“Why would you, Saranna? I don’t think about it and neither does the family. I look, act, and sound different, but I’m still part of the family and they know where my loyalty lies.”
She nodded then glanced at her hands and even from the doorway, I could see the thoughts twisting in her mind. I was expecting the question and had the lie ready for when she asked it.
“Is that why you refused me, Roman?”
“Saranna, you’re a beautiful woman and Marcell wants you to find love. But you’ve always been off limits to me; I told you that.”
“And yet you can flirt, touch, and screw other ladies in the family? Isn’t there some code that protects them?”
“No. Because they’re not Marcell’s left hand, they’re not as important as you. Marcell is like my brother, Saranna, and no matter how badly I wanted to say yes, or how badly I still want to say yes, I can’t betray him like that.
“You’re the one thing I know he would kill me over, and I can’t do that to you, or to him.”
Chapter 7
Saranna
Iwatched him, my jaw practically dropping at that because yet again, he was telling me something different. Might I have felt differently had I known that he was strictly told not to touch me?
Possibly.
Would I have gone to my cousin and demanded that the stupid rule be removed?
You can bet your ass.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, and I had to fight to follow the shift in subject. My eyes narrowed as he chuckled, almost as if he picked up my plight.
“I could eat,” I told him, finally standing up to walk out. “Is there even any food in this place?”
“I did manage to pack some stuff, but I also have a lot of frozen stuff, and canned goods. I never know when I’ll be out here, but I don’t like having to drive into town to get anything.”
“Would you like me to cook?” I offered.
“Sure. I wasn’t aware that one of your hidden talents was cooking?” he tossed over his shoulder as I followed him to the kitchen.
“I’m not just a badass in the bedroom or the boardroom, but I’m also a badass in the kitchen.” His misstep at my words had me smirking.
Being here, truly away from prying eyes where it was just me and him, could be a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Especially without the worry of someone stopping by. Because here, with just me and him, he was at my mercy, and knowing that he wasn’t as unaffected as he liked to seem.
“Holy shit,” Roman said, sitting back in his seat. “Where the hell did you come up with the idea to make this? I didn’t think I had anything in my stash to serve this up.”
“Honestly, you had a lot more than you think you do. I can just about play with any meat dish, and you have more than enough veggies and seasonings. I even made a quick dessert. No pie or anything fancy, but something that’s delicious.”
“Yes, please, I have to try this.”
I laughed as I gathered up the plates and sat them in the dishwasher, then grabbed the little tarts and sat one down before him.
“You didn’t tell me how you learned this,” he mumbled around a mouthful of food.
“One of the golden rules my mom had was that her girls knew how to cook. We could go to college and get a degree, find a husband or don’t, find a way to work for the family or don’t, she didn’t care. But for any Italian mother, the way to a man’s heart is through food. So, she made sure we could make any man we had in the future happy and we wouldn’t starve.
“My dad, though, wanted us as far away from the life as we could get. Everyone went along that road but me. When I wasin college, I found that bending people to my will was awesome and I got such a thrill over it. I don’t mean using them or having them do things for me. I meant that I fought to get what I wanted.
“I talked to Marcell, told him that I’d love to be someone he could trust and rely on to get the deals he wanted. Once it was laid out, Marcell pushed with everything that he could to help me get my degree.”
“Is that why there’s a riff between you and your dad?”
I took a sip of my water, slowly nodding.
