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Damian steppedout of the shower, dried off, and padded barefoot into the bedroom. It was still dark out, but when he tuned his eyes to the bed, Aria wasn’tthere.
He dressed in a hurry, fighting panic as he pulled on jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt and headeddownstairs.
Relief flooded his body as he turned the corner into the kitchen and spotted her near the coffee pot, pouring coffee into two cups. He leaned against the door, enjoying the view of her from behind even though she was in loose pajama pants and a white T-shirt. She preferred to sleep naked, was unselfconscious about walking around bare-assed when they werealone.
He was glad she’d stifled the preference in recent days. The number of guards in and around the house had increased exponentially in preparation for the raids on the Fiore and Anastos territories, and god knows he’d have to kill any man who dared to look at hernaked.
“You’re up early,” hefinallysaid.
She turned around slowly, like she’d already known he wasthere.
“I wanted to see you off,” she said, bringing him one ofthecups.
“I wanted to see you sleeping,”hesaid.
She kissed him lightly on the lips. He caught the smell of sleep and sex on her skin. “That’s a little creepy, DamianCavallo.”
He laughed and took one of the cups, drinking some of the dark brew as he watched her cross back to the counter for her own coffee. The house was still quiet, a cocoon of warmth against the cold outside, against thecomingwar.
“I fucking hate leaving you here alone,”hesaid.
“I’m hardly going to bealone.”
She was right. He wouldn’t leave Cole — that would be an insult to his underboss on the day of the raid on strongholds belonging to Fiore and Anastos — but he was leaving six of his best men to guard thehouse.
Toguardher.
“You know what I mean,”hesaid.
She smiled. “You could always take mewithyou.”
“You’re funny,” he said, setting down his cup and goingtoher.
He wrapped his arms around her waist, savored the feel of her arms going around his neck, the softness of her body pressedagainsthis.
They’d already talked about the possibility of her coming with him — and it had been a hard no. He’d been surprised she didn’t fightharder.
Surprised andrelieved.
Since they’d arrived at the house in Westchester, she’d spent a significant amount of her free time not in the greenhouse as he’d expected, but at the firing range. She’d tried a wide variety of weapons, timing herself as she loaded them, taking pride in the punctured silhouettes of the targets once they’d made their way upthelane.
It had unnerved him at first. This was a different side to her — a different side to the woman who had loved nothing more than sinking her hands intofertilesoil.
But he understood. She’d been in Capri when Anastos’s men had shot at them, forced to cower while Damian tried to fight off five other men. She’d been helpless in the apartment inAthens.
She didn’t want to be helplessanymore.
He didn’t want her to feel helpless either, which was why he’d spent so much time setting her up in the firing range, showing her the different weapons, staying until she got comfortable and competent enough to handle them onherown.
He reached a hand to her face and brushed his knuckles against her satiny cheek. “I’llmissyou.”
Her expression was serious. “I’ll miss you too. Promise me you’ll becareful.”
“I’ll be as careful as I can while putting an end to this.” He wasn’t going to lie to her. Which brought him to the other subject he’d been avoiding. “I can’t promise you Primo’ssafety,Aria.”
He didn’t speak the words lurking in his mind: that he wanted Primo dead, that he was willing to pull the trigger himself if it came to it because she would never truly be safe as long as Primo wasalive.
