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Aria noticed their attention and turned bright red, her eyes darting to me, then quickly down to her hands clutching the cup. A smirk curled my lips. She was too fucking cute when she was embarrassed. Romero narrowed his eyes in confusion, but Matteo gave me his fucking shark grin. “I see you finally took a stroll through undiscovered land,” he said.
Aria set her cup down with a clang, her expression falling in open horror.
I was going to kill Matteo. “Why don’t you keep your fucking mouth shut?” I growled. Seething, I regarded Romero, trying to gauge if he’d understood Matteo’s stupid comment. Romero’s expression was carefully blank, but he wasn’t fooling me. He knew exactly what Matteo meant, especially considering Aria’s behavior. Damn it.
“Will you have breakfast?” Aria asked into the tense silence, nodding towards the bowl with cereal.
“No time,” I snapped, regretting the sharpness in my tone when Aria jumped. My anger wasn’t directed at her. Fuck. And in front of Romero and Matteo, I couldn’t even make it up to her. I walked over to her, barring her from view with my body, then bent down. Matteo and Romero would only see me acting all possessive and kissing my young wife after I’d claimed her. “We’ll have dinner tonight,” I murmured in her ear, lightly rubbing her lips with my thumb before I pulled back.
Aria gave a small nod. My expression was stone when I turned back to Romero and my brother. Matteo looked like he was close to bursting out laughing. One day I was going to drown him in the Hudson river.
With a last glance at Romero, knowing I’d have to confront him later, I stalked into the elevator. Matteo leaned beside me and, the second the door closed us in, his mouth pulled wide. “Aria finally allowed you to pop her cherry?”
I glowered.
He shrugged. “Come on. The way she acted it was so obvious you’d dipped your cock into virgin waters.”
“Careful,” I warned.
He shook his head with a disbelieving laugh. “No sharing naughty tidbits. Protective husband mode. And waiting for your virgin bride to be ready before you claim her. If I didn’t know you, I’d say you have a soft spot for your little wife.”
“Why don’t you scream it from the fucking rooftops or, better yet, announce it to our goddamn father so he can use Aria to keep me in check? He’ll think I’m growing soft, or that I care about her, and we both know he’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“And do you?” Matteo asked carefully.
“Do I what?” I growled, all my defenses shooting up into place.
“Care for her. We both know there’s no way you’re going soft. You’re a brutal fucker.”
Staring Matteo down was futile. Everyone else would have cowered under the force of my anger, but he held my gaze. The elevator doors slid open and I staggered into the parking garage. Fuck this shit. This marriage was supposed to bring peace and keep the fucking Outfit off our backs, not turn me into a fool.
“I take it that’s a yes,” Matteo said from close behind me.
I turned and gripped his shoulder in a hard grip. “This isn’t a fucking game, Matteo. I don’t want people to think they could use Aria against me, so keep your mouth shut for once.”
“Fuck,” he muttered. “You do care about the girl. Do you—“
“Just shut up, all right?” I said, losing my patience.
Matteo gave a sharp nod, surprising me. “You know I won’t tell anyone you’re being a decent human being to your little wife.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “You as good as told Romero that I haven’t fucked my wife until last night.”
“You know Romero, he won’t tell a living soul, probably not even the ghost of his father.”
Trusting people with my secrets, especially if they held the potential to destroy everything, wasn’t something I liked to do, but now I had to rely on Aria, Romero and Matteo to keep their silence.
Matteo hit my shoulder. “Stop being a pussy. Everything’s going to work out. People fear you too much to even consider the possibility that those sheets were faked. You are the Vise.” His grin made me sigh, but the knot in my chest loosened. “And now tell me, how was it?”
I gave him a look. “I’ll pretend you didn’t ask that.”
“I can ask again.”
I went around my car and got in.
“Give me at least some pointers for when I’ll have to deflower Gianna!” Matteo bellowed then laughed.
I gave him the finger then revved the engine and drove off. He could take his fucking bike.Matteo kept trying to extract information from me about my night with Aria all day, but he eventually gave up when I ignored him. Threats and anger only spurred him on. When I returned home that night, Aria and Romero were sitting outside on the roof terrace, playing cards.
