A loud knock on the front door is followed by the door of the apartment opening wide.
“Are you all in here?”Rafaelle’s booming voice sounds from the entry way.He sounds angry and offended at the same time.No one else can quite get that combination to work as flawlessly as he can.It was on his watch that we snuck out last night so he must be extra angry because of that.
“Yes, in the living room,” Lidia answers, but she needn’t bothered.He’s also the only one who just walks into any room we’re in without waiting to be asked.It has a lot to do with the fact that we were children together, even though he is almost ten years older than us.
“Good,” he says.“I hope you stay put this time.”
Lidia is blushing and in the next second my cheeks are burning too.He’s not alone.The guy who saved me last night walks in behind him, his eyes attaching to me—my bare legs, and my ratty old t-shirt—like a laser beam of pure sunlight.
“I want you to meet the newest member of your security team,” Rafaelle says, sounding like his mouth is full of rocks he’s trying to chew through.“This is Matteo Rovina.And I’m sure he’s gonna watch over you very good.”
Matteo’s eyes are still on me, and I couldn’t look away if I tried.I can’t even try.
“You’re not dead…” I mutter, the words leaving my lips without waiting for permission.
Matteo’s lips curl up into something that could be considered a smile, but it’s most definitely also a snarl.“No.Not yet.”
The words hit me like arrows to the chest.Does he know about the curse?How can he?
“Why do we need yet another guard?”Chiara says, her temper rising yet again.
Rafaelle gives her a dark look.“Oh, we’ll be doubling up after the stunt you pulled last night.These are very dangerous times for you and your family.Haven’t you figured that out yet?”
He includes me in that dark look, but not Lidia.Probably because she didn’t come out with us last night.
“Yeah, well, it’s always a dangerous time for this family,” Chiara says and storms out of the room.
I’m still mostly caught in Matteo’s laser hot gaze.It’s growing hotter, searing my skin everywhere it touches.I felt his intensity last night and thought about it ever since.I even dreamed about it, I think.But it’s even hotter now, in the cold light of day.I’m so glad he’s not dead!
“Come on,” Rafaelle says to him.“You’ve been introduced, now let’s leave them to it.”
No!
Thankfully, I managed not to let that very loud thought slip past my lips.
I’m actually cold once Matteo’s gaze leaves me, cold enough to shiver.No one’s ever looked at me that way before.Like I’m the only woman in the room.Like I’m the only woman worth looking at.It wasn’t a loving, pleasant look, it was filled with a passion bordering on something dark, despite all the heat his gaze brought.Hard to explain…
But what I do know is that I never want him to stop looking at me that way.Because I’m sure no one else ever will.
Chapter10
MATTEO
Add insult to injury,why don’t you?
That’s what I wanted to tell the Capo when I was informed I’d be joining his daughters’ security team.I have no doubt it’s a prestigious job, seeing as his daughters are his only heirs and therefore his little treasures, but still, there’s no way to advance from there, no way to fast track climbing through the ranks, which would be my only hope of making this detour from my plans worth my while.I figured that the best I could hope for is a year or two of proving myself to the boss and then maybe he’d let me strike out on my own, return to the West coast and get back what my family lost.That’s the peace I made with it all on my way over here this morning.
But no.He saddled me with the one job that has no upside, no promotion track, and is a lifetime sort of gig.The head of my security unit is Rafaelle.He’s the same one who dragged me upstairs last night and kept looking at me like he wanted to kill me the whole time.He looks no happier today.And he’s still looking at me like he wants to murder me.Especially after he was told to personally make sure I know all the ropes.
He’s about my age and comes across as someone used to giving orders, not someone looking after a bunch of women, most of them barely out of their teens at that.He must’ve fucked up bad to get this post, but I don’t even want to know.I don’t want to know anything about this family.
I especially don’t want to know anything else about Goldie.
But as it is, I now know what she looks like right after she wakes up in the morning—her long, thick, golden hair a mess and smudged mascara outlining her big honey-colored eyes like she’s the queen of the Nile.I also know the exact shade of the smooth skin on her long legs—coffee with lots of cream.
Bottom line, she’s as gorgeous on the morning after as she was last night, dancing in her gold dress and preventing me from leaving that club.If I had, if she hadn’t looked so damn mesmerizing, I’d have been out of there in time to prevent landing myself in this new form of slavery.
She might be dead right now though.And that’d be a shame, but I wouldn’t know anything about it.
