I nearly choke on the air I just dragged into my lungs.
Dante’s fingers still on my shoulder for a beat before he resumes to brush them over the lace of my sleeve. “In time.”
“I want a sister,” Noah exclaims.
Dante chuckles. “That may be difficult to guarantee. You may get a brother.”
Under the artificial blush the cosmetologist applied to my cheeks, my skin heats.
Noah thinks about that for all of two seconds. “I guess a brother is okay too. But can I first get a dog?”
Dante looks at me. I nod. We haven’t spoken much about anything lately, not even about the aspects of Noah’s new life. That’s my fault. I’ve been avoiding Dante, giving him the cold shoulder ever since he made me sign the prenup.
“Sure,” Dante says. “We can start making plans tomorrow.”
Noah squeals at that, and then his line of questioning turns to dogs and how to take care of them.
After thirty minutes of asking, “But why?” even Noah falls quiet as he tires.
No one says another word until we arrive home.
Instead of going inside, Dante drops Jazz and Noah off. He leaves them with double the number of guards he usually keeps at the house. I get to give Noah only a quick kiss before Dante bundles me back into the car. As if they’re sharing a secret, Noah winks at Dante as he waves us goodbye.
The same number of men follow us back toward town. Reino drives. A man I don’t know has taken Jazz’s place in the front. The sight of the gun he cradles on his lap makes me nervous.
Following my gaze, Dante cups my hand where it rests on the seat next to me. “Don’t worry. It’s just a precaution.”
When I try to pull my hand away, he tightens his grip and puts my hand on his thigh. An arrow shoots straight to my heart. The touch is both possessive and gentle, but that’s not what causes the reaction. It’s the familiarity. It’s how Dante used to hold my hand before everything crashed down around us. Bearing his show of ownership in silence, I try not to focus on it too much.
As we approach Manhattan, I glance at the familiar skyscrapers. “Where are you taking me? Shouldn’t I change first?”
Dante is vigilant, scouting the surroundings through his window. “Not for our destination.”
“Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.”
My laugh is wry. “Honeymoon?”
He looks at me. “Do you want one?”
“No,” I say quickly.
“You didn’t think we’d spend our wedding night at the house?”
I don’t know what I thought. Nothing has changed except for the contract that’s now binding between us. Why should we treat the night as anything special? It’s not as if he’s going to sleep with me for the first time.
And then it hits me.
No.
No, he can’t be taking me there.
But he does.
I recognize the building with the guesthouse on the top floor. My stomach contracts into a tight ball as the same old pain resurfaces, but I do my best not to show him how coming back here affects me. I pretend I don’t remember, saying nothing as Reino pulls into the underground parking.
Dante holds my hand in his lap, brushing a thumb over my knuckles as we wait in the car. He’s taken a gun from the seat pocket in front of him, holding it loosely in his free hand.
