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He catches my hand and brings it up to his lips, pressing a kiss on the inside of my wrist. His electric gaze set on mine, he gives me his full undivided attention. From a man as powerful and dominant as Gio, it evokes a flutter of nerves.
“What about you?” he asks. “Have you been treated okay? Louis told me my brother refused to let you go.”
Shame is immediate, a heatwave enflaming me. My skin flushes hot, my mind darkening with its poisonous thoughts. So far I’ve managed to push aside any thought of Giancarlo and what happened, but now it’s returned in the worst, most sudden way.
Right under Gio’s stare as I lay in his arms.
I blink and interest myself with his chiseled jawline, counting hair follicles from his growing beard.
I haven’t practiced what to say. How to explain what happened. How to make sense of it when I can’t remember the details. The last time I was in this position, Ididknow the details of what happened, and I wasstillblamed.
Without even trying, I’m like Gio traveling to the past. The day I told Mom what Mac did is one I’ll never forget. I’d waited ’til he was out of the house, hoping I could get her to listen without his influence. It hadn’t worked.
She’d screamed at me, called me every bad name she could think of. Everything but her daughter. I was the fast girl who seduced her boyfriend. I was the evil bitch that tried stealing him away.
In a fucked up kind of way, Mom’s reaction hurt more than the assault itself. It’s a trauma I had to learn to block out, because otherwise, the memory breaks me all over again.
My chest pulls tight. The pain is so real, it takes me a second to even remember how to breathe. Where do I begin? Will he believe me? Will it change how he feels about me?
“Falynn,” Gio says when a moment has passed and I still haven’t answered. He sweeps his fingers along my ear, pushing hair from my face. “I’ve told you I don’t like your silence. It tells me something is wrong.”
“I’m….I’m still in shock at what’s happened…”
“Was Louis right? Were you unable to leave? You were on the run today.”
“I was kept in the penthouse. At first I was so out of it, so upset over you, I didn’t really know where I was. I couldn’t bring myself to care. But then I found out Louis was leaving,” I say, still unable to look him in the eye. It’s easier to close mine and focus on saying the words. “I asked to leave….but he told me no. He refused. Your brother, there’s something off about him.”
Gio grits his teeth. “He had no right to hold you hostage in the penthouse. His intention to do so tells me he was claiming my life as his own.”
“He seemed to think…he thinks I’m…”
I’m his. And he…
A knock at the door interrupts us. Gio springs up, already on alert. He’s kept his firearm on the bedside table.
Louis speaks from the other side of the door. “Gio? Sorry, uhh, to interrupt you two. Claro’s on the phone.”
“Tell him another time.”
“He’s just found out you’re alive. So has your father. He says they want a word.”
Gio’s face contorts into a deep scowl. He wrenches the sheets off him and storms to the closet for a pair of sweatpants. Even he can’t disregard a phone call from his father, the Don.
“It’s late. Get some rest,” he says to me on his way to the door. “This might take a few hours. I’m not sure what they want. Things are very…complicated right now.”
The door thuds shut before I can utter a protest. I can’t be upset at his abrupt departure. The mafia is the mafia, and you don’t wait when certain matters come up. In comparison, our pillow talk isn’t high on the priority list.
Tension still pulses through my body. If anything, it’s worse now, forced to potentially wait hours to say what I was going to say. A breath blows out of me as I clench my eyes shut and will myself to fall asleep. It’s the quickest way to get to the morning, when Gio returns, and I can tell him.
I can brace for the worst and hope for the best.
Gio’s still on the phone when I wake. It’s bright, the morning sun out. He’s up and out of bed, standing naked facing the window. He must’ve returned to bed at some point and then woken up to another phone call. I rub sleep from my eyes and watch him for a second. Right away it’s clear it’s one ofthosecalls. Maybe a sequel to the one from last night.
I slide from underneath our wrinkled, sex-scented sheets and slip on the satin robe I’ve claimed as my own from the fully stocked closet. Gio hardly notices me slinking toward the bedroom door as he stands in the buff, facing the window, engrossed in the phone call. It doesn’t sound like anything good. Tense more than anything.
By the time he’s done, I’ll return with some coffee for the both of us. Maybe some breakfast if I can figure out how to operate anything in the smart kitchen. The appliances are stainless steel, state-of-the-art, and resemble something you’d see in a science lab.Thenwe can talk. I can tell him.
I’m footsteps away from the kitchen when I catch a few words of Tasha and Louis’s conversation.
