Page 26 of Not Mine to Keep

“I feel like if I answer that honestly I might scare you,” he remarked darkly, “and I’d say you’ve been through enough today.”

Pretty sure you just gave me your answer.“So of all the things to scare me today, you think admitting killing men and tying up a guy in my garage makes you hard is what will finally push me over the edge?”

“You’re right, scared seems to be the last thing you are, even if it should be.” He quietly studied me, allowing the moment to marinate to the point my knees were on the verge of buckling. “But now I’m curious ... Does fighting turnyouon?”

“Never before,” I whispered before I could trap it between my lips, allowing him to read between the lines.

He cupped my chin, and I was at his mercy, unable to budge or look away. “If things were different, I’d ...” His shoulders dipped a touch, as if weighed down by regret. “You’re my assignment. And soon you’ll be my wife, so we can’t.”

“I didn’t recall asking.” I swallowed. “ButifI wind up marrying you temporarily, what will you do with me as your wife?”

“Not fuck this attitude out of you.” Thatfuckhung in the air, heavy and strong, like I could reach out and grab it. Put my hands on it. Hell, taste it. “But I will protect you.” His brows snapped together. “I should get dressed.”

“Worried the towel will fall again, and I’ll discover the rumor about big hands isn’t true?”

A cocky grin tugged at his lips. “You can’t help yourself, can you?” He let go of my chin only to swipe the pad of his thumb along the contour of my cheek while staring at me. “This mouth of yours worries me. The trouble it might bring.”

“Well, you seem to be the only one who inspires these reactions from me.”

His hand at my cheek slipped into my messy hair, and he cupped the back of my head, lowering his mouth to my ear. “Lucky for you I know just what to do with that mouth and how to keep it quiet when need be.”

Oh, fuckity fuck fuck.The man lit a match with those words, and the intense heat went straight to my sex.

He brought his face back around, boldly staring at me. “Get your mind out of the gutter, sweetheart.” A dark smile sat on his lips. “You’re off-limits, remember?” He winked. The asshole. “But that doesn’t mean you biting down on my belt wouldn’t be a good look for you.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Alessandro

“I need to make a call before we leave.” Standing inside the private hangar at the Nashville International Airport, I directed her to board without me, but she didn’t follow orders. Not that I was surprised.

“To whom? Gabriel again?” The distrust in her tone had me taking a second to remind myself she barely knew me, or anything about my family. She’d witnessed me kill three people and tie up another, and then my control nearly snapped and I almost begged her to let me fuck that sassy little mouth of hers. So I supposed she should be on guard around me.

“Calling my family. I need to let them know about this, uh, new job sooner than anticipated.”

She fidgeted with the buttons of her jean jacket, a sign her attitude was taking a back seat to her nerves. “And what will they say to all of this?”

I knew what Constantine would say, which was why he wouldn’t be on the call. But Enzo? The second he learned I’d be tying the knot he’d bust my balls. And Izzy would lecture me. Lay into me hard. Harder than I had when my brothers and I scared off her last asshole boyfriend, who went by the name “just Pablo”—just a mistake on her part, in my opinion.

Callie’s big eyes lifted my way as she waited for me to answer. She’d showered since the murder spree in the park. Then packed and unpacked her suitcase for Italy a half dozen times while we’d waited for the guard to be removed from her place by someone Gabriel trusted so we could leave.

In her leggings, tank top, and jean jacket, without any makeup and her hair still damp around her face, the woman looked way too fucking young for me. Hell, twenty-nine was still south of my preferred number.

Throw in the little music-note studs in her ears adding to her innocence, and I probably should’ve been considering tucking her in with a bedtime story on the jet instead of the spanking the dark part of my mind wanted to give her. Which was weird, because that was surprisingly not my thing. But something about this woman made my palm twitch.

She’d been right in her bedroom, though. I did usually have sex after fighting. But with this woman? Hell no. She gave new meaning to the termoff-limits. I’d be keeping a safe distance from my wife once we were back in the US.

“Tongue-tied again,” she said, shattering thoughts of my handprint on her ass. “Guess you’re afraid to tell your family your assignment involves marrying the daughter of Armani DiMaggio.”

“Something like that.” I needed to cool off before I had to jerk off. “My mother’s going to have my head when she finds out. Old school. Not a fan of divorce.”

“Sounds like my aunt.” Her eyes went wide a beat later. “Shit. My aunt. What will I tell her?” Her hands flew in the air, and she began waving them around while talking.There’s that Italian in you.“She’s going to freak out. She’ll cancel her three-month see-the-world-on-a-cruise trip she’s saved up her entire life for and try and come save me. And I don’t want her going anywhere near that monster and—”

“She doesn’t need to know. Maybe we can be done with this before she’s even home. Okay?” I grabbed hold of her shoulder with my free hand.

So far, from what I could tell, there were two sides to this woman. Calm, collected, defiant, and unshakable at the sight of murder. And then there was this one—spiraling, panicked, wide-eyed, and rambling.

“Then we have until mid-August. That’s when she’ll be back in Nashville.”

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