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“What’s on your mind?”
“You really want to know?”
His Italian attracted my body to turn, even as his slow and rough tone warned. I shouldn’t want to. I knew that. At least not while death grasped him tightly.
“Yes.”
I waited and waited, and when I realized he wouldn’t reply, Lucca spoke in raw honesty.
“Your jade greens.” My mouth shut as he paused, and his voice deepened. “Opened. Lifeless.” I held onto the cover. “Dead.”
My eyes closed, defeated. There was a burst of emotion inside me bubbling up. Quickly, I suppressed it. It was one thing for him to detest me, hate me even, but did he really wish me dead?
“Is that what you wish?”
Lucca took too long to reply. With every second that passed, the deeper my heart sank.
I would be married to a man who longed for my cold body.
Eventually a reserved, “No,” fell from his lips. My eyes opened as if I could see his reaction, and instead, I met the murderous timbre of his words. “It’s what others wish.”
“And yet, it’s not a new threat.”
It wasn’t. A title in the Mafia came with a bounty. Even before being given to Lucca, I was aware of who I was. Aprincipessa, a daughter of a mob boss. If anything, my head had much more value as a wife of one. A curse I was born with. One that kept me attentive to threats, and one that reminded me why I had to learn to protect myself.
“Perhaps.” He too knew. There was more he didn’t say. More he wouldn’t disclose.
A thought swept through our conversation. An opportunity I couldn’t waste as I spoke in the darkness. It was a wild thought to his menacing aura, and it could break the sensitive and slim composure he held.
But I took the chance with a fickle heart.
“If you could just allow my—”
“Not now, Katia,” Venom spat, cutting out any ideas and possibilities.
I ignored his wrathful tone, a dumb decision, but now that I could practically feel the cold blade of my missing knives, I dared.
“You know it’s safer for me to carry.”
“Sleep, Katia.”
“I won’t bring it to our bed.”
Silence.
“Just. One.”
The stiff air held me in a chokehold, and my chest heaved as it fought from its bitter smother. Losing control and urging for a win.
“Please, Lucca.” Vulnerable. Raw.
And I felt gutted by my own blades.
“Don’t make me regret it.”
I could practically cry in screams of triumph. I swallowed them all, and instead bit my smile as my shoulders caved in victory.
Without thinking, my arm stretched blindly until it met his stiff body. His muscles tensed beneath my fingers, but I allowed his warmth to resist from pulling back. A reaction so unintentional and yet so sincere.
