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"I don't know anything, it seems," I argued defensively, trying to turn my head away from his. But his hands caught my face, framing it and holding my eyes with an intensity that scared me.
"I'm in love with you," he whispered, and I felt the sob that wracked my body at the sound of those words. Words I'd dreamed of hearing but couldn't believe. Everything was a lie. Why wouldn't this be too?
"Don't lie to me," I gasped, tugging my head back so hard that it cracked against the brick. He pressed on.
"I've been in love with you since I was a boy, Little Dove. In school, my father and uncle threatened to kill you and Ivory if we didn't stay away from you. Matteo got to have Ivory for a little while, because they never could have guessed she would come to mean so much to him. Who could have? It was high school. People don't fall in love like that when they're so young. But you?" He huffed a laugh. "My father knew what you were to me long before I did, and he was always trying to get me to push you away. When the threats against me, the beatings didn't work, he did the only thing that could keep me away from you."
"Don't," I sobbed.
"He threatened you. He threatened to take you from me, to kill you, to sell you. He threatened everything under the sun, and it got to the point that I knew he meant it. There was nothing I could do to stop him, except not be with you. I loved you too much to let him hurt you. I would have done anything to keep you safe, Samara. By the time Matteo had enough power and his father was gone, by the time I could have made you mine, you were married."
"Then why didn't you tell me how you felt when I told you about the divorce?" I whispered the words, refusing to believe the confession, the lies.
"I wanted you to be divorced before I made my move. I never planned on waiting long before we got married. Why do you think I was so fucking annoyed that you wouldn't let me hurry it along?" He chuckled, as if my inability to see how he felt was nothing but an indication of my stubbornness. As if anyone who looked could see how he felt about me. I glared at him, flinching back from his sigh. "I love you, Samara. I have always loved you. Needing to protect you only gave me an excuse to do what I already wanted."
"Lino. I can't—" I started to beg.
"Shh. I love you. I will tell you over and over again until you actually hear me. Until you listen." He took my hand in his, pressing it to his chest that thumped in a ferocious heartbeat that matched my own. "How can you not feel it? How can you not feel the way that we're connected, like we're two parts of the same whole?"
I clenched my eyes shut, trying to tune out the words, trying to tune out the world and just think. He took all my thoughts, turned me to mush, the second he got his hands on me. The minute he smiled.
"I love you, my wife," he repeated. "Tell me you don't love me, and I'll stop."
"Of course, I love you," I spat. "You know damn well I do!"
With a grin that broke my heart, he crashed his lips down on mine. There was no reprieve, no shoving him off.
And as soon as I felt his tongue touch my lip, I didn't even want to. I wanted to feel something that wasn't a lie. I shrank against him, melting into his arms despite myself. As soon as he pulled away, he hefted me into his arms. My head flew over his shoulder, facing the ground so suddenly that I screeched. "Put me down!"
"Not a fucking chance," he growled, storming down the alley and to the car that waited for him. Georgio hurried out of the driver's seat, helpfully opening the back door so that he could toss me in and climb in after me.
"Dammit, Lino. You can't just throw me in a car and take me home with you! I want to stay with Yavin." The door closed behind him with a hard thud, making me jump in my seat.
"Watch the road and call Matteo. Tell him I've got her, and he can inform everyone. Have him call Yavin and tell him I took her home."
"Yes, Sir." There was a smile in Georgio's voice as he hit buttons on the control console and spoke into the headpiece he stuck on his ear.
"Traitor!" I yelled, even if it was ridiculous. I'd always known Georgio's loyalty was to Lino, just like everyone else's, but it didn't change t
he fact that I liked the man. "Don't touch me!" I yelled when Lino's hands reached out to grab me. The streets of Chicago passed by in a blur as Georgio navigated through traffic like the expert he was. Lino grabbed my waist, tugging me over until I landed in his lap, and he could tug my arms behind my back and hold me like that.
"You just told me you loved me for the first time, and you thought I wouldn't shove you in the car and take you home? I won't fuck you in an alley. You deserve a castle and a knight, Samara. But you got me instead. I won't sully you more with an alley fuck where anybody could see what's mine."
I fought back the tears that burned my throat. I wouldn't give him that much of me, wouldn't cave to the lies he told, but God.
That look in his eyes as he stared up at me made my heart hurt. The thought that he could fake that— that he could look like he held the world in his hands when he looked at me, and not mean a thing.
"I love you," he murmured, and those eyes held mine, as if he could compel me to believe him.
Maybe he could, because my heart stuttered in my chest like it might try and reanimate. Come back to life. I shook my head to clear it. "Please, don't lie to me. Not about this. I can't, fuck, I can't take it. Please."
"Vita mia," he groaned. "You're killing me, Little Dove. Listen to me when I say I fucking love you."
Thump.
Thump.
Hope bloomed inside me when I really looked at him, really saw the way he looked at me as if he expected me to see inside him. There was no deception in his gaze, just raw, emotional love that made me want to sob in relief. "You promise?”
