“It’s only a few pounds and I’ll gain it back in no time,” I said with a smile.
“You better,” Luca said, giving me a one-arm hug. “I will have you force-fed if necessary. I promised your father to take good care of you.”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t even understand why Father cares. He hardly paid attention to me and now he’s suddenly worried sick over me? What is that all about?”
A look of worry passed Aria’s face and I was about to ask her about it, when Luca nudged me and her toward the exit. “Let’s get going. I hate this place.”
“So what are we going to do today?” I asked as we headed toward the car. After weeks of doing nothing, of feeling nothing, I needed to get out, needed to feel alive again.
“Nothing,” Aria said apologetically.
My face fell and Aria hurried to add, “But only because we’re leaving for the Hamptons early in the morning. We’ll be spending the summer at the beach.”
“Really?” I asked.
Aria smiled brightly, and suddenly the dark cloud over my head burst open.
Romero
I was good at keeping a straight face even in difficult situations, but when I first saw Lily as she walked into the penthouse, I wasn’t sure I could hide my fury. Fury toward her father for letting his own daughter drown in her sadness while he was busy improving his position in the Outfit by inducting his too young son.
Lily had lost weight, enough that her collarbones and shoulder blades stood out. She looked breakable, but still so goddamn beautiful. I wanted to protect her from everything.
Her eyes met mine, and the longing in them almost compelled me to cross the room, to wrap her in my arms, but I stayed where I was, not only because of the look Aria sent me. Luca had given his promise to Scuderi. We, the Famiglia, would keep Liliana safe, and that included her honor. Considering that most of my dreams included Lily in some state of undress I definitely needed to keep my distance, and I would.
In the last few weeks, I’d fucked several girls in the hopes that they’d dispel Lily from my mind, but seeing her now, I realized that it had been completely in vain. Of course, it hadn’t really helped that I’d imagined it was Lily every time I’d been with a woman.
I was completely screwed.
Luca came up to me as I leaned against the kitchen counter and watched the reunion of the three sisters. “Is this going to be a problem, you being in a mansion with Liliana?”
“No,” I said firmly.
“You sure, because that look on your face a moment ago told me a different story.”
“I’m sure. Liliana is a pretty girl like you said, but I’ve been with pretty girls. I’ve been with prettier girls even. I won’t risk Scuderi’s wrath.”
It was a fucking lie. None of the girls I’d been with could compete with Lily’s beauty, but thankfully Luca couldn’t read minds even though he tried to make the stupider soldiers believe he had some sort of sixth sense like that just to keep them in line.
“Not just Scuderi’s wrath,” Luca said. “This is fucking serious. I mean it, Romero.”
Was that a warning?
I had to bite back a comment and nodded. Luca was a good Capo and I’d never had a problem following his rules but for some reason this didn’t sit well with me. Lily tried to catch my eye during dinner but I made sure to keep my attention on Matteo and Luca. I didn’t want Lily to get her hopes up.
And what was more important, I needed to get my own fucking urges in check.
Liliana
Romero was still ignoring me. Though ignoring wasn’t quite the right word. He treated me with polite detachment, always friendly, but never too warm. If I hadn’t known what Aria had told him, I’d have taken it harder but, as it was, I was fairly sure that he was interested in me.
The first day at the mansion, the sun was shining brightly and we decided to have dinner outside on the beach. I decided to wear my pink beach dress. It was low-cut, backless and hugged my curves. Well, at least it usually did, now it was slightly loose in certain places but it looked still very nice. When my sisters and I headed for the table that the men had set up, Romero looked up from the barbecue that he was manning and the look in his eyes when he spotted me was all the encouragement I needed. That was far from the polite detachment of the last twenty-four hours.
He tore his gaze away from me and returned to his task of turning the steaks. He looked amazing too, the way the sinking sun caught on his brown hair, the way his forearms flexed when he moved. I loved the way he’d rolled up the white sleeves and had opened the upper two buttons of his shirt, revealing a sliver of tanned chest.
“You’re drooling,” Gianna whispered in my ear.
I flushed and jerked my gaze away from Romero, then glared at my sister who sank down at the table with a sneaky grin on her face.
I took the chair beside her. “Did you tell Romero to stay away from me as well?”
Gianna took the bottle of white wine out of the cooler and filled our glasses. “Me? No. You know me. I’m all for the naughty and forbidden. If you want to have a piece of Romero, then do it. Life is too short.”
I paused with the wine glass against my lips. Mother’s words crashed into my mind, almost the same words. “Aria disagrees,” I said, then I downed half of the wine.
“Aria’s trying to act like a mother hen, but you have to decide what you want.”
“Are you trying to get me in trouble?” I asked, feeling my stomach warm from the wine. I finished my glass in
