Page 46 of Mafia Darling

The entire time he’d been fucking me, he hadn’t said a word. At all. Fausto was a talker and I loved his dirty mouth. But he’d been eerily quiet tonight.

He also hadn’t kissed me on the lips.

Huh.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Francesca

A full bladder woke me in the middle of the night. After I used the toilet, I noticed that Fausto’s side of the bed was perfectly neat. Was he still awake, or had he slept somewhere else?

I didn’t care. I didn’t need his warmth beside me to sleep. Or the tender way he wrapped around me in the mornings.

Besides, I was still annoyed at him. So what if he hadn’t talked dirty or kissed me? Wait, that wasn’t right. He had talked dirty at the start, right up until—

I sucked in a breath. That was it. He’d been his normal, controlling, filthy mouthed self right up until the moment he asked who I belonged to. When I didn’t answer, that was when it all changed.

That asshole.

My chest burned as I stared at the bed. He had a lot of fucking nerve being upset with me—with me!—for not saying I belonged to him. What, did he think his magic cock just made all my anger and hurt disappear?

Filled with righteous fury, I grabbed my silk robe and stormed out of the bedroom. I checked the guest rooms in our wing, but they were all empty. Then I went down to his office, where I found the door open, the room unoccupied. Undeterred, I kept searching. I looked in the kitchen and the dining room. The sitting rooms. I checked the patio. No Fausto.

Hadn’t he said there was a gym and an indoor pool?

The security rooms were on the east side of the castello, so I normally avoided that part. I went in that direction, opening a door I’d never been through before. A television show sounded from somewhere inside, so I followed the noise. A large room full of monitors sat on the right, with two of Fausto’s men behind a desk, watching an Italian show on a laptop.

“Buona sera, signorina,” one of the men said, rising. “Are you looking for Don Ravazzani?”

I pulled the robe tighter. “Yes. Do you know where he is?”

“The gym.” He pointed in the direction I’d been going.

“Grazie.”

I continued down the corridor until I found the gym. Sure enough, I saw Fausto through the tiny window in the door. He wore long shorts and no shirt, sweat rolling down his body as he ran on the treadmill.

I threw open the door. “You have some motherfucking nerve.”

He didn’t turn. “Why are you out of bed, Francesca?”

He wasn’t even winded, which was mind-boggling, but I didn’t have time to unpack that now. I moved directly into his line of sight. “You’re pissed because I wouldn’t say I belong to you.”

His mouth tightened.

“Oh, my God! I don’t believe it.” I pointed at his face. “You do not get to be mad at me for anything until the end of time, you stronzo. What, did you think I would fall all over myself to declare my love for you the second you whipped your dick out? If so, you are completely fucking delusional.”

He slapped the stop button on the treadmill and the belt began slowing. “Delusional? Is that what you call it when you undress for me? When you beg for my dick? You are the one who is delusional, Francesca. We both know you belong to me. You will always belong to me.”

“No, I don’t. You lost your ownership rights the moment you kicked me and your unborn child out of the house! You said I was dead to you.” Horrifyingly, my voice cracked on this last part. I took a deep breath. I would not cry in front of this man.

He put his palms together and bent his head, touching his fingertips to his lips. “I am sorry for ever saying that, for hurting you. But I took on the ‘Ndrangheta brotherhood to get you back. Not to mention I risk going to war with every one of D’Agostino’s allies to keep you, while the GDF is breathing down my neck. Everything I have is hanging in the balance, Francesca, but I don’t care. I would fight to the death to keep you here.”

I had no idea what he was talking about. “If you hadn’t kicked me out, none of that would’ve even been necessary.”

He threw up his hands, stepped off the treadmill, and began pacing. “I am aware, and I am drowning in fucking regret over it!”

Grabbing a small dumbbell, he hurled it against the mirror, which shattered in a million tiny pieces in an unholy crash. I covered my ears, ducking. One of the guards burst through the door, gun drawn, but Fausto held up his hand. They had a quick exchange and the guard left.

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