Page 124 of Diary of a Mafia Princess

Well, told her everything except the fact we’d kissed.

Her eyes widened and then filled with tears and she immediately started putting together a tray of food. All easily swallowable, high-nutrient things like the leftover soup she’d made for me when she’d found me lying in my bed, almost completely unresponsive a few nights earlier.

I left her to take them to his room, and then I went back to mine, got in the shower, and cried for the man who’d so selflessly put himself on the line for me. For the man I’d kissed. And for the man I had clearly judged so wrongly.

39

LUCA

Dear Diary,

I almost got mouth-to-mouth from the six-foot-four bodyguard who stands outside my bedroom door counting grapes.

The water felt like heaven and hell all at once. It washed away the grime and sweat, and I opened my mouth, letting it fall inside, swallowing greedily, even though it was making my stomach cramp. The water got into every cut and abrasion, stinging like a motherfucker, and my head spun in dizzying circles so badly I wondered if one of the punches I’d taken to the head had dislodged something vital in my ear.

A soft knock came from the door, and Virginia’s worried voice floated through. “Mr. Guerra? I’ve brought you some food. Soup and bread. I can bring more, or something different if you prefer.”

I hated that she called me Mr. Guerra now, the same name she called my father. When had that even happened? I’d just been Luca to her once upon a time, when I’d been a little boy.

I missed hearing her call me that. I didn’t ever want to be Mr. Guerra.

But for as long as my father was holding Izzy’s happiness over my head, then I would have to be whatever he wanted me to be.

And take the punishments that came with it.

What I hadn’t told Nyah was that this wasn’t my first time in those cages. They were a punishment I had taken more than a handful of times.

But they didn’t normally come with kisses from my father’s fiancée afterward.

Fuck, she’d felt good, hands cupping my face, her lips on mine. I was weak as fuck and smelled as bad as a garbage truck, and yet she’d wanted to kiss me.

I’d wanted to kiss her back, and not just as a fuck you to my father.

I’d wanted to kiss her for a lot more reasons than just to give Carlos the middle finger.

I called to Virginia that I was okay, even though I really wasn’t. I crawled out of the shower and lay down on the thick bathmat, breathing raggedly, though I wasn’t sure if that was because of my probably cracked ribs or because I was thinking about kissing Nyah again.

At some point, I must have fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, I was waking up to Lynx in my face, shaking me violently, Dax standing behind him with his hands in his hair.

I blinked, and both of them swore loudly.

Dax slumped back against the bathroom vanity. “Jesus fuck. I thought you were dead.”

Lynx rocked back on his heels, breathing hard. “Me too. Fucking hell, Guerra. Why take a nap on the damn bathroom floor?”

My gaze darted between the two of them. “Sorry,” I said, voice full of sarcasm. “I didn’t really consider the two of you would be wandering around my bathroom, giving a shit where I slept.”

“I nearly gave you mouth-to-mouth, Luca!” Lynx said, voice full of exasperation.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “You want to try now?”

He flipped me the bird. “What the hell happened?”

I glanced at Dax and then back at Lynx. “My father happened.”

Dax’s jaw ticked. “Fuck, man, I didn’t know what they were doing with you down there. You’re Carlos’s son. I just kind of thought that meant…”

“That I was immune to his brand of sick? No. I’m not.”