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She did need him, too. He understood that now. She needed him not just for protection, but love, and patience and compassion. Jill was battered and bruised from fourteen years of fear and intimidation. It would take time for her to learn to trust people again. Hopefully she could trust him.
Hopefully she understood that she was safe with him. Hopefully she understood that here in Paterno she was finally safe. Home.
Crouching next to her, he buried his hand in her tangled curls and gently lifted her face to his. Her eyes shone, glimmering with tears.
“Don’t cry, cara. No one will hurt you ever again. I promise you that,” he said huskily, angered that her father had failed to protect his daughters, angered that the government had failed to protect her sister. “I will protect you. I will always protect you.”
Emotion darkened her eyes. “But you don’t even know who I am.”
He stared deep into her eyes, looking so intently that he felt as if he could see the shy little girl inside the woman. “You are Jillian d’Severano. Joe’s mother and my wife.”
Her eyes turned liquid and she blinked hard. “Would you feel the same way if you knew my father was Frank Giordano?”
For a moment Vittorio couldn’t breathe. His mind darkened. Frank Giordano was the scum of the scum. A man so selfish and self-serving he’d turned on his own organization to keep himself from serving time. “Frankie’s your father?”
She nodded and tears clung to her lower lashes. “I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault,” he said, voice sharper than he intended. He’d wondered these past two days if she was possibly related to Frankie Giordano. He’d hoped, even prayed she wasn’t. There was a lot of bad blood between his family and Frank Giordano. Very bad blood. His father would be sick that Vitt had married Frank’s daughter.
“You’re upset,” she whispered, reading his expression.
“You didn’t commit any crimes, Jill. You are not responsible for your father.”
“But I am.” She ground her teeth together. “I am responsible for my family’s name, just the way you are responsible for yours. And I know I’m not the kind of person your family would want you to marry. I know they’d be horrified to discover Joe was the grandson of Frank Giordano—”
He cut off her tortured words with a kiss because he couldn’t bear to hear more. Because she was right. His family had fought for twenty years to escape the taint of being connected to the mafia, and having the daughter of Detroit’s most infamous mob boss be Vittorio’s wife wouldn’t help the d’Severano reputation, but Vitt had chosen her because he loved her.
He loved her.
The truth exploded within him, searing his mind and heart. He’d loved her all this time. It was love that drove him to search for her after she disappeared without a word from the villa in Bellagio. It was love twisted with pain when he discovered that Jill had given birth to a son.
He knew the child was his.
Just as he’d known from the first time he spotted Jill in the hotel lobby in Istanbul that she was meant for him.
&nbs
p; Her lips quivered beneath his and her mouth tasted salty from her tears.
“Shh.” He comforted her, his hand cupping her face, caressing her warm flushed cheek. “It’s okay. I promise you, everything is okay.”
“I will always be a danger to your family,” she whispered against his mouth, her voice faint, unsteady.
He drew back to look into her eyes. “You are not a danger—”
“There are bad people out there, Vittorio. Bad people who are determined to find my father.”
“Then they’ll have to go through me, cara, because they cannot have you. They can not touch you. I make that promise to you as a d’Severano, and a d’Severano always keeps his word.”
She gazed up at him, torn between hope and concern. “Will your family feel the same way?”
“This is my home. You are my wife. If anyone in my family has a problem with you or your past, they don’t need to come here—”
“Vittorio!”
“I mean it. Yes, I’ve worked hard to restore the d’Severano honor and fortune, and I will never regret the sacrifices I made to take care of my family, but my loyalty is to you, and our son.”
Jill reached up to lightly touch his face, her fingers infinitely gentle on his cheek and jaw. “You really mean that?”
