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“Whatever you are trying to get at, tell me. I’m in no mood to play guessing games with you.”
Matteo crossed his arms around his chest. “It’s pretty clear that you and Carla are fucking one another.”
“Based on?”
Matteo looked at me incredulously. “Besides the fact that you two were looking at each other as though you wanted to fuck one another.”
My expression didn’t change. My brother did not know what the hell was going on. He was on a fishing expedition, but I wasn’t going to give him anything.
His eyes looked down at my crotch. “And your hard on might be something that you’d like to take care of.” This time he snickered, and I flexed my fingers in an effort to control my anger. These days, I was struggling to keep my emotions at bay, and if I were to explode, I knew there would be no coming back.
As if sensing how little control I had, Matteo released a heavy sigh. “Look, I don’t care what you and Carla do, but”—he paused and released a heavy breath—“and I can’t believe I’m saying this—are you sure that you aren’t making a mistake?”
“A mistake?”
It was rich of Matteo to ask such a question. One thing my brother loved was making bad choices. Most of my life had been spent trying to fix those mishaps.
“Carla’s entire family is basically dead. Her father clearly sent her here because he’s worried she’d be next.”
“And?”
Matteo looked as though he wanted to throttle me, and the sight nearly made me chuckle considering the roles were reversed from their normal. “And maybe you shouldn’t be screwing a girl who might be targeted by the cartel.”
I rolled my eyes. “Thanks for the concern,” I slapped a hand on his back as I walked towards the kitchen. “I appreciate it.” My tone was sardonic as I walked towards Luca and Ingrid.
I loved my brother, but he had no right to lecture me.
“Eli—”
Turning, I glared at my brother. “What is happening between me and Carla is not up for discussion,” I barked the order, and immediately, Matteo’s hackles rose. His eyes narrowed on me, and his shoulders tensed. “That’s final.”
I walked away, not giving Matteo a chance to say anything else. Whether Carla and I were a mistake or not didn’t matter. Even if I wanted to stay away from her, it was impossible. My father wanted me close, and so I would be.
Carla would be by my side for as long as I wanted her to be. The idea gave me a great deal of pleasure.
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
“This is delicious,” I said as I twirled some pasta around my fork. After my shower, I was surprised to see Luca and Ingrid setting dishes out on the table. Ingrid’s pretty face lit up when she saw me, and she’d announced that her and Luca brought dinner. “Black truffle is one of my favorites.”
I was feeling oddly chatty this evening and incredibly ravenous. Plus, focusing on Ingrid and my food allowed me to keep my eyes from Eli, which wasn’t easy. He’d showered after I’d come down, claiming that he needed to wash off his workout, and looking at the way the water clung to his hair made me squirm in my chair.
“I’m so glad,” Ingrid said. “I wasn’t sure what you liked, but pasta felt like a good mood.” She grabbed a piece of garlic bread. “Who doesn’t love carbs.”
I chuckled. Ingrid was a little more subdued than Sophia, but she had the same good-natured personality of my friend. I wondered if that light was what drew her boyfriend, Luca, in. And he was completely enraptured by her.
His entire body was attuned to her in a way that made a small sprig of jealousy awaken in my heart as I wondered what it would be like to have someone who cared about me as much.
“So.” Matteo’s deep voice broke me out of my revere. “Carla.” The way he said my name made my stomach clench slightly in fear. I recognized that tone. Matteo might be different from his brother in so many ways, but when they were angry, they were almost identical.
“Yes?” I did not allow my voice to change tone. Matteo was smaller than Eli in some ways, but he was still intimidating. I suspected that he used his size, money, and family name in order to exert power over people. Eli did.
But that wouldn’t work with me.
Matteo was a teenage boy, and there was something fun and careless about him that made it difficult for me to believe he would ever harm anyone.
“What exactly did you do to get outcast here to New York?”
The question caught me off guard, and immediately, my muscles stiffened. Matteo might not physically hurt me, but he wasn’t as toothless as he appeared.
