Page 65 of His to Break

When I get to the kitchen, Benny is gone and Leo is sitting at the breakfast bar eating an omelet. I go to the other side of the counter and grab my plate. I want a barrier between us until we’ve sorted a few things out.

“Why did you come back here, Vinnie?” Leo looks at me with such pain in his eyes I want to reach across the counter and hug him. “I told Matteo to let you go.”

“You told him to let me go wherever I wanted to go. This is where I want to be.”

Leo frowns. “You want the apartment?”

“Did the alcohol kill all your brain cells?” I shake my head in despair. “I wanted to be wherever you are.”

“You can’t mean that, Vinnie. Not after what I did.”

“Leo, what is it you think you did?”

“I hurt you, pressured you to do things you didn’t want to do.”

I can’t help rolling my eyes. “Leo, you only took what I offered. I mean, I could have used another orgasm, but it’s not as if I didn’t get some pleasure out of it.”

“Vinnie.” He gives me an admonishing look. It’s starting to piss me off that he’s treating me as if I don’t know my mind, that I can’t analyze my own feelings about what happened.

“I’m fine, Leo, but you’re right, you did hurt me. Right here.” I lay my hand on my chest. “If we’re going to move forward, you have to learn to trust me. I’m yours, one hundred percent, and I would never betray you.”

He buries his face in his hands, avoiding me. My big, brave mafia husband is afraid of discussions like this. The brutal world outside of these four walls, he can deal with. Expressing his emotions to his wife: well, that’s harder.

Rounding the breakfast bar, I slip under his arms and wedge myself between him and the counter. He sits back, giving me more room. I reach up and tousle his hair. Then I place a gentle kiss on his lips.

“I’m sorry, Vinnie,” Leo says. “I’m sorry I thought you were to blame for Gio’s shooting when the whole thing was my fucking fault.”

I shake my head. “It wasn’t anyone’s fault. The only person to blame is the one who pulled the trigger.”

Wrapping my arms around him, I hug him tightly, offering him whatever comfort I can give. Though there’s a lot to resolve between us, I hate to see him hurting. Where emotions are involved, I’m definitely the stronger of us.

We remain locked together, until Leo finally nods, accepting that what happened to Gio was outside of his control.

“You didn’t ask me about your brother,” Leo says as I step out of our embrace.

It’s shocking that I didn’t really think about Daniele all night. I assumed he was okay, otherwise someone would have taken great pleasure in telling me he wasn’t.

“Because the only thing that matters to me is you.” I curve my hand around the back of his neck. “Despite your numerous flaws, I think I love you.”

He takes a deep breath and blows it out slowly. I smell whisky underneath a fresher layer of mint.

“I love you too, Vinnie. If you really want to be with me, I’ll spend every day for the rest of my life making this up to you. If you need me to get down on my hands and knees and beg for forgiveness, you only have to ask.”

“I don’t need you to grovel, Leo. I just need you to work with me to make our marriage a success, to learn to trust me. Can you do that?”

“Yes, I can.” He nods resolutely. “But where do we go from here?”

“Well, we finish our breakfast, have a nap because I think we both need it, and then we go to the hospital to see how Gio is doing.”

“Good plan,” Leo agrees.

I kiss him again and step away to go finish my breakfast. He wraps an arm around my waist, preventing me from going to the other side of the counter, and leans over to pull my breakfast plate toward me.

“We eat like this,” he says, lifting me up to sit on his lap, “together.”

“Together,” I agree.

There’s no doubt we have work to do and the future will hold many challenges, but as long as we have each other, we can take on the world.

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