Reiko swatted at him without thinking. “Don’t tease me!”
He laughed and pulled them both to their feet with an ease that ought to have concerned her. All she could think about, though, was the strength of the arm that re-settled around her waist and kept her close. His other hand lifted, brushing hair from her face. “I am sorry about tackling you so roughly,” he finally said. “Areyouhurt?”
She blinked.
“Sorry to interrupt, Boss,” Armando said before she could process Guerra’s words. “We should be leaving.”
Leaving?Reiko blinked and finally tore her focus from the confusing, enthralling man who hadn’t loosened his grip of her. “What happened to the angry man? Those explosions were gunshots, weren’t they? Don’t we have to wait for police?” She suddenly remembered Armando’s gun, and visibly mounting agitation, and snapped her eyes up to him. Of course, he still refused to look at her. She’d noticed that about him. “What about you? Were you shooting, too?”
Armando’s jaw jumped and he kept his stare affixed beyond them. “Boss.”
Guerra chuckled and gave her a squeeze. “Nico pulled a gun on me. My security fired back. We’re leaving because I no longer consider us safe here. I’ll talk to the police later if they have any questions about that, but it’s nothing to worry about.” He guidedher focus back to him. “And no, beautiful. I wasn’t shot. No one expected my woman to ninja-tackle me out of the way so well.”
She flushed. “Please don’t describe it like that when you’re interviewed by police.” She swallowed hard at the logical follow-through of her own words. “I’m going to have to be interviewed, too, aren’t I?” She had no reason to dread the thought, really. She simply had never had good experiences with emergency services, of whom law enforcement qualified in her mind.
Guerra turned them both away, keeping her from seeing past him in the direction of where Nico had previously been. She suspected that was intentional. “I don’t see any reason for that,” he said calmly.
Reiko arched a brow at him. “I was right there when it all happened.” She refused to repeat his ninja comment.
He smiled at her, but this time it looked almost apologetic. “And I’m sorry for that, beautiful. You never should have been exposed to that.”
Reiko shook her head. “That isn’t what I meant.” She dropped his stare in an effort to keep her thoughts organized, suddenly and stupidly remembering how he’dlickedher tears off her face only minutes earlier.This is not the time to be thinking about that sort of thing!It took her another moment to realize they were walking with their arms around each other. Her fingers were still twisted in his shirt. She pulled her hands away quickly, suddenly fearing she’d crossed too many boundaries. Though whether those boundaries were hers or his, she was less sure.
She felt more than a little frazzled.
Guerra made a sound like a complaint, then cut himself off and pulled them to an abrupt stop. He caught her wrist and turned her toward him, at an angle so he could extend her arm. For once, he wore a scowl. “You’re bleeding.”
Santino was fucking pissed. Anger was the only feeling stronger than arousal in the moment, which was only unusual in the intensity of the latter. Having Reiko’s body crashing against his, rolling with his, and ultimately pinned beneath his had done terrible things to his resolve. It’d been all he could do to keep from taking advantage of their position while he used the brief active shooter situation as an excuse to shield her with his body.
She was the perfect size. Small enough to disappear beneath him, and still large enough to not feel like a fragile doll he could so easily break. He suspected she was insecure about her curves, given the way she always dressed, but he would show her. He would teach her. And she would come to understand that the only thing she had to be embarrassed about was ever having been embarrassed about herself in the first place.
Until he could indulge that fantasy, though, he had to focus on his anger.
For that reason—andonlyfor that reason—the sight of blood on Reiko’s otherwise flawless skin was good.
It was grounding. It helped him focus on the rage.
The blood was minimal. Nonno had brushed him off with worse scrapes as a boy. The wound wasn’t the point. It was the goddamn principle.
One of Santino’s own made men had not only interrupted his day, but had gone so far as to threaten him with a gun and ultimately drawn his woman’s blood. He’d forced Santino’s security to shoot him dead in the city zoo—a fact his friends on the legal side of things were going to grumble about. Debatably worst of all, however, were Nico’s last words. Because so far as Santino knew, there was no such thing as a formalized Segreti family.
The Segretis were his own blood. Nonno’s oldest daughter had married a man by that name, a man who’d died some two decades earlier. Zia Lorenza was sick, and too weak to even plot a rebellion. Not that Santino could picture her doing such a thing. She’d always been loyal to her father. But hersonwas another story.
Santino was going to have to have a much harder talk with Danilo, very soon.
Not today.Not before Reiko left his side, at least.
He’d promised Reiko his day, and unless the goddamn city caught fire, he was going to keep that promise. Actually, if the city literally caught fire, he’d probably glue her to his side at that point just to keep her comparatively safe. Regardless, it was barely time for lunch. And she’d nearly fucking cried when he’d promised not to abandon her, so he wasn’t going to put her through whatever trauma was associated with that.
She was finally opening up to him. He wasn’t about to let Nico’s psychotic break ruin their progress.
Reiko shifted, pulling a bit on her arm as if to reclaim it from his grasp. “I’m sure it’s fine. It only stings a little.”
Santino raked his gaze over her again, checking one more time for signs of injury. He’d tried to shield her from the impact, but the angle and the urgency hadn’t allowed for him to be gentle with it. As the scrape on her elbow proved.
He exhaled, adjusted his grip so that he held her hand normally, and turned his head partially over his shoulder. “I want her arm bandaged up as soon as we get to the car. If this gets infected, it’s your fucking head.”
Fair? Not really.
