“You have me.Per sempre.”
“Per sempre,” she repeated, another one of those heavy sighs weighing down my soul.
A light knock came at our door. I refused to get it, but I knew. For this much activity, for the men to come to our door, something else had happened. Stella seemed to know it too.
“It might be important, Matteo.”
I sighed and opened the door.
Oscar took a step back, his wary eye taking me in. He knew I was in no mood for fuckery. “I am here with a situation.” He waited for permission to speak more.
“Tell me.”
“Lev has lost control of his…woman.”
It seemed out of the blue, mamma appeared with a tray of warm tea and cookies. “I have this until you get back. Your father is with the men in the other building.” Her eyes bore into mine, and she was trying to tell me something. Something that seemed too disturbing for Stella to hear, probably.
I took the tray from her. “Give me a minute, mamma.”
She made a motion like…go ahead.
I shut the door and brought the tray over to the bed. Stella sat up some, her hair a mess, and her face set into a stone wall, but I knew underneath it all she wasn’t handling this well. Two monsters from her nightmares had come back to haunt her.
“Here.” I set the tray down in front of her. “Eat. Drink.”
“I’m not really up for anything,” she whispered.
I nodded, but what I really wanted to do was throw the fucking tray at the wall. My heart was hurting. I didn’t know how to deal with the pain. I’d fucking figure it out, but in that moment—I was murderous. Enough to overrule my wife and kill her monsters.
“Is your mom here?” she asked.
“Yeah. She brought the tea and cookies.”
She looked down at her hands. “Invite her in.”
I lifted her chin, forcing her to look at me. “I’m going to take care of this situation, then I’ll take care of you.”
She gave me a weak smile. “I know.”
I kissed her all over the face, loud smooches, until I went to leave her with a soft kiss on the lips. She grabbed for my arm.
“I don’t like that woman,” she said, and instead of the weakness I’d picked up on before, it was nothing but fire.
“Yeah, me either.”
“I’m serious, Matteo.”
“Am I a joking man, baby?”
“Shelikesyou. Shewantsyou. I don’t like it.”
“No one has me but you.”
“Vow it.”
I looked into her eyes and repeated the part of my vows where I swore to forsake all others.Only for her.Only for her would I ever repeat myself.
“I believe you, Matteo Fausti,” she breathed, “but I don’t trust her. She’s an ice queen who wants you to warm her bed. You burn like a furnace. She needs to thaw out.”
