𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐔𝐓- 𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐋 𝐃𝐘𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐘 𝐓𝐖𝐎 - 𝟏𝟖+

CHAPTER TEN

A N D R E A

I hadn't realized that I'd taken steps towards him, and now was standing between his brooding frame and the desk. Lorenzo had me pinned down with his gaze, and if looks could kill I would be six feet underground by now. His heavy breaths fanned my face and standing this close to him, I could feel his subtle panic on my flesh. Though, it wasn't at all surprising that he had gone deathly silent at my question.

When Lorenzo wanted to dance around the truth, silence was his chosen medium. "Tell me," I found myself asking again, and at his quiet scrutiny, I couldn't help frustration from seeping into my veins. "Tell me if you knew."

"Yes, I knew." Lorenzo took a step back, creating more space between us, but in my anger, I didn't realize that I'd held the collar of his shirt to stop him.

Lorenzo dropped his gaze to where my fingers were fisting his collar and returned it back to my eyes. "Since when?"

"Doesn't matter." For the first time, I wasn't seeing emotional indifference in the pacific blues of his eyes, they were burning bright with something. I just couldn't quite put my finger on it. "Why the fuck were you not answering your phone?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" I answered his question with one of my own, my nails digging into his shirt as I pulled him closer, standing on my toes so my face was at least somewhat close to his.

"Andrea." He said warningly, his eyes narrowing, and maybe it was stupid of me, but for once, I just needed him to react to something. Between the two of us, I knew I was the cantankerous one, and right now all I wanted was to rage.

At my naivete.

At his indifference.

His secrecy.

It was all becoming too much for me, and I just wanted to explode.

"Were you ever going to tell me, Lorenzo?"

The side of his lips raised into a sneer, and before I could blink Lorenzo held both my wrists, and pinned my hands behind my back, arching my back so now my breasts brushed against the crisp fabric of his shirt.

"When should I have told you? When you were screaming the house down in your sleep? Or when you act out like a teenager and go running around the streets without any protection?" His lips ghosted over mine, and the aggression in his words bled into my veins somehow as shivers passed through my spine.

"I was with Alex."

"And what good is she when you are outnumbered?" He took a step forward, taking me back until the wooden edge of his desk was digging into my desk. "What can she do when you have a fucking panic attack in the middle of an attack?"

"I–" My voice hitched in my throat when he wrapped his free hand around my throat, "I didn't think,"

"When do you ever?"

"That's not fair, Lorenzo."

"You want to talk to me about fair? You went out, alone, and then that motherfucker found you. And for the second time you get back to me without a scratch on you?" His fingers tightened around my throat, tilting my head so now his lips were right against mine, obsidian eclipsing the blazing blues of his eyes,

"What you think I'm sleeping with Carlo behind your back?"

"I wouldn't be having this conversation with you if I thought so. So stop provoking me, Andrea. You won't like what you unleash."

"I am not provoking you. I just want to breathe!"

Lorenzo tsked.

"If you had just told me he was alive this wouldn't have happened, Lorenzo. For all your bravado, you are just like everyone when it comes to lying."