I touched his face, anticipating words I didn’t know I needed to hear. “And now?”
He kissed my palm, his eyes burning through mine. “For the first time in my life, I’m home.”
My breath hitched, and a smile stretched across my face as I leaned in and brushed my lips against his.
“I like you, Kai Cain. And I was planning on keeping you anyway.”
He laughed and rolled us over, his large frame over mine. I’d never felt so safe and so…loved.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he whispered, his thumb smoothing back and forth along the bridge of my nose.
I held him at the nape with both hands and pulled him in for a kiss, my legs spreading to allow him room to settle between them.
“No, baby. You’re hurt.”
“Hurt me more,” I begged, arching against him. “Make me forget, Kai. Make me yours.”
He shook his head slowly. “That’s a done deal. You’re already fucking mine.”
I’d never been run over by a bus, but I was pretty sure the way I was feeling and how every muscle in my body was aching was damn near the equivalent. I pushed into a sitting position and propped myself against the pillows. The breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast Kai had made and insisted on havingme stay and eat in bed still lay untouched beside me. My appetite was non-existent. I had too much on my mind, but at the same time, nothing at all. Mostly because I pushed away thoughts of Rocco. There was far too much pain associated with the memory of everything that had transpired last night and over these last few weeks.
I tried to convince myself that I’d seen his betrayal coming, building for years due to his obsession because Rocco was ruthless and cold-hearted, yet I was still blindsided. Maybe because while I knew he’d cut off the heads of his men for smaller transgressions, he was different with me…or at least that was what I’d been dumb enough to think.
“Can I come in?”
Gio poked his head through the partially opened door, a frail smile on his sweet face. “Of course,” I said, placing the food tray on my nightstand and patting the mattress beside me. I did my best to hide the pain by measuring my breath and focusing on returning his smile.
“Kai said to come up and keep you company while he talks to those men downstairs.”
The clean-up crew.
Initially, he’d instructed Milly to call our local agency, but he quickly changed his mind and called Ares to have his own trusted team take care of yesterday’s problem. We all hated that we’d had to sleep with the corpses of dead men outside our door, but on such short notice, the fastest they could arrive wasn’t until this morning.
“You’re the best company,” I said, tousling his hair like I used to when he was a kid. Only this time, he didn’t laugh or try to get me to stop. Instead, Gio remained silent and hung his head. “Hey, I’m so sorry you had to see that.”
A tear slid down his nose as his shoulders trembled subtly. “I’m sorry, too.” He reached for my hand and squeezed it. “I thought he was going to kill you.”
“He was,” I whispered, my voice on the verge of cracking. “But you saved my life. Again.”
Gio turned to me, his beautiful brown eyes blurred behind tears. “I don’t want you to die, Amalia. Let’s leave from here. Please,” he begged.
I cupped his face and kissed his forehead. “You know I can’t do that, even if I wanted to.”
Gio broke from my arms and stormed off the bed. “That’s bullshit! You’re the self-proclaimed queen, aren’t you? You make the rules, don’t you? So why not leave someone else in charge?”
“It’s not that simple,” I tried to explain, pushing to stand a little too fast. I wobbled, and I caught myself, but not before unwillingly showing how much pain I was in. Wearing just a cami and shorts, the extent of my bruising was on full display.
Gio shook his head in horror.
“What is it going to take, Amalia? You’re not immortal. You dole out punishment and death, and one day, the bill will be due.”
His words hit my core with the weight of a premonition. “Stop.” I reached for him, but he recoiled from my touch. “Maybe you should go.”
“Kai said—”
“No, I mean back home.”
He folded his arms with an indignant scowl. “You don’t want me here?”
