things that are important to me. I stuff them into a bag before hauling them all up the stairs again.

I make it about halfway back to Cristiano’s room before Justina stops me.

“What on earth are you doing out of your room?” Justina folds her arms across her chest and arches a thin brow at me. Her face is stern enough that it usually makes me spill before I even realize what I’m doing. But, in this case, I’m speechless. “Just where are you going with all of that anyway?”

Two issues are immediately present: I have no idea how to tell her that I’m engaged to Cristiano and the other is that this conversation is very likely to push me well past my ten-minute limit.

“You’re not heading to the master, are you? I have it on good authority that he’s had a very long, taxing day. I promise you that he’s not in the mood for one of your little pranks or tricks tonight. Turn around and march back into your room at once. We’ll talk about boundaries in the morning,” Justina commands.

“Well… you see…”

Will she even believe me? I just assumed that somehow Cristiano had taken care of all of this. Is he going to make me be the one to tell Ada too? How the hell am I supposed to have that conversation with her? Is Justina going to be mad? I can’t imagine this announcement going very well. She’s going to call me overly ambitious. What if, like Annalisa, she implies I’m a money-hungry whore? Unease settles heavily on my shoulders as I fumble for words. Not a problem that I usually have.

Cristiano appears down the corridor at that very moment. I swear that I may have drooled a little. Plain black sleep pants, velvety and hung loosely across his hips. Justina pulls awayfrom me and gives agentle bow as he stops a short distance away.

“Mr. Dominio,” she greets him pleasantly.

“Is there a reason you’re detaining my fiancée?” Cristiano continues, his voice the picture of irritation.

“F-fiancée?!” Justina stammers and looks between the pair of us and then at the objects in my arm. There are many emotions rolling quickly over her face and I’ll admit it’s a little satisfying to see her jaw drop open like that.

“Maeve? To bed.” Cristiano commands and holds a hand out for me. I smile sheepishly at Justina and scurry past her like a little rat. I feel like one, kinda. I didn’t even once pause to think about what the other staff was going to think about this. I’m sure that Rocco in the security room is already in the process of telling as many people as he possibly can.

I reach for Cristiano’s hand, only to have mine snatched. I stumble a few steps forward and have to nearly jog to keep up with his long strides as we go back to his, our, room.

“Come on, you can’t really be mad about this, can you? It’s not like it was my fault that Justina stopped me!” I laugh nervously. “Cristiano?”

“I gave you a task and you disobeyed me,” he says flatly as he pulls me into the room somewhat roughly and locks the door behind us. He pulls my personal items out of my hands and sets them on top of his dresser.

“Justina stopped me! I didn’t know what to say!” It’s the truth.

“I’m hearing a lot of excuses from you, Maeve. Take responsibility for your actions.”

I’m frozen on the spot as he walks in a half circle around me. I can feel his eyes raking over me. “What did you want me to do?”

He doesn’t answer but I know exactly what he expected. He’s never been the sort of man who likes to repeat himself. I know in my bones that he fully expected me to have been here in the doorway no more than nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds later.

“Do you think this is a game?” Cristiano asks as he circles me again.

It’s so freaking hard to think straight when every muscle in his well-toned chest is perfectly on display like it is. How am I supposed to answer him when I’m trying to mentally trace the line of his abs, and I’m getting very, very distracted by thinking about where the line of hair leading from his navel, angled downward by the deep V of his hips, seems to be luring me toward.

What is wrong with me?

“I asked you a question, Maeve,” he says with authority.

Goosebumps ripple down my spine. I’m so tempted to just walk away and start getting ready for bed, but his attention is keeping my feet wholly and utterly rooted to the spot.

“It’s not a game.”

“You do understand that your life is actually on the line here?” He asks with no room for teasing or jokes.

I finally meet his deep gaze. “Of course, I do.”

“After what you saw in the basement… my men wanted you dead. I am new to this role, my authority is not absolute yet. I still have to prove myself to my men each and every day until they come to trust me implicitly. Not seeing you for ten minutes…”

My eyes widen. I didn’t realize that trust went both ways. Are there men in this house that he doesn’t wholly trust? I didn’t think for a single moment that it was about my safety. I thought he was being controlling or that it was a joke or something.

Cristiano worried about me? Actually?

“I’m sorry… Cris, I didn’t think…” I whisper, shame heating my face. I don’t like being wrong, and I like admitting it even less.

It feels weird to call him by his nickname at a time like this. Almost like it’s too intimate. Which might or might not have something to do with his choice of attire. For all of the times that he’s chosen to flirt shamelessly with me, I never took it seriously. Perhaps I should have.

He pauses in front of me, his hands clasped behind his back for a long moment as he holds my gaze. Wherever the conversation was going, he seems to think better of it. “Thank you.” He takes a single step back from me. “Good night then, Maeve.”

It’s dismissive and cold, and his tone brokers no room for argument. Feeling oddly rejected, I grab my bag of belongings and slink into the bathroom to get changed.

In a matter of minutes, I'm all ready andwearing an old sleep shirt. I skip the sleep shorts and instead make the awkward trip from the restroom to the bed, where I then slide into the opulent bedding. I'm not sure if he noticed my legs, but at least the shirt is long enough to cover my ass. For the most part, anyhow.

As I turn to lie on my side, he is there. Stretched out over the couch, wearing his black underwear only. I feel like my eyes are about to pop out of my skull. My instinct tells me to look away, but if he's my fiancé now, for however long it lasts, maybe there's no harm in taking a quick peek.

His fault for being practically naked.

“You sleep like that?” I blurt.

Can’t take it back. I swear I can see his smirk in the dim light filtering in from the open archway to the bathroom.

“Aren’t you cold?”

“Are you offering to warm me up?” Cristiano says without missing a beat. His voice is softer now than it was a moment ago. Flirty and confident like it normally is.

Doesn’t stop my face from heating up at the mere idea of it. “No. Of course, not.”

Cristiano chuckles as I roll over to face the bathroom instead of him. How would that even work? My mind is only too happy to instantly supply dozens of different ideas and positions as to exactly how I might warm him up. I pull the covers up higher.

“I just… you know… don’t want you to blame me for being cold in the morning,” I mutter, not really even knowing what I'm saying. I cringe at myself. “And your bed is inhumanely big so…”

He did say that nobody would know what happened behind these closed doors after all and lord knows I could use some comfort after the crazy day that I’ve had. It’s a fake engagement, so there can’t be anything wrong with testing the waters a little bit more. Right?

The engagement ring on my finger glints in the low light. I am very tempted to say something else but the next thing I know the bed sags and then he’s there under the covers with me.

My face feels like it’s going to melt .

Then the heat courses a hell of a lot lower as he pulls me back against his chest effortlessly.

“If you wanted company, Maeve, you only had to ask.”