Page 48 of His to Hold

“I mean it, Isabella. I don’t want to hear another fucking word from you.”

Letting go of my throat, he stalks off to the other side of the room and slumps into a chair. Tears burning my eyes, I turn and stare out into the pale blue sky. He doesn’t want to hear what I have to say? Fine. If that’s what he wants, he can have my silence. Let’s see which of us cracks first.

CHAPTER 17

Antonio

As Isabella’s hand skims down my bare chest, it takes everything I have in me not to react. For the past three days, my wife has barely said a word to me except in the unguarded moments when I’m fucking her senseless. She’s trying to prove a point, I guess, about letting her voice her opinion on what’s going on with my mother and Boris Reznov. The trouble is, I already know what she’ll say and I don’t want to hear it. Not yet.

I hold my breath as Isabella runs her fingers over my abdomen. She must know I’m awake. I’ve always been a light sleeper. Still, she continues with her tentative exploration. Lying on her side, she presses her lithe body against me as she trails her fingers lower. My cock stiffens as she finally gives it attention, stroking it softly.

As she moves to straddle my hips, I reach up and grab her waist.

“Tony!” she gasps. “I thought you were sleeping.”

Little liar. “No, you didn’t.”

Her cheeks redden. “No, I didn’t.”

She bends to kiss me, her long, dark hair falling in a curtain around our faces. Her lips are soft and warm as she presses them to mine. Her breath tastes minty fresh. She must have got out of bed to brush them. Huh. I guess I slept through that. As I open my mouth, intending to deepen the kiss, she pulls back and smiles down at me.

“Morning, handsome.”

There’s a gleam in her eye I don’t trust. “What are you up to? Bella?”

“Nothing.” She bites her bottom lip in a way that tells me there’s something. “It’s just, well, I invited Emilia and Vinnie over this afternoon. Ava and Livvy, too.”

My mother won’t come. She’s barely left the hospital, except to check on progress with the room she’s setting up in her house for Gio to be transferred to when the doctors say he’s ready. That could be awhile yet since he hasn’t regained consciousness, but she wants to be prepared. Matteo’s helping her to arrange it because he’s the only one of us our mother is happy to be around right now. Like me, Leo and Alessandro didn’t take the news that she’s been sneaking around with the head of the Bratva well. Matteo has been annoyingly calm about the whole thing.

“Okay.”

“I wasn’t asking your permission. I just want some space while they’re here.”

Over the last couple of days, Isabella has been getting to know her new sisters-in-law while we gathered at the hospital to be close to Gio. I should tell her off for her defiant tone, but I’m not looking for an argument before I even get out of bed in the morning.

“That’s fine. I’ve got business to take care of, anyway.”

“It doesn’t worry you what the Volante wives might talk about if you’re not there?” Isabella asks.

I contemplate that for a moment. I think it’s great that she wants to spend time with Emilia. She’s a sweet girl and has already proven herself to be a great asset to the family. Vinnie, I’m not so sure of. The woman likes to push people’s buttons, but she may be just what Leo needs. If she helps to curb his violent tendencies, just a little, then I guess it’s a good thing.

“What you talk about doesn’t concern me.”

“Perhaps we’ll discuss literature, then.”

I furrow my brow. She’s going somewhere with this, but I can’t work out what she’s getting at yet.

“If that’s what you want.”

She smiles tightly. “Perhaps we’ll start with Aristophanes.”

It takes me a minute to place the name of the Ancient Greek playwright. As soon as I do, I realize where my wife is headed with this conversation. “Lysistrata?”

“Precisely.”

“You’re planning a sex strike if I don’t comply with your demands?” I can’t help but grin at what I know is an empty threat. Reaching between her legs, I stroke her clit. Her lips part as she gasps. “I think you’d suffer as much as me. Perhaps more.”

Narrowing her eyes as I tease her swollen bud, she bats my hand away. She climbs off me, off the bed. She pulls on a white silk robe and cinches the belt around the waist. The message is clear. Access denied.

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