Maria (Made Men 7)

“I, um …” She had to think a minute about what it was exactly she came for. “To see Kat.”

“And what do you want with her?” He crossed his strong arms over his chest.

“Well, I thought she needed a wedding dress.” Maria raised a perfectly manicured brow. “Doesn’t she?”

“Cassius.”

She turned her head when a young boy stood up from the couch. He looked as if he was Dominic’s mini-me. Both brothers bore no resemblance to their father.

“Go get Kat,” Dominic ordered without looking away from the blonde.

Staring at the little Luciano for a moment longer, she tilted her head to the side, seeing something different in the boy that was … almost reminiscent … but then he walked away.

“Can I take your coat?” Matthias asked, clearly wanting to see her without it as he reached to help her out of it.

“Touch me, and I’ll kill you,” she threatened with the sweetest smile.

Matthias didn’t take a step closer, somehow knowing her smile was an act.

The oldest brother, however, did, unafraid of her or the bodyguard she arrived with. “Does Lucca know the princess is out of her castle?”

That smile didn’t disappear from her face. “Do you think I would be here if he did?”

“Certainly not”—he looked at the suit who had come with her—“if this is the one who brought you.”

It took a minute before Todd realized he had been insulted.

Dominic’s hazel eyes moved back to her. “I hope the poor sucker knows whatever you promised him won’t be worth it by the time Lucca gets done with him.”

“What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.” Placing one tall heel in front of the other, she made the distance between them that much smaller. “It can be our little secret.”

Most men on this earth weren’t worthy a second glance, yet she finally let her eyes glance down his body.

For some reason, he was different than she expected. She thought he would be weak since agreeing to all of the Carusos’ terms, but now she could see that might not be the case at all …

Out of all the Luciano brothers, this one, she liked. A lot …

…Yesterday he had been confident yet distant. Today it was like he placed a brick wall between them. Radiating off him, however, she could feel his barely contained heat, knocking down his own wall, brick by brick with every passing second. In twenty-four hours, everything about him changed.

Before opening that door, she hadn’t found him dangerous. Now, she wondered if she made a mistake by letting him into their home. Well, almost. The only thing telling her otherwise was the usual emptiness in her stomach as she talked to men was gone.

“Is Lucca expecting y—”

“Take me to him,” he reiterated harshly, not letting her finish.

Maria didn’t know what possessed her, but instead of giving him hell like she would have anyone else, she simply nodded, seeing the urgency in his eyes.

Leading him through the house, he followed behind until she approached a wooden door that held a hint of smoke behind it. When she opened the door, she expected a furious Lucca, yet he appeared to be waiting for them.

It was hard for Maria to close the door once Dominic passed by and entered her brother’s office. She took her time doing so, hoping to hear anything the two might say, but they just quietly waited until the door clicked closed. It was even harder to walk away, knowing she couldn’t eavesdrop without Lucca knowing.

Going back to where she had started in the foyer, she found it impossible to walk up the steps, so she took a seat on the bottom step, deciding to wait and see how this would play out.

Dominic was here for one of two reasons—either regret or truth.

If he was here for regret, then it wasn’t going to do much good. The price was going to have to be paid for his father’s sins, and Dominic’s father, Lucifer, had many sins. Scarring Chloe Masters for life, he died for, but almost starting a war between the families was what his sons would pay for.

The Carusos needed assurance that it would never happen again, and they had done that by kidnapping Angel Luciano—until the time that Dominic cleaned up loose ends in his family and after their families’ blood became one; those were the terms her brother set. The new Luciano boss had promised a Luciano woman to marry a Caruso male and mother his children, but he did so without knowing that Lucca had found out Dominic’s biggest secret—a Luciano sister existed. Katarina had been handpicked by the Caruso male, Drago, and their arranged marriage was set in the next few days. Seeing him with his sister yesterday, she was sure Dominic would have never agreed to the terms if he’d known Lucca knew of Kat’s existence. Now he faced either a war he wouldn’t win or giving away his sister.