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“What?” I growl.
“Wrestling got a little too enthusiastic.”
Bang. The recoil flies up my arm. My wrist feels like it’s going to snap. The sound of the bullet bounces around my skull. Suddenly, I know what Dante means. We’re both so messed up. As Dad slumps forward, a smile touches my lips. He deserved it.
But soon, as I stare down at him, ears ringing, a horror creeps into the feeling. I turn to Dante, shuddering. He gently takes the gun from my hand.
“I did it,” I whisper.
Dante tucks the gun away, then pulls me into a hug. “He can never hurt you again,” he says passionately. “Nobody can. I won’t let it happen.”
“Forever?” I murmur, the shock making saying it way easier than it should be, but he doesn’t reply.
Instead, he pulls me into a hug. I press my face against his chest and then burst into tears. I can’t stop it. I’m shaking all over. He clutches me tight, but he still says nothing.
CHAPTER 26
Dante
I wake next to my woman inourbed. We’ve been staying in the kidnap apartment. It’s been six days since she pulled the trigger—six days of holding her at night, letting her cry, letting her process. Six days of sadness draining away, and the heat spills over instead, fusing us as we get steamy and physical again.
It’s been six days since Mom moved into her new home, and the Family is getting back to normal. Leo never wants to mention Tony. He wants to pretend it never happened. From a Family perspective, letting an enforcer handle a Marino ranked this high is rare, but Leo understands how important it was.
Mia looks up at me, blinking, with a gentle smile. She always looks so beautiful in the morning, the sun shining on her face.
She leans up, trailing her fingers over my face. “This is the best way to wake up,” she says.
“I was just thinking that,” I reply, touching her hand.
“Just… this moment…”
Neither of us mentions what she said after thebang. She asked if it was forever. Right then, in her most vulnerable moment, I just left her hanging. My soul aches. My instincts snap at me.
Every other time we’ve had sex, we’ve used protection. Yet somehow, I can tell she’s thinking about that first time, just like me. She’s ready to go back to skin-on-skin, with nothing between us.
I smile, leaning down and kissing her. “Let me take you to the studio today.”
She pouts up at me, shaking her head and touching my chest. “I thought you were joking about that.”
“A private studio for my pinup princess. That’s no joke.” I run my hands through her hair. “You deserve the whole world, Mia.”
She laughs. “Dante, you don’t have to do anything like that. It’s too permanent, anyway.”
She rolls over, out of bed, walking into the en suite. There have been little comments like that all week, and I can’t blame her. She said she felt the same in the beginning. She said she didn’t want a future, kids, or marriage, but so much has changed since then for both of us.
I follow her into the shower. She looks over her shoulder at me with that dangerous look she loves so much. She turns the shower on and then begins to strip. It’s not like she puts on a show, but her movements are sexual, sensual, and hot. Perfect. She stands in front of me, naked, letting me admire her hourglass figure.
I move my hands in and out as though outlining slopes. “Perfect,” I tell her.
“Oh yeah?” She places her hand on her ass, looking at me over her shoulder. “Really?”
I walk up behind her, reaching down and smoothing my hands across her body, massaging her breasts. She makes the hottest, most tempting noise as she leans forward and brushes against me. Ever since that first time, she’s been so much more confident. Last night, she rode me until I exploded.
Now, we sink into each other, both of us hot and needing more. Always.
I need to make a choice. I need to have a realistic look at our lives. Am I ever going to be able to let her go?
“Where are you taking me, for real?” she says from the passenger seat. She sits in an oversized sweater, the sleeves pulled around her hands, her hair up in a messy bun.
