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Morgana shakes her head. “You must think I’m dumb, girl.”
“You married my brother, didn’t you?” I laugh.
“You won’t distract us that easily.” Josie hands me a takeaway cup. “Here, it’s matcha. Really good. So what’s the deal? Sasha told me something about a memory stick. Is it trouble?”
“I’m not sure,” I say, sipping my drink. “Ever since Arman beat up that Aldo guy, things have been tense. I guess he’s expecting a retaliation.”
Arman told me to keep quiet about the potential issue with the Morettis, but I need to lean on my girls. They’ve always been there for me. I don’t want to tell them what’s happened between Arman and me so far, though. Morgana and Josie are different from me; they are both so smart and cool, and I don’t want them to know I’ve been letting my jumpy pussy do my thinking for me.
“If the Moretti famiglia had any sense, they’d grovel and move on,” Morgana says. Aldo is the Don’s brother, but he crossed a line that night.”
“Vlad is worried someone will either entice or force me into a union that will ruin my life and endanger our bratva’s future. He doesn’t think Arman will do either of those things, which is why this wedding is happening.”
Josie snorts. “That is not why it’s happening, Lili. Are you nuts? Arman has been going quietly insane for years. Anyone can see he’s caught up in you.”
I go to the racks and start pulling dresses without looking at them. “I’m not so sure. He promised Vlad he wouldn’t—you know.”
Morgana smiles. “He won’t keep to that. Vlad was wrong to ask it of him.”
She’s likely correct, but not in the way she thinks. Arman will fuck me because I want him to do it. With his hands moving over my body, I won’t be able to say no in the heat of the moment, which will make it all the more humiliating when the inevitable rejection happens. My unspoiled innocence is all I have to barter with; beyond that, it’s just games.
I stop what I’m doing and turn to face Morgana, distress coloring my voice. “It’s not about me; it’s all about the bratva. About the men and their fucking egos!”
I sink into a squat and wrap my arms around my knees, my shoulders shaking. Morgana and Josie rush over and drop to the floor, wrapping their arms around me.
“It’s okay!” Morgana says. “You’re wrong about Arman, and Vladi will come around. They both want to protect you. They’re just coming at it from different perspectives.”
Josie hands me a tissue, and I dry my eyes. “She’s right, Lili,” she says. “You’ll feel differently tomorrow, and we’ll be there with you. Now, let’s find you the perfect gown.”
Josie summons the redhead, and she helps me in and out of dresses. The girls ooh, ahh, and sigh as I parade in front of them, their comments flying thick and fast.
“That’s illegal.”
“That shouldn’t work. What witchcraft is this?”
“If you choose that dress, I will legit slap you.”
“Vladi would be furious. You should wear it!”
“How will you pee in it, though? Or walk?”
“This is giving Lord of the Rings. In a good way; more elf than orc, if that helps.”
“Every straight man in the room will have some localized swelling if you rock up in that.”
“You look like the pancakes.”
“That’s just…bedsheets?”
Then, at last, I emerge from the dressing room to a gasp so emphatic it almost sucks all the oxygen out of the room. Morgana and Josie leap as they say the exact words simultaneously.
“That’s the one!”
22
Arman
As much as I wanted Lilyana right then and there, I knew I’d regret it. She only has one chance to lose her virginity, and I can’t let her squander it on something as mundane as physical relief.
