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“Okay,” I said. I wiped my hands of my pants because they were sweaty from nerves.
Nino regarded me calmly, but then something in his expression shifted, becoming calculating and predatory, and I knew he was about to pounce. Despite that knowledge, I yelped when he grabbed me by the hips. After a second of freezing, I brought my knee up, but he dodged it with his thigh and pressed me to the ground with his body. Then he was over me, kneeling between my legs, his pelvis pressed to mine. My wrists were pinned above my head and no amount of struggling made him budge. My breathing turned ragged as panic swirled in the pit of my stomach, not as bad as before, but it was definitely there.
“Fight it,” Nino ordered sharply.
I knew what he meant, but it was so very hard to fight my own mind. I focused on his cool, gray eyes. They had now freed me from my panic twice, and they did again. Slowly, my terror waned and my breathing slowed.
Nino shook his head as he released my wrist, but he stayed on top of me. “It’s good that you find comfort in my eyes, Kiara, but it won’t help you if you ever get attacked.”
I closed my eyes. “Maybe we just have to accept that I will never be able to defend myself and that the next time someone like my uncle comes around, he can take whatever he wants from me.”
Nino’s lips brushed my ear, making my eyes shoot open in surprise. “You will learn to defend yourself, and I swear nobody will ever hurt you again. Nobody will ever get close.”
He pulled back and his expression set my heart aflame with silly emotions. For a moment neither of us moved, and I touched my palms to his muscled chest. My breathing quickened for another reason. For the first time in my life, I was comfortable with a man being on top of me, with him between my legs. Nino finally broke the moment, pushing himself off me, and held a hand out for me. I took it and let him pull me to my feet, but my body still tingled from his closeness.
“Again,” he said and the tension in his voice overpowered the fluttering in my belly.
NINO
After working out and we came home, Kiara kept throwing glances my way, but the moment I returned them, she looked away. I couldn’t read her mood. She seemed nervous. I went into the shower after she was done but kept the door open as usual. Kiara never came in. My nakedness still made her nervous and it wasn’t only from fear.
Remo had been right. She needed to learn to fight someone who scared her, and that person wasn’t me. Kiara had come to trust me, and I hadn’t expected it. Of course, I had treated her in a way that made me hope for her to be able to relax in my presence. Her cowering fear wasn’t something I could tolerate in a wife. I needed someone who could stand up to me, and Kiara was getting there. We still had a ways to go, but unlike my brother, I was patient.
Leaning back against the shower stall, I turned the water to cold so my cock didn’t get any ideas. I had a feeling Kiara wouldn’t be ready for more exploring today. The fight with Fabiano had unsettled her. And if I was being honest, it had been difficult for me to stand back and watch him touch her, hold her, kneel between her legs. It was something I had never experienced before. I couldn’t place an emotion on what I was feeling.
When I entered the bedroom after my shower, Kiara was propped up against the headboard, wearing a thin, silk nightgown that did little to hide her nipples. Her lean legs were crossed at the ankles, a place where Kiara was beautifully sensitive. Her eyes darted up from the book she was holding and did a quick scan over my naked chest, lingering on my briefs, before she returned her gaze to the book, but she wasn’t able to focus on what she was reading.
Drying my hair, I walked over to where she pretended to read. “What is wrong? Did I do something to make you nervous? Is it because of the training today? I have to make sure you learn to defend yourself. Going easy on you won’t have the desired effect.”
I thought we had settled into some sort of understanding. I wouldn’t budge on the subject of self-defense. Kiara was well protected. As a Falcone, her last name carried fear through the streets in Las Vegas. Everyone knew she was mine. Everyone knew Falcone protected what was ours and our revenge was cruel and merciless. She was as safe as a woman in our world could be, however, I couldn’t see why we shouldn’t guarantee the highest level of safety by making Kiara a difficult target. Her gun skills had improved, but she needed to learn to defend herself without the aid of weapons.
