Page 7 of Charity's Redemption

I nodded. Well, that definitely doesn’t sound like fun. “No mess? That sounds boring. What if he soils himself?”

“No blood. No missing body parts.”

“No blood? How do you make an example out of someone if you can’t draw blood?”

You couldn’t even punch someone in the nose without blood pouring down their face.

“I’m assuming he means your typical means, Charity. Obviously, he wants you to rough him up. Break a few bones if you have to.”

Broken bones, I can do. “And Luca couldn’t come here and tell me this himself, or call me in like he always does?”

Luca. The most infuriating man known to… well, man.

He may have confessed his love for me, but that changed little between us. He was still controlling and demanding.

Don’t get me wrong, I love those things in the bedroom, living room, and anywhere else we’re naked, but not in day-to-day business.

We were working on it, but once we took one step forward, we’d fall back to something similar to the beginning.

“He’s working on this Elias issue. He doesn’t want to start a war with—”

“As he shouldn’t,” I said, interrupting what should be an obvious statement. “Elias came to me when I wasn’t under the Moreno protection, remember? He didn’t step on anyone’s toes.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“It is in my book.”

“Your book isn’t as old as the Moreno Code of Conduct.”

I frowned. “That’s a thing?”

He smirked and held his hand out, then pulled me into his lap when my hand touched his. “Not a physical book, no. But it’s just well known, you don’t poach.”

“Technically, it was an ultimatum…”

“Whatever you call it, it’s not acceptable to us. Especially with you.”

My heart fluttered when before their declarations of protection sent me on a rampage.

I curled into Nico’s warm lap, which brought about a comfort I needed while planting kisses along his throat. “I could stay like this for hours.”

“Just hours?” He rubbed one hand up and down my back with tender caresses while his other clutched my thigh.

“I’d stay this way forever if you promised to never grow tired of me.”

“You have my word.”

I smiled against his skin, then bit my lip as I tried to control the heat slapping my cheeks. “I’ll hold you to it.”

“Charity.”

“Yeah?”

“You don’t have to worry about us being so stupid ever again. No amount of apologies will take away your pain, but all I can do is assure you it’ll never happen again.”

A faint smile tightened my lips as I recalled the moment they sent me home for good. ‘A test,’ they said. When, in actuality, they treated me like a dog—put in the desert to see if I’d find my way home again. A disturbing way to find out how much I really loved them, the life, and everything we offered one another.

Nico may promise never to do something like that again, but there was always Luca.

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