The past few years, I’ve been spending so much time trying to protect our family, I barely have time tobreathe. But if Idon’t do it, we’re toast. There are plenty of guys who would love to reinstate the commission my pops so violently tore apart. To keep the old laws of the land in place in a way that my father doesn’t seem to care about.
If anyone actually asked me, I’d agree with the fact Pops is disrespecting both our history and tradition. But no one ever does, assuming I’m the mouthpiece for my father through and through. Technically, they’re not wrong.
He’s tarnishing what it means to be Mafia, but it’s not my place to question him—not unless I want him to kill me for the disrespect. I’m barely hanging on to his approval as it is, the less feathers I ruffle, the better.
Still, weirdly, finding out Peppino was doing business deals with shady people outside of the family—maybe even without my pops’s permission—makes me feel a little less like the Marino fuckup.
I breathe out a heavy sigh and crack my neck, looking around the room. Much to my dismay, Aria and I are staying in her childhood bedroom andnotin the mother-in-law suite. I wonder if Venesa lives in the guesthouse and that’s why we’re in the main one instead. Or maybe Trent wanted to keep a close eye on me. I know if the situation were reversed, I’d do the same.
There’s a canopy-style queen-size bed with baby-pink sheets in here and so many things everywhere that they’re overflowing from the shelves lining the peach-colored walls. French doors lead to a small balcony overlooking the private beach, and it’s very obvious no one has touched this room since Aria left.
It’s outdated. A time capsule filled to the brim withstuff. Aria loves to collect things, that’s for sure. There’s no way I’m letting her clutter up my penthouse back home, though, so she’ll need to get a handle on that before she moves in.
Maybe we can live separately.
Aria fell asleep shortly after we settled in a few hours ago, but not me. I don’t sleep well when I’m in a place that isn’t my own. Lowering your guard is a quick way to get a bullet in your dome, and I didn’t get to where I am by being comfortable in my surroundings.
I send a text to Scotty, whom I had my assistant, Jessica, set up at a little bed-and-breakfast a few miles down the road, telling him to be here in the morning at nine, and then I glance at Aria while she burrows deep under the comforter. I head to the left side of the bed, staring down at the small space beside her. Aria likes to cling to me in her sleep, and when she does, I feel suffocated, like the walls are closing in, so she doesn’t spend the night with me often.
I’ve never been a cuddler. Makes me itch.
Grimacing, I slip beneath the covers and blow out another breath, my mind racing like it always does when the world goes quiet. Before I can stop myself, my thoughts turn to Venesa. She’s just…I’m not sure what she is exactly, but I do know guilt drips like a steady leak every time I try to push her from my brain and she drops back in.
Especially when I’m picturing her while lying next to my fiancée.
Aria shifts and murmurs something before opening her sleepy gaze and locking it on me. She grins softly, and I close my own eyes, pretending to be asleep.
It doesn’t fool her.
“You’re not still mad, are you?” she asks, her voice thick.
I blink slowly, then stare at the top of the canopy. “Who says I was mad?”
She giggles, scooting over and placing her head on my shoulder. Immediately I feel stifled, but then I think of the way Ma used to get, after Pops started staying out late at night and coming home in the morning smelling like other women’sperfume. How she’d cry in their bedroom, trying to stifle the noise so I wouldn’t hear her break apart through the thin walls. How she’d walk around the house looking so goddamn lonely, so broken from his betrayals.
That memory is all it takes to finally push Venesa from my thoughts and focus on the woman next to me instead.
“Please, E, you practically choked the life out of my arm when Fisher and I were interacting.”
Ah.
“You’re sexy when you’re jealous,” she murmurs, her lashes fluttering as she gazes up at me.
I hold back my laugh.Jealous?That’s not an emotion I’ve ever felt in my life. Simply put, there’s nothing for me to be jealous of.Wanting things you can’t have does nothing beneficial. It only muddles the mind and keeps people from achieving greatness.
Besides, if I really need something, I simply take it.
“You’re mine, aren’t you?” I peer over at her.
“That’s the deal.” She yawns. “For better or for worse. Forever.”
The words grate against my skin, but I push the feeling away. “Right,” I say, “so what’s there to be jealous of?”
She moves quickly, rolling on top of me, her warm cunt pressing on my lap. My hands fly to her hips instinctively, and when she grinds down, my body reacts.
“My macho man,” she croons. “Pretending you’re not upset at me getting attention from another guy.”
I’m not really in the mood to get my dick greased, but the tension I’ve been feeling all day needs some sort of release, so if she wants me to fuck her, I won’t argue.
