Page 57 of Brutal Husband

“I thought that would make sense considering she’smyex-fiancée, and you’re pretending to be me.”

“No, you’re pretending to be me,” I remind him. I was born with the name Nero Lombardi, but we’re both making use of it now. “Anyway, the wedding is back on. Try not to piss that girl off so much that she rips the ring off again.”

I wasn’t at the engagement party to witness Rieta taking off the ring. Luca was, and when he called me and told me it was all off, I went around there to see if I could find a way to fix things for us. That’s when I witnessed Giulia torturing her daughter.

“But I’ve got the…”

Luca trails off as I hold my hand out for the ring. “Give it to me. I’ll put it back on her finger.”

With an irritated curl of his lip, he reaches inside his pocket and slaps the box containing the engagement ring into my hand. It will be back on Rieta’s finger in no time.

I didn’t choose Rieta. Luca found out through an associate that a woman who moved in our circles called Giulia Bianchi had three unmarried daughters. Luca met with her and described the kind of woman he wanted to marry, and Giulia offered up Rieta. I don’t know how Luca described his ideal bride. The most beautiful woman with the sweetest nature and cleverest, prettiest eyes imaginable, presumably.

Luca packs away his laptop and then gets up, buttoning his suit jacket and walking past me. “It’s not as though Rieta Bianchi is the only unmarried woman in the city, but good job, I suppose. Excuse me, we have a meeting now.” He flashes me a hard, humorless smile. “Or rather, I have a meeting now. You’rewelcome, by the way. I know how much you detest the business side of things.”

I don’t detest business necessarily, though I never had a taste for suits and contracts, even illegal ones for illegal goods like the kind we deal in. I just don’t have a taste for the kinds of people Luca enjoys doing business with. Violence has never bothered me, and neither has breaking the law, but my twin brother’s associates give me the creeps. Still, we make a lot of money, and it’s not as though the people I choose to surround myself with are saints.

“I thought you’d be happier that I’d fixed things with Rieta.”

He shrugs and says vaguely, “Sure.”

“What do you mean, sure? She’s going to be my wife.”

Luca’s eyes narrow. “Mywife.”

Luca and I have split the tasks involved in being Nero Lombardi fifty-fifty, and he takes most of the public-facing roles. As much as I’m regretting it now, we agreed that he would be Rieta’s husband and father her children. The prospect of courting her was irritating to him, so we agreed that I would do it. I tried to emulate my brother’s chilly, serious nature on our first date, but before I knew what I was doing, I broke character and started acting like myself.

I will never fall at your feet, but you’ll fall at mine, and you’ll love it down there,cara mia.

My pretty piece of cunt.

I couldn’t help myself around Rieta.

A wife is what Luca believes “Nero Lombardi” needs to complete his respectable persona and hide our underworld dealings. Nero Lombardi is the name I was born with, but I’m not Nero Lombardi anymore. He’s a completely new man that Luca and I have constructed between us, from my name, clean criminal record, and street smarts to Luca’s money and mafia connections.

Before Luca can leave the room, I step in front of him and block the door. “Well? Are you happy that the wedding is back on?”

He sighs impatiently. “I’m neither happy nor unhappy. I’m neutral about my future bride, as I’ve been from the start. Would you move? I’m going to be late.”

We’ve both been pretending to be Nero Lombardi for nearly a year and a half now, but I’m only just realizing now that my brother can be so fucking cold. I picture a sweet, hopeful Rieta walking up the aisle toward him, and her tender heart crumpling as he gazes at her like she’s a worm he’s found in his salad.

I don’t know how any man can feel neutral about Rieta Bianchi. Luca has spent some time with her, and he should have connected with her as quickly as I did. She’s beautiful, which doesn’t hurt, but more than that, she’s so fucking sexy. The way she moves, how she talks, the way she looks up at me from beneath those dark lashes, so vulnerable and cute, and so fucking kissable. Maybe she just hasn’t looked up at Luca that way yet.

An ugly, angry sensation that I can’t identify spreads through my chest as I imagine her doing that. I don’t want her to look at any man like that except me.

“I want the wedding day,” I say suddenly.

“Not necessary. Once that ring is back on her finger, you will have done enough.”

Luca’s weakness is crowds. People. He hates social events. “You fucked up the engagement party and there were, what? A dozen or so people there? You’ll fuck up the wedding as well. There’s no way in hell you can cope with the attention of three hundred people and give Rieta the day she deserves. I’ll do it.”

Luca might be the public face of Nero Lombardi, but unless it’s business, he fucking sucks at being Nero.

My brother narrows his eyes. “When we discussed my getting married, we agreed that you would be the one to convince a woman to marry me, and then I’d do the marrying. You can go back to doing what you’re good at now. The warehouses. Organizing the men. Protecting our interests. You should be happy about that seeing as you never wanted Nero to be married in the first place.”

He’s right that I thought it was a stupid idea for Nero Lombardi to get married. If Luca wanted to sleep with a woman, he should go right ahead, but apparently this isn’t about sex. He wants the man we’ve constructed to be respected in this city, and part of that is having a beautiful wife who keeps a beautiful home and bears his children.

“I’m part of it now, Luca. I’m going to finish things off with Rieta.”

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