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“Only for me to have fucked myself. No one in the family would take them because of all the shit I already said about the girls. It’s why I was happy you came to me, but not if you’re going to put her in danger.” Carlo narrows his eyes on me.
“She will not be in danger. I will protect my wife with all that I am. I have more than one hundred and thirty-eight men doing business for me here in Chicago. My personal security numbers twenty-seven men to protect me, my two brothers, and my mother. I have eyes and ears everywhere. I am also plugged in with Diego Valdez, who Dominic can attest to being one of the best in security in nearly the whole damn world. It is why I want to marry as soon as possible and have her behind the walls of my home. No one will get to her.”
Anxiety threatens to overwhelm me. How the hell could I have missed another threat out there to Celia?
“Say yes, Carlo. Please. I trust in him. I’ve been checking into him. I believe he will keep Celia safe,” Cassandra pleads.
Sighing, he nods. “Fine. Thirty days.”
Now that everything is out, the negotiation goes quickly. Carlo doesn’t seek half of what he could. He admits with a shrug that with his issues of a lack of an inheritor it doesn’t matter much to him after all.
Less than ten minutes later everything is sorted and signed off. Every second after, my skin grows tighter at the prospect of seeing Celia again.
The moment I’m in the back of my car, I check my phone to see Celia is already on the way to my home. As usual my dearkotyonokhad fought against my orders. I cannot hide my smile of satisfaction. This day is ending better than I hoped.
Shit, it was only due to the threat out there to Celia. I make a call to Valdez and relay everything Carlo told me with the order he find out who it could be. He tells me it could be both easier and harder to investigate an ongoing threat more than twenty years old. People would have died, thus disqualifying them but there was also all this time for the person to hide deeper. He asked me to give him at least a week with the issue. I told him he had it.
As I consider the issue of this second threat, I wonder if I should tell Celia the truth of Carlo’s feelings toward her. Remembering the look on his face as he described her as a baby, all I could do was wonder how he could be the same man who laughed wickedly when I shrugged and said all women were the same in the dark, just to prevent him knowing the only woman I wanted in the dark was Celia. I decide it is not my truth to tell.
The date of our wedding was set for thirty-one days from now—a Saturday for us to find a church. We had not pinned down the particulars of the wedding deciding to leave it to Celia, my mother and Cassandra to plan.
Carlo was pushing for a large Catholic Church wedding. Considering Celia was not a churchgoer and my mother was a churchgoer at Saint George, a Russian Orthodox church, those two things were rather far apart. Also Russian churches are not large enough to fit even half of the nearly three hundred guests Carlo demanded be invited. Adding in my family’s list somewhere in the same number—I am not sure we will agree on a church. It might be easier to have it at my home in my garden beneath a tent. Since it will be the last week of June, it might still be cool enough.
I shake my head. I don’t care where or how it happens, I just want it done and over and my ring on Celia’s hand.
Finally there will be an end to four long years of need that started on a freezing February morning.
Even all these years later, I remember that day like it was yesterday. I’ve lived it almost nightly, going over every moment that mattered, every word she spoke, every touch.
Four Years Ago
“Carlo issuch a pain in the ass. I prefer dealing with Dom by and large.” Aleksander sighs.
I shake my head. “And that is why we have to play this game. Dom says the last few times he mentioned our business to Carlo that Carlo bristled. We need to pay our respects or we run the risk of him making things difficult. It does not matter how much money we make the Outfit, Carlo would cut off his nose to spite his face when it comes to feeling disrespected.”
A pounding on the hood of our SUV tears my attention from Aleksander.
“What the fuck?” Aleksander mutters.
A woman is yelling and cursing at Danil, our driver. Considering it’s more than a thousand feet between homes in the quiet neighborhood, the woman could only come from Carlo’s home. What the fuck indeed?
Stepping out of the car, I find her pounding on my driver’s window. She is not wearing a hat so her long chestnut hair is blowing in the wind. Her round high cheeks are red from the cold. In profile her pert nose is downright cute.
Her complete focus is on my driver, glaring at him. If looks could kill, Danil would be stone cold. “Maylshka, is there a problem?”
When she turns to me I’m shocked to find she has gray eyes. They are gunmetal gray then become bright silver. Those eyes do not match her toffee-colored skin, should they not be a soft brown or even black? That has to be the reason I cannot look away from them. Her mouth is sexy as fuck, soft, plush, wide and opens in surprise at me. At the feel of her eyes running over me, a shudder runs through me that has nothing to do with the cold. It is unlike anything I have ever felt before, filling me with unease.
I cannot believe she doesn’t feel the cold blowing through her long hair. Hair I want to tame by wrapping it around my fist, using it to control her.
Once she has the kitten her entire demeanor changes. Her smile down at the kitten is stunning. I want that smile directed at me. Then she simply turns and begins walking away. Hell no, she isn’t going anywhere.
She’s shocked at my order to get into my vehicle, when she tries to get away I don’t even hesitate to pick her up and put her inside. Fuck, that was a mistake as my body goes hard once I have her in my arms. Closing the door, I signal to Danil to lock it. I’m not letting her go.
The electric shock that ran through me from touching her is something I had no idea was possible. What in the fuck is that? I’ve never felt anything like it before—it’s clear she hasn’t either and was as stunned by it as I am.
The kitten meows and her eyes are torn from mine without hesitation. I find that while I’m thankful for the kitten getting her into my vehicle, I resent the fuck out of it for stealing her attention.
I had no idea a woman could be adorable and sexy at the same time. I cannot wait to get her into my bed and discover more thoroughly the curves pushing out of the top of the seat belt.
