Page 69 of Not Mine to Keep

Me:Done what?

I caught a few salty tears with my tongue as I watched the bubbles as he typed.

Alessandro:A relationship. I know ours is temporary, and we didn’t choose to be in this situation, but we’re here. So if I fuck up again, like with the guitar, please be patient with me, I’m a work in progress—remember?

Oh jeez.I thought back to our first conversation at the fundraiser, which was a million years ago now.

Me:You didn’t mess upIt was sweet. Expensively sweet. And sweet will hurt me in the end. You’re in no danger of falling, but I think I am.

I couldn’t believe I’d admitted that to him, but he needed to know the truth. He had to know the power he already had over me. Not just my body, but my mind. And if he wasn’t careful, my heart, too.

He didn’t respond right away. No bubbles from typing. It took another solid minute before a text finally appeared.

Alessandro:I’m just not capable of falling. You get that, right? Consider me damaged goods. Defective. It’s not you, okay?

Me:Did you really just give me the ‘it’s not you, it’s me’ speech on Day Two of our marriage?

Me:Sorry, I know this isn’t a “real” marriage. Just no more sweet gestures.

It took him another minute or so to respond. Way to ramp up my nerves.

Alessandro:Roger that. Asshole it is

The wink from him.

Damn the wink.

Me:I hate you.

Me:Well, I’m sure as hell going to try.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Alessandro

The woman was going to kill me, and I wasn’t even home. I needed to stop checking the security cameras. Right now, Callie was using my home gym and wearing yoga pants and a pink sports bra. Luckily for Frankie, Leo, and my guards, I’d revoked their access to the interior cameras, aside from the kitchen and living room. I didn’t need them seeing my wife doing a Downward-Facing Dog. Hell, I didn’t need to see it, either, but I couldn’t seem to look away. I also had no idea how she had the energy to work out when today felt like we’d crammed two into one.

“You okay? You appear starstruck. What’s on your phone?”

I closed out the security camera app, finding Izzy in the doorway to my office. Well, ourotheroffice—the one for our “volunteer” work, which was technically Enzo’s old home before we’d converted it into our new headquarters a few months ago.

“So?” Of course Izzy wouldn’t let it go. “What was on your phone?” She came into the room and plopped down on the leather chair before the desk, giving me a knowing smile. “Ahhh. You were creeping on her, weren’t you?”

“I wasn’t creeping.” I dropped back into my seat, feeling very much like a psycho stalker. “I was making sure she’s okay.”

“Don’t trust your security? You did hire half the city to stand guard in your building. It’s probably more secure than the White House. Pretty sure your neighbors will believe the rumors you’re married to a mafia princess.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” They did, in fact, think that. Mrs. Newman had given me major side-eye in the lobby this afternoon, clutching her little poodle to her chest like I might kill the mutt. Her ridiculous reaction had been about the same as the board members’, though. That uncomfortable meeting at our family business had lasted three hours too long, but we managed to set aside their concerns about my wife’s father for now.

“So if you weren’t worried about her physical safety, why were you creeping?”

“Because I messed up earlier,” I confessed, knowing she’d get it out of me one way or another. We ought to consider bringing her in the field for interrogation purposes. “I was making sure she wasn’t crying or something.”

“Don’t take her for a crier.”

“She has her moments.”Why’d I admit I know that?

“And what’d you do?” She sat taller, staring at me as if she very much enjoyed this show that was now my life. Still paying me back for running off her boyfriends over the years.

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