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"I am an old-fashioned man, Matteo. Shall we make this bond between us official?"
"I don't dictate who my men can or cannot marry. I don't believe in contractual marriages. You know this." Matteo stood, scrubbing a hand over his face. I glanced around at the men in the room as silence descended, taking a moment to consider who was available if it came to that. The men unmarried and high-ranking enough and to be an appropriate match were few and far between.
The knock on the door sounded jarring in the cavernous office, and Matteo sighed as he dropped his head to look at the floor.
"Perhaps one of your men will be willing to make a strategic matc
h regardless of your feelings on such a matter. My Aoife is a beautiful girl, much like her mother was. I assure you there was no bitterness when my father contracted my marriage for me." Liam grinned knowingly as he opened the door. It seemed wrong for a father to advertise his daughter in such a way, but I also knew it was just how the old-timers did things. Though Matteo didn't require it, many of his father's generation arranged marriages for their children as they came of age.
As the door swung open, all eyes turned to watch the young woman stride into the room, followed by a few of Liam's men. She only hesitated for a moment at the eyes that stared back at her, before she raised her chin defiantly and made her way to her father's desk. Her strawberry blond hair contrasted with her plum leather jacket; she was covered head to toe in black beneath it, from her black tank top to her skinny jeans to the pumps on her feet. As Liam approached her, I watched her cerulean blue eyes dart over to the wall where several of us stood. Her eyes met Yavin's, stalling and darting back to his unique grey eyes that studied her intently.
Her cheeks flushed, staining her fair skin damn near the color of her hair as she shook her head and turned her attention back to her father as he strode around to the other side of his desk once more. "You wanted to see me, Daddy?" she asked, a deep throaty voice that sounded like she belonged on the other side of a sex hotline.
"Your marriage to Tiernan will no longer be happening," Liam announced, and her shoulders sagged as a bright smile lit her face.
"Thank you," she said with a hitch in her breath. "Thank you for not making me go through with that sham of a marriage."
"You will marry one of Matteo's men instead," Liam announced. Aoife's cerulean eyes hardened as she glared up at her father momentarily. Her lungs heaved, and she gritted her teeth.
"No!" She stomped her foot, placing her hands on the edge of his desk and leaning into his space. "You promised me I could finish school. You swore to me I could at least have that before you sold me off like cattle because of your friendship with a dead man. I will not—"
"Me," Yavin said, placing his hands against the wall and stepping into the fray. Matteo slid his eyes to Yavin hesitantly, and they shared a moment between them where neither of them said a word. I watched the interaction, bouncing back and forth between the two of them and Aoife's glare where she stared at Yavin in disgust.
Matteo's face split into a grin that Ryker and Lino echoed, and I felt my own lips tip up into a smile. For the first time, I understood what Matteo saw in Yavin’s eyes. That knowing that came the first time we laid eyes on our women. Most couldn't relate.
Most could never understand, but men like us knew what was ours.
And we took it.
"Liam, it seems Yavin will accommodate your request for an alliance through marriage." Matteo chuckled. "More power to him," he added, giving Aoife a cursory glance. Her lips twisted into a grimace.
"And who is Yavin to you?" Liam asked, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Yavin manages Tease," Lino inserted. "He primarily works in the legitimate sector of our business, but he's one of us. He is my wife's brother, so he is a Bellandi through marriage, though his connection to us goes back to childhood."
"He's Irish," Ryker said with a laugh. "It's kind of serendipitous."
"What the fuck do you know about serendipity?" Simon asked him with a laugh and a punch to the arm. "The lot of you are insane."
"Half Irish," Yavin corrected, never taking his eyes from Aoife once Matteo freed him from their stare down.
"The man who marries my Aoife will take over my family. I am afraid you will need to find yourself someone new to run Tease, if we agree to this match," Liam said, his lips curving up. "The business knowledge should come in handy with our legal enterprises. Is he capable of such an undertaking? If I teach him what I know?"
Matteo nodded. "He's a good man. A fast learner. He'll be capable of heading your organization, and he'll always have our help behind him." Studying Yavin's face, I watched as the kind words struck him in the chest. It was no secret Yavin had separated himself from the Bellandis to some extent after Lino married Samara. The betrayal had been personal for him, to touch and take his sister when they'd all grown up together.
I suspected he understood the inclination a little more now that he'd felt that instantaneous desire for himself. I'd never understood it until Sadie, either.
Liam’s man who had followed Aoife into the office chuckled, trailing doubtful eyes over Yavin. With his leaner build that resembled Lino’s more than the rest of ours, he was easy to question when enclosed in a room with men like Ryker and Matteo. “He couldn’t handle Aoife,” the guard said, turning smiling eyes back to Liam.
Yavin moved quickly, like I’d taught him. His knuckles connected with the guard’s throat, making him sputter for the breath Yavin stole from him as he backed a step away from Aoife. When his hand went for the gun in his holster, Yavin shot his other hand forward and grabbed the barrel. Twisting it out of his grip, he pressed it to the guard’s forehead. His face didn’t so much as twitch to betray any emotion as he cocked his head to the side. “You were saying?”
The man’s glare settled on Yavin, hatred like ice between the two men. There would be no love lost there when Yavin took over O’Connell’s syndicate. Softening his expression only slightly, Yavin spun the gun in his hand and held it out for the other man to snatch back.
"It sounds like a promising match," Liam said with a pleased grin, jotting down a note to himself. "The Irish heritage pleases me, even if it is only half."
"You cannot be serious! I've never even met him!" Aoife snarled, her fingers tightening around his desk.
"I'll not leave you unprotected if something happens to me. Girls like you need husbands to keep you safe, Aoife. Otherwise you end up a casualty of war."
