“Kara talks really loudly. I didn’t need to tap the call to hear her.” His voice is low.
“It’s always been hard to have a secret conversation with her,” I say just to say something, because the way his eyes are boring into me, my brain is getting foggy again.
With determined steps, he goes to his desk and opens the top drawer. He pulls out a manilla folder and drops it on the blotter. When he drops a black pen onto the desk next to it, my throat closes.
He doesn’t need to open the folder for me to know what’s in it.
“Kaz.”
“You have everything you need to take care of Tommy and yourself for more than one lifetime.” He pauses to clear his throat. “The dispute between the DeAngelo family and the Volkovs is over.”
“Because of our marriage.”
“Because agreements have been made, and new boundaries have been agreed upon. Without your uncle or cousins, thereisno DeAngelo family. It’s being absorbed.”
“By who?” I ask.
“If you decide to sell the vineyards and property in Italy, I have a man who can handle the transition. It’s complicated because, as you’ve said before, there are other associates involved.”
“Kaz.” I take a step forward, cutting him off. “Stop.”
His eyes warm. “This is the only time I will ever give you this chance, Sienna.”
“You’d let me go?” I snap, stalking closer. Heat rises in my chest. “You’d actually let me go after all the times you’ve made me tell you I belong to you?”
He shifts his stance—subtle, controlled, but I feel the ground tilt beneath us.
Pulling me close, he grasps my jaw so I have to look up at him. In a fierce voice, he says, “I’d let you go if it’s what will make you happy.”
“If you don’t want me?—”
“Want you? Woman all I do is want you, think about you. You consume my every fucking thought.”
“Then why would you draw those papers up?”
“Because you weren’t given a choice in this. I’m giving you a choice now, but I swear, this is the only time I’m doing it. If you stay, it’s forever.”
His dark eyes blaze hot as the silence stretches. He has every indication that he’s about to blow up and take the rest of the world with him.
I bring my palms to his face, his stubble rough against my skin.
“I don’t ever want to leave you, Kaz. I don’t want to do this life without you, either.”
He slides his hand from my jaw to my cheek. “You heard me.”
“I did. I mean, I heard a lot of things, and I still can’t put it all in order, or even know if it was real and not some delusion, but those words, I know were real.”
“Good girl,” he growls, then kisses me.
I wrap my arms around his waist, resting my face against his chest. He tucks me under his chin, squeezing me.
“I love you, Sienna.”
“I love you, too,” I say as a tear slips down my cheek. “But if you ever have divorce papers drawn up again, I’m going to have you killed. I know people now. I have connections to some real badasses.”
His chest rumbles with his laugh.
“Who said I had divorce papers? Those are papers to have you institutionalized for being crazy enough to want to leave me.”
