Chapter 9 #2
“When I’m in the mood for venison, yes, I do hunt,” I said bluntly. “Didn’t take you for an animal rights activist, considering the kind of actual butchery you’ve probably ordered.”
Squeamish over some pork when she and her family had taken my uncle’s fucking hand and gifted it to us in the mail.
“I don’t have to sit here and take this,” she said.
“You come to my house to throw my offer back in my face like you’re doing me some kind of favor—”
“Your offer? How is this forced marriage an offer? We’re both being pushed into this farce,” she snapped.
Valentina wasn’t really angry about me killing animals.
After all, she was she impressed enough to eat my handiwork, and she’d more than likely get over it when she tried all of the other animals I’d slaughtered.
I was that skilled—a fact she’d find out in time regardless of how much she wanted to protest our inevitable wedding.
What angered her was that my attempt to win her over had probably had some effect.
Maybe even had her reconsidering some of her assumptions. That was what was pissing her off.
“Like it or not, Valentina, this is an offer because the alternative is war,” I reminded her. “Without this alliance, we’ll go right back to fighting.”
“Take a look around. We’re already fighting,” she said. “We’re already at each other’s throats and it’s only ten in the morning. What do you think our marriage will be if this what our second encounter is like?”
“These are just growing pains,” I said.
“Oh, please.” She shook her head in disgust. “Better for us to make a financial arrangement to make this go away. I have more money than I know what to do with. Name your price and—”
“If you want to stop the war, this is how you do it,” I said, cutting her off before she further insulted me with talks of a bribe.
“A war neither of us will talk about in detail because that would mean admitting to a lot of awful shit,” she said.
“There’s no need to say the truth out loud when we can see it in each other’s eyes. We both know what the other is capable of.” I leaned forward. “We both know who our fathers are.”
“Yes,” she hissed, jumping to her feet. “And we both know who our enemies are.”
“Valentina...” I said darkly, my voice a stark warning.
Swallowing hard, she sat back down again, glaring at me but following my orders. We were in my territory. She knew good and well that alone gave me the upper hand. Protocol demanded that she respect me on my home turf.
“Why do you even want this?” she asked. “You can’t be that committed to peace.”
“My father seems to be committed to peace. My motives, however, are family. My family comes first, always. Before ambition, before peace, before life itself, comes family. I do this for them. I do everything for them,” I said in savage tones.
“You cannot talk me out of this, Valentina. You could point a loaded gun at my head and I wouldn’t waver.
There’s nothing you can say, or do, there’s nothing you can try to bribe me with, that will change my mind.
You are going to be my wife if I have to drag you kicking and screaming to the altar. ”
“You son of a bitch,” she spat out. “You’d really marry a woman who wants nothing to do with you.”
“Wouldn’t be the first man,” I said harshly. “Whatever fairytale you cooked up in your head as a child, let it go. Now. Neither of us are going to be getting that.”
“I am my father’s daughter. You really think I believe in fairytales?”
“Then we’re on the same page,” I pointed out.
“Suffering it is then,” she fired back, her entire body shaking with unrestrained anger. Fury blazed in her eyes as she glared at me for several seconds. Then she was on her feet, grabbing her handbag. “Thank you for breakfast.”
She began to march away, her anger still palpable even as she retreated.
“Wait,” I ordered.
She stopped but didn’t turn to face me.
I sighed heavily as I stood up from my chair. “I’ll walk you out.”
Valentina waited for me to walk over to her. When I offered her my arm, she sneered and said, “How gentlemanly.”
She didn’t take my arm. Instead, she kept up with me as I exited the apartment and headed for the elevator. We descended to the ground floor in chilly silence, Valentina seemingly pretending I wasn’t there.
When the elevator doors opened, I let her walk out first and then I started leading her across the lobby.
“If it’s any consolation, I’ll let you plan the whole wedding,” I said. “Chose whatever you want. Colors, decor, venue. It’s all you.”
“It’s not consolation,” she said sharply. “And you’re trying to get out of the part you consider boring. If I have to suffer through the planning, you will, too.”
Trying to get out of wedding plans had been worth a try.
It would probably have enraged my father if he’d known how much I wanted out of that part of the deal, but making dull wedding plans hardly seemed like the way to win her over.
As breakfast with Valentina had showed, a private, quiet moment was the way to get through to her.
I just had to keep trying after the stumble at the end of breakfast.
We walked by the front desk, and I opened the glass entrance for Valentina before the doorman got a chance to.
Outside, she said, “My car is on the other side of the building.”
“I’ll escort you as far as you need to go,” I said. “Even as far as Newark.”
She glowered at me and marched toward her car, my strides long enough to keep up with her without any trouble.
As we turned the corner leading to the parking area, I heard a man’s voice behind me. “There you are, Mr. De Luca.”
I glanced over my shoulder. It was a city councilman standing several yards away. Forty-five minutes early for our real estate meeting. Damn it! Between Cherry and Valentina, I had forgotten about the meeting.
“Oh crap, it’s Doug Nelson,” I heard Valentina gasp under her breath.
I reached for her elbow gently yet protectively. “What is it? This guy a threat to you?”
“Not exactly, but he knows my family,” Valentina explained, lowering her voice.
“It’s going to look really suspicious if he sees two sworn enemies out in public together.
If word gets back to the rest of the New York City council, they’ll know something is up.
They can’t have that kind of knowledge or power over us before my father makes an announcement. It’ll make us look weak.”
“I’ve got this,” I told her.
“That councilman can’t see me with you,” she said earnestly, her words laced with an agitated sort of fear. “Papa will lose so much trust in me if this gets out before he’s ready to announce.”
“Is that the only reason?” I asked. My need to get information I could use against her was getting the better of me.
“Papa doesn’t know I came to see you,” she confessed. “He can’t know that I came here to talk you out of the engagement. He’ll think I’m a traitor.”
Her voice trembled on that last word as she gave me more intel than I ever hoped to get out of her.
This was the kind of weapon I needed if I wanted to defeat her.
It wasn’t enough for Valentina to surrender to marriage.
I had to gain her trust, and one way to do that was to break the trust she’d forged with everyone else around her. Especially her father.
“I won’t let Nelson see you,” I assured her.
“You won’t?” She turned her head to me, her eyes searching mine for an explanation.
But there wasn’t any time. I could hear the councilman getting closer, the soles of his shoes steadily hitting the pavement.
Releasing my hold on her elbow, I slid my hand to her lower back and then spun her toward the brick wall of my apartment building. I backed her up against the wall, making sure both of my hands were on her back so that they could absorb the shock of me pushing her against the hard, rough surface.
When I was satisfied that my body was shielding her from view I gruffly ordered, “Kiss me.”
The inquisitive flash in her eyes turned to complete surprise. “What?”
Neither of us could afford to waste another second. I caught sight of the councilman’s shadow. Desperate to hide her, I leaned in and forcefully took her mouth with mine.