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But then again, I think I knew that when he didn’t kick in the door of my hotel suite the very first night, to carry me away and take me back with him. After all, Salvatore stood up and objected at my wedding in order to make me his, because it mattered to him that I not go with Pyotr. If Pyotr had loved me, he would have done something equally drastic to get me back.
Still, such a clear realization of the truth feels like a punch in the stomach. It feels, for a moment, like I can’t quite breathe, and tears sting my eyes. But after how things have changed between Salvatore and me, the last thing I want is for him to see me crying over another man.
So I blink them back, quickly, and focus on the other part of it that concerns me.
“If everything you’ve said is true, then you thought the Bratva would harm me.” I frown at him. “So what about Bella’s safety? Isn’t she in danger?”
“Part of the agreement is that mafia security will go with her into her new marriage. She’ll have bodyguards of her own choosing, not Pyotr’s. Igor is aware of my distrust. There have been measures put into place, to retaliate if he harms her.”
And you couldn’t have done that for me? The question is on the tip of my tongue, but I don’t ask it. For one thing, I know Salvatore’s decision was an impulse, an inability to let the wedding continue without stepping in. And beyond that, I no longer wish it had gone differently. I know the truth about Pyotr now, and I know Salvatore did save me, not only from unhappiness, but from feeling the same bitter sense of disappointment and betrayal that I just did—only within a marriage shackled to the same man making me feel those things, rather than on the other side of it.
“So that’s it?” I frown, feeling somehow unsettled about all of this. “Pyotr marries Bella, Igor is satisfied, and everything is smoothed over? The Bratva are pacified, and we can all go home?”
Salvatore chuckles. “That’s a simplistic way of looking at it, but essentially, yes.”
“And Bella agreed to this?” The idea shocks me now, after how my feelings about the Bratva have changed, but I know it shouldn’t. Not all that long ago, I was eager to run into Pyotr’s arms, and angry that I’d been snatched away. He’s handsome and charming when he has reason to be, and I can see how Bella might have been caught up in it, just as I was.
I feel a wave of guilt. But I also know that this is how things almost always are, in our world. Marriages are arranged for alliances, for expediency, not for love. I was always lucky in that my father wanted me to have love. Most women aren’t. And I won’t be able to just stop that practice.
“Yes.” Salvatore eyes me, as if he’s expecting some pushback. “Her father is going to be rewarded generously. Money, as well as an elevated rank among my men. And Bella herself seems amenable to the match. She wouldn’t have expected to marry someone like Pyotr, among the mafia. It’s a leap up for her. So long as her safety is ensured, she and her family are happy to go along.”
I let out a slow breath, still unsure how to feel about it all. Salvatore gives me a sympathetic look, and I can see that he can tell I’m struggling.
“This is how things are, tesoro,” he says quietly. “It’s how they’ve always been. You know that as well as I do. I don’t have the power to change them so thoroughly that I don’t have to make these sorts of compromises. But I can do my best to make it a good bargain for our side.”
“What if we have a daughter one day?” I look at him cautiously. “Will she be expected to marry whomever she’s told? Or will you let her marry for love, the way my father wanted me to? Will you give her a choice, so she can have the same chance at happiness that we’re getting?”
Salvatore nods. “I can’t make it all like this, for everyone. I can’t tell every family what to do. Bella’s father would have married her off to someone, and the choice wouldn’t have been hers. But I can make our family do things differently.” He looks at me intently, his expression utterly serious. “If we have a daughter, Gia, I promise you that she’ll have a choice. I’ll make certain that she has a chance for love, not just an arrangement.”
“Okay.” I feel a little better, knowing that. All of this still makes me feel on edge and uncomfortable. But there’s nothing I can do. Salvatore is right that our world isn’t going to change overnight, and probably not at all. But this is a step in the right direction for our family, at least.
Salvatore smiles at me. “I know you’re reluctant to leave. Honestly—” He looks around, drawing in a deep breath. “I am, too. But tomorrow, we’ll go home. And we’ll start a new life together, Gia.” He lifts his champagne flute, tilting it towards me.
It feels frightening. More unknown even than the time right after our marriage, because now I have hope. And it’s harder to have something to lose.
But I tap the edge of my glass against his, and I let myself continue to hope. “To a new life together,” I echo, and take a sip of the champagne.
The bubbles fizz against my tongue, sweet and sharp, and I draw in a deep breath of the salt air.
Tomorrow, everything will change again. And I have to hope that there will still be happiness for me, at the end of it all.
Salvatore
I can feel Gia’s apprehension when we board the jet to leave Tahiti the next morning. We’re both tired—we didn’t sleep until late, spending the hours after dinner luxuriating in each other’s company for our last night on our honeymoon.
Now that I’ve allowed myself to want her, it’s hard to keep my hands off of her. Our nighttime swim in the pool turned into skinny dipping—and far more—before I took her back to bed, both of us staying up nearly until sunrise, unwilling to let the pleasures of the night come to an end. But eventually, we both fell asleep.
Letting myself feel what I do for Gia has been a revelation. I’ve never enjoyed someone else’s company as much as I’ve found that I enjoy hers, now that we’re not constantly fighting. She’s remarkably funny, when her wit isn’t being used as a weapon against me, and her optimism is infectious. Over the last week, I’ve felt myself loosening up, learning to relax for the first time in my life, and whereas before, I couldn’t wait to get back to New York and my work, now I’m disappointed to leave Tahiti. I could use another week of sun and salt and spending every day wrapped up in my new wife.
But it’s time to go home, and solidify our future. And for all the apprehension over how the new treaty with the Bratva might play out, there’s a hope in both of us that we didn’t have before.
This time, Gia sits next to me on the jet, curled against me while I scroll through documents on my tablet, and she reads. When we get tired, we go back to the bedroom together, and her slow teasing as she takes her clothes off quickly turns into me checking off another item on the list of things to do with my new wife—making her come with my tongue at 35,000 feet before I fuck her until we’re both exhausted.
It’s late at night when we get home, late enough that all either of us have the energy to do is get back to the mansion, and go to bed. Gia falls asleep in the town car on the way back, and although I should be thinking about what I need to do to finalize the deal with Igor, my attention keeps drifting to her.
She looks beautiful, sweet and innocent in her sleep, and I fight off a pang of guilt that I thought I’d entirely conquered in Tahiti. But now that we’re nearly back home, I keep remembering how I felt before that, before she got under my skin and convinced me that everything I was so sure of about her was wrong. It’s hard not to slip into who I was before. But I made her a promise, and just like the one that I made to protect her, I intend to keep this one as well.
Once we’re back at the mansion, I walk with her up to our bedroom, where she sleepily tumbles into bed, pulling the covers up under her chin as she rolls over. I want to join her, but I have things that I need to check on first—one of which being that I need to check in with Josef about the situation with the Bratva.
