Dangerous Beauty: Part Four: Beautifully Broken (17 page)

With a loud grunt of frustration, Cesare turned away from her. “Ana, he would never do that. I know my son.”

“I know your son, too. He is
you!”
She stormed around to stand in front of him once again. “You will tell. Tell him that his mother may attempt to reach him. Tell him that his curiosity is normal, but Abrielle will not abate it, she has not the ability to. Then tell him that if she ever attempts to contact him to call me, and let me handle the whore.”

Cesare immediately shook his head at the idea of Kyle calling her. “Ana, no—”

“I am going to torture her until the heavens open up, and Christ returns.”

“Ana!”

“Do not try and
fucking
appeal to me, Cesare!” she snapped, giving a furious swipe of her hand. “I will never let that woman near my son again. She was my sister, yes, but regardless of what happened between the three of us, her insanity should not have been targeted at Kyle. He was
four-years-fucking-old!”
she screamed. Her jaw tightened as she took a step back from him. “She knows that I am looking for her … I can feel her in my blood, the blood that she and I share. She knows that I am with you, that I have reclaimed Kyle as my own. And I will find that woman, Cesare.” She said the words with a venomous passion as her eyes darkened, emptying of emotion, and making way for the sadistic, blood thirsty killer inside of her. “I will pull her from wherever she is hiding and I will make her
suffer
until I decide to let death relieve her of my torture. And there is nothing you or anyone else can do to stop this from coming to pass.” She brought her hand up to his face, cupping it gently. “Abrielle has hurt me for the last time … and she will never hurt Kyle again. It is time that I make her pay in ways that you cannot,
mon amour
. You would offer her a quick death, but this I will not allow. She must bleed, Cesare. My way …”

She turned and walked away from him.

“I will run us a fresh bath,
mon amour,
” she said, her tone suddenly becoming light again. “The water has surely gone cold by now.”

Sighing, Cesare followed behind her, removing his clothing as he did. He now needed the bath just as badly as his wife had if he had any hope of resting at all tonight. He could no longer save Abrielle’s life, he hadn’t wanted to in the first place, but he could save his son’s. He needed to talk to him about his mother … and he needed to do it as soon as possible.

Stop thinking, just focus on him. It should be easy, Reanna, come on! He’s so handsome. Handsome, rich, mature as hell, sweet, romantic, a good kisser, with exceptional table manners. Basically everything a woman could want. And did I mention that he is a good kisser?

Because he was a really,
really
good kisser.

So why the hell couldn’t she focus?

“Mmm …”

He moaned for the thousandth time since they began their ‘after romantic date make out session’, and Reanna couldn’t lie, she liked when he did it. It made her feel powerful, like … he was desperate for her or something, and who didn’t love feeling wanted?
Even more
, she loved how her new beau, Braden, showed her exactly how much he wanted her every time he took her out.

Braden Harrison, M.D.

He was a surgeon at Pleasant View Grace, and more perfect than any man she had ever met, or dated, in her entire life. Not perfect as in perfect for her, but perfect as in he was pretty much flawless. He loved to help people, and he was a law abiding citizen; he was educated, well spoken, chivalrous, down to earth, funny, and did she forget to mention that he was
damn
handsome? Because he really was. Even now, as he continued to kiss her with a fierce hunger, Reanna couldn’t help but grip on to his crisp, pink button down shirt and let her free hand roam to grasp the pocket of his casual pair of tan trousers that folded to his ankles. She really did love his style. How he always had one of those sexy
man
sweaters, and a brown pair of penny loafers for every casual outfit he owned. He was the picture of an all-American blue-blood, with perfectly tamed blond hair, blue-green eyes that stole her breath every time she looked deeply into them, and a smile that could light up the whole town. And he wanted her … apparently a lot.

“Invite me in, Reanna.”

The vibration of his deep voice against her neck caused a pleasurable shiver to shoot deliciously down her spine.
Wow.
It felt good. It’d been so long since she’d let a man touch her like this, kiss her like this. Braden’s hands were everywhere, caressing her sensitive heated flesh as his mouth continued its vigorous movement against her neck. She sighed, biting down on her bottom lip.

Man, this was getting complicated. And they’d only been on three dates so far! Well, more than three dates if one were counting the past.

“Come on, babe,” he breathed again, kissing a path from her neck to her mouth. “Invite me in …”

He caught her off guard by slamming his mouth against hers before she could utter a word. Reanna had to shift in her seat on the passenger’s side to face him more, and avoid getting pinned in an uncomfortable position.
Thank God he has a spacious car
.

“You know you want to, babe, come on …”

She only had a second before the man devoured her mouth again. She gasped, bringing her hand up to cup his face.

Dear Lord, the man was aggressive. She’d forgotten that about him. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy it because she did, but at the same time, she wasn’t quite sure she was ready for his … forward behavior yet.

Forcing herself to gather her faculties, Reanna lowered her hand from his gorgeous face, and pressed firmly against his hard chest, admittedly enjoying the feel of the hard muscles hidden beneath his shirt.

“We can’t, Braden,” she whispered breathlessly. “It’s too soon.”

It wasn’t, at least not for them it wasn’t; she’d basically been grasping for straws. She had to make up some excuse. Don’t get Reanna wrong, she was in to this, in to him, and he was definitely turning her on, but she just couldn’t get past this … feeling of serious hesitation. Every time the thought of sex with Braden flashed through her mind, her entire body screamed
‘No!’
for some odd reason. It made no sense to her.

Pulling back from her the moment she whispered the words, Braden stared down at her with a frown.

“Reanna, we’ve been on like a hundred dates.”

Her brow furrowed. “Not a hundred.”

“And … we’ve already had sex. Hell, for a little while we were having sex every day. Do you not remember this, honey?”

Yes, the words he said were true, but give Reanna a chance to explain before you judge.

Okay, so maybe Braden Harrison was not just her new … beau; he was sort of her ex-boyfriend.
But
from four years ago. And yes, she felt pathetic for jumping back into the arms of her ex-boyfriend after four years of separation, but give her
another
chance to explain, and maybe an understanding of her decision to do so would be gained.

So, she’d met him five years ago at a photo shoot she’d been doing for a friend that was a doctor at Pleasant View Grace. They’d met, they’d dated, they fell into a very fun infatuation, and spent a wonderful year together before he’d left her.

“Yeah, I remember,” Reanna answered, pushing him off of her and fixing her clothes. “Then you left me, remember that?”

Braden sighed. “Rea, it was doctors without borders.”

It was admirable, yes, but still, when Braden had left they’d actually tried the whole long distance thing, but soon a month became
‘I’ll be back in three months, babe’
, and three months became four years! Eventually Reanna just called it quits. There’d been no use in trying anymore. She’d been sure she would never see him again, that he’d marry another ‘
doctor without borders’
and never remember their love affair. But then he’d just sort of … popped up outta nowhere. And get this, it was the day after Reanna decided to put some distance between herself in Kyle! She’d been depressed the entire following day, hadn’t been able to go to work, eat anything—but sweets—and sleep had been impossible; so in effort to eat her feelings for a year or so, Reanna had decided to head to her favorite bakery in Pleasant View.

And Braden had been there … right in the front of the line, ordering the big bear claw that she had once introduced him to. Long story short, Reanna took his sudden homecoming as a sign from God. He wanted her to move on from Kyle. Not only move on, but move on to a very promising prospect.

Of course there were a few doubts in her mind since, you know, her feelings for Kyle were still growing stronger every single day, and because she missed Kyle so much that it hurt. And then there was Tamara, who was completely against her starting things up with Braden again, saying that dating him hadn’t been her advice. She wanted Reanna to distance herself from Kyle, not date anyone else. Even when Reanna had stressed to her that she wasn’t interested in playing games with him, Tamara had just waved off her words and accused her of running away from her feelings for Kyle because she was afraid of getting hurt … afraid that Kyle would never return her love—
like,
she meant. She meant like, not love. Love was reserved for people who could admit their feelings. People like Braden. Braden always told Reanna how he felt. He didn’t confuse her, he didn’t lead her on, and best of all, he didn’t want to be with any other woman, just her.

He was a breath of fresh air; pure perfection.

That thought alone made Reanna sit back in her seat, as she attempted to push through her hesitation to get their relationship back to where it’d been four years ago. She didn’t understand why she couldn’t just invite him in. It wasn’t as if she didn’t know him, he was basically her first love for goodness’ sake.

“Reanna …”

“Shh,” she said, lifting a finger in his direction.

She needed to think, to see if she could figure this out. She and Braden had been talking for a total of two weeks now and he’d been going over and beyond in an attempt to make up for all of the time he’d been gone. Dinner, dancing, and tonight he’d actually rented out the Central Centre park, set up a romantic picnic, and a huge projector, showing one of Reanna’s favorite classic, old time flicks. It’d been amazing. Braden was the only man that had ever really courted her so passionately. It was easy for her to get lost in the feelings she’d once had for him, only problem was, the feelings didn’t run as deep as they’d been then. Now, they were sort of being powered out by her feelings for … yes, you guessed it.

Kyle.

Freaking Kyle! How was it that even while she was with another damn man, trying to get Kyle out of her head, she still couldn’t get him out of her head? It was infuriating! She still wanted him, badly. Not only that, but she swore to God that every time she let Braden touch her, Kyle was there. Watching. Waiting for the opportunity to just … tear open Braden’s car door, yank him out into the street, and whack him. That was what mafia men did, right? Whack guys?

Reanna had no idea, but she swore she couldn’t let go of the feeling that he was watching her. She also couldn’t understand why she felt like she was betraying him. Her body did not belong to him, but
dear heavenly God
it felt like it did! It was weird. Braden had been touching her in every way imaginable all night, but every time he neared her—apparently—forbidden zone, she freaking clamped up. Literally. Not only that, but every time he kissed her, she couldn’t stop thinking about Kyle. How much she missed him, wanted him, and how just a simple touch from his hand felt ten million times better than every caress Braden had delivered over the course of their courtship, both past
and
present.

“Reanna!”

She jumped, startled by Braden’s sharp tone. Quickly re-gathering her thoughts, she placed her hand to her chest as she turned her head to look at him, a scowl falling over her face.

“Why did you startle me like that, Braden?” she asked angrily.

She was already feeling on edge tonight. She kept seeing things like … SUVs. Black ones. Like the ones that drove Carter around, and she was just … she was pretty positive that they were being followed tonight.

“I’m sorry,” Braden said, reaching over to take her hand. He leaned over in her direction once again. “But yelling was the only way to get your attention, honey. You’ve been so aloof tonight. I can’t help but think ...” His frown deepened and his hold tightened around her hand. “What’s really going on here Reanna?” he asked, seeming conflicted. “After we decided to start things back up again, I thought I made it clear that I … that I was serious about this. About us.”

Reanna swallowed hard as her eyes dropped to their hands, and she captured her bottom lip between her teeth, unable to respond to him. She was too afraid to say anything.

“I told you that I wanted the real thing this time, Rea.”

Releasing her lip from the confines of her teeth, Reanna timidly lifted her eyes. “I know that, Braden, but—”

“But what, babe?” he asked, seemingly frustrated. “I thought you wanted the same thing.”