Closing my eyes, I swallowed the moan fighting its way up my throat. “Come to my room tonight, Kai.”
With his thumb and forefinger, he tilted my chin. “Ourroom?”
Ours?
Against my better judgment, I nodded, because no other response would do.
Maybe this arrangement wouldn’t be the hell I’d envisioned and dreaded for so long. Life beside this man excited me in ways I hadn’t felt in a long while. My belly dropped to my feet at the thought. It was unnerving for so many reasons, but the biggest was, what if I couldn't say goodbye at the end of it all?
“Mind if I cut in?”
Gio tapped Kai’s shoulder, and his handsome face lit up when my new husband pressed a kiss to my lips and handed me off.
“You look beautiful.”
“Thank you,” I said, throwing my arms around him in a tight hug. “I’m sorry.”
“What for?”
I sighed heavily. “After what happened at the compound, I’ve purposely avoided you.”
“I noticed. I’m sorry, too,” he whispered, emotion thickening his voice. “What I did was reckless, I know. But when I overheard your conversation, I was afraid for you. I don’t want to lose you, Amalia. Not you, too.”
His face blurred behind the tears that had gathered in my eyes. “Gio, you won’t even ride Miss Oscar because you’re afraid she’ll throw you, but you snuck into one of my cars when you knew that we…that things would get dangerous.”
He wiped my tears. “I did that for you.”
I squeezed him until he grunted, but I didn’t care, and I held him tighter. He did nothing to shove out of my embrace. “Don’tyou ever do that again. If something had happened to you, I would have never forgiven myself.” Gripping his shoulders, I said, “Promise me.”
“I promise. But you…”
“Gio, I’ve been doing this a long time. I can’t promise that things will always go as planned, but for now—”
“But why? We don’t need the money, Amalia. And I know Kai is loaded.”
Despite the seriousness of our conversation, I couldn’t help but find humor in his knowledge of Kai’s financial background.
“It’s not just about money. There are things you don’t understand. Our family can’t just walk away from… from…”
Gio’s eyebrows knitted together as he watched me stutter my words while looking past him.
“From what? What is it?”
It had been days since I’d felt the urge to sink a blade into flesh or empty my mag into something that had once been moving. The feeling rolled over me in hot, pulsing waves as I advanced to the other side of the wooden dance floor.
“Helena, losing those pretty nails would be a damn shame.”
She twisted to face me, her arm still around my husband’s neck. “Amalia, I never took you for the jealous type.”
“I’m not.”
“Hey,” Kai said, stepping between us. When he attempted to thread his fingers with mine, I swatted his hand away. I was being irrational, and I knew it because Helena had Silas. But I suddenly couldn’t unsee the image of her and Kai fucking, and now she was here, with her arm around him.
What would people think?
“How are we supposed to be convincing when you’re cozying up with your ex at your wedding? How do you think that makes me look? You willnotdisrespect me, Cain, especially not here.”
“Amalia, you’re being—”
