Chapter 10
Damiano
“Was last night her idea? Don’t lie to me to cover for your sister.” Dad glares at me from behind his desk, his hands gripping the arms of his chair. Hostility is rolling off him in waves like I’ve never known from him before. Not aimed at me, at least.
The feeling is mutual. I fix my gaze at the wall just above Dad’s head so he doesn’t see the anger burning in my eyes. Lucy and I made him millions last night, and he hasn’t said thank you or asked if Lucy is all right after being groped.
“It was my idea for Lucy to help me sell that jewelry,” I tell Dad.
“Then your idea was a disaster,” he bellows. “Lucy lied to protect a thief, and she offended two important associates. If you wanted a woman to model the jewels, you should have paid someone who could keep her smart mouth shut. Someone who didn’t care if she was groped.”
“I don’t want anyone to be groped,” I snap.
“You can’t expect the men of Malus to behave any differently, which is why we keep our women away from them.”
I look off to the side, fuming. Dimitriou shouldn’t have dared laid a hand on her, and I should have kept a closer eye on my sister. I won’t make the same mistake next time.
“Your mother and I have frequently discussed Lucy’s constant disobedience,” Dad continues. “Her snooping. Her sour moods.”
“She’s bored and frustrated. She doesn’t like being left out of things.”
“It’s for her own safety, and yours. Women make you weak, Damiano. They’re either a target for your enemies or a ball and chain that drags you down. Never forget that.”
Lucy is my fiery angel, raining death upon my enemies. She saved my life at the warehouse. She saves my life every night when she comes to my bed and chases away my nightmares.
I can’t live without her.
I can’t breathe without her.
“I don’t agree. Lucy knows how to handle herself. She doesn’t make me weak, she makes me stronger.”
“She made you look like a fool in front of the men I have to do business with.”
The men who were in that penthouse last night were all important for Barone family business, but none more so than Cristiano Montoni and Vincenzo Vici.
Now’s as good a time as any to tell Dad my plan for the future.
“Lucy did no such thing, and I want to talk to you about the new Montoni and Vici dons. You knew their fathers, but I know the sons. I can strengthen our ties with them, and the Lucanias as well, through Rafiel. Just give me the chance to prove myself, with Lucy by my side.”
Dad shakes his head impatiently. “You don’t know what you’re doing. I’ll handle those weak little boys.”
I clench my teeth in frustration. Weak little boys. Is that what he thinks of me as well? “Don’t underestimate them, and don’t patronize them either. I’ve known them all for years. Why not me? I’m going to be the head of this family one day. It’s time I was allowed to start doing things my way.”
It’s completely the wrong thing to say.
Dad’s expression changes from annoyed to dangerously angry, and his eyes turn blacker than black. It’s the same look I’ve seen right before he has one of his men killed.
He presses his hands to his desk and slowly gets to his feet.
“I’ll do you the mercy of pretending you didn’t just say that, Damiano.
I’m head of this family, and you will follow my rules.
My wishes. My instructions. To. The. Letter.
” He jabs his finger into the wood to emphasize his words. “Why are you suddenly defying me?”
Frustration coils through my muscles, and I say through clenched teeth, “It’s only right that the don’s son has some power of his own.”
Dad comes around his desk toward me. “I know what’s gotten to you. A woman. It’s always a woman. Lucy is a terrible influence on you, and she’s been pouring poison into your ear. It’s time you stopped spending so much time with your sister.”
“My ambition is all my own,” I retort. “And family is important. You said that to me the day you adopted us.”
“Loyalty to the whole family, not just your sister.” Dad stares hard at me, trying to intimidate me like I’m just another of his capos.
I refuse to look away. “My loyalty to the Barones has never been in question.”
He watches me closely for a moment longer and then strides away. “See that it stays that way, or both of you will suffer the consequences.”
I watch Dad go, my fists clenched in fury. How dare he question my loyalty after all I’ve done for this family?
Lucy hasn’t come downstairs yet, so I go up to her bedroom. As I raise my fist to knock on her door, Ariana emerges from her room in her horse-riding gear. She gives me a dirty look when she sees that I’m about to enter Lucy’s room.
“Sister-fucker,” she whispers under her breath as she passes.
As far as I know—and I would know by now, because Dad would have flown into a rage and hurt Lucy—Ariana hasn’t breathed a word about catching me and Lucy in bed together.
It had better stay that way. I haven’t figured out who Ariana loves, but there must be someone, and I won’t hesitate to use them against her if she goes back on her word.
Teeth grit, I knock on Lucy’s door.
“Who is it?” she calls.
“Me.”
“Is that my dear, darling brother who loves me?” she calls in a singsong voice.
I can’t help but smile. “Who else?”
“Then come in.”
I go inside and close the door behind me, and I’m several strides into her room before I realize that Lucy is naked.
She’s laying on her stomach on her bed, feet in the air and crossed at the ankles as she reads a book.
She’s wearing nothing but the canary diamonds I bought for her last night.
Her breasts are cuddled into a fluffy white cushion.
My eyes latch on to the lush swell of her bare ass.
Jesus Christ.
I glance at the bed canopy. The window. The floor. Back at her.
She’s laid out like a goddess.
Lucy swings her feet back and forth with a teasing smile on her lips. “What’s wrong, Damiano?”
She knew I’d have news for her this morning. She laid herself out like this just to torment me, and this girl has the audacity to call me a troublemaker.
I take a package out of my pocket and toss it to her. “This is for you.”
Lucy sits up elegantly in mermaid pose, revealing her bare breasts. She unwraps a bloodstained letter and a small plastic bag, and her nipples tighten in the cool air. Heat and desire wash over me.
Lucy opens the letter and looks at me over the top of the page. She pats the bed beside her. “You can join me if you want.”
I glance at the door, wondering if we’ll get caught again. Mom and Dad don’t come into Lucy’s room, and Ariana has gone out. What’s so wrong about sitting with my sister?
I clear my throat and push my hand through my curls, trying to act nonchalant as I saunter toward her bed while my heart is racing. I don’t know why I bother because Lucy doesn’t care. I must be trying to conceal what I’m doing from myself.
I sink down onto the bed next to her as she reads the letter, and I’m completely captivated by the sight of all her warm, naked flesh up close. The jewels glitter against her body. I reach out and trace her collarbone with my knuckle. I’ve never seen a woman more beautiful than her.
Lucy reads aloud. “Dear Miss Barone, I offer my sincere apologies to you for the offense I caused… His handwriting is shaky. How many of Dimitriou’s fingers did you cut off?”
I lean in close, inhaling her perfume, and press a kiss against her throat. “Why don’t you count them?”
She peers inside the plastic bag. My sister doesn’t scream at the sight of severed digits. She looks amused, like I knew she would. “Three fingers. My, my, Mr. Dimitriou is a stubborn man.”
“He apologized as soon as I showed him the knife, but I thought he needed to be taught a permanent lesson.”
Lucy gives me a mischievous smile. “Wicked man.”
I rub the tip of my nose against hers. “Me? The brother who loves you?”
“Will Dad be angry that you did this?”
I bury my face in her hair, closing my eyes and breathing in deeply. “I don’t care.”
She eases onto her side, wrapping her arms around me and drawing me down onto the bed with her. My lips find her neck. I kiss her slowly, admiring the sparkling diamonds around her slender throat. My hands rove over her as I listen to her soft gasps of pleasure. It’s just a brotherly hug.
A brotherly hug with her breasts arched into my chest and both my hands cupping and kneading her plump, tender ass.
Yeah, right.
What the hell is going to become of us?
“Things are happening in Malus,” I say, my lips against her throat, my hands still squeezing her.
I rock my hips and imagine my hard cock thrusting inside her.
Teasing her. Tormenting myself. “Things that I want to control. I’m going to arrange a meeting with the new heads of the other Malus families.
Dad’s not the right person to meet with them, and we need to protect and build what’s ours. Yours and mine. So I’ll do it myself.”
“Yours and mine?” Lucy whispers, wrapping her arms around my neck.
Dad won’t be around forever. Lucy and I are the future of this family, and I promised her that when I’m don, everything will be different.
She gasps as my fingers delve deeper and find her sex. I find the slippery hollow of her core, and torture myself with how wet she’s getting. “That’s right,” I murmur, tracing my lips over her throat. Wondering if I dare push my fingers deeper.
“And what about me? Are you going to order me to stay at home?” she asks, breathing faster.
I smile against her throat. “Do you think Dad would take Mom if he were meeting with Don Cristiano, Don Vincenzo, and Rafiel Lucania to discuss the future of Malus?”
Hurt and anger suffuse her voice. “Are you going to treat me the way Dad treats Mom? I hate it. She enjoys being left out of everything, like she doesn’t have a brain of her own.”
“Then it’s a good thing I’m not Dad.”
Lucy looks at me in surprise. “You mean…?”