I glance at Nico and Francesco automatically, but they’re both making eyes at the pretty women in here and didn’t hear a thing.
She lays her hand on mine and squeezes.“We can protect you.”
I lay my own hand over hers, not surprised to find that her skin is as hot as Matteo’s.The look in her eyes reminds me of him too.Fierce, relentless, even ruthless.But also gentle somehow.“No one can protect me.Not from myself.Because I do love your brother, despite everything.”
I haven’t said this out loud yet.Wasn’t planning on doing it now.But that weight pressing down on my chest just shed a few more pounds when I did.
“It makes me the worst sort of traitor to my family, but it is what it is,” I say.“And he has tried to protect me and mine as much as he can.”
Another knowing look alights in her eyes as she nods.“I know all about betraying your family.And if it weren’t for my choices, we wouldn’t be sitting here today, there’d be no war to fight?—”
“But you’d be married to a man you didn’t love,” I interject.“And a very bad man at that, from what I hear.”
She shrugs.“But everyone else would still be alive.”
“Not my family,” I say.“They’d all be dead, and my sisters and I would probably be married off to some very bad men too.Matteo prevented that.And if you’d done what your family wanted you to do, he’d never have been there to do it.”
That’s another thing that’s been kicking around in my head, but I didn’t want to admit it to myself.Matteo’s been saying it since before we left New York, but I’ve rejected it outright.Even though it’s actually the truth.But does saying it mean I accept it?
She sighs.“This is a very heavy conversation.But the way our families work… we, daughters, and the women in general, are not much more than the pretty paintings and such adorning our houses.There for the men to do with as they please.Go where they tell us to do.And do what they want us to do.”
“I know.”
I wish I had something more to add, but there really is nothing.She nailed it.
“So my offer stands,” she says.“If you want out, you can come here.We’ll protect you.”
The words echo in my ears as I see Matteo come in through the door behind the bar.His eyes fix on me immediately, as bright as the noonday sun, like always.I feel the warmth of his gaze deep in my belly, another confirmation of my suspicions that I’m carrying his child.
And even if I wasn’t, it’s not him I need protection from.It’s my feelings for him.And those will clearly never die, no matter the beating they take.My resistance to him is also waning, slowly but surely.Is that another sign that I’m pregnant?
“Thank you,” I say, squeeze her hand again and stand up.“But I think I’ll be fine.Actually, I’m sure.”
She stands up too and together we wait for Matteo to reach us.
“Did you two have a nice chat?”he asks, a little harshly, a little wistfully, as though he wishes we had.
Isabella nods and she’s looking at him in just the same way.A little harshly, a little wistfully.The rift between them is still very wide.
“I’d like to see you again,” I tell her with a smile then look at Matteo pointedly.“Soon.”
He shrugs and nods.“You’re welcome at home anytime, Sis.”
Blade and Rogue have also joined us.
“This is her home now,” Blade says pointedly and Matteo shrugs again.
“The invitation stands either way,” he says and offers me his hand.“We need to get going now.”
I accept his hand, and he holds mine very tightly, possessively, desperately even.Like he’s afraid he’ll lose me.
And that’ll never happen.I know that now.We’re tied together in a way that nothing can break apart.What I don’t know is whether that’s a good thing or not.
Chapter23
MATTEO
She’s been veryquiet all through dinner, as though she’s wearing those mourning clothes on the inside now that she’s discarded them on the outside.And when that thought occurred to me, I couldn’t think of anything else.
