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ChapterSixteen
It took a special kind of willpower to let Nina off my lap and watch as she traipsed up the stoop like a slim sprite, in her too-short shorts. Entering my family’s home next door, I first stopped by the kitchen to let my mother know Nina was joining us for dinner. For Nina’s sake, I gave her a vague excuse that she was helping me with Tasa. My mother gave me a startled look, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to spend time with Nina, especially after the scare she gave me earlier.
Bunica shot me a too-perceptive look from the stove, where she was stirring something in a big cast-iron pot, but I purposely ignored her and marched out of the kitchen. My family could have left Sunnyside years ago, after my father established himself in the Romanian mafie. While Sunnyside was the center of Romanian immigrants on the East coast, it was an average middle-class neighborhood, and most families moved out as soon as they could. If they couldn’t afford the Manhattan prices, they moved to Jersey, at the very least.
But Tata wanted to stay at the heart of his people. He remodeled the existing structure of this house, giving my mother the massive kitchen she’d always wanted and adding a few bedrooms on the second floor. Buying the building next door, he’d converted it into a commercial space and opened the Dacia Café, settling his headquarters above it. That was the office I took over after his death. Even though I had the opportunity, I didn’t move out. He always took pleasure in hearing Romanian intermingling with other Eastern European languages spoken by the old men and families that patronized the place. The café’s baked goods became popular in the neighborhood, and there were always kids running in and out to buy sweetbreads, a couple of papana?i donuts, or a slice of Joffre cake.
I trudged into the family room, where I ensconced myself to work. Normally, I used the office upstairs, across from Nina’s bedroom, but that would’ve been too distracting. The family room had the added benefit of being located off the foyer, so I could hear the doorbell when it rang. Later, Nicu and Luca showed up and joined me on the couch to watch a soccer game. Just as I had commanded, Nina was at the front door before seven o’clock.
I went to open it myself so I could get a moment with her before dinner.
Fuck, but she was stunning. Peeling off her coat, I smoothed my hands down the sides of her formfitting black crêpe dress and buried my face in her shoulder, drawing in the decadent vanilla-jasmine fragrance that was quintessentially Nina. Just one whiff, and I was an addict. She probably thought I was insane, earlier today, when I’d pursued her like a madman as she finished her run. But when I watched her from the car, alone and exposed, all I could see was my father getting mowed down by bullets. After catching her, I’d reigned in my fury because I knew she hadn’t countermanded my order on purpose, but fuck if it hadn’t been a close thing.
“Goddamn, you smell so good,” I murmured into her skin before taking a taste. Her head fell back, and she bared her throat to me like the good girl she was. I wanted to sink my teeth into her supple flesh, silky and smooth for the taking. “I can’t wait to be inside you again, baby.”
A throat cleared behind me, and I threw a glare over my shoulder at Nicu, who gave me a pointed look as he walked past. My mother and Bunica couldn’t creep up on me like my brothers, so I wasn’t too worried about them. I wasn’t too worried, period. I was doing this for Nina, and Nina alone. Like I’d told her, I was a grown man, and a sef to top it off. I didn’t do hiding.
“It’s going to be a special form of hell, this dinner. How am I going to keep my hands off you,” I confessed, my fingers digging into the flare of her hips from her small waist. “Or my mouth,” I added, nuzzling her petal-soft skin, giving it a little nip for good measure. She jerked against me, which had me groaning against her when her ass pressed into my hard dick.
“For fuck’s sake, will you stop,” grumbled Luca as he turned away.
Suddenly, the only thing I wanted to do was get Nina back into her coat, whisk her right out the front door, and hustle her into the car parked at the curb. I was desperate to get her alone. I was ready to strap her to the bed and get back into that tight, hot clutch. Even more than the pleasure of fucking her, she settled my ruffles. When I was around her, something unexplainable filtered through me in a place deep down and brought me calm. That, in itself, was priceless.
What I felt for her was something I’d never felt before, suspiciously resembling love.
Love?
I should scoff at the notion. Hell, I couldn’t afford that kind of sentiment. My family, my clan, required my undivided attention, not to mention arranged marriages to solidify alliances. Even if I managed to wiggle out of marrying Nelu’s daughter, assuming Luca played nice, I was expected of marry someone from a consequential family. Again, frustration snapped at my heels like a snarling mongrel. I loved my position as sef. I was born for it. Was molded into it. It had always been my calling. I took the sacrifices I had to make in stride, like dropping out of Columbia University after Tata’s death or starting a blood feud with the Bratva over it. Neither of those things were as hard as the possibility of giving up Nina.
“Like I said, a special hell,” I murmured against the curve of her ear before pulling away and hanging her coat in the hallway closet.
My mother hustled down the wainscoted hallway from the kitchen, wiping her hands on her apron. Clasping Nina to her chest, she made soft cooing noises. My mother had always had a soft spot for Nina, and she wasn’t one to suffer fools gladly. While she happily shared her role of matriarch with Bunica, she was a force to be reckoned with. She didn’t wield her power often, but she was fearless when necessary.
In many ways, Nina conformed to her notions of how a girl should behave much more than her own daughter did. More than once, she’d chastised Tasa and thrown Nina in her face as an example of how a proper lady should act. And more than once, she’d taken Nina aside to get her to influence Tasa. Not that it did much good.
Watching them together, I was doubly glad I’d insisted Nina come over. Her presence was a balm for my mother, and watching them together spread relief through my chest.
Pulling back to stare into Nina’s deep brown eyes, my mother said, “I should’ve called you, checked on you, but I’ve been beside myself with worry over Tasa. How are you, child?”
“I-I’m managing,” Nina stuttered. It pleased me to see how she struggled, knowing she was keeping something from my mother. If that was as good as she could do, I’d have no trouble catching her in a lie. Not that I expected her to lie or give me trouble. She ached to fulfill my wishes, to please me. One of the reasons we were so compatible.
Nina grasped my mother’s arms and redirected the conversation, “How are you holding up?”
My mother wiped her brow wearily. “Oh, you know, I toss and turn throughout the night, thinking about what she must be going through. She’s only twenty years old, and she’s been pampered her entire life. What does she know of the dangers of the world? Nothing, that’s what.” Peering at Nina closely, she declared, “You didn’t know anything about her plans, did you?”
“I did not,” Nina confirmed. “You know I would’ve tried to talk her out of anything rash. That’s why she hid it from me. If I thought she was going to do something like this, I would’ve told someone. She didn’t want to put me in the position of betraying her.” Nina’s eyes dipped down, obviously disturbed by the idea that she might have had to make such a choice.
I stepped in and placed my hand on her upper arm, “But you didn’t. You didn’t betray her trust.”
Her eyes lifted to mine, holding them. I read the dismay in them. The urge to bring her into my chest and kiss away her worries rode me hard.
“Didn’t I, though?” she countered in a soft, hesitant voice.
“No,” I replied firmly. “You did the right thing, Nina. Without you, we’d have no lead until it was far too late.”
“What have you found out, Alex?” My mother’s head whipped toward Nina. “Nina?”
“Come, let’s get out of the hallway and sit down,” I suggested, knowing that by moving us into the living room, my mother would go straight into hostess mode and back off from her interrogation. Nina already harbored enough guilt, as it was. She’d done the right thing, but she was loyal to a fault.
