Page 51 of The Mafia's Captive

“You, actually. If you can believe it.”

He sighs. The next thing I know, he’s grabbing my chin and drawing me to his mouth for a punishing kiss. It’s too hot for me not to accept. He nips and bites my lip, and like a masochist, I accept the pain he’s inflicting on my lips. When I moan, his tongue slips into my mouth and caresses my own, driving me wild with desire. After a while, he lets me go. When I open my eyes, he’s staring down at me. “What will I do with you, Corina? You drive me crazy.” This is the first time he’s ever said anything close to acknowledging he has feelings for me. It’s not an outright declaration, but it shows me that he isn’t just an emotionless block of wood. He feels something for me.

“You’re not the only one. You make me lose my senses, too.” My voice is gruff as I speak. Even now, as we’re standing holding each other, I feel like I’m in my little heaven. It’s addictive and I must remind myself there’s a deadline to this. There will be a time where he will no longer be mine.

He holds me in his embrace and says, “Never give Nico and Rico any ideas.”

“I doubt they think of me in that way at all.”

“I’m serious.”

“Fine. I won’t let them get any ideas. But trust me, they had none.”

He drops another kiss on my lips. This one is sweeter than the last. “Corina, Corina,” he whispers against my lips. He makes my name sound like an endearment. I want to hear him say it like that again and again.

A sound from the bushes outside the maze breaks the spell, and we disentangle from each other. We make our way back to the reception, hand in hand.

The reception is being held in the vast garden just like the wedding, but on the other side of the villa. Two parallel long tables have been set and one small table lies across them, which I assume is where the bride and groom will be. We’re led to the front of one of the long tables where, I notice, is where everyone who’s the Morelli family is. The other table is, I assume, for the other family.

“Shouldn’t you all be mixing now that you’re all family?” I ask him. He’s never responded to anything I ask about his business or his ‘family,’ and I assume this too will fall on deaf ears, but he says, “Too soon. There’s still some bad blood between us, for that to be possible.”

“That much?”

“If my father knew our family was joining the Vannuccis, he would be spitting on the ground. He’s probably rolling in his grave as we speak.”

“So why are you uniting now?”

His gaze goes to the father of the bride, who’s sitting on the other table opposite us. The man raises a glass of champagne at Dante and Dante responds the same way. “We need all the help we can get.”

“To defeat Saccone.”

His brow furrows while giving me an inquisitive look. “How do you know about that?”

“Isn’t Saccone your sworn enemy? Isn’t he the one who tried to kill you in Brazil after he took your arms dealer away from you?”

“You know way too much about me and my business.”

“How could I not when I spend so much time with you?”

“Who told you all of this? Colin? Nico?”

“You.”

“Me?”

“When you were talking too loudly on your call the other day.” He stares as if he’s seeing a brand new me. “I’m not as dumb as you think, you know.”

“I’ve never thought you were.”

The compliment surprises me such that I have nothing to say except to stare at him.

“Who would have thought that anything like this would happen?” I turn to the sound of the voice to see the father of the bride standing behind us, specifically behind Dante. He stands up and so do I. “My father wouldn’t have thought so too,” Dante says, “But times have changed.”

“Indeed, I look forward to our partnership.”

Dante turns his gaze to the opposite table. “Do the others think the same way as you do? I’ve heard you have some dissenters in your family?”

“Nothing I can handle. Mostly men who thought they could take over my business by becoming my son-in-law. They will come around.”

---