Chapter 9
DANTE
“How’s the arm?” Enzo asks the following day as he sits across from me in my office at work. “She make your boo-boo feel better?”
He chuckles, leaning back further into the black leather armchair.
“She sure as fuck did.” I push my feet out, crossing my arms.
No woman has ever taken care of me. Not until her. The way she tended to my wound so gently, it made me feel all kinds of shit I don’t want to admit out loud.
“She’s damn good at taking care of me. Jealous? Joelle still hate you?”
He throws up a middle finger. “It hasn’t even been a day. She’ll come around.” He grins smugly. “It takes time to love me.”
“So I guess you’ll be waiting a while, then?” My head tips to the side with a mocking laugh.
“Yeah, yeah. You got jokes? You know I don’t need her. I’ve got plenty of women on speed dial. But damn, that body would look so good tangled in my sheets.”
“I’m sure she’s dying to get right in your bed with all the women you fuck in it.”
Joelle was never part of our plan, but I guess some opportunities just find themselves.
And my brother’s always had a thing for her, from the first moment he laid eyes on her.
He’d usually come with me when I’d go to meet with Carlito, but once he saw her, he started inviting himself each time I went.
“Okay, a little clarification.” He lifts up an index finger, shaking his head, pretending he’s got his feelings hurt. “I don’t fuck anyone on my bed. I’ve got other beds around the house for that.”
“Wow. I’m damn sorry for the confusion,” I snicker. “But she still won’t want your ass once she sees the women there. What are you going to do with her, anyway?”
“I’m gonna keep her until I get bored.” He shrugs. “Then move her to a different country so the Bianchis never get her back. She’s worth a whole lot of shit to them.”
“I know that. But what is she worth to you? And before you start…” I lift a palm, cutting off any of his bullshit before it begins. “I know you like her. So instead, how about maybe take care of her for a while? I’m sure she’s not used to that, being around those fucks.”
I wait for a wise-ass comment, but it never comes. He stares over my head, as though considering what I’m saying.
“Nah.” He shakes his head. “She and I are like oil and water, hot and cold. She doesn’t give a shit about me. She and I at the club was just her working, nothing more.”
His jaw tenses with the edge in his voice. And I know immediately by the look in his eye that she hurt him.
“Even a cat with the sharpest claws can be tamed,” I say.
“You a fucking poet now?” He picks up a pen and tosses it at me with a chuckle.
I catch it easily, staring at him with a grin.
Enzo likes to hide behind his big heart, as though showing it off makes him weak. He might be the youngest one of us at only twenty-five, but he grew up quickly like we all had to.
Each of us deserves to find something meaningful, something true, whether it’s a woman or something else that makes us happy. But I worry we’re doomed to walk behind the life we could have, instead of alongside it.
While spending some more time with Enzo, we hear something slam in Dom’s office right next to mine, so we rush there.
It was his burner cell connecting to the wall after he received a text from Faro, threatening to kill us like he did Matteo.
The fucking Bianchis still don’t respect us. They don’t quite comprehend the kind of men we are now. We care about nothing more than killing them all.
We’ve risen from the ashes, completely reborn. We’re the devils marking their graves. They may have been the ones to fear then, but we’re the ones to fear now.
And the angel sleeping beside me has no idea that the man who swore to protect her will be the one taking out her father.
I haven’t been able to stop thinking about waking up with Raquel curled around me.
I want more of that—more of her—even when it’s the last thing I should want.
I didn’t realize the sparks we’d have when we were finally face-to-face, even while knowing how badly I wanted to fuck her when I followed her around all that time.
I know I can stop myself from falling in love with her, but I can’t stop myself from wanting her. And I don’t think she can either.
As a thank-you for helping me with the arm, I had Janet make a steak and lobster dinner for tonight, knowing those are some of her other favorites. The garden by the fountain has been arranged with a table for two, and candles with rose petals have been scattered across it.
Probably a little too much, but I think she deserves it after everything she’s been through with Carlito and her family.
Once I park my McLaren, I enter the house, finding her cuddled on the sofa in the den with the TV on. She sits up as soon as she sees me.
“How’s your arm?” There’s concern scribbled all over her face.
“As good as new,” I lie.
The muscle is still throbbing, especially when I move it.
“Uh-huh.” She narrows her eyes. “You suck at lying. You know that?”
I guess not as much as you think, baby.
“Man, I have so many things to improve on.” I walk up a step, then some more. “And now that I remember...how about you come over here so I can practice kissing you again? Maybe this time, I’ll get it right.”
She rolls her eyes, lips teasing me with a hint of a barely there smile. “Not on your life, Dante Cavaleri. I’m not that kind of girl.”
“Really?”
I’m in front of her now, roughly cupping her jaw, my gaze pinning her in place.
“It didn’t seem that way this morning, when you were rubbing this ass all over my cock,” I say gruffly, grabbing a handful of her ass cheek.
Her exhales instantly grow ragged, her face flushing crimson. “I must’ve been asleep.”
“Who’s the liar now, wife? You know you can’t resist me just as much as I can’t resist you.”
I lower my lips to hers, softly kissing her once. Twice. Even though her lips don’t kiss me in return, that rapid breathing greets me.
“How about you stop denying you want me?” My words roll over her mouth. “How about we see where this goes?”
Her chest rises faster now as my lips feather over hers, softly caressing.
“Whether it ends today or months from now, the world is ours, and we don’t need to know what happens next to enjoy the days we have.”
“I want to,” she confesses. “But I can’t.”
“Why?” My voice is low and deep as my mouth still brushes over hers, while my hand is tightly circled around her lower back.
“You scare me, Dante. I’ve never felt this much intensity for someone, this much attraction.” She sighs, like it’s a bad thing. “I like you, and I don’t want to like you because I’ll be gone in three months.” Her eyes fall to the ground. “And maybe you’re used to fooling around, but I’m not.”
“Hey.” With a finger, I tip up her face to mine. “Don’t put a label on this. Not before we’ve even had a chance to figure out what we are. What we could be.”
What the hell am I saying?
She’s right. We can’t be more. I can’t love her. I’d be betraying my brothers. My family. Everyone. At least that’s how I see it.
But she is my wife, and she will be forever, so I’m not okay with her calling us a fling.
“I can’t stay here.” Her eyes beg for understanding, shrouded by so much pain. “Even if I were to fall for you at the end of this, I couldn’t stay. They’ll always find me, and they’ll kill us both.”
I cup her cheek, wanting to touch her every chance I get. “You don’t have to worry about them hurting you, or me. I’ll slit every one of their throats to keep you safe. You hear me?”
Her gaze alights with tears. “You don’t mean my father, right?”
When I don’t answer, her stare widens.
“I don’t want anyone to die, Dante. I just want to be left alone.”
“Sometimes the only way to find peace is to take someone else’s away.”
She inhales sharply, looking at me with a twinge of fear.
“Who are you?” The question comes as a whisper, one full of bewilderment, like she already knows the answer.
But she doesn’t.
She doesn’t know I’m both the prince from her fairy tales and the monster from her nightmares.
RAQUEL
I was right about him, or at least I think I was. There’s a danger behind those heavenly eyes. One I’m only starting to see, even while it’s not directed at me.
But those that have met that side of him must fear it when they smell it coming, like the thickening of the air right before the storm comes crashing down.
For some reason, I don’t fear him at all. I don’t think he’ll hurt me, and I hope he doesn’t hurt my family. Though he probably could.
Once I leave, I won’t have to worry about anyone fighting. There’ll be nothing to fight about. I’ll be gone.
He holds me in his protective arms as we sway together to a soft ballad playing from the speakers he arranged in his garden.
I couldn’t believe he planned such an intimate dinner. The food was amazing. It’s as though he knows all the things I like.
After the plates were cleared, we shared a huge piece of tiramisu, another one of my downfalls. And just when I thought the night was over, he surprised me with music. And damn, does the man know how to move.
“I love dancing with you,” he says softly.
His eyes are on mine, stealing my breaths away, and I’m not sure how many I have left to give. His arms hold me around the small of my back as we dance the hours away, lost to the melody. To each other. The sun dips away, the fiery sky cast in a spark of orange and red.
“I love dancing with you too,” I sigh contently, smiling with a heart so full, I can’t contain it. “You didn’t have to do any of this for me, but I love it so much.”
“You deserve it, Raquel.”
One hand glides up to my face, and every time he touches me so tenderly, it wakes up my insane desire for him, curling with the warmth of a fire he’s set in the pit of my stomach.
“A woman like you deserves to be treated this way every day. Don’t ever forget it.” His knuckles drop to my lips. “Know your worth, baby, because I do.”
My heart flips erratically, joining my stomach.
Can I keep you?