Page 30 of Killer Love

I spin around and I wait for him to follow me in. My pulse thumps louder in my ears. I barely even hear it when the door opens, and he walks inside.

“Sofia…”

It’s a distant echo — just like in my dreams. I blink over and over again, wondering if he’ll disappear each time I open them. If I reach out, will he fade away into a black mist?

“He has my eyes.”

I smile but it quickly falls. I turn around toward the washers and dryers and spin the dials on each one, flicking them on to drown out the sound of our voices from any ears passing by in the estate.

I look up into his gray eyes, bursting with fresh emotion. “Yes.” I nod, whispering beneath the machines churning behind me. “He does.”

Luka steps closer and inhales deep. “I…” His voice struggles under the weight of his breath. “I didn’t expect that.”

“Neither did I, but… I knew before he was even born that he was yours. I could feel your blood pumping through his veins, like… it felt like a bolt of lightning every time his heart beat.” I twitch with great excitement. Three years. I’ve wanted to say this for three years. “When he opened his eyes for the first time, I saw you staring back at me and I…”

I fell in love.

I swallow the words down, too embarrassed to say it out loud.

Luka takes another step forward with a furrowed brow. “You named him after me.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Why not?” I grin.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Sofia. Why take the risk?”

“Gio is daft as rocks,” I argue. “He’ll never know.”

He steps back and looks around the room, his eyes gliding over every little thing he can to avoid staring at me. Laundry baskets, ironing boards, bottles of detergent.

“Gio wants me to give him two more boys,” I say. “Three sons, just like him and his brothers.”

Luka pulls his eyes off the floor and I see the pain in them. “Will you?”

I shake my head. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“He’s certainly trying,” I say, unable to stop the laugh clawing its way up my throat. “But what Gio doesn’t know… is that I had myself sterilized the day Lucian was born.”

Luka pauses, his gaze involuntarily falling down my body and back again. “Sofia…” he whispers.

“He will never take an heir from me...” I keep my voice steady. “I refuse.”

“And what happens when he figures it out?”

“He won’t.”

“Gio might be daft, Sofia, but he has power over you. One of these days, he’ll get impatient and I don’t think you’ve considered what he’ll do when that happens.”

“I can handle Giovani Zappia,” I say. “I’ve done pretty well so far.”

He shakes his head. “I never should have agreed to this…”

“If you hadn’t, I’d be dead already… and Lucian, the brightest light I’ve ever known, wouldn’t exist.” I push closer to him. “A single look in his eyes makes up for a hundred nights in Gio’s bed.”

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