And my sister’s smug little grin tells me she knows she caught me off guard.
“Just thought you should know,” she concludes with a sweet smile before dramatically stepping aside and sweeping an arm down the hall.“Now go.Talk to your damn wife.Tell her to get ready for the ball.”
“We need to get you a hobby,” I tell her, but not without affection.She only rolls her eyes dramatically before huffing away to do whatever it is she does with her time.
It would be easy to dismiss her as a child with romantic fantasies, but I can’t pretend she doesn’t have a point.I have gone out of my way to spend more time up here in the main house, working, but I haven’t gone out of my way to get to know mywife.Like I don’t have enough on my mind, trying to make sure we all stay alive while getting reports two and three times a day of sabotaged shipments, shootouts, missing soldiers who later turn up dead in alleys and abandoned lots.Now more than ever, the lesser families want a piece of what we’ve got and aren’t afraid to spill blood, both ours and theirs, to get the message across.
All of that on top of ironing out the finer points of absorbing the Vitali interests.Oh, and the fact that my papa is hoping to step back sometime this century and let me take my place.But sure, this is all on my head.
We didn’t start on the right foot, either, thanks to her sour attitude and that smart mouth of hers, but I let her trigger me, too, didn’t I?I let her get under my skin, and I’m supposed to be better than that.If I can’t handle an argument with a woman, how can I broker peace or cool hot tempers in the middle of a meeting?
The folder I’m holding feels heavier than it should.I have a chance here.I can be the bigger person and extend an olive branch in hopes of finding common ground.Sophia didn’t have a say in this any more than I did.This woman isnotthe enemy.
Maybe Guilia is right.She might be happy, knowing we have events to look forward to, and I can’t pretend there’s anything wrong with having her on my arm.The thought makes me smile before I head over to the house.She might have the personality of a cactus, but she’s a good-looking cactus.Those vast, crystal-clear eyes could stare a hole through a man’s entire existence.Pouty, sensual lips that tasted like strawberries when I kissed them in front of our wedding guests.Lips I wouldn’t mind tasting again.I wonder if they are as firm as I remember?
Not to mention a body that’s left me fucking my fist ever since the wedding.I could have done a lot worse.
I’m not sure what I’ll find once I go in, not that it slows me down.It’s only that I didn’t consider until this very second what Sophia might do to pass the time around here while I’m working.
The answer presents itself when I find her sitting cross-legged on the striped sofa with a bowl of cereal in her lap and what looks like a historical drama on the television mounted on the opposite wall next to the stairs.Her hair is piled in a loose bun on top of her head, and she’s still in her pajamas.She’s wearing glasses, which means she usually wears contacts.I didn’t know that.
“Good morning,” I offer when she gapes silently at me.“Am I interrupting something?”The faint sarcasm in the question snaps her out of her shock.
“I didn’t expect to see you again this morning,” she explains.“Is something wrong?”
“No, though I did invite you to the main house for breakfast, remember?You don’t have to stay here by yourself.”Not that it matters, either way, though I don’t need Luca accusing me of locking her up here.
“I’m having lunch with your mom later,” she tells me while getting up and taking her bowl to the sink.The distance across the wide-open room means having the time to watch her ass move under those shorts.There’s something unfair about an ass like that existing under this roof while I spend most of my day in my papa’s study.What a waste.
If I don’t tell her why I came down here, I’m going to have a problem.Imagine not being able to get hard for my wife.“These are invitations to a series of upcoming events.We’re going on a PR tour.”Meeting her on the opposite side of the island that separates the kitchen and living room, I slide the folder across the black quartz countertop.“Smile, get pictures taken, kiss a little civilian ass.”
“Oh.”She opens it slowly, like she’s waiting for a spider to jump out.
“Anything wrong with that?”I ask, snorting.Hypocritical?Yeah, but so what?
“Nothing’s wrong,” she quickly tells me as her aqua eyes dart up from a gilt-edged card covered in swooping calligraphy.“It seems sudden.We’ll have to play up the newlywed angle.”
“Are you sure you can handle the sacrifice?”I say it like it’s some huge sacrifice.Why not kick myself in the balls every morning and get it over with for the rest of the day?
Her full lips pull up at one corner before she murmurs, “I’ve handled worse.I was worried about you.How will you manage to keep away from work for a few whole hours?”
If there was a scrap of humor in her voice, I might laugh it off, but it’s sarcasm I hear, and my pride won’t let it go.“Men work.You should know that.”
“I know you might as well live up there full-time.What is the point of having this house and a cleaning lady?”Her burst of laughter grates on my already raw nerves.“Why?What for?You’re never here!”
“Our marriage means uniting our family interests, and it takes a lot of work to make something of this size go smoothly.”That’s right, be the bigger person.Calm.Control.
“Our marriage?”she scoffs and shakes her head.“It’s anarrangement.”
I can hardly hear her over the rush of blood in my ears.“If it weren’t for your maniac brother kidnapping someone important to my family and escalating things, we wouldn’t have had to come tothis arrangementto make peace.Did you ever think about that?”
“Don’t talk to me abouthim,” she warns, chest heaving, color flooding the apples of her cheeks.
“I will talk about whoever I want to talk about in my own house, Sophia,” I tell her, making her eyes roll.“Maybe you didn’t hear the news, but you’re looking at the man who married you to end a war.”
“A war your family took part in as much as mine did.”She barks out a laugh before adding, “That’s like taking credit for putting out a fireyoustarted.”
“Oh, you’re so innocent?”I ask with a bitter laugh of my own, remembering the men murdered by Vitali’s soldiers.The streets ran red with blood.
