Page 118 of Wicked Sinner
"And if he won't let us stay married?"
“Then we’ll leave.” I sit up slightly, looking down at her with absolute seriousness. “I’ll move into your house. Help you run your shop or something. I don’t know. I don’t care, Bridget.”
Her eyes go wide. "You'd do that? Even if it meant giving up your position in the family?"
"Bridget, I'd give up everything for you and our child. The family, the business, all of it. You're more important than any of that." I let out a breath. “I have things I want to prove to myself, yes. Things that are important to me. But if the end result is that I have to let you go to keep them, all I’d prove is that I’m not the man I want to be. I won’t do it. I’d rather lose everything else and have you.”
She's quiet for a moment. "I wouldn't ask you to do that," she says finally. "I understand what it means to you. I really do. And I fell in love withyou—I can’t ask you to change any more than I can change for you.”
"And I fell in love with a woman who challenges me, who makes me want to be better than I am. I don't want you to change, Bridget. I don't want you to become some perfect mafia wife who smiles and stays silent and does what she's told. I want you exactly as you are." I brush my thumb over her cheekbone. “I love that you’re so much of a handful. That you don’t fit in.”
She bites her lip. "Even when I argue with you?"
"Especially when you argue with me."
Bridget laughs, turning her head to kiss my palm. "Good, because I have no intention of becoming a docile wife."
"I wouldn't want you to."
We fall quiet again, content to just hold each other. But my mind is already working, already planning how to handle the conversation with Konstantin, how to secure our future together.
My phone buzzes on the nightstand, and I reluctantly reach for it with my good arm. The message is from Tristan:Need to talk. Can you meet tomorrow?
I show the text to Bridget, who frowns. "What do you think he wants?"
"Only one way to find out." She leans up, kissing me, and every other thought flies out of my head as my cock starts to harden despite the blood loss.
There’s no other woman on earth who can turn me on like Bridget does. No one else who can make me feel like this.
And now I have her forever.
—
The next morning,I meet Tristan at a small café in South Beach, far from the usual haunts of Miami's criminal elite. He's already there when I arrive, with a cup of black coffee in front of him.
"How's the shoulder?" he asks as I sit down across from him.
"It'll heal." I study his face, trying to read his mood. "What did you want to talk about?"
Tristan’s face is expressionless. "Your marriage."
My blood runs cold, and I instantly tense. "What about it?"
Tristan chuckles at my expression. "I had a conversation with Konstantin yesterday. He's… pleased that the Slakov situation has been resolved, but he's still not pleased with your choice of wife. He still questions whether she’s more of a liability than an asset.”
This is what I was afraid of. My jaw tightens. "And?"
"And I told him it would be a mistake to interfere in your personal life." Tristan leans back in his chair, his expression serious. "I saw how you fought to get to her, Caesar. I saw how desperate you were when you thought you might lose her. That's not just about rebellion or about an heir—that's love."
I frown, startled at the show of support, and suspicious of it. "Why do you care? Why would you suggest to Konstantin that he let it go?”
“Because I saw what you feel for her. I love my wife, Caesar. I know you don’t know much about me, but what Simone and I have is real. I thought you married Bridget out of sheer stubbornness, just to give a middle finger to Konstantin and me, but I saw that wasn’t the case. Nothing will be gained by forcing you to divorce.” He looks at me for a moment. “And I think you’d leave to be with her. Which, as much as I’d like your father’s money and businesses, won’t serve anything in the long run. The Genovese name should be carried on by a Genovese if there’s one to inherit who’s worthy of a leadership position in our world. And you are, Caesar. I saw that. And I told Konstantin the same.”
It takes me a moment to speak. Of everything that I thought this meeting might bring, it wasn’t this. I’m oddly touched. I hadn’t expected a friendship with Tristan O’Malley, but this feels like the beginning of one. "What did he say?"
Tristan chuckles. "He's agreed to let the marriage stand, with one condition."
My stomach tightens. "Which is?"
