"At least let me help with these contracts. I recognize them from yesterday. They're the shipping manifests from Sicily, right?"
I move to take the papers from her hands. "Isabella, you don't need to worry about this side of things. I don't want you involved in?—"
“Why did you let Valentina?”
“I don’t let Valentina do anything.” It’s true Valentina had much more involvement in the family business than is usually allowed in a family like ours. But she’d butted her way in long before I became Don. But now she’s Cristian and Luca’s problem, not mine.
“I could be helpful.”
I study her, wondering what she thinks she can do. She’s already told me she doesn’t know anything about her father’s business.
“You have been helpful. You brought me a cupcake and rocked my world.”
She rolls her eyes. “I can do more.”
“I’m sure you can, but… ” I don’t want to hurt her, but neither am I ready to let her into the business. Her mentioning the Sicily contracts is a little disconcerting as it is.
“Fine. I get it. Men’s work.” She shakes her head. “I guess this is all I’m good for.”
“I respect you, Isabella.”
“My body.”
“And your brain. But I also like order. Tradition. That could change, but it won’t overnight. It won’t right now.”
“Fine.” She pulls her robe tighter around her and I feel like she’s punishing me. "I should let you get back to work.”
When she starts to leave, I tug her back toward me. “Keep the bed warm.”
“Why? Will you be using it?”
I give her a friendly shake. “You like being obstinate, don’t you?”
“Sometimes. You like it too, don’t you?”
I kiss her then, hard and thoroughly so she feels it to her toes and forgets to be annoyed at me. When I pull away and I see the cloud of desire in her eyes, I know I’ve succeeded.
“You don’t play fair,” she says.
“Says the woman who came to my office in lingerie and sucked my cock with my door unlocked.”
She gives me a flirty smile and then leaves my office.
I stare at the empty doorway and I’m hit with the urge to follow her. To hell with work and responsibility and the empire that demands my constant attention.
If it were only just me who’d suffer. No. Too many people, including her, need me to be on top of everything, all the time.
So I move back to my desk, wondering how Isabella has seeped into places inside me when I don’t want her there. At the same time, I don’t want to push her out.
I’d had a vision of what this marriage would be and it’s turning out differently. But it’s not necessarily bad. I don’t see us having what my siblings do, but we could form a solid partnership that has friendship and passion.
But to do that, I need to trust her. I need to know her loyalty is one hundred and ten percent with me.
I reflect on our time together so far, and I have to concede that she hasn’t done anything to warrant my distrust. Yes, there’s the whisky incident, but she’s right in that it was likely Enrico. Even if he used her, I doubt she knew what was in the bottle. I don’t see Isabella knowingly killing me or my men.
I scrape my hands over my face as I attempt to refocus on work. And when I’m done, I’m going to climb into bed with my wife. I’m going to touch her and taste her and make her declare her loyalty to me. And when I’m satisfied that she’s truly mine, I’ll make her my queen.
27
