"Why are you looking at me like this?" he asked without meeting her gaze.
Her cheeks flashed bright red, embarrassed that he caught her staring. She didn’t answer.
Flavio snorted, annoyed with the lack of an answer. "I seriously wonder how come Noah is so patient with you, yet so quick to punish and kill others," he said.
Both brothers loved unnerving people with their words. Carefully picked, but threatening at the same time. "To think that awhile ago that would have probably scared me."
The Underboss regarded her and smiled. "Thank God you got out of the scared mouse phase. Don’t get me wrong, Noah probably loved the submissive act in the beginning, but he would get bored soon enough. Your job had the sole advantage that you were able to escape this innocent bubble."
"I was never submissive. Just because you can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s exactly how it seems. Nothing really is," she grunted.
"That’s true, but you are submissive sometimes," he sneered at her then laughed adding fuel to her increasing wrath.
"I am not," she snapped.
Flavio glared at her. "You are extremely naïve, aren’t you?" Their conversation got heated quickly and out of nowhere. Before Inéz could answer back, he sighed and shook his head. "Don’t you see? You and Noah shouldn’t have ever happened in the first place. It might seem thrilling and exciting, but it’s beginning to look like a toxic relationship, Inéz. You are doing everything he wants and it goes beyond the kind of duty owed to a Capo. You’re a woman so he doesn’t really know how to treat you - as one of his soldiers, or as a woman. He gave you this task that you’re nowhere near prepared for, threw you into the deepest pool, without teaching you how to swim first. And you actually think that is the way it should be, right? That you should take what you can get."
She didn’t know what to answer, because never before had she perceived her relationship with Noah that way. Yes, she had strong feelings for him and was also part of the Famiglia. But neither of those things seemed to directly clash with each other. At least that was what she had believed. But Flavio was the outside observer, an extremely intelligent one, too, so maybe he could see more than she did.
What was so toxic?
She didn’t find the courage to ask out loud. However, Flavio must have seen the questions in her confused eyes.
"For what we love, we protect, right? He wants to do that but he will always put the Famiglia first and you will become a victim of that commitment. You are too dedicated to the cause that you won’t finish yourself. You have feelings for him, and that’s why you’re still holding onto the task. I told Nicodemo to get you out of the club the last time when he called me to say that you went into the room with Gastone. And you still stayed," he remarked.
Something flashed beneath the surface of his hardened expression. Concern. But Flavio masked it quickly, unwilling to open up to someone. He loved his brother, but he couldn’t talk him out of an idea that was set in his head.
And since Inéz didn’t want to talk about any of it anymore, they kept quiet.
CHAPTER 40
Pushing from the counter she stood in front of Noah, looking up at him intensively. She wanted to voice her concerns about their relationship because his brother’s suspicions were not coming from nowhere, and she was feeling more and more confident that he was right. But as she met Noah’s grey eyes once again, every single sorrow left her mind. She reached out her hand and traced his lip lightly with the tip of her finger. It pouted slightly, and she suddenly felt the urge to kiss it. His lip felt chapped under her feather touch; yet, she simply couldn’t bring herself to give a fuck. She focused on them to keep herself from looking up. Because if she did, she might have found herself at the mercy of his questioning eyes wanting to know what she was doing. And she wasn’t at liberty to answer because she honestly had no clue.
His breathing grew deeper, its warmth touching her face. It dawned on her that her fixation on his lip was nothing more than her attempt of trying not to think of her more extreme feelings towards the man. Because it was painful to admit the toxicity that Flavio had been talking about. It was torture knowing that this shouldn’t go further and that she had to make Noah see it, too. Be the responsible one. Hehelped her accept her true nature, but at the same time left her with almost no free will to escape it all. Could all of this have even been stopped before? Could she have warned herself against this situation, and sheltered herself from the pain? And even if so, would she have listened to reason? Or would his arguments have caused her to think otherwise? Because he wouldn’t be persuaded easily, and even his brother was aware of that. That was why he had expressed his concerns to Inéz, rather than to Noah.
But the Capodidn’t let her overthink much longer and lowered his mouth to hers, kissing her softly at first. Inéz, ever responsive, moaned quietly against his lips.
Sliding his hand down her body, he was suddenly very aware of the fact that she was wearing an oversized t-shirt, with nothing underneath but a thin pair of panties. Without wasting time, he brushed the clothes out of his way, leaving her naked in the middle of the kitchen. He grabbed her ass cheeks and squeezed them, pulling her up, so she could wrap her
