He hesitated for a moment then came back to her. “All right.”
Honestly, Maria didn’t know where to start or what she was even trying to ask. “I’m not sure if you know anything about me and—”
“I’m aware,” Angel told her. “Cassius actually has a big mouth sometimes.”
“I’m gathering that,” she bit out, but thankfully got to skip to the part where she didn’t know how to explain her and Dominic’s relationship to an even a more awkward part …
“Whatever it is you want to say, Maria, say it. We don’t keep secrets between us.”
“Dominic asked me to marry him,” she blurted out the strange words that were still hard for her to grasp. “And, while I understand his feelings for me, the reason is more than that.” Maria tried to politely navigate the topic without it being too weird, as she was talking to Dominic’s brother. “He mentioned Lucifer’s behavior toward women, but I think he wants to marry me … to save my soul? He won’t do anything with me until we are –”
Immediately, Angel understood. “Has my brother told you anything else about our childhood?”
She tried to remember but only came up with, “Just that he helped care for all of you.”
Placing his hands slickly into his pockets, Angel moved his eyes from her to the floor. “Lucifer wasn’t a kind man. Not to anyone, and especially not to his children. Whatever you’ve heard about Lucifer, he did it and then some. While others have had one unfortunate meeting with the devil, we had to live with him every day with no escape. Dominic is five years older than me …” Angel’s eyes no longer met the floor. Holding her eyes with his haunting gray orbs, he showed her whatever imagination she had wasn’t enough for what they had endured.
Maria had never once seen Angel angry, but she could see the fury just below the surface that he held in.
“Five. Years.” He spoke the harsh words with pain. “Dominic had to live on this earth with our father alone, and I will never know how he survived it.” The pride that shone in his eyes demonstrated how much he not only loved his older brother but how much respect he held for him. “Not one of us would have survived without him, but he would have survived just fine without us … if not better.”
Standing eerily still, she hung onto every word the Luciano brother spoke, knowing that somehow, something even worse was coming.
“Dominic is nothing like me and Matthias when it comes to women. Mostly because he was old enough to see and recognize our father’s behavior toward women at his worst, when he was trying to father as many sons as possible.
“Thanks to Lucifer, we all believe ourselves to not be worthy in some way. For the longest time, Dominic in particular, believed that since Lucifer was horrible to women, somewhere deep down, it would be that way for him too. He was so afraid to even touch a woman.
“Lucifer did many things to hold power and control over us any way we could. He believed we belonged to him, that he could do whatever he pleased with us, if he thought it would serve his purpose in owning mind, body … and soul. One of the cruelest acts he committed was against Dom when he was twenty years old.”
Maria took a shuddering breath.
Angel’s strong voice fell sullenly. “Some people don’t get to choose how or when they lose their virginity … and Dominic was one of those unfortunate souls.”
She wanted to dig her long nails into her chest so she could rip out her dead heart and make a hole that could never be filled for the man she was starting to develop true feelings for, no matter how much she denied it.
“It is Dominic’s story to tell when he is ready, but if he’s worried about your soul or anything else, for that matter, it’s because he didn’t get a choice, and Dominic would never allow himself to touch a woman if he thought he could harm or taint them in any way”—he used the word Dom himself had used—“like he had done to him.”
Maria nodded solemnly, her mouth too dry to speak.
“If you want to be with Dominic, then that is your choice, Maria, but you must understand that he will do anything to protect the ones he loves, no matter what that is.”
Finally, Maria found her words. “Thank you, Angel.”
Nodding, Angel then went for the door, but he had one last thing to say. “Dom did more than care for us. He was a brother, a father, a friend, and our savior.”
Knocking on the door, a sleepy Matthias finally swung it open a few minutes later.
“You do know how to pick up a phone and call, right?”