Page 27 of Vow of Desire

“I didn’t want this either!” he shouts so hard, spittle flies from his mouth. “Gabriel forced my hand.”

“But as my father, you should have fought harder for me and you didn’t. Now I’m the one to pay the price. So just go, Dad. Please. Just go. I can’t deal with this right now.”

The front door opens and in walks Matteo. He stops when he sees me and my father. “What is going on here?”

Dad turns to Matteo in a huff and pokes him in the chest. “You better take care of my daughter. If she gets hurt again, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

Matteo slowly crosses his arms and glares down at my father. “And if you try and kill me, I’ll have no choice but to kill you. So I would suggest you consider what you’re saying right now, Rocco. Or things will end badly. For your daughter’s sake, don’t do something stupid.”

“Just make sure she doesn’t get punched again.” He storms out of the house without a backwards glance in my direction. That hurts more than I thought it would.

“What happened?” Matteo asks once it’s just the two of us.

“You wanted me to show you my real self? Fine. I slapped Alexandra today.”

“Who?”

“Alexandra Ricci. She was the wife of Tommaso Ricci, a high ranking mafia man. He’s dead now. I slapped her.”

Matteo blinks, taking in my words, before he approaches me. “And why did you slap her?”

“Because she wouldn’t stop accusing you of being the one who hit me. She… made me angry.”

“And you snapped. Interesting.”

I scoff. “Interesting? That’s all you can say?”

“I told you that you would eventually break in half if you didn’t learn to bend. You’re too high strung, Luciana.”

“As you keep reminding me,” I grumble. “I am sorry I’m not perfect.”

“That’s not the problem. The problem is you keep trying to be perfect. It’s impossible. I never asked you to be perfect. I just asked you to not run. I asked you to keep your word and you have done that.”

“You don’t think I’m a terrible human being for slapping another person?”

His laugh is stark and bright. “I have met a lot of terrible people in my life and you are the farthest from that. You are a good person, Luciana. I can tell. A good girl. But maybe you should stop trying to be such a good girl. At least when you’re with me.” His tone darkens into something… lustful. I don’t understand it at all.

“I’ve always been a good girl. I don’t know anything else.”

“You can learn with me.” He keeps approaching me until we stand toe-to-toe and he settles his hands on my hips. It sends a tingle straight to my stomach. “Do I still frighten you?”

“Not as much,” I admit. “After you saved me. I never said thank you for that.”

“No, you didn’t, did you?”

I swallow hard. Having him right before me is intimidating and distracting. “Thank you for saving me.”

“You’re my wife. I am a man of my word. In our vows, I made a promise to protect you. I will keep to that. You don’t have to keep pushing me away. We can make this work. We can do our duty and have fun at the same time.”

“I don’t know how to have fun.”

He raises an eyebrow that only makes him look more handsome. “You don’t know how to have fun? That’s such a shame. Let me show you.”

In one fast motion, he brings his lips to mine. I gasp which only allows his lips to sink deeper into my own. Without even knowing what I’m doing, my body leans into his.

His strong, large body. Just remembering his muscular bare chest on our wedding night makes my face flush and my stomach tingle harder.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” he murmurs against my lips. “You don’t have to fight it.”