I pretended to think about it, and then I shook my head. "No, Tony. I'm sorry. Much as I'd like to, I just can't put you in danger like that." What are you doing, Veda? Leading him on like this. This wasn't me. I'd figure out another way to get Luca to let me go as soon as my mom was up to traveling. I pulled my hand from his and stood up to take my plate to the sink. "Thank you, though. You're really sweet."
He stood up also, grabbing my arm when I tried went to pick up my dishes. "Hey, just wait a minute."
There was a look in his eyes I didn't like, and when I tried to pull my arm away, he wouldn't let go. "What are you doing?"
"Come on, Veda. Let's just talk about this some more."
I tried to back away, but he followed me until my back was up against the wall. "Tony, stop. You don't want to do this."
"Yeah, I do," he told me. "I've wanted to do this since the first time I saw you."
"If Luca finds out-"
"Luca isn't going to find out."
The finality in his tone is what caught my attention. "What's going on with Luca? Are you planning something with him?"
"Nothing you need to worry about," he said again. His free hand came up to tangle in my hair and he pulled it hard, forcing my face up to his. "I'll take good care of you, Veda. I swear it."
His mouth came down on mine, and my entire body froze for a moment. As his lips moved over mine, trying to get a response out of me, I wasn't repulsed by him. Not at all. But his kiss was strange, and contained none of the soul-wrenching hunger of Luca's kisses. It didn't make my blood surge to the surface of my skin until I thought I would die if he didn't touch me. My heart didn't race one second and stop the next, only to start again as desire tightened low in my stomach and breasts swelled and my pussy clenched in anticipation. His body felt strange against me. He wasn't mine. And I wasn't his.
I pushed against his chest and turned my face away. "Tony, stop. Stop!"
"You should be mine, Veda."
"Except she's not yours. Is she, stronzo?"
A bucket of ice over his head wouldn't have had as much of an effect as that cold, lethal voice. Tony stiffened against me, his eyes clashing with mine. The feeling of relief that swept through me shouldn't have come as such a surprise, yet it did. Between one second and the next, tears filled my eyes as I realized I was well and truly lost. I wondered if I'd ever be able to be with another man after Luca.
Completely misconstruing the cause of these tears, Tony dropped a kiss on my temple as my eyes widened in fear for him.
An animalistic growl filled the room, and he was ripped away from me and slammed into the wall beside me. I'd never seen Luca's face so deadly calm. Staring into his friend's eyes, he told him, "You fucking dare to touch her? To kiss her? Right in front of me?? Veda is MINE."
Tony opened his mouth to respond, and I screamed when I saw the flash of Luca's blade, my hands covering my mouth in horror as he buried it to the hilt in Tony's stomach, then sliced him open all the way to his heart. Twisting the knife, he pulled it out and stabbed him again. And again. Until his guts spilled out and blood covered the both of us. Tony's brown eyes glazed over, his mouth still open, about to speak.
Luca stepped back, and Tony's body collapsed to the floor. Bending over him, he cleaned his blade on Tony's pants and put it back in his pocket. Then he calmly walked over to the sink and washed his hands as I stood staring down at the man who had shared dinner with me just a few minutes before.
"What did you do?" I whispered. "Oh my god, Luca. What did you do?"
Enzo walked into the kitchen a few seconds later, and I realized Luca must've texted him. He looked down at the body on the floor and removed his sunglasses. His eyes met mine, and then he pulled out his cell and called someone.
I heard something about needing the kitchen cleaned and not much else, my mind still in shock over the murder I'd just witnessed. "You killed him," I said.
"As I will kill anyone who dares to lay their hands on you," he answered from behind me. I felt the front of him press against my back and his arms slipped around my waist. And even as my mind screamed that he was a cold-blooded killer, that I needed to run, my body sighed into him. "Whatever the fuck you were doing," he said quietly in my ear, "I would suggest you don't try it again. Or this house will be littered with bodies, and I'll have no one left to run security."
He was right. This was completely my fault. Oh my god.
"Now, I hear your father in the other room. Go deal with him while we get this cleaned up."
Still staring down at Tony, I asked, "What do I tell him?"
"Tell him the truth. Or at least the truth, as he needs to know it. Tony was accosting you. And I killed him for it." With one arm still around my waist, he guided me away from the body and out toward the great room where I now saw my father. Tristan stood in front of him, blocking his path so he didn't come any farther. His eyes closed in relief when he saw me, then opened again and immediately fell to my blood-soaked clothes.
Numb with shock, I walked toward him to assure him I was okay.