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“He made me, um,feelsomething,” she said sheepishly.
I stilled, watching her for more. What could she feel for that unpredictable, philandering—Adelina placed a hand on my forearm, calming me like only the touch of her small hand could do.
“Rafe, my body wants”—she pulled away, shaking her head—“I guess I don’t know what my body wants, but... I must be fucked up.”
I cupped her chin and turned her eyes back to meet mine. She could be strong and sassy and bratty, but when something got to her, it just about wrecked her through and through. This wasn’t an Adelina I saw often, but it was one that made me want to serve her the world on a silver platter.
“Tell me,” I said as gently as possibly.
“Wh-when he had me up against the wall, the way he was looking at me, like he was starving, and I could be his next meal.” She pulled away from me, dragging her hands through her long dark-brown hair.
“Adelina, tesoro, you can talk to me.”
Her glassy eyes found mine again. “Like we’re girlfriends, Rafe? That’s weird!”
Perhaps, but weird should’ve been our family name. Didn’t she know by now that she could tell me anything? That I would do or be anything for her?
With a steadying breath, I asked, “Do you have someone else?”
“No.” She hugged her midsection and gnawed at her bottom lip.
“I may not be the best option,” I said, “but I’m willing to try.”
After a deep breath, she started again. “Okay. My body reacted to him and how Graff was watching.” Her eyes fluttered up to meet mine then away and back again. “It was like I was channeling one of the bunnies.”
“Adelina, you are not one of the bunnies,” I said, my teeth clenched.
“But I’m still a woman.”
I wanted to yell at her, tell her she wasn’t. That she was my niece. A little girl with chocolate-brown pigtails and dimples. But I simply bit down on my tongue.
She raised her head, reminding me just how much of a woman she really was becoming.
Twenty-two years old and a college graduate with not only a bachelor’s degree, but a master’s too. An MBA. She would be so good for business around here if they would just let her. She had bloomed while I was gone at war, turning into a blossoming belladonna flower. Deadly with how gorgeous she was. Poison.
My young niece had turned into an adult, legally, and had been a woman for four years. Her flat chest and skinny body had rounded out in all the right places. Her hips had widened, breasts perked, and she would be ripe for bearing children soon.
Adelina. A woman.
I felt the urge to smack the heel of my hand against my forehead.
“A woman has wants, Uncle Rafe,” added Adelina after I took too long to answer.
I stared at her for too long, and my cheeks started to burn. My turn had come to be embarrassed for looking at my niece that way.Thinkingabout her as something other than someone to protect. I was going to hell.
“You understand, don’t you, Zio?” she asked, leaning back on the bed. Her dress pulled across her body.
“Understand what?” My voice cracked.
“Wants? Needs?” She swallowed. “Sexual desires.”
“I do understand lust, yes, Adelina.” I stared at a crack in the wall, wishing it was a structural crack and the wall could collapse and bury us inside. I could only hope.
“The MC... they were rutting like goats outside.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“I’m not.”
