Page 27 of Entangled

He provoked her, she knew. His words had been meant to provoke her into this. She was weak enough to let him.

Cara’s lips tingled from the brutality of Gian’s kiss long after he had pulled away. God, she loved it.

Gian watched her like a predator, refusing to move his gaze even an inch, and not letting her drop her stare. She saw his jealousy still lit up like fireworks in his eyes, but she found so much more staring back at her, too.

A man she had missed for months. A man she still loved, though she knew it was bad. A man she wasn’t even sure she knew.

So, why was he so familiar?

“You did that on purpose,” Cara said, her accusation coming out quieter than she meant for it to. “You provoked me on purpose, Gian.”

“I did nothing that you didn’t want me to, mon ange.”

She hated that pet name, too, because she didn’t hate it at all when he said it.

Cara had damn near forgotten they were still in the restaurant, standing at the bar. It became impossible to ignore when the sound of clattering utensils from a nearby table broke her from her daze, and she realized how very public of a scene they had just made.

She finally dropped Gian’s stare.

“Come with me,” Gian murmured.

Cara shook her head. “No, and you know why.”

“Don’t do that, Cara. Don’t refuse me when you know damn well that it’s the very last thing you want to do. Come with me, be with me for a night, and fuck the rest. What’s the issue?”

“You know exactly—”

Gian stepped away from her, cocking an eyebrow high as he did so. “We both could be doing far better things than standing here, arguing about nonsense and details that will never matter to me when it comes to us. And before you even spit it out of your pretty mouth, I don’t think they matter all that much to you right now, either. I am leaving, my car will be waiting at the curb. I’ll give you ten minutes, and then I’m gone. Come with me or don’t, but I won’t stand here and argue with you for another second.”

Cara thought he was joking, or bluffing.

She should have known better.

Gian didn’t joke or bluff.

He gave her a soft kiss on her cheek, and then he turned on his heel and headed for the front of the restaurant. There was so much she had wanted to shout at his back in that moment. Fuck him for the details, as he called them. Fuck him for making her choose like this. Fuck him for making her love him, breaking her heart, and then doing this to her too.

Why wasn’t she stronger?

Why wasn’t she a better woman?

When it came to Gian, apparently Cara was nothing more than a stupid, foolish girl who had no control over herself, nor did she want to have limits where he was concerned.

She watched the clock behind the bar.

At eight minutes, her heart won out.

Gian said nothing when Cara slid into his car.

“I thought you didn’t do angry sex,” Cara said from her perch on the edge of Gian’s bed. “Wasn’t it you who said that was unhealthy?”

“I’m not angry.”

She might be.

He sure as hell wasn’t.

How could Gian be angry when, at the moment, he had Cara stripped down to nothing but her skin, in his penthouse, on his bed? How could he possibly be angry?