Page 28 of His Beautiful Revenge
“I’m sorry …I can’t. Not yet. Giacomo, we need to talk about what happens next.” She drew in a long, ragged breath, then laughed softly. “Believe me, there’s nothing I’d like more than to …” She gestured to the floor and they both laughed. Giacomo relaxed and pulled her down to sit on the couch. He smoothed her hair back from her face and she leaned into his touch. Her face was serious.
“If we do this… Giacomo, it has to be for real. No bullshit like last time.”
He nodded, his eyes grave. “Anything you need, Norah. Just name it.”
She took his face in her hands and kissed him gently. “Time. Just give me time. I need to process this and sort out where my life is going. I need to find my own apartment. You need to deal with Tara …that side of your life. When we’re both free of the past, then yes, Giacomo, I’m yours. I love you. I just have to know you’ve learned how to face what you need to do and that you can be the man I think you can be. Can you do that for me?”
Giacomo gathered her to him. “Norah, I promise. You don’t know how long I’ve waited for you. With all my heart, I promise. I will never let you down again.”
Carmel’s funeral was attended by so many people that the small chapel was overrun. Norah felt like an intruder; she had liked Carmel and had grown close to her in a short time, but still, she felt like sitting with Giacomo near the front of the church was depriving someone else of their rightful place.
The whole service was beautiful but desperately sad. Orlando and Ferma clung to each other as the pastor spoke. Giacomo clutched Norah’s hand, his other hand was on Orlando’s shoulder, supporting him. It made Norah realize how much the two men loved each other. They were family. Norah glanced around. Zulika was at the back of the chapel and she caught Norah’s eye. Her tiny shake of the head said everything that was needed to say what she was feeling—what everyone was feeling.
This shouldn’t be happening.
Giacomo had told her more about what had happened to Carmel—that she had been shot six times at point-blank range. Merciless. Brutal. Norah couldn’t fathom it.
Afterward, everyone gathered at the wake back at Orlando’s home, and Norah, Giacomo, and Zulika helped out by organizing everything and making sure the family was taken care of. Driving home, the three of them sat in Giacomo’s car silently, each locked in their own thoughts.
Zulika thanked Giacomo for the ride home and looked surprised when Norah followed her out of the car. “Stay with him,” she whispered, but Norah shook her head.
“We’re taking some space,” she told Zulika once they were upstairs in Zulika’s apartment, but Zulika sighed.
“Why? Surely today showed that we shouldn’t waste timenotbeing with the ones we love.” She sounded frustrated and Norah hugged her.
“We’re working things out, bubba. Believe me, I want it to work between Giacomo and me. It’s just we need to find out more about each other and take a few steps back. Moving in with each other so quickly was a mistake. We don’t know each other well enough for it to be …resolved,yet.”
Zulika studied her. “Do you trust him?”
Norah gave her a strange smile. “Almost. Now, I’m bushed. I’m going to bed. Night, bubs.”
“Goodnight, No-No.”
Zulika lay in bed, unable to sleep. So much had happened lately that she felt exhausted by it all. Not to mention, Zulika had a secret of her own, one she had yet to process. She’d found a lump in her breast a couple of weeks back and had gone to have it checked out. She was due to have a biopsy at the end of the week, but somehow she couldn’t bring herself to tell Norah, her best friend, her sister, the one person she would confide in normally. After everything Norah had gone through…no.Better to find out first whether it was anything to worry about. The oncologist had told her she was young to have breast cancer, but there was always the dread of being the exception.
She gave up trying to sleep eventually, and switching her lamp on, grabbed her book and began to read.
Lucian had seen the car pull up and the two women get out. His sister and Norah were dressed entirely in black and he guessed they had been at the lawyer’s funeral. That’s why he didn’t get too angry when he saw who was driving. Did Conti take the women to the funeral as friends? As support?
This time, I’ll let it go,he thought to himself. He watched Norah, beautiful in a wrap dress, as she climbed the stairs up to the apartment.How the hell was I stupid enough to letyougo?
Tara’s threats came back to him then, and he couldn’t help but picture Norah lying dead, her lovely body riddled with bullets.No. He would not allow Tara to hurt Norah. Norah was his and his alone to decide who she loved and how she lived …if she lived. He would kill Tara before she could hurthisNorah.
Because the only person who got to decide if Norah died …was Lucian himself. If she went back to Conti …if she refused to forgive Lucian …
Don’t make me hurt you, my darling,he thought now, as he watched Norah disappear into the apartment.Don’t give me a reason …please …
Giacomo sat in an endless accounting meeting, not listening to a word anyone said. His mind whirled with everything that was happening outside of the company. Orlando’s endless grief; his goddaughter’s utter confusion and sorrow. Norah. It had been a week since the funeral and Norah had asked for some time. He’d agreed—of course he had—but he missed her terribly. At least they talked every evening on the phone, sometimes long into the night.
He smiled to himself. Norah had been right. Theywerelearning more about each other now. He discovered she had been labeled a book nerd at school and she wore that badge proudly, that her father’s family was from Kerala, India and her mother was a Creole from Louisiana., and that she spoke Hindi, French, and some Russian. He’d sighed at that. “And yet, no Italian.Sodisappointing.”
She’d laughed at his woebegone tone. “I’ll try to learn some, I promise.”
He’d taught her some that night as they had phone sex. He’d sighed, genuinely this time, and said quite simply, “Bella,voglio essere dentro di te…I want to be inside you.”
He heard her breath quicken. “Norah, would you slide your hand down to your clitoris for me and pretend it’s my hand?”
She gave a moan and he knew she had obeyed him. He fisted his cock at the root, sliding his hand up and down, closing his eyes, and pretending it was her hand on him. “Can you feel me,Bella? Can you feel me touching you?”
