“I love you, and I want you safe.”
He scoffed. “Oh, there’s a crazy concept.”
“Giovanni, I can’t guarantee your safety here.”
“Rocco’s dead.”
“That means nothing. Another Rocco will take his place soon enough. Wash, rinse, repeat.” Maybe I needed to hurt him to protect him. I hated the idea the moment it was born, but I knew it was the only way. “There’s a reason I had to marry Kai and take Tony’s place and not you.”
His eyes narrowed, body stiff as if anticipating the following words out of my mouth. I fought back tears and the emotions burning a hole in my throat and instead gave him the Amalia Montesinos that ate men for breakfast. “There’s a reason why you were lied to and kept in the dark all this time.” He inched back as I advanced on him. “Yesterday, you got lucky because we know you’re not cut out for this life, Giovanni. You’ll never be Tony…or Kai. And you’llneverbe like me.”
Pain.
His shoulders deflated, and he crumpled in on himself as tears streamed down his face.
“G-good,” he stuttered, voice shaky. “Because I don’t want to be anything like you. I’m not a monster.”
He rushed for the door, bumping into Kai on his way out. Kai could have overheard everything I’d said to my baby brother, but I knew he wouldn’t judge me for it. He’d understand my reasons without having to ask. This man just had a way of reading my soul and knowing exactly what I needed. He scooped me up, sat at the edge of the bed, and held me in his lap as I cried.
35
“Whatdo you mean, one more week?”
I slammed my paint palette and brush on the wooden table and began to pace as my mother threw excuse after excuse about why she and my father couldn’t leave their impromptu trip to Brazil sooner than another six days. It had been nearly two weeks since Gio and I had fallen out. He wasn’t speaking to me, and I was giving him space and time to sort out his feelings and forgive me. I knew all I had to do was apologize and tell him that I didn’t mean what I’d said. That I’d intentionally hurt him and played on his insecurities because I wanted him to go back home where he’d be safer. But it was better this way. He’d move on and forgive me one day.
He always did.
“You’re being hysterical for nothing,mija,” she said, dismissing my concerns. “It’s been two weeks, and things have calmed down, no? Rocco is gone. Anything else, you can handle.”
“That’s not the point,” I gritted out.
“If anything, have him stay with Holly— Listen, I have to go. We’ll be in touch. I love you.” My mother hung up in a hurry before I could respond.
Placing my hand on my hips, I stared at my phone’s black screen, contemplating her words. Maybe she was right, and I was just overthinking. What’s another week? Holly had her own thing going on.
Since Rocco’s death, she’d been quiet and somewhat secluded herself. In the days that followed, I was reminded of her feelings for him. She tried to remain strong in front of me, unwilling to diminish the pain and trauma I’d gone through at his hands.
A light knock at the door saw me lift my head, and a smile instantly formed on my face at the sight of a shirtless Kai stepping through the threshold with a lunch tray in hand.
I wasn’t a stranger to the leering eyes and words of men, but from Kai, the way he took me in, gaze sweeping over me from head to toe, eyes darkened—with no panties as a barrier, I felt the slickness of my arousal between my thighs.
He crept closer, and set down the food and pounced, sliding his arms down my ass and lifting me onto his waist.
“You spoil me, Cain. Lunch on the go. Are you planning a picnic?”
Pressing slow kisses to my jaw, he worked his way down my throat. “You wait for me, looking like that, and somehow you think there’s anything else on my mind besides me touching you…” I tipped my head back as his tongue swept back up and over my chin. “Tasting you.” His fingers tangled into my hair close to the scalp, just enough to sting so damn good. “Fuck you and make you mine.”
There existed a special sense of peace when I painted, wearing nothing but skin and creativity. My staff and family already knew never to enter my studio while I was at work. Kaiwas obviously the exception, and the reason I kept the doors unlocked these days.
“Did you come to eat or watch me work?”
He chuckled darkly over my lips. “I came to fucking eat.”
“Don’t let me stop you,” I whispered, squeezing my legs tighter around his waist.
He kissed me and set me on the table, but his expression suddenly shifted, and I was perplexed.
“But first, tell me what’s going on with your parents and Gio that’s got you throwing things around,” he said, eyeing the palette and brush on the floor by his feet.
