Page 41 of My Dark Fairy Tale
“My kind? Hmmm.” I looked at Guinevere, who was frowning slightly as she struggled to keep up with the conversation. “My kind saved this girl from a worse kind of man and kept her safe this last week.”
“Then you know not all men who do bad things are rotten in their hearts,” she rebutted smugly, sniffing in triumph.
Amusement tickled the edge of my mouth, but I kept it firmly pressed shut.
“I like it here,” Guinevere told me, crossing her own arms to stand off with me. Given she was five foot nothing and light as a feather, it was laughable but oddly endearing. “I searched for ages until I found somewhere this cute that I could afford in the center of Florence.”
I leaned forward to inspect the lock on the door, lifting the latch and then dropping it to hear the squeal of the rusted hinge. Without saying a word, I looked back at her with a raised brow.
Her arms tightened protectively over her chest. “If Signora Verga is safe here, I’m sure I will be too.”
“Signora Verga isn’t an exquisitely beautiful young woman with more courage than sense,” I drawled.
“Raffa,” she gasped. “Don’t be rude.”
I almost laughed at her outrage when I had just given her one of the nicest compliments to ever leave my lips. She had all the indignation of a wet cat, and I found myself ridiculously attracted to that stubborn nobility.
“It’s true.” Signora Verga allowed with a dirty look my way that shifted to a sweet smile for Guinevere. “I am old now, not young and pretty like I once was.”
I turned my snort of disbelief into a short cough, but Guinevere saw through my ruse and leveled me with a glare.
“You’re lovely,” she declared. “And so is this apartment. I can’t wait to settle in.”
Something strange happened in my gut, hooks ripping up the lining of my stomach as if something was being forcibly dislodged.
“You are not staying here tonight.”
She pressed her lips into a flat line at my tone, which I could admit was the same one I used when ordering mysoldati.
“Why not?” she asked in an excessively reasonable manner. “I’m no longer sick, I have clothes, and you kindly lent me some cash that I’ll be able to pay you back for next week when I get my expedited replacement passport. In fact, forget about taking me on your work trip to the winery. I can go another day by myself to one of my own choosing. You’ll be happy to be free of the Americanidiota.”
Wasn’t that the million-euro question.
Why didn’t Iwantto be free of her?
I hadn’t been home to Villa Romano in two weeks, the longest stretch of time I’d spent away from my family since the death of my father. The Pietra scum were peeking their ugly mugs out of the ground with their sights set on revenge and taking over my territory. Mama and Stefania were convinced an arranged marriage between Stef’s family and my own would solidify my power base and provide long-awaited babies.
I was a capo with real-life fucking problems.
So why did I want to continue this farce of playing Prince Fucking Charming with this American girl?
“Lasciaci,” I told Signora Verga.
Leave us.
She sniffed at me again, shot a look at Guinevere like she was tossing her a lifeline, and then shuffled out of the apartment in her slippers.
I didn’t close the door behind me, but I didn’t need to.
Instead, I held Guinevere’s long-lashed brown eyes and stalked slowly toward her. She held her ground, tipping her chin up when I loomed over her so she could maintain eye contact.
She opened her mouth, no doubt to use her sharp little teeth to take a bite out of my bossy ass, but I silenced her by pressing my index finger to her mouth.
“I have gone to great lengths to take care of you,cerbiatta,” I murmured, moving my hand from her closed mouth to trace the line ofher cheekbone up into the loose hair over her ear. She shivered slightly when I hooked a lock with my finger and pressed it behind the delicate shell. “I find myself ... invested in your well-being now.”
“Financially,” she quipped, but the word was too breathless to be punchy.
“I have invested more money in many more things, and they could go bankrupt tomorrow without me giving a single fuck,” I admitted.
