Page 99 of Sins of the Orchid
He chuckled, knowing exactly what he was doing to me.
“Your pussy.” His hot breath against my ear got me all flustered, sending languid heat through my veins. Rattled, I dropped my cone.
“Santi,” I complained, all flushed. “You made me drop my ice cream.”
His hand came around me, pulling me closer. “I’ll get you another.” He nudged me to the right. “There is an even better ice cream place at the end of this road.”
I glanced at him curiously. “Did you spend a lot of time here as a kid with your parents? You know this city well.”
“My mother was born here.” He nudged me forward, and I sidestepped my ice cream mess on the ground. “I spent good parts of my summers here with my grandparents and my mother.”
“Oh.” It wasn’t what I expected for a response. Somehow I assumed that both his parents were born and raised in New York. “Was your dad born here too?”
He shook his head. “No, but his ancestors were from this area.”
I thought about that for a few seconds. Lorenzo and Luigi never talked about their mother due to what happened.
“Your parents’ marriage was arranged?” I knew it was as Adriano had told me so. Just as he told me that my dad’s marriage to Elena was arranged too.
“Yes, but they fit well together.”
I tilted my head, watching him. I recalled Mr. Russo’s comment that it was my mother that drove a wedge between the two families. There was no way Santi forgot that. He wasn’t the forgetting type, but I refused to be the one to remind him about it.
He held my gaze as if waiting for something. I wasn’t quite sure what.
“Amore?”
“Yes?”
“How do you feel about marriage arrangements?”
My lips parted in shock. It wasn’t a question I expected. “You want my honest opinion?” I added.
He nodded. “Whenever possible.”
I shrugged. “Marriage arrangements are ridiculous. I mean, we are in the twenty-first century. The whole act is barbaric if you ask me.” He cocked his eyebrow. “Seriously, Santi, please don’t tell me you actually agree with them?”
He held my gaze, but it was hard to tell what he was thinking. I guess this was his poker face.
“It’s a tradition. Certain marriage arrangements keep territories and wealth within the Cosa Nostra.”
I rolled my eyes. “It sounds to me like it is just a power play.”
“It happens more than you know. Even outside the Cosa Nostra. Among the society that your grandmother prefers too.”
I took a deep breath and released it slowly. It was odd to be having this conversation and that he even brought it up. I knew from Adriano that contracts were usually signed between the groom and the father, which seemed barbaric to me.
“Maybe,” I told him. “It seems primitive to me. And certainly not fair to the women of the Cosa Nostra.” I narrowed my gaze at him. “What is all this about, Santi?”
His expression remained unchanged. “Does your father have a marriage contract for you?”
I blinked my eyes, a heartbeat of confusion and then burst out laughing, hard. He didn’t seem to share the amusement.
I tried to get myself together, though I couldn’t stop smiling. “No. Grandma would eat him alive.” I shook my head, imagining that fiasco and couldn’t help but laugh again. “Honestly, so would I. There is no way in hell anyone is telling me who I should marry.”
A dark expression passed his eyes. “You seem certain.”
I studied his face, something nagging at me, but I couldn’t quite figure out what. He seemed rather somber.
