Page 120 of Assassin's Obsession

I have no idea how she's going to react to being told that working right now is a very bad idea.

"It's not safe." Especially with my mother and her as yet to be discovered agenda in Boston.

Her face goes carefully blank. "Are you saying you don't want me to dance?"

Am I? Yeah, probably. But that's not fair. Because I told her I would support her dancing if she wanted to keep doing it.

So, I compromise. "If you stay on the stage, I can protect you but working the crowd is out of the question."

As soon as the words are out of my mouth I realize I should have worded that differently.

"For your safety," I hastily add.

She doesn't like working the floor anyway. Not that I expect that to influence her stance on doing it. Logically, it should, but logic didn't work when I brought up the million dollar paymentthing, so I'm not mentioning her lack of enjoyment with that aspect of her job either.

"Okay."

Wait. What? "Okay?" I ask to make sure I wasn't fantasizing that response.

"I don't like working the floor anyway."

Fuck. So, I could have mentioned that.

"But you don't mind if I keep dancing?" she presses, her gaze searching mine.

Should I tell her that the men who look at her with lust will have to die? No. That puts undue influence on her to do what I want.

Maybe I can engineer a fatal dose of food poisoning for them. Or a series of fatal car crashes. Then she won't know it's because they looked at her almost naked body with lust.

Fuck if I'm not a hell of a lot more jealous than I thought. What I could stand before I touched her for the first time no longer applies. Maybe a more evolved man would have no issue with her dancing. And a man capable of empathy would feel badly about considering mass murder.

I'm just trying to figure out a way to prevent Candi getting her feelings hurt by my jealousy.

"It bothers you, doesn't it? Now that we've been together." She lets her body rest against mine, showing no signs of anger.

"Your dancing does not bother me. It's beautiful."

"Thank you, but don't pretend you're okay with me doing it on stage tomorrow. Even if you were before, alright?"

"The idea of other men seeing your beautiful body move like that and picturing themselves touching you makes me homicidal," I admit.

"You know I'm not responsible for what men think when they look at me, right?"

"You're not the one I want to kill."

Her lips tilt wryly and she pats my chest. "Not sure you should be thinking about killing anyone."

"I'm sorry." I feel actual regret for disappointing her.

It's a new sensation and not one I particularly enjoy.

"If I don't dance, how do I support myself? And more than that, how do I save the money for my sister to attend university?" Her head tips forward against my chest and her next words are muffled between us, but I understand them. "Don't bring up the million dollar checking account balance."

I won't mention it, but it's not going anywhere either. Now's as good a time as any to tell her about her brothers.

"Miceli ordered Bianchi to sign over two of his companies to your half-brothers and for Renato and Cosimo to pay you 10% of the profits in perpetuity."

Candi goes rigid and rears back. "What?"

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