Chapter 10

It"s beena long while since I"ve woken up feeling this good.

I"ve got my girl in my arms again and nothing on my mind besides getting her to make those sweet noises as she comes around my cock.

"Beautiful." I kiss the side of her face, and she mumbles something I can"t make out under her breath. "Rosie." I roll her onto her back, ready to begin kissing on her the way I know she likes.

Her eyes flutter open, and she looks from side to side as if she"s trying to get her bearings. Having sex on the floor of a library may not be where I thought I"d end up for the night, but I"m not going to complain about it.

"Oh shit!" Rosie pops up into a sitting position. So fast in fact that I fall backward so I don"t headbutt her accidentally. "What time is it? How long were we sleeping?"

"Don"t worry about the time. No one is going to come in here."

I lean forward, my intentions clear. I"m ready to start back up where we left off earlier.

"Are you crazy!" She pushes me away and jumps to her feet, grabbing for her clothes, huffing in anger at the same time.

I know she had a good time last night. My girl always wants seconds. "What are you talking about?" I jump to my feet as well, not bothering to grab for my clothes and giving her an eyeful of my body.

I wish she wasn"t getting dressed, so I could get a better look at the body I"ve been dreaming about for the past six months.

She shakes her head as if she were trying to focus on the problem at hand.

"You can"t be serious, Gian? You think anything has changed in the past few hours? You"re still a married man, and I could get in a lot of trouble just being in the same space as you. Not only with my job but with your family." She lets out a huge breath and drops my head so she doesn"t have to look at me. "Don"t you think my life is hard enough? Why do we have to do this too?"

I want to stay angry, but I can"t, she"s right on both accounts. With a gentle hand, I push her chin up so that she has to look at me.

"Rosie, I don"t care what my father says. You belong with me."

"But I don"t. You have a marriage certificate that says Marie belongs with you." Rosie pulls away from me, swallowing hard, trying to hold back the tears we both know will overtake the situation. "It"s time we both move on."

My stomach clenches hard, she"s breaking up with me. There"s no way in hell I"m going to let that stand.

"Move on? No, that"s not happening." The words out of my mouth have such a finality to it even I"m surprised.

"Excuse me? Do you think you have any say in the matter? Our choice may not be our own when it comes to being with each other, but what I do outside our relationship has nothing to do with you. You need to get that through your head." That anger I"d spent most of my adult life trying to pull out of her explodes in her eyes. I love it when my princess fights back. All it does is gets me hot.

"What you do has everything to do with me, Rosie. I don"t care if I"m stuck on the other side of the world with a room full of women. You belong to me. You"ll always belong to me. It might not be your choice, but it is mine. If I were you, I"d make sure to let that pretty boy from the coffee shop know that you won"t be spending any more time with him." Her mouth drops open, and she glares at me for a second as if she were trying to piece together a puzzle.

"It"s true, isn"t it. You"ve been following me. While I was with Jasper on our date, I had a feeling that someone was watching me, but I brushed it off as just feeling guilty about going out with him. I thought I was going crazy!" She screeches and pokes me hard in the chest, "You were watching me, butting in on my life when you"ve got absolutely no place in it."

I shrug, not even bothering to deny the accusations, I spent as much time as I could keeping a close eye on the two of them. I nearly had a coronary when I watched him pick her up from her house for their so-called date. Luckily, the fuck didn"t try his luck when he dropped her off. If he"d laid even one hand on her, I"d have lost my shit. "It is what it is, Rosie, now make sure you do what I ask and tell him to back off. That is, if you know what"s good for him."

"No, I won"t do that. Who I choose to spend my time with is my decision, and there"s nothing you can say to me that is going to get me to change my mind."

"No," I grab the back of her neck and, holding tightly, pull her against my nude body, "You may not want to listen to me, but I"m sure he"ll make a different choice once I explain his options."

"His options?"

I let her go and lean down to put my clothes on. "Either he can leave you alone and go on with his life, or he can try to pursue something with you and get a bullet between his eyes."

"You"re joking." she gasps in shock.

Deep down, I know she knows I"m not. I"m used to getting what I want, and I"ll forever want Rosie. She told me she was mine and nothing, not a marriage license, not my father, not even death will force me to give her up.

"Rosie, I"m at my wits end. I"ve been thrust into a life that I don"t want. Forced to play a part that I"d never wished on my worst enemy, and now you think I"m going to willingly give up the one part of my life that makes sense? Come on, you know me better than that." I laugh as I continue to get dressed.

"You think I asked for this? You think I wanted my life upended just because I didn"t fit into your father"s grand scheme. I didn"t ask for this either!"

I try to soften my approach, once again, she"s saying the same thing I am. "That"s why we need to stick together. Just give me some time to work this out. Find a way to force my father"s hand."

She pulls her hand up and runs it through her hair. "No, Giancarlo. I can"t do this. Just leave."

"Rosie." I reach out to grab hold of her shoulder. I hate that I"m causing her so much pain, but there"s no other way. I"ll find a way to make it up to her. At least, I hope I will.

"No! Leave!" She yells at me, but still won"t turn to look at me.

My girl is doing her best to stay strong, I"m proud of her, even though I know by the end of this I"m going to have to break her down. It won"t happen today. That"s fine, I have time.

Slowly, I walk away from her. Making sure I lock the door on my way out of the library. It"s nearly morning now, but I don"t want to chance any crazy asshole sneaking up on her while she"s there. I"m going to be the only crazy asshole in her life.

I let out a deep sigh and nearly crumble into my seat when I get to my car. Last night was everything I"ve missed, but it only makes me realize just how hard this shit is really going to be.

Love is never meant to be this hard, but then again, anything having to do with my family is.

I press the button on my key fob to automatically start up my car, but as I"m sitting waiting for it to warm up, my phone buzzes in my pocket.

"Shit, what is it now." I dig into my pants and pull out my phone. I haven"t checked it in hours, I was too busy soaking up as much time as I could with Rosie. Of course, there"s a price to pay for that.

My blood thunders in my ears as I read the messages coming through from Diego.

Turns out my dear wife is in the city at his club, drunk out of her mind. She"s making a fool out of herself and by association making a fool out of me.

Just another problem I have to deal with.