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My lips twitched at that bit of news. “And what did Renzo have to say about that?”
“He brushed it off,” she grumbled disappointingly. “He said that she was just throwing a tantrum, and the last thing that Fia was capable of was bringing down a Sartori.”
“Yet, you think that she’s serious enough to tell me,” I surmised.
“No matter howspoiled or self-absorbed my sister is, she’s still my sister,” Kasen remarked. “For better or for worse, she’s my blood, and I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I just stood by and did nothing as she put herself in harm’s way.” My wife sighed again. “I even mentioned the baby, but she refused to listen to reason. Papa had dismissed it as hormones, but…I’m not willing to take that chance.”
I regarded my wife carefully. “So, what are you asking of me, Kasen?”
“Even though Fia isn’t a real danger to you, your men don’t know that,” she answered. “I’m…I’m asking you to take her…emotional state into consideration if she really does try to go through with this.”
“You’re asking me to lether kill me, is that it?”
“Of course, not,” she snapped. “I’m asking that youdon’t order your men to kill her on the spot.”
“Why not?” I stubbornly asked. “It’s what I’d do with anyother enemy that was trying to take me down.” I cocked my head to the side again. “In fact, not once since the betrothal agreement has your sister shownmeany consideration. Yet, you’re asking me to showhersome? C’mon,il mio cuore.”
Kasen shook her head. “This was a mistake,” she muttered. “Just…forget I said anything. I’ll try to talk to my father again, maybe even talk to Fia-”
“Well, while I’d love to grant your wish, it’s kind of hard to forget someone wanting to kill you,” I pointed out. “Especially, when my enemy claims to know someone that’s willing to do the job for them.”
Her face looked troubled again, and I felt the weight of it on my chest. “I just don’t want anything happening to my sister, even if she does deserve it. It would destroy my family.”
While this wasn’t how I had wanted this to go, I’d be a fool to ignore the boon that just landed in my lap. “So, let’s say that I explain to my men that my sister-in-law is just out of her mind with grief, and the attempts on my life are just a combination of that grief and pregnancy,” I posed. “What’s in it for me,il mio cuore?”Her back immediately straightened. “What do you think I deserve as an even tradeoff for allowing your sister to continuously hire people to try to kill me?”
After a brief second, she asked, “What would you want?”
It was clear as day on her face that she was expecting me to say sex, and while that would be a huge part ofthis bargain, it wasn’t the most important. I didn’t want just sex from Kasen. Since I could get that anywhere if I chose, that’s not what this was.
I reached out, slid my finger in the waistband of her pencil skirt, then yanked her forward. To her credit, she didn’t stumble, even when I let her go. With those bright hazel eyes staring up at me through those black lashes of hers, I knew for a fact that I wanted more than just sex from this woman.
I wanted everything.
“I want you to treat this like a real marriage,” I answered. “I want you to quit punishing me for something that your sister and Mano did. I want you to lower those reinforced walls of yours and act like mywife. I want you to recognize that it wasyour sister’s choicesthat led you to be here. No matter what, we would not be married today if your sister knew what it meant to possess any honor.”
“And if I don’t agree?” she asked, her voice low and husky.
“Then I will instruct my men to treat your sister like I would any other enemy that was threatening me and my kingdom,” I replied easily. “At the end of it all, I owe Fia Milano nothing.”
“Once again, you’re giving me a choice that’s not a choice at all,” she replied, her voice a bit frosty. “It’s come to heel or destroy my family.”
“Those are still choices,il mio cuore,”I pointed out. “While they might not be the ones that you want to be able to choose from, they’re still choices.”
That troubled look appeared again, but I couldn’t let that sway me this time.This was my one chance to put our marriage on a different path, so I couldn’t let that anxious look in her eyes derail me.
“And what would that mean?” she asked. “What is a real marriage to you?”
“For starters, you quit calling me Mr. Sartori,” I replied. “Secondly, you make the time to share a meal with me. I don’t care if it’s breakfast or dinner, especially since I work odd hours myself, but I do expect it to be one or the other. You’ll also change all your legal documents to reflect your married name as soon as possible and quit walking around here like you’re a guest in this house.” She licked her lips, no doubt wanting to tell me to go eat a dick. “You will also quit treating Rafael as if he’s to blame for any of this. His job is to protect you, and it’s his life if he doesn’t.”
That sobered her up quickly. “Of course,” she murmured.
Reaching outagain, I pulled her black ponytail across her shoulder, then twirled some of the strands around my finger. I couldn’t wait to see the ebony curtain laid out on the pillowcases of our bed, her naked body warm underneath the sheets.
“Finally, startingnow, I want you laying in our bed every single night, those legs of your spread wide for me, so that I can violate you any fucking way that I want to,” I told her truthfully. “You’ll also only shower in the morning, because I don’t want to taste soap and water when I’m eating your pussy.”
Her entire face turned red, but those hazel orbs of hers flared with something very promising.
Chapter 20
