Page 53 of Because I Need You
“Are you watching me sleep like a creep?”
“Yep.”
She smiled. “What a strange man you are, Giovanni.”
No one called me by my full name unless they were angry at me. When she said it, it sounded sexy as fuck. When she said it as she was coming, it was a slice of heaven.
“What did you speak to Will about?” I asked, watching her closely.
“Oh, my God.” She groaned turning and pushing her face into the pillow. “You’re going to start the day with that?”
“I need to know.”
“I need to go to the bathroom and brush my teeth.” She fought with the covers as she got out of bed and I watched her ass sway in underwear that looked like boxers, but were too small for any man to fit in. Maybe they were William’s. I pushed the thought away instantly. I didn’t want to think about him or anyone else she’d been with. I got out of bed and followed her, crossing my arms and leaning against the door frame as she wiped herself and flushed the toilet.
“Hello? A little privacy.”
I let out a laugh. “Your pussy was riding my mouth a few hours ago. I think we’re past privacy.”
“In that case, can I borrow your toothbrush?” She looked at me in the mirror as she washed her hands.
I pushed off the door frame and popped open the cabinet below the other sink, then opened a new pack of toothbrushes and handed her one.
“Thanks.” She smiled as she spread toothpaste on it. “For some reason, I can’t imagine you buying that.”
“Well, Petra bought them, so you’d be right about that.”
She rolled her eyes and spit. “Of course.”
I shrugged and joined her, reaching for my toothbrush then brushing my teeth beside her. It felt weird. This was a simple thing, brushing my teeth next to someone, but I’d never done it. I’d also never walked into the bathroom while a woman was peeing. I usually did allow them privacy. Natasha would’ve screamed her head off if I’d ever walked in on her doing something like that. She had this thing about keeping pretenses. So much so, that she always made sure to get up before me to apply her makeup. With Isabel, it felt…normal. We rinsed and set our toothbrushes down, wiping our faces as we continued to look at each other in the mirror.
“Please tell me what you spoke about,” I asked.
“Please? Wow.” She raised both eyebrows and turned to face me. “I didn’t know that was part of your vocabulary.”
“Apparently, it is now,” I mumbled, looking at our feet momentarily. Apparently, it really fucking was, though, since I’d used it more times this week than I had in all the years of my life. I could play nice when I wanted to, but damn she was making this difficult for no reason and I didn’t like it. My eyes snapped back to hers. “Are you going to tell me or what?”
“Why do you want to know?” She crossed her arms over her chest. She was wearing her gray T-shirt, but something told me she felt too exposed to have this conversation. Good. I wanted her to feel exposed to me.
“I don’t like being kept in the dark about things.”
“Even when those things have zero to do with you.”
“Especially when those things have zero to do with me.” I felt my lips pulled when she laughed and shook her head.
“You’re ridiculous.”
“I know.” I pulled her to me, telling myself I was just doing it to make her comfortable enough to open up and tell me what went down in that clown’s apartment, but she felt undeniably good in my arms, and I wondered why the fuck I didn’t hug women more often. Or ever. I set my chin on her head. “Tell me.”
She sighed heavily. I braced myself because instinctively, I knew that whatever it was would piss me off. “I told him to reconsider being friends with that man we saw him talking to. You are the company you keep and all that.”
I ignored that since, well, I was the company she was keeping at the moment. “The one with the scar by his ear.”
She nodded under my chin, making my head bob along.
“Who was he?”
“No.” She pulled away and put a good five steps between us, as if that would deter me from touching her if I wanted to.
“Isabel, I need to know.”
“Why?” her whisper was soft, almost broken. “Why do you need to know?”
“Because I do.”
She watched me for a long moment and must have realized I wasn’t going to drop it until she told me, because the next words out of her mouth were, “If I tell you, you have to promise to never bring it up and forget about it.”
“Fat chance.”
“This is why I don’t want to tell you.” Her shoulders dropped. She took another step back. Six steps between us now. She could make it eight, ten, twenty-thousand, and it still wouldn’t be enough to keep me from pulling her into my arms again if I wanted to. She squared her shoulders and tilted a chin up, defiant. “I’ve moved on from it. I don’t need you coming around and drudging all of this up and making me experience things all over again for the sake of your curiosity.”
