Chapter 16 #3
I try not to let that comment go to my head, but I fail miserably. I like being the recipient of Alessio’s protective side far more than I like being his enemy. But a new surge of fear is tangling me up in knots, because the last thing I want is to get caught in a Russian Mafia spider web.
“Has there been a new development?” I ask.
“The Russian situation is complicated. You’re safest here with me.”
Somehow, I suspect he’s wrong about that, but for an entirely different reason. When Alessio’s guard is down, he’s alarmingly magnetic. He’s also not nearly as good at shielding his thoughts and emotions from me, which is how I sense there’s a whole lot more than what he’s telling me.
I take a sip of wine, choosing my words with care. “Is it something more than the Russians?”
His jaw tenses. “You don’t give up, do you?”
I’m not sure of my place here, but I am completely at this man’s mercy for the next week and a half. If something is affecting him, chances are it will also affect me. I want to know what that is. I need to know, so I can do my best to protect myself.
What if the police are after him? What if he’s about to get hit with a racketeering charge, and meanwhile, I’m gleefully hopping on his dick?
Maybe there’s another way to get the truth out of him.
I shrug. “If it’s too sensitive of a subject to talk about, we don’t have to.”
“Mother Mary,” he grumbles, scrubbing at his jaw as he’s back to glowering at me again. “I don’t have a sensitive bone in my body. You should know that by now.”
“Sure,” I say noncommittally, like I don’t believe a word he’s just said.
“I don’t.”
I drink my wine, not bothering to argue. My silence says it all.
Finally, he makes a low sound that’s reminiscent of a growl. “You really want to know?”
I wait.
“The woman who spawned me,” he grinds out, the words sounding like they’re torn from him.
This is not what I was expecting to hear. I set my wineglass down on the marble with a clank. “Your mother?”
I turn that information over in my mind. Luna told me that Priest’s mother disappeared years ago and he and his brothers had no idea where she’d gone or if she was still even alive. My heart pounds harder. “Is she…?”
“She’s alive and well,” he announces bitterly. “And apparently, she’s decided to return from the dead, twenty-five years too fucking late with some sob story about how my old man threatened to kill her. She’s also brought my twin sisters with her. Well, technically, half sisters.”
Now I’m more confused than ever. “You have twin sisters? I had no idea.”
He snorts. “Neither did I, until today.”
Oh my God.
Suddenly, Alessio’s mood makes awful, perfect sense. The pieces click together in my mind like a fucked-up puzzle.
“If you didn’t know you had twin sisters until today,” I say slowly, “then that means Priest doesn’t know either, does he?”
Alessio lifts his wine in mock salute. “Nope.”
Then he drains the rest of it in one gulp.
“You’re not going to tell him until he gets back, are you?”
He gives me a look. “What do you take me for? No, don’t answer that. I’m sure you think I’m a heartless bastard, and I don’t want to hear that. My mood was starting to improve for the first time since Scorpion came to me with the news.”
I wince. “I can imagine it must have been quite the shock.”
“Understatement of the fucking century.” He finishes the last of the leftovers and gets up, stalking across the kitchen to rinse his plate at the sink.
I slide off my stool and follow him, stopping with a few steps between us for sanity’s sake. “I don’t think you’re a completely heartless bastard, for the record.”
I don’t know what else to say to him, so I just stay where I’m at as he deposits his plate into the dishwasher.
I can’t imagine what it must be like to have your mother, who walked out on you as a kid, reappear twenty-five years later with the half sisters you didn’t know you had.
If Alessio wasn’t fucked up before, he sure is now.
My heart aches for him, even though I know I shouldn’t allow myself to feel anything for him other than pure, animal lust. Like him, it’s too dangerous.
He straightens and turns back to me, and I can’t help but admire the play of light and shadow on his upper body, the way his muscles twist and tighten in his washboard abs. He’s the real work of art.
“Now that you fed me and you managed to get me to talk about something I really, really didn’t want to talk about, I think you owe me.” He moves toward me, a predator stalking his prey.
I’m no match for him, and anyway, I want to be caught.
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” He doesn’t stop until we’re almost touching, flattening his palms on either side of the counter to fence me in.
But I’m not intimidated in the slightest. I’m just turned on.
Lightly, I trail a fingertip along his collarbone, running it over a jagged scar. “What do I owe you?”
“I think you owe me a few more orgasms, at least.” He slides a hand down my waistband, cupping my pussy. “Fuck. No panties?”
I arch into his touch, shameless. “Didn’t know if I’d need them.”
He gives me the devil’s own grin. “You definitely don’t.”