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Chapter Nineteen - Luca
For a second, I’m sure I couldn’t have heard what I think I heard. “Come again?” I ask while my brain tries to catch up.
“Bernardi. This can’t happen. One of you has to be the smart one who ends it before it goes too far, and it’s obviously not going to be him. So it has to be you, right?”
On one hand, she is breathtaking. Cheeks flushed, eyes sparkling, her chest rising and falling rapidly in time with her breathing.
On the other, she just barged into my study and told me what to do. “Who told you I was shopping around for opinions on this?”
Her eyelashes flutter and she falls back a step. “Don’t do that.”
“Again, telling me what I should and shouldn’t do.”
She narrows her eyes and folds her arms, and now I know I’m in trouble. It’s trouble I welcome, though, perverse as it might make me. This is the last thing I need to expend mental energy on, but I can’t help it. It’s too tempting. She’s too tempting. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was walking in on the chauvinist caveman version of Luca. Why don’t I step out into the hall for a second so you can do a quick costume change?”
“I know you think you’re being clever right now, but this isn’t the time.”
“And I know you’re the big, bad mafia boss, but this isn’t the time to be stubborn and pretend you don’t know what I’m trying to say.”
I rise slowly, holding her gaze the entire time. She’s unflinching, her chin jutted out far enough that I worry she’ll trip on it. She even has her hip cocked out to the side. What an unfortunate time for my dick to wake up and ask what’s going on. What is it about her that does this to me? If she were just about any other woman in the world, I’d tell her where to put her opinion before offering to shove it there myself.
“Where is this coming from? What brought this on?”
“Common sense.” Her shoulders rise in a defensive hunch. “Does it have to be anything more than that?”
“Considering you barged in here and told me how to do my business, yes.”
“Your business, your business.” She scoffs with a dramatic roll of her eyes. “Spare me, would you? You have things to protect. Lives to protect. What’s more important than that?”
“So you want me to, what? Get on my knees for this guy? Why don’t I step aside and let him take whatever he wants while I’m at it? Why not make it easy for him?”
“This black-and-white thinking of yours.”
“This overly emotional female thinking of yours.”
She grinds her teeth, her face flushing darker. “That’s low.”
“Tell me I’m wrong.”
“you’re wrong. It’s not overly emotional thinking.” It’s my turn to scoff, which makes her march the rest of the way across the room so we’re standing toe to toe. “And so what if it is, anyway? Emotion has to play a part in this. Lives are important. People are important. Hasn’t there already been enough death?”
“Where is this coming from? And don’t tell me you suddenly care about my family. Don’t act like you’re concerned for Scott or Rob or Marco.” I shouldn’t, but I can’t help it. “Unless it’s my brother you’re worried about. I know the two of you have become friends.”
“Don’t even go there.”
“Then what is it?”
“What are you trying to get me to say?”
“I’m trying to get you to explain what gives you the right. You don’t tell me what to do. Nobody does.”
Somehow, she manages to jut her chin out even further. “That’s the kind of attitude that gets people killed.”
“So is believing there’s a way to negotiate your way out of every problem. It all depends upon the person you’re dealing with, and you don’t understand who I’m dealing with.”
“That’s no excuse. Don’t you understand you could get yourself killed?” It’s not the fact that she says it, but rather the way she averts her gaze all of a sudden that tells me we’ve finally reached the point.
Damned if it doesn’t make my cock twitch again. “So it’s me you’re worried about.”
