AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Business.” The skin under his fingers was as smooth as the silk of the sleeve brushing the tops of them. “You?”
“Pleasure.” She probably intended her smile to be haughty, but it was too wobbly around the edges. “I’m meeting Enzo. Let go of me, Roman.”
Instead, he stroked his thumbs over her skin just so he could watch her pupils dilate in response. “Don’t know if that’s smart. Last time I obeyed that command, I got slapped.”
She lifted her chin—her eyes flashed danger now instead of desire. “You deserved it.” She focused her eyes on his jaw. “Though it looks like Enzo did a much better job than I did.”
He dropped his hands and scowled. “He had an unfair advantage. He was sober.”
A week ago, she would have laughed. Today she just folded her arms protectively across her stomach and prepared to step around him. “Good day, Mr. O’Reilly.”
“Hey, wait.” He took hold of her arm again, even though he wasn’t sure what he wanted to say to her. He just knew it needed to be said, so he steered her out of the foot traffic and against the building. Then he realized what bothered him. “Why are you meeting Capecce, anyway? I thought you two broke up.”
She lifted her perfectly sculpted brows. “Where would you get that idea?”
“I ran into Rob at the courthouse Saturday morning. He said Mary thought you were finally coming to your senses about him.”
She rolled her sienna eyes. “Mary tends to project her own desires onto reality. No. Enzo’s agreed to give me another chance.” She held up her left hand in proof, though all he could see through her dainty little lace glove was the bulge where her engagement ring had always lived. “Not that it’s any of your business. Now if you’ll excuse me?”
He didn’t move out of her path or even drop her arm. “Are you stupid, Sabina? You can’t marry that guy.”
“‘That guy’ is the best man I’ve ever known,” she said with enough venom to turn it into an accusation. She tugged at her arm, but he refused to release it.
“No he’s not. He’s a blasted lawyer for the blasted mob.” Something flashed in her eyes at that—a combination of guilt and anger that he couldn’t begin to unravel on a busy Chicago street. Besides, there was an even stronger point to make.“You don’t love him.”
It was a mistake. He realized it the moment the words left his lips. She jerked her elbow free but didn’t storm off. Rather, she poked him in the chest with an angry finger. “What do you know about love anyway? And who are you to judge me about who I decide to marry? I do love him!”
He glanced to either side to see how much attention they were drawing, but no one seemed to pay them any heed. Good. Still, he pitched his voice low. “Not like that. You’re still in love with me, Sabina.”
She spat a Sicilian phrase that painted a very colorful picture of her opinion of him. He grinned. His mother would love her—a thought he’d had way too many times. The Sicilian fire, the Sicilian dedication to family, the Sicilian obstinance. She’d have had one conversation with Sabina and started picking out names for grandchildren.
Sabina curled her hand into a fist, just like Ma did when she was barely hanging onto her temper. “I feel nothing for you but loathing.”
She had to be lying—maybe she wanted to loathe him, but hearts didn’t change that quickly, even when reason said they should. And her heart was his. He’d wooed it like her idiot fiancé hadn’t bothered to do. He’d won it. He’d given her something she needed, and that didn’t just go away. He lifted a hand to trace one of the waves of hair framing her face. “Well, I’m still in love with you.”
She swatted his hand away, but that wasn’t what surprised him. No, what really got him was the total disdain on her face. “Oh please. How stupid do you think I am, Roman? You pulled me into the middle of a gunfight.”
“I acted without thinking.” When that excuse did nothing to soften her expression, he tried again. “I knew they’d stop firing when they saw you.”
“You threatened to kill me.”
“Oh, like we didn’t all know that was a bluff!”
She rolled her eyes and tried to push past him. He stopped her again, gazing into the wells of her eyes. He hadn’t meant to fall for her—but how could he not? She was everything he’d tried not to want, everything sweet and stable. She was the kind of girl who cared more about a happy home than a night on the town. The kind of girl who deserved so much better than this world into which she’d been born. He let out a long breath. “Sabina…I’m sorry, okay? I know what I did to you was wrong, but you’ve got to believe me when I say that’s not how I wanted things to end between us.”
The apology achieved what excuses hadn’t—her expression softened from disdain to exasperation. “Well how did you think it would end? Even if I hadn’t been there on Thursday, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome.”
“I know, but…” At a loss, he stabbed his hand into his pocket. “I guess I hadn’t thought about it ending at all. I was too caught up in it. Maybe I hoped I could take him down without you realizing it was me, that we could still run off together.”
She stared at him as if he had taken leave of his senses. Maybe he had. “Roman—I’m not an idiot. I would have figured it out.”
“Yeah, probably. But if I already had my ring on your finger by the time you did…” He reached absently to pick up her left hand, ran a thumb over that stupid diamond that had taunted him for months.
She shook her head and pulled her fingers free. “I’m not as forgiving as Enzo.”
She prepared to move off again, which lit a burning panic inside him. “Sabina—you need to get away from this life.”
She took a step to the side. “I will. By marrying Enzo.”
