I’m kissing her because she is safe and I have everything handled and it’s all going to be okay.
I’m kissing her until she pulls away, glaring at me as if she is actually mad about what happened.
“Francesco said he might be my husband.”
And just like that I’m looking over at my cousin who took my place at the bar, watching him drink his vodka straight, like a true psychopath, and wishing I had punched him when he first walked over to me.
“He won’t be. I fixed it. I promise.”
A small miracle, she doesn’t argue with me. Only squeezes my hand and gives me silent permission to take her home.
In ten days I’ll be married to her.
In ten days she will be my bride.
It can’t come fast enough
27ILARIA
Dante was across from me at the bar, staring at me as the intensity of his gaze weighed me down even more than the pressure I already was feeling.
I can always tell when he is looking at me.
I feel the emotions he has seeing me here in his eyes. But I know better than to look up and meet his gaze. Knowing my limits and how much I can handle. Knowing that right now Dante is outside of those limits.
Let Francesco take care of him.
I want to strangle the mother fucker right now.
How dare he thrust me into another man’s arms when I’m upset.
How dare he not text me back.
How dare he not tell me that our marriage contract might get fucked over because of everything going on.
How dare he abandon me when I wanted him to soothe me in a way it seemed he was meant to do.
Where was his trust in me?
Great, the shithead is on his way over.
Throwing money down for a tab Sammie and I have been working hard at building up for the last few hours I know I’m about to leave. Dante is standing besides me doesn’t feel like the safe security I had gotten used to and I hate that.
His presence annoys me.
“Ilaria, please, let’s go home.”
I shouldn’t get up or give him my hand but I do because he said home and for some reason my treacherous heart lurches when he says it, making me crave home.
Blame it on the drinks I’ve been having.
And then he is kissing me, his lips on mine as the pure desperation Dante hand is being pushed at me.
His mouth is hot and heavy against mine as his teeth nip my lips and he is being forceful and needy. I want to just melt into his kiss, let his tongue push against mine and forgive him for being an asshole.
But I don’t. I push him away thinking about kicking him in the nuts for distracting me.
“Francesco said he might be my husband.”
He looks at his cousin who has been drinking vodka like water all night and has yet to seem even a little bit drunk.
“He won’t be. I fixed it. I promise.”
I squeeze his hand as he lies to me, wondering if he thinks I’m so foolish as to believe that he has managed to fix anything when the Cartel is involved but maybe Dante doesn’t understand the trouble that we are in.
Francesco did.
He had followed Sammie and I here because Francesco understood that things were dangerous.
It seemed that he realized his potential bride was important enough to take the time to watch over.
Maybe Dante could learn a thing or two from his cousin.
Maybe I could learn a few things from his cousin as well since he was the only one who had no problem telling the truth.
But I’m tired and sick of causing scenes when I know that isn’t my best fighting tactic. I’m much better at running and hiding away, staying in the shadows as people walk past me without knowing.
So I follow Dante out to the garage, letting him hold my hand and play the white knight coming to take his Principessa home to her castle.
But in reality I’m about to ruin this man, blindsiding him with a side of me he is going to regret meeting because he is playing me for a fool and the only fool here is him.
Dante thinks I’m a mafia princess, I stay away from the business because that’s what good girls do in all the females.
But I’m not a good girl. I’m just a good actress.
He stops in front of the motorcycle I tried to kick him off earlier and I wish I could ask him to take a car instead of getting on the back of it but I know that I’m not going to have much of a choice.
“Wrap your arms around me.” My eyebrow shoots up and I think about flat out refusing but instead my arms wrap around Dante as I slide behind him on the motorcycle, thighs squeezing him. “Hold on, principessa. We’ll be home soon.”
He’s throwing home around like it’s going to solve everything by using one word with me but I’m not going to be so easily swayed.
I never rode on a motorcycle before.
The closest I got was holding onto Tessa as we whipped around an island on a Vespa one vacation. It had been enough to make me never want to ride on one again.
Tessa is our getaway driver because she’s fast and thinks quick. Not because she is a good driver.
