Detonate: Chapter 17

This booth has the perfect view of the dancefloor. I can’t take my eyes off her. She’s captivating, and not just to me, to every man in here. I grip onto my scotch that I’ve been nursing for the last half an hour. Flitting between sexual frustration watching her ass sway to the music, and anger every damn time she has to move away from a guy gyrating up against her.

“You’re gonna shatter that fucking glass in a minute if you squeeze any tighter.” Luca chuckles.

“Come on, lighten up. We all know she’s coming back to you at the end of the night.”

At some point, she’s going to realize I’m not the man for her, that I’m not the man to give her everything she wants.

“What are you going to do with Rosa?” I ask.

“She’s locked up in my basement. For now, she’s safe. Plan is to draw them out using her and… poof”—his hands fly up to mimic an explosion—“bye-bye, Marco.”

“So the big plan is to get them to a meet and blow the building up?”

A sadistic grin spreads across his face as he nods.

“Just tell me a time and place. You know I’ll be ready.”

“Count me in,” Frankie says, before sinking another shot.

Luca’s brows furrow as he watches the dancefloor.

Maddie.

She’s on the edge of the dancefloor, concentrating on her phone with a frown.

10pm.

I slip out my phone and text her. I’ve done my two hours of watching her. There is only so much self-restraint I can show when she is looking drop-dead gorgeous in that silver dress.

Her head spins around in my direction. I can see the flush from here. Oh, she’s ready for me. I can’t get enough of this woman. I also need to remind her that this isn’t just about sex. Not by a long shot. When she tried to fob me off earlier that she was on her period, it made me realize something.

I genuinely missed seeing her. It was twenty-four hours. Sex wasn’t even on my mind when I called her up; I just wanted to hear her voice. I might be pussy-whipped. But I couldn’t give a fuck. She can do what she likes to me.

I’m all hers.

And it’s about time she understood that.