“What do you want to be?” I stroke her hair back from her face, but she jerks away, irritation in the movement.
“Are you asking if there’s someone else, baby? You have to know there’s not. You think I could come this hard if I were fucking another woman?”
She drags her lip through her teeth. “No,” she says slowly. “I don’t think that. It’s one of the things I like about you. You make me feel so desirable. If I had one hint there was another woman, I’d be out of here in a heartbeat. After Tann—”
I raise my brows and a warning finger. “Don’t say his name.”
“Well, you know what happened with him. I’m never doing that again.”
Alarm bells are going off in the back of my head. She’s telling me something important. She’s not going to tolerate infidelity. Which isn’t a problem.
Except for my fucking marriage contract.
Twenty-two years ago, my father made an arrangement with Giuseppe Pachino to permanently combine our two families. Because they are both old-world men, neither balked at the idea of binding a ten-year-old boy to a newborn girl without their consent. In fact, they celebrated the return to the old customs, their wisdom and our combined prosperous future. Giuseppe has no sons, and so my father, I believe, thought he was providing me with the chance to one day be boss of a powerful family. He didn’t realize I’d make my own chances. Become boss on my own terms.
But the two crime families have operated with mutually beneficial terms ever since.
I know very little about Jenna Pachino. I’ve avoided her like the plague. I kinda figured she must be as horrified by the contract as I am and would take my absence as a relief.
But I haven’t cancelled the contract. Only my father can do that, and he’s sitting in jail. And until now, it didn’t really matter to me.
And I shouldn’t consider it now. Because—
Fuck. I’ve been quiet too long. Sondra’s face closes.
“There’s no one else,” I say fiercely, to counteract whatever conclusion she’s drawn.
Except it’s a fucking lie, isn’t it?
“I don’t think you want to be permanently bound to me, though, baby. Do you know what I am?”
Even in the filtered light of the city coming through the windows I see her pale. Her mouth cinches up.
I grip her jaw. “I will fucking possess you. I’ll claim you for life. But I’d be condemning you to eternity with the devil. Crime is in my blood. Violence is behind my name. I’ve tried to distance myself. I try to keep my hands clean over here, running a legit business, paying taxes on the money we make. But I’ll never be free of it. And I don’t want to take you down with me.”
Her eyes fill with tears and she rolls away. I catch her by the waist as she sits up, her back to me.
“Please. Don’t go.” What am I asking her? My brain races, trying to come up with some solution, some compromise that will keep her in my bed. “Give me just a little more time with you. I’m not ready to give you up. Stay. Get my museum up and running. Redecorate the casino. Then I promise I’ll let you go.”
She turns to look back at me. I see longing and pain reflected in those beautiful blue eyes.
“I never beg, baby. That’s how much you mean to me.”
She doesn’t turn around. “What am I agreeing to?” Her voice sounds hoarse. “Just sex?”
“No.” My voice is harsh. Her question makes sense. Sex is all I’ve had time to give her, and yet the idea of her suggesting that’s all I want pisses me off. I need so much more than sex. I crave possessing her—body, mind, soul. “Girlfriend, if that’s how you want to define it. I want your time and attention, too.”
She gives a snort and I realize my lack of presence has been felt.
“I’m sorry I’ve been so busy, angel. I will make time for you. I promise.”
Even I hear the emptiness of the promise. Because it’s one I’m not sure how to deliver. This casino takes up twenty-three out of the twenty-four hours in a day, and the remaining hour it’s still in my thoughts, which is why I can’t sleep without fucking Sondra like a raging bull.
But if that’s what she needs, I’ll figure it the fuck out. I always do.
“Come back to bed, bella. You know I can’t sleep without you beside me.”
She allows me to tug her down to the mattress and wrap my longer body around hers. Within a few moments, her breath slows and she falls asleep. Me—I’m awake for an hour before I finally give up on sleep and go take a shower.
Sondra
“You’re falling for him.” Corey kicks her legs in the Bellissimo pool. We’re sitting on the side near the faux boulders and man-made waterfall, a week after Nico begged me to stay and promised to make time for me. It hasn’t happened.