“Yeah,” Romeo answered on a yawn. “It’s early, asshole. This better be important.”
“Your sister went to the studio at the asscrack of dawn this morning with Costa. Alone,” I barked into the phone. “She’s there now with him.” I wanted to throttle someone, though it was nobody’s fault but my own. I should have made sure to tell her not to go anywhere, even with her guards, by herself. “Is the outside security already in place?”
Maybe they would have trailed Massimo and Bianca to the studio. “Not yet. She’s on her own,” Rome hissed. “I’m getting up now to head to the studio.”
“Don’t bother. I am already on my way. Make sure you have the security crew in place for tomorrow, and let the guys know that they are only to work in pairs. Right now, Rossi is out because of his grandmother’s death and his brothers, so Costa and Leone are to be joined at the hip watching the girls. Once I’m with Bianca, I’ll send Costa back to the house.”
“I’m getting up now. I’ll let Gia and Nic know they aren’t to go anywhere without one of us or two of them.”
“Good. If the girls have plans this afternoon, they need to cancel them, or we need to persuade the girls to stay home so Costa and Leone can watch and guard them while we go have a chat with Costa’s mom.”
“I’ll take care of it. I know how to keep them together this afternoon. Make sure that Bianca is back at the house by lunch.”
“Will do.” I hung up the phone just as I was approaching the SUV, and hopped inside. The urgency to get to Bianca was driving me mad. Until I laid eyes on her, I wasn’t going to relax.
I pulled into the early morning traffic and headed toward her studio downtown. What should have been a twenty-minute drive with light traffic in any other city was almost forty minutes before I got there. I kept glancing at my phone for updates and texts while waiting for commuters to move out of the way.
By the time I got to the studio, I was irritable as hell. When I went in through the glass doors, I spotted Massimo immediately. He was leaning up against the wall, watching Bianca and one of the other dancers move through a series of movements. When the man went to pick Bianca up, I stiffened. I didn’t like seeing another man’s hands on her, even if they were friends and only doing it for work and the audition.
“Rome needs you back at the house.” I came up beside Costa, who had only just noticed I had walked into the building. He was too damn focused on Bianca and not on his surroundings. He was a few years younger than Rome and me, closer to the girls’ ages. I had to remind myself. He wasn’t raised in the Morelli house or doing jobs for Morelli until he was an adult. Rome and I were raised in the thick of this life. We’ve had each other’s backs for years and know how to stay aware.
“Oh.” Costa jerked and straightened at the sound of my voice. I almost rolled my eyes. So much for protecting Bianca, Gia, andNic. If he didn’t see me come through the door, then he wasn’t doing his fucking job. It pissed me off.
“Get back to the house, and when you watch any of the girls in the future, you damn well better have one eye on the door and know when someone is approaching you,” I barked at him. I wanted to put my fist through his face, but I restrained myself. I wasn’t his boss, and I would never be, but Bianca was my wife, even if he didn’t know it. She was also the underboss’s sister and the head of the family’s daughter. He should be guarding her, not watching her ass shake as she dances.
When he left, I took his place, standing next to the wall, but unlike him, anytime the door opened, and more people entered the building, I logged who was coming in and where they were going. Men and women walked by me on the way to the different practice studios or to go to the locker rooms. Some went into the same studio Bianca was in. I would watch as she greeted each one with a smile and a slight wave, but none seemed to talk with her at length. The only one who really had a conversation with her was the guy she was dancing with.
Jealousy burned in my chest when he made her laugh at something as they worked on another dance move where she ended up in his arms, but I pushed it away. It was another thirty minutes before she went to the wall and gathered her things, taking a bottle of water from her bag. I saw another girl stop her when she would have turned toward me and the door, but the girl had a fearful expression on her face like she was worried because I was watching Bianca as she danced.
Bianca turned to look at me, then she gave me a small smile and winked before saying something else to the girl without sparing her another glance. The girl’s eyes flitted over to me, her jaw dropping a little before she could mask her expression.
I watched through the glass doors as Bianca gave the girl a small wave and moved toward me. As she got closer to the door,I straightened away from the wall and reached to hold it open for her.
“Princess,” I murmured softly. She hated that name for a long time, but maybe it was because I always called her that when we were arguing or when I was trying to get a reaction out of her. She took it as an insult when it was a pet name.
“Husband,” she whispered, her eyes were bright with adrenaline, whether it was from dancing or from me, I didn’t have a clue. I hoped for the latter, but either way, she looked happy.
“You know it makes me hard when you call me that.” I grinned and pulled her into my arms, placing a quick kiss on her lips. She tasted like mint and sweat from her exertions during her practice. She giggled and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me closer.
“I know,” she whispered against my lips before she went in for another, deeper kiss. My whole body woke up, and I felt like I was drowning in her. She abruptly pulled back and out of my arms, looking around. “Crap. I forgot.” Her panicked voice reached my ears.
“Costa is gone. Rome needed him back at the house with Leone,” I reassured her it was safe for us to be the same as we were down in Atlantic City. “We have about two hours. If you’re done here, we have about two hours before I have to get you back to the house.”
“Why do I have to get back?” she questioned as I took her bag from her shoulder and placed it on my own. I slid my free arm around her shoulders and guided her out of the building to where my car was parked down the street.
“Rome has something planned for you and your sisters because we have some errands to run this afternoon.” I had no idea what he was planning to keep his sisters together, so Leone and Costa would both have to stay with them. Whatever he wasplanning, it would need to keep them busy for a few hours at least. “So, he told me to have you back at the house by noon. It’s just after ten, so I thought we would run an errand of our own.”
“Oh, what errand?” she asked, glancing up at me and slipping her arm around my waist as we walked.
I kissed the side of her head and pulled her close. “I thought I would give you a tour of my bedroom.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Bianca
We got to his apartment and barely made it in the door before we were all over each other. He lifted me up against the door as soon as it was closed and sandwiched my body between his and the hard steel.
I wrapped my legs around him and started gyrating on the hard, rigid length of his cock that was ready to bust out of his jeans. My need for him was like going from zero to sixty in a split second. It took my breath away how much I craved his touch.
