“No.”He shakes his head.“There will be no busloads of tourists showing up here.”
As I would expect.“So your own private label.”
“Our own,” he corrects.
The statement brings my chin up.Ourown?As in he’s also thinking of me?
He shrugs, as if he doesn’t care one way or another.“The decision is entirely yours, Valentina.If you hate this, then I will sell.”
Even though I would have never willingly come here, I don’t hate it.
Then his lips quirk slightly.“The estate is not far from Fredericksburg.”
I’ve been to Hill Country a couple of times.Once to see the blue bonnets bloom while also indulging in a chauffeured tour of the biggest wineries in the area.Of course, on the girls’ trip, we’d indulged in plenty of food and shopping on the main street of the quaint, charming town.
I have good memories of the visits.And it’s a nice change from Dallas and Houston.
And still… “Does this mean I am not your prisoner anymore?”
His answer isn’t straight up.“You will always be kept safe.”
I meet his eyes.I’m unnerved by his nakedness, and the way his cock hangs even heavier than before.“What does that mean?”
“You’ll go nowhere without me.”Then he scowls.His dark eyes rake over me as if he can see every calculation racing behind my calm facade.
He takes a step toward me, reminding me of the threat that he is.
Dante Moretti, even a more accommodating version of him, is still a mafia underboss.And that comes with certain, harsh realities.As the daughter of a don, I’m familiar with those.
While the man who married me isn’t as big of a target as his brother is, law enforcement no doubt has a hard on for him, and assassination is always a threat.
He has power, and plenty of it.But the cost is freedom.
Still, I meet his gaze unblinkingly.“How is any of that different from when you had me as a prisoner in your house in Houston?”I only caught glimpses of the inside of his house twice.Once when he took me wedding dress shopping, and when I left for the cathedral.
“You’ll have full use of the house, the pool, the enclosed area of the yard.If you want to leave the explore the vineyard or leave the premises, you will have security with you.”
And there will always be soldiers inside the house, as well as inside the perimeter.Not that any of this is a surprise.
From the moment I was born, this has been my life.
I’ve always been a target, and I may even be a bigger one now.
“My terms are not negotiable, Valentina.”
Of course they’re not.He remembers how easy it had been for him to kidnap me from that rooftop, even surrounded by friends and my guards.
And when he burst through the door of the bridal room at the cathedral, I’d been prepared to flee.
There’s no way he will risk losing his wife, especially not now that he’s spilled his seed inside me.
“But none of these are the gift I mentioned.”
There’s more?
Curious, I watch as he walks past me and reaches for something I hadn’t noticed on the top shelf.
It’s a small box, and he offers it to me.
