Chapter 66 HUBBY.
\~~~LUCIANO MORETTI.
I stared at her where she sat on the bed.
Raina.
Her eyes were red, puffy, and swollen from crying. It was obvious as hell, no matter how hard she tried to act unaffected. Her lashes were clumped, and her gaze was dull like she had scrubbed all the light out of herself and left only exhaustion behind.
I breathed out slowly as I stepped fully into the room, shutting the door behind me. My hand went to my hair again, my fingers dragging through it for what felt like the hundredth time. I didn’t even know why I kept doing that. Nothing I did seemed to help.
The room felt tight and heavy.
All I could think about was how I had chased Irina out the moment Raina ran out of the study.
Irina had laughed, incredulous, her lips curling like this was all some sort of joke.
“You are not seriously bothered about that, are you?” she had asked.
I hadn’t answered her, I hadn’t even spared her a glance.
I had simply told her to leave with my voice flat and cold. When she didn’t move fast enough, I threatened to have my security throw her out and that wiped the smile off her face quickly.
I walked away from her without another word.
Truth was, I wasn’t one to be bothered about things like this. I had never been.
Irina had caught me cheating more times than I could count when we were together. At the hotels, parties, and with different women, yet, I had never explained myself, and never cared what she thought. If she stayed, that was her problem.
So why the hell did this feel different?
Why did I hate the look in Raina’s eyes so much?
Why did it matter that she had misunderstood everything?
Fuck.
I didn’t like this feeling. I didn’t want it. It was useless, distracting, and completely irrelevant to the kind of man I was.
Yet, my mouth opened anyway.
“I know what you are thinking,” I said.
She didn’t answer.
She just stared at me, her gaze blank, like I was some strange painting on a wall she couldn’t be bothered to understand.
“I mean,” I continued, forcing the words out, “it is understandable, but you can’t just jump to conclusions like that.”
Still, she said nothing.
Then, she stood up from the bed without a word and walked past me. I turned to follow her with my eyes as she stopped at the dressing table and began removing her jewelry slowly, one piece at a time, placing them down with careful precision.
“Will you keep ignoring me?” I asked, breathing out in frustration.
She didn’t even look at me.
“We have nothing to talk about, Luciano. It is very surprising that you are even trying to clear the air,” she snorted.
My brows pulled together.
“Talia…”
“Will you say shits like it was a mistake? Don’t make me laugh,” she cut in, rolling her eyes as she moved toward the closet.
“Whatever you saw was wrong,” I said sharply, following her. “And I assure you nothing is going on between Irina and me.”
She turned around then, her arms crossing over her chest.
“What makes you think I give a fuck about what goes on between you and your ex-girlfriend?”
“What?” The word slipped out before I could stop it.
“You are very mistaken if you think some shit like that will shake me.”
I looked at her properly now.
“Yet your eyes are red and puffy. You have been crying.”
“And it’s no big deal,” she said coolly. “What had I been expecting from a man like you?”
“A man like me?” I snapped.
She stepped closer, then closer again until there was barely any space between us.
Raina lifted her hand and poked my chest with her index finger, her touch sharp and deliberate.
“If fucking around is what it takes for you to prove your dominance, then fucking go ahead. It is not like you haven’t told me time without number that I mean nothing to you.”
My jaw clenched.
“So you don’t care,” I said slowly, dangerously, “Even if I bring her here and fuck her in this matrimonial room, the same way I did with you?”
I watched her swallow hard.
There it was, a crack.
For half a second, something real flashed in her eyes. Hurt and it was raw and unguarded, then I knew I had hit a nerve. I knew it.
But then she smiled.
A fake, infuriating smile.
“Oh, come on, hubby,” she said lightly. “You may as well ask me to watch. I’d love to learn.”
Something snapped inside me.
I didn’t know why this was pissing me off more than anything else she had said. It wasn’t even about proving myself anymore. It wasn’t about control.
It was the way she was acting like she didn’t care.
How could she be this indifferent?
How dare she?
I stepped closer without thinking, my voice low.
“Stop pretending.”
She tilted her head, unimpressed.
“Pretending what?”
“That you don’t care,” I said. “You do.”
She laughed softly. “You really overestimate your importance in my life.”
The lie tasted bitter in the air.
I could still see the tears she had tried to hide. The way her shoulders had shaken on the bed. The way her voice cracked before she masked it with sarcasm.
I hated that I noticed.
I hated that it mattered.
And most of all, I hated that for the first time in my life, I wanted someone to care and they were standing right in front of me, daring me to admit it.