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The night air was warm, and the outdoor lights made the water of the pool shimmer. It might have been romantic if I was actually happy to be marrying this man.
I spotted Lorenzo talking with his Capo. Not that he was difficult to find: I could sense his invasive gaze scorching me all evening, tracking me wherever I went, monitoring everyone I spoke to. His tall frame towered above most other people here; what really made him stand out, however, was the brooding aura that smoldered from him.
He replied to something Marco had just said to him, but his eyes remained on me as he spoke. I glanced down at the ring on my finger—it felt strange to be wearing it, especially as I rarely wore jewelry. I hated that he saw it as a sign of his ownership of me: just like a dog collar. What man in his right mind saw an engagement ring as a sign of owning someone? His ring, and his views, were beyond tacky.
I remembered again how he’d commanded me to never take it off, and how he’d told me earlier that he expected obedience from me…
If I took off my ring and ‘lost’ it on the very day he’d ordered me to never remove it, then that would definitely show him I was not a woman who would blindly obey him.
I discreetly slipped off my ring when Lorenzo wasn’t watching me, dropping it into the pool. If this didn’t make my refusal to obey him and my opposition to the marriage crystal clear, then nothing would.
Just then, I heard the sound system start up and looked over to see Benny on the turntables. He was wasted and had obviously decided to liven up the party.
As the opening beats of House of Pain’s ‘Jump Around’ started, I walked over to where Lorenzo was standing, walking up behind him so that he didn’t notice my approach.
“What’s with the hellish music?” Lorenzo griped to Marco, finding yet another reason to find fault with this evening. “Doesn’t anyone in this family have any taste?”
At that moment, Ma let out a loud screech as she caught sight of yet another one of her seven hundred cousins.
And I heard Lorenzo comment, “Christ—Ma Veneti and the whole fucking family are insufferable.”
I cleared my throat and took another couple of steps forward, stopping in front of him. My face made it clear that I’d heard what he’d just said about my mother and family.
Noticing my scowl, he spoke to me. “You weren’t supposed to hear that.”
“That’s okay then—you were only talkingbehind our backs.”
I deliberately wrapped my ringless left hand around the stem of my champagne glass, so that my bare finger was facing him. Let’s see how observant he actually was.
He began to speak again but stopped mid-sentence. “Where’s your ring?” he said tersely.
“Oh, I think it dropped in the pool.”
A muscle in his jaw tensed. “I told you to never take it off, so how did you manage that?”
“I was bored. I took it off and was fiddling with it and it dropped.”
“Where?” he barked. Good, I could tell he was angry.
“Um, I can’t remember,” I said. “Somewhere over there.” I waved vaguely to the huge pool, indicating the opposite end to where I had dropped it.
He marched over to the area I had pointed out, arching his neck to look into the water. “I can’t see it,” he snapped.
“Well, that’s where I dropped it…”
I wondered how long I could drag this out for. His fury was growing by each second that went by. By the time he managed to find it, he would be well and truly raging—and that was exactly what I wanted.
And then I had an idea.
I pushed him.
Hard.
And ran for my life.
Hurrying away, I heard a large, satisfying splash and the echo of him spluttering and swearing.
As people noticed what had happened, I reveled in the combined gasp that reverberated around me.
