Page 107 of Precious Hazard

“Arturo!” Sienna’s shriek carries down the line. “Drago and I have both been trying to reach you and Tara for hours! I can’t believe you’d let me worry—”

“It’s me,” I whisper into the phone. Leaning against the bathroom wall, I slide down until my naked ass hits the cold marble tiles.

“Tara? Well, how nice of you to call. Eventually! Drago has been going out of his mind, even though Jelena tried to reassure him that you were okay. He’s been ready to storm Arturo’s house for hours, and it took everything I had to keep him away. Why didn’t you call us sooner?”

“Um… I’m not sure where my phone is. But I’m fine. We’re both fine. Sorry for not reaching out right away. I was… busy.”

“Busy? With what? What’s more important than—”

“Busy being fucked senseless against the front door.”

“Oh.” There is a short pause. “Okay, well… In this case, you’re forgiven.”

“Thank you. How are things at Naos? Did anyone else get hurt?”

“It’s a mess. There was one casualty among the customers; the rest are only flesh wounds. Aside from Iliya, but he’ll be alright. We’re not changing the subject, though, chickie.Without going into too many details… because, ew, he’s my brother… was it good?”

I close my eyes and sigh. “Sex with Arturo is always good. Better than good, actually. Sometimes, it feels like it’s too good to be true.”

“I knew it!” she shrieks with glee. “I told you you’d grow to like him! It’s so great that we’ll get to stay sisters-in-law on the double front. Drago is going to lose his shit, though, when he hears this. He keeps telling me you’ll be dumping my brother any day now. I saw that video of Arturo going batty after you slashed his tires, and it was beyond funny—”

“What?” I whisper yell. “What video?”

“Oops. I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Sienna!”

“Well… My resourceful husband had Mirko hack into Arturo’s security feed. Please don’t be mad at him, he only did it to check up on you.”

“Check up? WTF, he was spying—”

“Well, considering the circumstances, he was worried.” Sienna’s voice is barely audible. “You can’t really blame him for it.”

“What do you mean? What circumstances?”

“Um… Drago knows, Tara.”

“Knows what?”

“That Arturo blackmailed you into marriage. He doesn’t know the specifics, nothing beyond what Ajello told him. Which wasn’t that much. Just that you and Arturo have an agreement, and that Drago should stay out of it.”

“What?” My stomach drops to the floor. “Since when?”

“Just before your wedding.”

I drop my face into my palm. Figures. I should’ve known there was something up with Drago. He was much too unconcerned after our engagement was announced.

“But that doesn’t matter anymore, does it?” she continues in a light, chirpy tone. “With you two falling for each other, this is basically a real marriage now. Who would’ve guessed that Ajello’s meddling would result in another love match?”

A love match. Yeah. I shake my head. What a half-baked idea.

“Nothing has changed, Sienna. Arturo and I are still trying to drive each other nuts, only now we end our arguments in bed.”

“God, the race between you two to see who’s more stubborn is a dead heat! Why won’t you both stop acting foolishly and talk to each other? Just tell Arturo how you feel about him.”

“I feel nothing toward him,” I sniff, surly.

“Sure. Could have fooled me. If you feel nothing, you’d be sawing logs right now instead of crying in the middle of the night.”

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