Page 66 of His to Honor

His words have an immediate effect. It speaks to some deep-rooted instinct to please the man who’s laying claim to me. My back arches off the bed and a low keening sound comes from my throat as my vision blurs.

I sink into the bed as Matteo releases my leg. He pulls out of me and semen splatters across my stomach as he reaches his own climax. For a moment, I can’t think. I barely feel. My body is weightless, floating. Then Matteo drops onto the bed and pulls me into his arms. My head rests on his chest and his heartbeat anchors me.

“You okay, sweetheart?”

I nod as I nuzzle into his chest. For a long time, I enjoy the comfort being close to him brings. Then I shuffle across the bed and roll onto my side to face him.

“Tell me what happened after I left the church.”

Matteo props himself up on his elbow and frowns at me. “You want to hear this?”

“Not the gory details.” I shudder at the thought of the torture he inflicted on those men. “Just what you learned.”

“The Rossis weren’t looking to kill me that day in the village. Sofia Montalbano rejected Mario Rossi, so he sent his men to take her out.”

“What?” The word fires out of me.

“I can’t believe she was the target.”

“Me neither.”

“She was just a kid.”

“Mario Rossi’s a psycho.” Matteo blows out a breath. “Was a psycho. We killed him when we first went looking for revenge.”

“Would you have gone after them if you’d known they weren’t trying to kill you?”

“Yeah, they killed an innocent girl right in front of me in Volante territory.”

I get that. It was a question of honor. That’s what earns these guys respect. “You told me you wiped out most of them.” I recall him telling me that. “So, who attacked us at the church?”

“Some of the cockroaches who scuttled away when we first went after them regrouped.”

“What about the boy? Was he a Rossi?”

Something akin to regret flickers in Matteo’s eyes. He shakes his head. “He had a thing for Sofia. The Rossis manipulated him into believing she was with me that day, that I was fucking her.” I can hear the disgust in Matteo’s voice. He would never get involved with such a young, innocent girl. “They persuaded him the way to get to me was through you.”

He doesn’t elaborate on how they’d have used me, but I know enough to realize it wouldn’t have been pleasant, and I feel a little sick that the boy could walk right up to me in a nightclub, right under Damiano’s nose. I guess it’s proof I need to be vigilant when out in public.

“He seemed so sad when he spoke to me.” I roll onto my back and look at the ceiling. “Did you kill him?”

“No.”

My eyes dart to Matteo’s face. He’s telling the truth, but I know the boy didn’t walk away alive.

“Damiano?”

“Lorenzo, actually.”

“Then he met a horrible end.”

Matteo takes my hand. “Giulia, no matter which of us did it, his death wouldn’t have been quick, it wouldn’t have been clean. You have to understand that. He was a man, not a boy. He made his choices. If he’d had his way, I’d be mourning you right now.”

I nod because I know it’s true. I understand the need to remove a threat in the most brutal way possible. It’s imperative to show the world that we can’t be touched. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.

Matteo drags his teeth over his bottom lip as he gazes down at me. “Are you sorry you asked me about it?”

I shake my head. “No. I want you to share this stuff with me, Matty.”

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