Page 48 of The Scars We Keep
“It is the only one you’re getting.”
“Are you fucking someone else?”
“No.”
“Liar.”
His eyes flash dark and dangerous, like a storm brewing behind them.“Careful, Bella.”
“Or what?What are you going to do, Lorenzo?Punish me for asking questions?For wanting to know where my husband has been for the past two fucking days?”
“I was working.”
“On who?”
His hand shoots out quickly, so fast I don’t see it coming.He grips my chin, his fingers digging into my jaw as he forces me to look up at him.“Watch your mouth.”
Something shifts in his eyes, something that makes my breath catch even through the anger.
“You don’t want to push me right now,” he says, voice low and threatening.
“Why not?What are you going to do?”I know I am being reckless by poking at something that could explode, but I don’t care.I am too angry.Too hurt.Too far gone.“You have been cold for weeks.I told you things I have never told anyone before, and you treat me like you don’t want me around.You disappear without a word, and now you come back here and expect me to just accept it?”
“Yes.”
“Fuck you.”
I don't see it coming.One second I am standing there glaring at him, and the next, he’s got me pinned against the wall.His body is pressed against mine, firm muscles and controlled violence.His hand is still gripping my chin, while his other hand is braced against the wall beside my head, trapping me in.
“You want to know where I was?”His breath is hot against my face.“You want to know what I was doing?”
“Yes.”
“I was following a lead on Matteo.”
Everything comes to a halt.The anger.The jealousy.The fear.All of it floods out of me suddenly, leaving me empty, hollow, and shocked.My heart stutters in my chest.
I stare at him, trying to process this.“Why did you not tell me?”
He looks away.
“Lorenzo,” I say softly.“Why did you not tell me?”
“Because I thought I could push you aside,” his voice is rough, raw in a way I have never heard before.“I thought if I kept my distance, if I stayed cold, I could stop this.Stop what you are doing to me.”
“What am I doing to you?”
“You are distracting me, Bella.”He still refuses to look at me.“You should not be doing that.This should be simple.You are my wife.A contract for control.That is all you were supposed to be.”
“But I am not?”I ask.
“No.You are not.”
“Then what am I, Lorenzo?”
He remains silent for a long moment.I watch him struggle with it, see the war of emotions flickering across his face.Eventually, he looks at me, and the vulnerability I see there nearly breaks me.
“You are everything I should not want,” he says.“Everything I cannot afford to have.You get in my head, Bella.You make me think about things I have no business thinking about.You make me feel things I have never felt before, and I don't know how to stop it.”
