Cara watched as Adonis-with so much unnecessary grace-lifted a spoonful of food into his mouth.
She looked down at her still filled-up plate.
Yes, she was hungry and had been the one to suggest that they had dinner first before anything, but she felt too uncomfortable to scoop anything down her throat.
Everything about this place made her uncomfortable. She’d been walking on eggshells since she stepped into Adonis’s home.
Just the chair she was sitting on looked like it’d cost her home, and everything in it, including herself, to replace if she just as much as scratched it.
She had caught herself glancing around more times than she could count since she walked into his home. The sofas, the rare antiques, the chandeliers, and even the grand staircase you’d see just as you step in through the big and expensive glass doors of his home.
His home.
Cara scoffed.
No. This wasn’t a home.
It was a mansion.
Not your typical modern glass see-through mansion. No. This mansion had a blend of both modern and old. It looked to have been built years ago but still had a touch of modernity.
If Cara had thought he was rich before, she was wrong.
Adonis was an old-money rich heir.
It took a while to realise that she wasn’t being taken to a restaurant and when she questioned it, she was informed that the dinner would be at Adonis’s home instead. Its distance from the city was quite noticeable and Cara had wondered why he’d prefer to live outside the city, but as she passed a big wrought iron gate and middle-heighten fence, she’d realized.
He lived in his own city.
Arriving at the estate from the city was a journey, but arriving at the mansion from the estate gate was another journey itself.
The size of the estate looked to be about twelve hectares and at the very middle sat the biggest property she’d ever seen. The white mansion sat proudly in the middle of the estate surrounded by the most spectacular grape vineyard she’d ever seen.
It was breathtaking.
Cara sighed, the sound of cutlery clanging bringing her out of her thoughts, and she looked to see Adonis placing his fork on his empty plate.
Once again, she saw his friend throw her a discrete glance, as he had been doing since they settled at the table.
Cara looked down at her plate; she had barely had a bite, and the food looked too good to waste. Her stomach rumbled, and she silently cussed, praying no one else had heard it.
“I thought you were hungry.” Adonis raised an eyebrow in question.
“I still am.”
“Then why aren’t you eating?”
“Maybe I would feel comfortable enough to if your friend stops staring.” she reverted sharply and picked up her spoon as her stomach rumbled again.
To h*ll with it! She wasn’t going to starve herself to death because of money issues.
“Are you sure it’s just my friend? Do you have something to say to me, Cara?”
Clang!
The raised spoon fell from her hand, halting its journey into her mouth.
It was the first time Adonis had addressed her by her name, and judging from the goosebumps across her arms and the sudden wetness between her legs, she liked it more than a normal person should like the sound of their name being called
Cara mentally groaned.
F*ck, she shouldn’t even be liking it.
Maybe it was just the air conditioning, or she was too horny. Adonis is a hot god in bed, and her body remembers.
There was definitely no way the sound of her father’s killer would arouse her.
Yes. That was it.
She picked up the spoon once again, dusted it off with a napkin, and resumed eating.
“I’m Cara, Adonis’s fiance. You should introduce yourself.” She said to Luca after she’d had a few bites.
When she got nothing in reply, she looked up to see him staring at her with a dumbfounded look.
Cara placed another spoonful in her mouth.
“What?”
Everyone quietly waited as Cara scoffed down her food. All it took was a bite or two for the hunger to hit hard and the uncomfortable feeling to disappear.
She had been through a lot today, and it all happened on an empty stomach.
Finally, she placed the spoon down and took a big drink out of the glass of water beside her plate.
“Should we talk with him here or what?” She gestured towards Luca, who was staring at her and Adonis with an amused light in his eyes.
Adonis nodded in reply.
“Before we go further, I need help in transporting my father to the morgue.”
“My men are on it; they went back immediately after you were dropped off. Your house will be spotless by the time you leave. When would you like to have his funeral?”
Cara narrowed her eyes at Adonis.
He knew?
Was he truly the one behind it?
She felt her head explode from his words of confirmation and convinced herself to remain calm. A little act out could ruin her plans.
Cara drew in a shaky breath, pulling her hands into fists as she fixed him with a cold look.
“You’re a bastard.”
Adonis raised an eyebrow, unfazed.
“You shouldn’t talk to me like that, little girl.”
Little girl?
She drew in a calming breath once again.
“I wasn’t so little when you were f*cking me last night and into the early hours of this morning.”
Luca stifled a laugh.
“You are a little girl, Bellissima. I wouldn’t have touched you if it wasn’t for the aphrodisiac.” Adonis taunted.
He could see through her. Through the mask she was hiding behind; he knew she had a lot to say and emotion to show, and he was going to crack her.
“What aphrodisiac? Do you think this is a movie?”
“Believe whatever you want.”
“Are you sure? All you ever spout are lies.”
“I forbid you to talk to me like that!” Adonis raised his voice.
Cara scoffed.
“I shouldn’t have met you. You’re the worst thing that can happen to a person.”
Adonis cocked his head, a cold smirk on his face.
“Then get out. Leave my home. You don’t want to? No. You can’t because you need my money. Don’t say things you don’t mean, Bellissima.”
“You… you imbecile! I have never met anyone as arrogant and chauvinistic as you! You used me to suit your needs, and now what? I’m not worth your time? That is the highest order of disrespect! I would not sit here-
Bang!
Adonis slammed his hand on the table in anger.
Menacingly, he rose to his feet, the darkest eyes ever searing into her hazel ones as he stalked towards her like a predator would stalk towards a prey.
“You talk about disrespect when you’re sitting in my home, and all you’ve done since you got here is insult me, glare at me, and raise your voice at me. I take disrespect from no one, and you would not be the first.”
“Adonis!” Luca growled lowly.
“Control yourself.”
Adonis looked at Luca’s hand on his shoulder and then at his trembling hands. He hadn’t even realized when Luca stood up.
Blinking the anger away, the first person his gaze landed on was Cara. He moved his eyes to hers, expecting to see fear in them, but was surprised.
Yes, he could tell from the way she was sitting that she was caught unaware and might have even felt fear for an instant, but her eyes. Gazing into them, he took a step towards her.
“Adonis,” Luca called again in warning.
“Get out.”
“What?”
“Get out.”
Luca sighed, and with one last squeeze of his shoulder, walked out of the dining room.
With his eyes still on Cara’s, Adonis closed the remaining distance between them. By now, she had raised her head to meet his gaze head-on.
Was that curiosity he saw in them?
He suddenly felt his entire body become hard, and blood rushed down to his northern region.
What made her so fearless of him?
Cara peered up at him curiously from beneath her lashes, chewing at her bottom lip. Adonis lost all restraint.
“F*ck this!”
He crashed his lips to hers.