She shook my grip off, then nodded. “Of course.”
Giulia smiled at the women who gave her compassionate looks. I walked over to my young wife before one of the women, especially Mia, could involve her in a nosy conversation.
Giulia touched my forearm lightly. “I’m sorry for mentioning your late wife, Cassio. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
Surprise filled me. Her eyes and expression were earnest.
I gave a curt nod and put my hand on her lower back. “Come on. Let’s head down to the banquet room where breakfast will be served.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for them to be done?” She nodded toward the bedroom door. The women’s voices were a low buzz of gossip.
“I don’t need to see this.”
She smiled sheepishly. “You are right.”
I hesitated, on the verge of saying more, then I steered Giulia out of our suite. Our elevator ride passed in silence, but Giulia’s tension was palpable.
“The worst is over,” I said.
Her head shot up and her lips twitched. “Are you talking about our wedding night?”
I tilted my head, considering her. She was obviously fighting amusement. “You don’t have to pretend the night didn’t harbor great fears for you. I felt your trembling.”
“It scared me, true. But it’s over and it wasn’t as unpleasant as I’d thought it would be.”
My eyebrows shot up, not sure what to make of my wife’s honesty. Even though we were married, the unguarded way she spoke to me took getting used to. “That’s good, I suppose.”
She leaned into me with a small laugh. “Yeah, I suppose so too.”
The elevator doors opened, cutting our strange conversation short. I led Giulia toward the biggest banquet room, which was already filled with the men of my and Giulia’s family, as well as the most important members of the Famiglia.
“Let the meat show begin,” Giulia said under her breath.
I squeezed her side in warning even as I had to stifle a smile. “You’re now my wife and need to act accordingly. I can’t afford to lose face in public.”
She tensed. “I know.”
I needn’t have worried. Giulia had inherited her mother’s talent to chat up people, even strangers, but unlike Egidia, she was charming and lovely, wrapping everyone around her finger with ease. Many men watched her in a way that set me on edge, but none dared as much as to shake her hand.
Faro winked at me as he talked to a few of our Captains. I ignored it and turned my attention to the door where my mother and Giulia’s mother entered with the sheet between them. They headed to the side of the room and draped the fabric over two chairs.
Giulia let out a tiny choked sound, and her cheeks took on a red hue the moment she spotted them. “This is mortifying.”
I peered down. I wasn’t embarrassed, but I, too, didn’t like to show this glimpse of our private life to the public. With Gaia, I hadn’t cared, maybe because I’d been young and eager to impress. “It’s a sign of your honor, nothing to be ashamed of.”
“And a sign of your ruthlessness, no?” There was a small twitch of her mouth and that surprising twinkle in her eyes as if she’d made a secret joke.
“I suppose it is. Given your age, I should have had qualms. That I didn’t is a sign of my nature.”
After the first commotion and applause had settled, Giulia and I headed to the table with our closest family as well as Luca and his wife. Giulia’s mother immediately hugged her. Father patted my shoulder, searching my eyes. Whatever he was worried to see, it wouldn’t be present in a room with acquaintances.
Mia hugged me despite my reluctance of public displays of affection. “I really hope you tried to be a decent human being to that girl.”
I wasn’t sure about my abilities to be decent at all. It wasn’t in my nature, but I hadn’t been impatient or rough with Giulia. “Mind your own business.” She narrowed her eyes. I had lost count of the times I’d told her this, but she failed to comply with my wishes.
“Everything all right?” Giulia whispered as we took our seats at the head of the table.
I leaned closer. “My sister worried I wasn’t decent to you.”
“Because of the sheets?” Horror rang in Giulia’s words.
“Because of my nature.”
Giulia tilted her head in that curious way. Her hair smelled like a strawberry field in summer, and the insane urge to press my nose into it rose up inside me. “You were decent.” She touched my hand resting on my thigh with her fingertips. Feeling eyes on me, I turned back to the table. Christian, Felix, and my father watched curiously. My expression tightened.
Cassio obviously felt uncomfortable with any kind of emotional displays in public. He soon talked to Luca and fellow Underbosses, leaving me at the mercy of my nosy mother. Eventually I managed to shake her and my aunts off and hid in a stall in the restrooms.
This was where Mia found me twenty minutes later. “It’s overwhelming, isn’t it?” she said after I came out and we both redid our makeup.
“It is.”
“Are you okay? You can tell me if you aren’t. Cassio is my brother, but I’m a woman first.”
I nodded, remembering Cassio’s words and his reluctance to involve other people in our private life.
“I’m fine, but thank you.”
She gave a small smile. “Don’t let him turn you into something that’s not you. Our world needs girls like you.”
I gave her a quick hug, and unlike her brother, she didn’t mind and hugged me back. I was glad to have her on my side, but I needed to find my place in Cassio’s life by myself. He wouldn’t tolerate anything else.
It was almost eight in the evening when we finally pulled up the driveway to Cassio’s mansion, a magnificent
