Page 81 of Unholy Union
What do you get when two crime families stop killing each other long enough to marry off their kids? A garden party to celebrate the fact that nobody’s dead… yet.
We’ve buried cousins, blown up warehouses, and feuded over territory across the city, but today as the Corsinis and Valentes turn up to the Bellini Garden in SoHo, we’re all friends.
More than friends, we’refamily.
The occasion’s a formality that’s been arranged as a chance to solidify how well things are going. You reallycanmarry a mafia princess to the heir of a rival mafia family and have things work out.
The picturesque setting at the Bellini Garden helps build this narrative. Sunlight drenches the garden that’s blooming with bright flowers often photographed in magazines. Iron chairs and white-linen tables have been set up for today’s event along with a full-course brunch delivered by uniformed staff.
Almost everybody’s already arrived by the time I turn up with Lazaro.
I scan the crowd like I usually do at these events. As expected, the Valentes are clustered with the Valentes and the Corsinis huddle with their own. There’s polite laughter, clinking cutlery, champagne being poured, but there’s an undertone of tension no amount of rosé can drown.
I’m who they’re waiting for to arrive.
But I’m not paying attention to any of them. I’m looking forher.
Mama insisted she and Sabrina arrive together.
“For optics,” she claimed. “A show of unity.”
Which is rich coming from a woman who can barely tolerate the existence of other women, especially if they’re younger and prettier than she is. I’d wondered what her angle was. I still do.
Then I see them.
Sabrina’s by the stone fountain, nodding politely as my mother speaks, her dark curls catching in the breeze. Her dress is a tangerine shade—bright, backless, subtly sexy in the exact way that makes me want to drag her away from all this and remind her who she belongs to. Her olive skin is glowing, her shoulders bare, her spine exposed like a fucking invitation.
We haven’t had sex in weeks. Not since that night I dragged her out of the club.
And yet I wake up every goddamn morning half hard, jaw clenched, her scent still tangled in my sheets. Her body’s right there next to me, warm and soft under those covers, but I haven’t made a move.
First it was out of pride. We were on bad terms and I couldn’t stand being around the girl.
That, and she was injured from the assassination attempt. Then the other assassination attempt happened and I wound up with a bullet in the shoulder and two grazes in the thigh.
But lately things have been… good. They’ve been better than I thought they could be between us as we’ve slowly come to an understanding. The problem with that is it’s still fragile. One bad moment, and we could be back at each other’s throats.
Any progress gone.
So I’ve been left starving, growing hungrier by the moment. Ravenous in a way I never used to be. Not just for her body, but for her gaze, her laugh, her quiet little sighs when she thinks no one’s watching.
Even the small things about my wife have started not only turning me on, but attracting me to her on a whole new, deeper level.
It’s something I’ve never experienced before, and something I’ve tried to keep at arm’s length by reminding myself of our past. Her family background.
But it’s getting harder to shake the more time passes…
A hand taps me on the shoulder.
I turn, expecting Cassian or some overeager soldier looking to kiss ass.
Instead, I find my little sister standing there, all five foot, nine inches of stubborn, cerebral defiance.
Celeste’s dressed like she’s here to defend a thesis, not attend a mafia brunch. She’s opted out of the usual dress or skirt ensemble and chosen some gray slacks and a collared blouse. Her dark hair’s pinned up and she’s wearing no jewelry except for the tiny silver hoop in her nose, which was a deliberate fuck you to our mother.
She gives me a crooked grin. “Don’t tell me you were stupid enough to get married.”
I bark out a laugh and yank her into a hug before she can dodge me. She lets out a strangled sound as my arms crush her.
