Page 65 of Sin City Obsession

Alessa rested the tips of her fingers to the back of his shoulder.

Rocco exhaled and looked around at all the silent, watchful eyes awaiting his judgment. “I don’t want to have to repeat this again,” he said. He pulled Alessa up to his side properly. “Sheis an extension ofme. Treat her as such, or be punished accordingly. Spread the word.”

The idiot who’d pointed a gun at her went so pale, Rocco thought he might collapse.

So Rocco tasked him with making the calls to organize clean-up. It was always more complicated when they had one of their own they needed to be able to bring home and provide a proper burial for. Then he looped his arm around Alessa, started forward, and said, “Now, we rally. We know who started this war. I intend to win it.”

Alessa stayed quiet while they made their way back to the penthouse, but she was only partially listening to Rocco’s side of the calls he had to make. She knew he called Ugo, and she knew he called his two surviving Capos. She caught pieces enough to grasp that his rage hadn’t blinded him to the weight and layered difficulties that loomed ahead.

Sobol’s organization was weaker in many ways, but Rocco’s reign was newer. And Rocco was suddenly down fifty percentof his streetside leadership. There were too many men needing to be shuffled around. They had in-house chaos to manage, there would be quieter problems to resolve, and all of that would have to happen simultaneously with preparing for war. It wouldn’t be long before Viktor learned that his spy had been uncovered.

She knew all of that, more from her own life’s experience in the business, but mostly, her mind was reeling.

The gun on Rocco’s calf had been intended as a backup for one of them from the beginning. It was why he’d worn a looser pant, and why she’d held her position on that side of his body specifically. So she hadn’t thought twice before dropping to the ground when Lobos whipped out his gun, letting herself act like a scared damsel who just wanted to disappear behind her lover. And as she’d anticipated, Lobos had written her off.

When he’d pointed his gun at Rocco, despite that they really had intended to interrogate him, all she’d seen was the threat. In retrospect, she knew why neither Ignazio nor Marzio had shot him down immediately. They’d had clean lines of sight to do so. But Rocco had made it clear he had questions for the bastard. Technically, Alessa had overstepped.

But letting the spy even possibly put a bullet in the man she loved had not been an option.

She dropped her head back, against the seat.The man I love.It felt like that had snuck up on her, yet at the same time, she was finally sure. And, really, that complicated a lot of things. Or it should.

Except she also remembered Rocco doing the stupid, heroic, macho thing and stepping between her and a gun only secondsafter she’d shot a different gunman down for him. One of his own men, one who hadn’t seen her face before they’d rendezvoused for the apprehension of Lobos, had probably seen her bodily aimed toward Rocco with a gun in her hand. The only other thing that man knew was that they were there on the hunt for a spy, a traitor. Rationally, distrusting her wasn’t the wildest reaction.

Rocco had clearly not agreed. And again, for a moment, there was a man pointing a gun at the man she loved.

She could barely hear anything over the thunderous beating of her heart as they climbed from the SUV and took the elevator up to the penthouse. Rocco was still beside her, unharmed but understandably frustrated, and she was becoming quickly overwhelmed.

Most of her first week was already over. She was in love. She would be expected to return to Newark at the end of her vacation time. She would be expected to return to work. But she was in love with the head of a different family, almost clear across the country.

Alessa twisted a hand in the fabric of her shirt, her gaze absently tracking as he moved into the living room.

He stripped off his suitcoat and began divesting himself of his guns, starting with the holster hanging on his shoulders. “What a fucking mess,” he said with a grunt, as if grumbling to himself. He certainly wasn’t wrong. On top of having to present confidence and strength simply for being the new Don, and having to worry about everything with his father’s recovery, now he was faced with a war.

Her throat constricted and she moved closer as he added the second gun to the coffee table. She didn’t have a perfect solution for how to make anything work long-term, but she absolutely did not want to see him cut down, either.

Rocco looked up when she stepped between his knees and arched a brow at her. “Something on your mind, beautiful?”

“Lots of things, actually,” she admitted.Too many things.She reached out and trailed her fingers over his shoulders. “What you did back there … was incredibly stupid.” She made sure to smile as she spoke, and only briefly paused. “You keep calling me your ‘queen,’ but I kept not letting myself think about what that really means. And then all of a sudden, you were stepping in front of a gun for me. When I’m sure you knew you didn’t have to.”

How did she articulate to him how much that meant? That she understood the weight of the risk he’d taken—shouldn’thave taken—and it had brought everything into such stupidly bright clarity?

Rocco sat back and raised his hands to take hold of her hips. “There are different kinds of ‘have to’, Alessa. Was there another way to get that moron to not point his goddamn gun at you? Yes. Was there another way to make my point? Probably.” He tightened his grip. “Could I stomach the thought of taking the risk, no matter how small, that he might pull the trigger before I could say the words, or that knocking his arm aside might cause him to involuntarily squeeze? No. I could not.”

Her heart slammed into her ribs, beating harder, louder, and she felt her smile broaden as warmth bloomed in her chest. She swept her hands up his shoulders, up the sides of his throat,until she was cupping his jaw. “You could have startled him, and we mightbothhave ended up shot.”

“Better together than letting it be you.” And he meant it. She could see it in his eyes.

Alessa fought a sudden surge of tears and leaned down, brushing a kiss to his lips. She ghosted her lips along his, once, twice, then went back and let him catch her mouth long enough for their tongues to slide together. Her fingers slipped into his hair, like he’d done to her in that hallway. Then she eased back, retreating from his heady kiss to meet his gaze. “There’s something,” she whispered, “I think I should tell you.”

He worked his fingers beneath the hem of her shirt and pressed them directly into her skin. “Hmm?”

I should keep it to myself.But she wouldn’t. Because she would regret that choice more than the other. “I’ve fallen in love with you, Rocco Cavallo.”

He stared at her for a long second, as if he hadn’t heard her, or as if he were struggling to comprehend her words. Then he’d pulled her down, his lips crashing against hers in a hard, demanding kiss. His hands swept up her shirt, teasing her breasts, and he broke the kiss in the interest of ripping it over her head. “You understand what you’re saying to me, right?” He bent his head and trailed his kisses down her throat, ran his tongue over her collarbone. “You realize that you not loving me was the only thing that held me back?”

A strange combination of a moan and a laugh bubbled up her throat. “Since when were you holding back?” Feeling emboldened, she pushed him upright and leaned forward,enabling herself to whisper into his ear. “Did you think I hadn’t noticed my birth control went missing after you moved me in?” Granted, she suspected she hadn’t noticed right away. And she hadn’t exactly ever managed to slip away to any store that might sell any Plan B.

Rocco chuckled. “I did wonder.” His hands slipped beneath her skirt, pushing it up as he reached for her ass. “Now get naked so I can fill that sweet pussy again. I need a break from phone calls.”

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