Page 38 of Sicilian Savior

“You’re not mad that I killed them?”

After a moment, she shook her head. “No. All that matters is Luca. I’m his mother. I’ll do anything for him, and that means anything. Mario was definitely suspicious of me, and he could have tipped off Victor. You made the right call to kill him. The rest was in the heat of the moment. A necessity to keep us alive.”

“I’m glad you think so. It’s not like I had time to discuss it with you.”

“Mario was a bad man. He was one of Victor’s enforcers, it turned out. I’m sure you saved a lot of lives today when you took his. He’s killed many people. What you did was justice for their loved ones.”

It was rare to find someone with that mentality... the mentality they required when we got recruited for Elite Force Team. The mentality that you kill one to save a hundred, and you don’t feel bad about it at all. In fact, it felt good. It felt just like she’d said... justice. And that was exactly how I’d felt today when I’d killed those men, especially Mario. They were bad men. I’d done the world a favor getting rid of them.

Justice.

“Thank you for doing that for me.” Lucia peeked out from behind the veil of hair that had fallen in front of her face. “I can’t imagine taking a life is easy, no matter the reason.”

Instead of getting into details about how it was easy for me, I just smiled. “I won’t let anyone hurt you or get in our way of rescuing Luca. I made you a promise, and I intend to keep it.”

Her eyes softened, and she reached over and touched my face. I closed my eyes and let the warmth of her touch spread across my skin. It had been so long since I’d felt anything like it. Ever, in fact. I’d never felt anything like it.

When I opened my eyes, Lucia stared back at me, her eyes hooded in desire. I begged my hand not to move to her face, but it went anyway. My fingers ignored my pleas not to slide underneath her chin. Her lips parted as my mouth drifted toward hers. Like a magnetic pull I couldn’t control.

Don’t kiss her. Don’t fucking kiss her.

I begged my muscles to obey, to remember my vow, but I kept leaning toward her anyway.

“Knox,” she breathed as she angled her head toward me, and when her lips connected with mine, my whole world tipped upside down.

And I never wanted it to right itself.

I grabbed her face, pulling her into me and deepening the kiss I’d been so desperate to claim. Lucia moaned into my mouth, her hands spreading across my back as I tugged her against me. I kissed her until I ran out of air, then kissed her some more. Oxygen was overrated compared to her kiss. I wanted to spend every second of the rest of my life lost in the depths of this passion I felt in her arms.

When her hands drifted down my back and crept beneath my shirt, I suddenly remembered my vow, and I cursed myself for breaking it.

“Fuck,” I whispered against her lips before pushing myself back.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered.

“We shouldn’t do this, Lucia.”

I stood up, grabbing my hair and exhaling a breath as I put some distance between us.

After a moment, she stood up and stormed up behind me. “I’m not damaged goods, you know. I may have been battered, but I’m not broken!”

“What?” I spun around. “What the hell are you talking about? I never said you were.”

“Then why the hell are you suddenly treating me that way? You’re acting so repulsed by me. Like I’m not good enough for you or something. If that’s not it, then what did I do?”

“Repulsed by you? Repulsed?” The laughter fell out of my mouth as I dropped my arms to my side, shaking my head. “I’m not repulsed by you, Lucia. The opposite, in fact. I’m so fucking desperate to kiss you I can barely look at you without falling apart. I’m not looking at you because I don’t want to torture myself, not because I’m repulsed by you. Christ, woman.”

“What? Why... why don’t you want to kiss me?”

“Because I’m not a dickhead who takes advantage of women. That’s not who I am.”

“Take advantage of me? What are you talking about? I’m practically throwing myself at you!”

“Yeah. Because I’m helping you. And I’m not going to let you think you need to do this to repay me or something.”

Her eyes widened. “Is that what you think?”

I scrubbed a hand down my face. “I don’t know. Maybe. But I’m not taking the risk until we get Luca back, and I know if your feelings are real. I couldn’t live with myself if you realized later that what you’re feeling for me is just some savior complex or something.”