Her mother was half as powerful as she is and got men killed left and right. She eventually got caught in a bad story of her own and lost her life.
I know her grievances.
She made no secret of what had pushed her into that man’s arms. I was her man on paper. She couldn’t have more than that.
There were many things that Giorgio could do, but making me consummate my marriage wasn’t one of them.
I got a pretty good deal.
She got a good deal, too, but she also wanted other men and wasn’t willing to change her ways.
I think we all got what we wanted.
What I didn’t want was to have her daughter on my tail just because she was bored and had nothing better to do.
Women like her are bad news. They’re bad for business and a man’s peace of mind.
They come draped in the stench of death and ruin everything they touch.
She can’t be ruining my plans.
I need to deal with her family if I find them to be in the wrong. And I also need to avenge the death of my father, and be gone.
At the top of the stairs, she laughs at the fool’s joke and tilts her head back before she tosses a glance over her shoulder and catches me observing her.
She catches Vittoria’s eye as well, and her smile dims a little.
One last time, she looks at me, and I fix my stare on her, warning her to mind her business.
As the group of people sweeps her away from me, I go back to exploring every inch of her skin as she reveals it for public consumption, along with the little tools women like her employ sometimes to make hot-blooded men like me lose their heads.
Heels that make her legs even more irresistible, underwear that under no circumstances should be visible through layers of whimsical fabric meant to make you stare more than to cover her body.
Dresses that won’t pass the test of sartorial sanity.
But beyond all that, who can escape those eyes?
Desperation is hardly my drug of choice.
I like power through and through.
I’m addicted to strength. I live it, breathe it. The women even know that. They’re tough as nails. They need to be, or they wouldn’t have my time.
I can’t deal with weakness.
But this woman’s desperation isn’t purely that.
It’s a toxic mix of full abandon and the promise of a one-in-a-lifetime experience.
What man can resist that?
A young woman’s hunger for flesh, crazed out of her mind, willing to play hard and win if only for the fun of it.She’s the last thing I need right now.
She was wild even back then, when I walked into the Gallos’s headquarters to make a deal with her grandfather.
I didn’t have eyes for her or anyone else.
I was there to discuss business.
