Page 51 of Dex

I pull a box out of my pocket.“I forgot.”I lower my voice.“The ring.”

Her mouth falls open.I feel like a jerk now, because I bought a cheap little thing.Nothing exclusive or special, not from an upscale jeweler.No Tiffany or Cartier here.I spent ten thousand dollars on it.It’s a large square pink diamond set in a chunky rose gold band, with small diamonds all around.I slip it under the table, looking around the room.People are talking in hushed tones.Rio seems busy.He’s talking to someone.

“You should just slip it on under the table,” I whisper.

“Okay.”She reaches under and our hands meet.The first touch of her soft, warm fingers, make me jolt.Not with fright.With an electric tingle.Like something inside me has awakened.“I’ve got it.”She sits back.I sit back, slip the ring box back into my pocket.

“Why, thank you, darling.”She waves her hand at me, showing off her ring proudly, before flashing a smile that has more megawatts than the pathetic two carat ring on her finger.Looking at it now, it’s flashy, and totally impersonal.The kind of ring that screams “this is for show” rather than “I care about you.”

“You like it?”It seems like the appropriate thing to say, even though I feel like I should have given her something classy.

“It’s lovely, Dexter.A little too big, but it will do, also, I don’t like ostentatious things, but, as you say, this isn’t for real.But thank you.”

She doesn’t like bling.“Noted.”I lean back in my seat, watching her, and I forget that this is just business.In fact, I’m starting to feel a little off kilter the more I get to know this woman.

Most of the women in my circle are materialistic, and they don’t even bother to hide it.The more expensive and gaudier a trinket is, the better.

Daniela’s genuine appreciation and joy surprises me again.More than that, she calms that unsettled feeling I’ve been wrestling with for too long.Being with her does something to me and I feel like I can breathe and be still for the first time in a long time.

There is so much more to her than I first saw, and as I start to pull back the layers slowly, a sizzle of excitement zaps through my veins.I want to discover more about who she is underneath her beautiful exterior.

Because I have a sneaking suspicion that her beauty goes all the way through to her core.

And if that’s true.

She’s unique.

Truly one of a kind.

Which means, what the hell am I doing?

Chapter 13

RIO

I sit at the bar, far enough from Dex and his new fiancée that she can’t see me.Although she’s not really his fiancée.The dude hasn’t even bought her a ring.

He wanted me to sit with them, to interrogate Daniela together.The guy’s not even thinking straight.

I told him,Dude, we can’t do that.We can’t gang up on her.It wouldn’t be fair.And, if I’m being honest?I acted like a complete sap the first time I saw her and I don’t want to face her.I blame my behavior on the dry spell.That’s all it was.

I take a sip of my Negroni as I glance at them.They make a good-looking pair.If only Dex would let his damn guard down.He’s a tough one.Jett is too.Hell, Jett’s worse.He’s arrogant and always looking down on me, Matteo and Enzo.Like we’re beneath him.The three of them, Jett, Dex and Zach, they’ve never made it easy for us.

Us flying to Brazil together, in the private jet, feels like it’s the old man’s way of forcing into pretending we’re family.So that we look like a united family at the wedding.

But we’re not a family.

We have never been.

The old man keeps us together to benefit him, to keep the legacy intact, to make sure the empire grows.But the bonds between us don’t exist.Mama still travels back and forth between Italy and New York.

It couldn’t have been easy for her to have moved here from the country she lived in and loved for all of her life.She had to, because Paul Knight demanded it.And she broke it off with him, as soon as she discovered the secret that shattered two families.She stayed here for a decade, and moved back to Italy, but we travel there a lot to see her, me, Matteo and Enzo.Mama says she’ll come back here when she has grandkids.

As if that’s ever going to happen.

Not from me.

Dex and I have talked about our mothers.Me mostly, because he clams up when he tries to talk about his mom.I don’t push him.I figure he’ll tell me when he’s ready.But we talk about how our father’s adultery wrecked two families.Sometimes I think about what it would be like if we all sat at a table, his brothers and mine, not because we were summoned to a Knight family dinner by the old man, but because we wanted to hang out together.

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