Page 132 of A Bond Beyond Blood

Frowning, I searched his gaze, trying to understand how something as beautiful as “Nessun dorma” could provoke such a negative reaction.“Puccini,” I said, “he was an Italian composer.”My father’s favorite, I finished without saying that part out loud.I couldn’t fathom what had triggered Gannon’s response to the composition, but I didn’t want that fear linked to anyone in the Ricci family.We had enough notoriety already.

“It’s what he hummed,” Gannon whispered, then he turned quickly and strode toward the back of the gym, where he proceeded to bend in half over a trashcan and lose his lunch.

Rubbing my hand over the back of my neck, I watched, waiting, until he finished puking his guts out and started up the stairs to my apartment.

“Who?”I called out after him.What the hell just happened?

Before he walked through the door, Gannon paused with his hand on the doorknob, his voice just above a whisper as he finally said, “The one who turned me.”

Chapter Forty-Three

Jack

During one of my many visits to Vinny’s gym, nearly two months after the fight with Elias on Christmas Eve, I ran into the doctor who’d stitched me up back then.He’d never returned to my apartment to check on me during my recovery, but I’d chalked his absence up to my overprotective boyfriend monitoring my progress and keeping track of my healing—then reporting back to Dr.Bianchi.

“Ah,” the doctor said as he strode toward me.“Youhavehealed as impressively as Vincenzo said.”

And just like that, my assumptions about Vinny monitoring me were confirmed.

I grinned as I spun in a small circle.“Good as new.”

After a quick assessment, the doctor seemed pleased with my recovery and gave me the go ahead to return to all levels of physical activity.Ironically, I was dressed in my workout leggings and sports bra, drenched in sweat from going a few rounds in the ring with my ex-boyfriend, so it was obvious that I’d already returned to physical activities without explicit authorization.

But I never was very good at patience or permission.

When Dr.Bianchi mentioned that I could return to sexual activities, I snorted, but quickly covered my mouth, thankful that Gannon had already headed upstairs to Vinny’s apartment for a shower.

I didn’t have the heart to tell the doctor I’d been having sex since, what, week two, I think?Maybe earlier?

Whoops.

Who could blame me?Vinny was a beast in more ways than one, and I found I absolutely loved the way he couldn’t keep his hands off me.

Motion caught my eye and I turned to see Vinny enter the gym, his shit-eating grin all the warning I got before he opened his mouth.

“You hear that?”he said and I groaned.

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