Page 204 of Anti-Heroes in Love Duet
“He does,” I confirmed proudly, feeling the truth of it suffuse me once more. “Neither of us want this wedding to happen. At least come with me now toVilla Rosaand discuss things with us. I think we can make this work.”
“We tried to run away a few years ago,” Mira admitted, clasping her girlfriend’s hand so tightly, their fingers went white. “ZioRocco caught us.”
Which explained his desperation to pawn her off on Dante before anyone else could find out about his Sapphic niece and have it “tarnish” his reputation.
I sighed at the horrible realities of this world, then remembered how many atrocities I’d witnessed as a lawyer in New York, far removed from the mafia.
There were villains everywhere, but at least in the shadows, I had a better chance of taking them by surprise.
The girls, Mira and, I learned, Rosetta, followed me home in their little Alfa Romeo.
My family was still on the back patio, the conversation terse as I rounded the corner with Mira and Rosetta at my back.
Conversation stopped immediately, Dante’s chair scraping painfully across the tiles as he stood and stalked toward me.
I didn’t move an inch.
He collected me in his arms and carted me up against his chest, burying his nose in my hair. My hands found the back of his hair and tangled there, holding him to me.
“My Lena,lottatrice mia,” he murmured as he clutched me to him like a life raft. “You have to know, please know, I love you better than anyone else. I love you better even than I love myself.”
“I do,” I whispered thickly, kissing his chest where my cheek was pressed to it. “I do, I do. And I love you too. So much it makes me crazy. It’s my only excuse for running away instead of talking to you about how much it hurt.”
“I know,” he soothed, a big hand cupping the back of my skull as he pulled away to look down into my tear stained face. “I promised I wouldn’t hurt you and I’m sorry. I knew if you found out, it would damage the truth between us so I didn’t tell you about Cosima. I didn’t tell you because those feelings were nothing. How can you compare the beauty of a single bulb to the brilliance of light from the sun?”
I breathed through the tightness in my chest, embracing the pain so I could accept his words into my body. “How do you always know what to say?” I said as I often did, trying to lighten the tension, trying to show him I was brittle but I was trying.
“We are made of the same thing,” he reminded me. “I feel you in my heart.”
He kissed me then.
Not a sweet kiss.
One that pulled me to my tip toes, straining against his chest to get closer, to feel the friction of his body against mine the way his tongue moved against my mouth.
It was a possessive reclaiming that I submitted to with my entire being.
When he finally pulled away, the lingering pain in my muscles had been replaced by tingling warmth.
“You leave without a guard again,lottatrice, I’ll tan your ass so red you won’t be able to sit for a week,” he growled in my ear before pulling away.
I smiled a little, shifting my hand to his cheek so I could run my fingernails over his stubble. “I think that’s fair. I’m sorry I was so stupid. I think I’m so ready to be betrayed, sometimes I manifest it.”
“It’s understandable,” he murmured, running his nose along mine. “But to betray you would be betraying myself. I won’t do that to either of us.”
“I know.” I winced. “I think I just needed to remind myself of that one last time before it got through my thick skull.”
He kissed me then, softly, lips wet and silken as rose petals at dawn. I sipped at him, licked at him, hummed when he palmed my throat and slid his thumb over my pulse to feel my heart beat for him.
Because it did.
It always would.
Which was why I’d concocted a mad plan to keep him for myself at all costs.
When I pulled away, I smiled.
“Do you want to tell me why you brought my betrothed over for lunch?” he asked, eyes crinkled with mirth.
