Page 93 of His Juliet

“I didn’t know you liked me like this,sir,” I said.

Matteo rolled his eyes, and I heard a few chuckles from my men. Good. The atmosphere had been too fucking tense.

“Kneel.” Matteo’s command was loud and sure, and I awkwardly knelt without the use of my hands.

He stared down at me and spoke in Italian. “Do you accept your punishment for insubordination to your Don?”

“Sì.”

The first strike came fast and brutal, straight to my face. My head whipped to the side at the strength of Matteo’s punch. He didn’t give me time to adjust. The next hit came to my ribs and I hunched over, trying to catch my breath.

The blows continued—strikes to my chest, back, and face. And with each one, I pictured Juliet safe, happy, and carefree, exactly as she always should be. The pain barely registered, but a particularly hard hit to the chest pushed me down on the mat. My bloody face hit the floor and I groaned. The sharp pain in my nose told me it was likely broken. Hopefully Juliet wouldn’t mind.

I lay there until I felt a tug at the rope and my hands were released. I pushed up to a kneeling position, and then Matteo’s hand was in front of me, pulling me up. This punishment was designed to humiliate me in front of my men, but as I looked at them now, I wasn’t embarrassed. They knew I was loyal to the Family, that I would take a bullet for any of them, as they would for me. But now they also knew how serious I was about my girl.

Matteo clasped me on the shoulder before exiting the ring and leaving the gym. I held in a groan as I ducked under the ropes again, my body screaming. My men thumped me on the back, laughter and jokes filling the air now that the Don was gone.

“Why so eager to leave, Romeo? Ready to get back to your girl?”

“Yeah, so she can fuss over you and clean all your injuries?”

“Oh, my poor Romeo! You’re hurt!”

They broke out in raucous laughter. I flipped them off over my shoulder as I headed to the exit. “You sound like a bunch of jealous assholes to me.”

I was smiling when I stepped into the elevator, even though the expression pulled at my busted lip. My face was caked with blood from my nose and lip, and it was hard to take a deep breath after the hits to my ribs, but Matteo had gone easy on me. He needed me well enough to be out in the field.

The elevator opened and I headed into the apartment, relief washing through me when I saw Juliet curled up under a blanket on the couch. The worst part of the punishment was being separated from her, but I could breathe now, knowing she was safe.

Except when she looked at me, she let out a scream.

Shit.

She jumped off the couch, the blanket falling to the floor. “Oh my god! What happened?”

I held my hands out in what I hoped was a soothing gesture. “Juliet, baby, don’t worry. I’m okay.”

She closed the space between us, her eyes watering as she took me in. “You’re not okay. Who did this to you?” She reached up like she was going to touch me and then pulled away.

Nope. I wasn’t going to have that.

I captured her hand and put it on my face, leaning into her touch.

“We have to go to the hospital,” she said, sniffling.

One of the rules of punishment was no hospital or care from a doctor unless there were severe complications. Not that I was anywhere close to needing the fucking hospital for these scratches.

I ran my hand through her gorgeous hair. “You’re so pretty.”

“Did you hit your head?” She withdrew her hand from my face as she scowled. “You’re not taking this seriously.”

“I’m sorry, baby. I’m really okay. I just need some bandages and I’ll be good as new.” When she kept scowling, I cupped her face. “There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom. Will you get it for me? Please?”

She hesitated and glanced at the door. “I think the hospital would be better.”

I wanted to gather her to my chest and comfort her, but not until I got the blood cleaned off. I refused to soil her.

“You’re cute. Actually, let me hop in the shower and then you can doctor me up, yeah?”

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