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When did this happen? The idea of Stephano being killed is too much, and I ache. Tears I’ve managed to ward off slip down my cheek, and Stephano cups my jaw, brushing them away with his thumb. I swear he can feel my heart beating against his chest. I’m faint with the shock of seeing Vincenzo here and the fact that Steph might die.
“Your biggest worry is that Vincenzo will think this is a fake marriage?”
“Yes… The idea was to make it seem real, to stop Franco, to get out?—”
“It’s very real, angel,” he interrupts as he rakes his fingers into my hair, pulling down and forcing me to look up at him. “If only you would open your eyes to see the truth.”
His mouth hovers for a second over my lips, and then he kisses me, his lips possessive and demanding. His mouth opens mine as I moan into the unapologetic way he invades me. Stephano deepens the kiss, and now, my heart is all over the place. Pulsing in my sex where I contract wantonly for him as his hands splay over my butt and squeeze. I wrap my arms around him, legs weak with the surprise and intensity of his kiss as his tongue conquers my mouth. He grips me closer and steadies me to him.
Oh, God. I’ve wanted this so much. I’ve needed this for so long. We’ve been so good at keeping to those terms we set out, but I know tonight, we are going to break every last vow we’ve made. I need us to make this real because I’m in love with my husband.
Stephano pulls away.
“Fuck,” he groans. “I’ve been wanting to do that since the first day on your yacht in Cannes.” He presses into my lowerbelly, making me feel the need he has for me. “Let’s go,” he says, his voice husky.
“Vincenzo?”
“He’s being taken care of.”
I glance through the glass wall to see four suited men surrounding Vincenzo, blocking him from following us. Our gazes meet, and a shudder rips through me. Another man is standing too close to a guy with a scar on his cheek; he must have him at gunpoint. Tony is standing by the elevators, mere meters from us, his lazy gaze not missing a thing.
“Has this been a set-up?” I ask as we get into the elevator.
“I told you to trust me,” Stephano says as he turns his shoulder so most of my body is blocked with my back against the wall.
He reaches for my hand, and his callused fingers lace with mine. I stare down at our hands where he’s holding mine close.
He didn’t show an inch of fear or doubt, every movement, every word so controlled, it was as if they were rehearsed.
As soon as we’re in the car and the driver pulls away, he leans closer. “Our men will take Vincenzo to an undisclosed location. There, he’ll help us learn everything else about Franco Fiore that we don’t already know.”
My stomach turns as his words sink in. Vincenzo might not live to see tomorrow. I have no idea what Stephano is capable of. To think I doubted him when I came here—actually doubted his ability to be cruel. But this… This was something else.
I was wrong about Stephano Scalera, and not for the first time.
39
STEPHANO
I curse under my breath as we wait at a red traffic light. The need to get my wife home is compounding by the second. She’s reeling from the shock of seeing Vincenzo at the gallery, but everything went as planned, and my brain has already moved south. I’m hard as fuck and heady with having kissed her.
I broke our vows and kissed my wife.And she kissed me back, riding up my cock with her body, not even aware. She’s been wanting this, craving it, just like me. If there were space in the back seat, I would have gone on my knees and spread her wide, but fuck, my cock wants to bury in her so deep, it never wants to see sunshine again. I can live and die in that tight little pussy of hers and be a happy, fulfilled man.
She’s sitting flush against me, her hand quivering on my thigh. Maybe seeing Vincenzo was too much for her, so soon after escaping Italy. I’m used to this rush. I’ve been groomed for it and then molded by it for years.Il Consigliolikes a clean business and a clean slate, but those don’t go together in our line of work.
Gigi hasn’t been in this world for years. She drops her head to my shoulder, and I press a kiss to her hair as she skims a hand up my chest to cup my jaw.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she whispers as she stares right into my soul. “Things could have gone wrong.”
I don’t have the time or inclination to explain how Dominic and his team secured the gallery. She doesn’t need to know his team apprehended two other men who were there on Vincenzo’s side, waiting to kidnap her. She doesn’t need to know Vincenzo is being drugged as we sit here and will find himself locked up in the special soundproof room next to Matteo’s apartment for interrogation. An interrogation which will end with his body being dry frozen and eventually fed to the fish in the string of legit pet stores we own.
I sigh. “We needed the surprise factor. If I told you, you would’ve refused to go. You’re not a princess in a tower, angel. You can’t hide forever.”
“But what if…what if you’d got hurt, or worse? Been killed?” she whispers as she fists my lapel. “Steph?—”
“I wouldn’t have been. And I won’t be. I have my brothers. Here, Franco is a loner. He might have mercenaries, or men that work for him under duress, but he doesn’t have the network or backup I have.”
She sniffs as she wipes at a tear. “Can’t you see? That makes him ruthless, which makes him dangerous. He has nothing to lose.”
