Page 16 of His to Have
“You finished?”
“Am I finished?” I spat back. “No, Teo, I’m not fucking finished. Do you even care about how I feel? Or is this just about your precious territories, and expanding your family’s empires!”
His eyes narrowed just enough for me to see it—a flicker of something. Good. I wanted him to feel something… anything. Anger, indifference… or anything other than this composed man when all I felt was chaos inside.
“Are you done?”
This time, his voice was laced with authority. A quiet demand that wasn’t a question but a command for me to stop talking and listen.
I clenched my fists, but held back the outburst that was dying to escape.
“First of all, Yanna—”
“Don’t Yanna me,” I snapped, cutting him off before he could even finish. “You lost the right to say my name like that.”
His face hardened. That calm expression? Gone. And I knew I’d struck a nerve.
Teo leaned forward, the light in his eyes changing from passive to something darker. “I lost the right?” he repeated. His voice dripped with mockery, and my pulse took flight.
But I held his gaze. I wasn’t backing down. “Yes, Teo. Only my friends call me that. You are no friend to me.”
“Let me make something clear. I haven’t lost a damn thing when it comes to you. I’m the only one who has rights when it comes to you, Yanna.” His tone was like ice.
If I wasn’t so familiar with him and knew for a fact, he would never do anything to me his tone may have scared me. “You may think that.”
“Nah, Amore mio,” he said, his eyes dark and unflinching. “That’s something I know.”
His words landed like a punch to the gut.
Teo calling me “Amore” had always hit differently—it disarmed me, softened me, no matter how angry I was. But when he said “Amore mio,” it was more than that. It wasn’t casual. He didn’t use it often, but when he did, I knew he was serious.
I’d learned a few words here and there over the years, especially given how often Teo switched into Italian when he was with his family. His father, Marco, and his grandparents from Italy only spoke Italian around the house, and Teo grew up speaking both fluently. I knew “Amore” meant love, but “Amore mio” held a deeper meaning. My love. It wasn’t just something he said. It had meaning, and my breath caught in my throat, understanding the weight behind those words. There was no mistaking what he meant. I’d always known.
“Ti amo, amore mio. Un giorno mi lascerai avere tutto di te,” he murmured into my ear the morning after that fateful night.
The night I decided I wanted him to be my first. My first everything; my first sexual partner, my first real boyfriend, and the first person I trusted with my heart. But the next morning I freaked out. Thinking about all the women pining after him,or the women who were more suited to be with the next Don of his family. I wasn’t seeking that lifestyle and thought it would be best to leave it to the mafia daughters, cousins, and sisters who were groomed for that role.
But that’s what nagged at me. He whispered those words with such certainty as I walked out his bedroom that morning. He knew about the arrangement then and said nothing. Three years ago, I gave him my virginity. Then when I chicken out of a relationship with him, he told me that I would one day belong entirely to him. His declaration of love was unwavering then, and I can see now that it would come to pass.
I blinked, trying to ignore the way my body reacted to that phrase. How it settled over me, wrapping me up in the reality of what he was saying.
“You don’t get to...” I started, but my voice wavered, and I hated that it did. “You don’t get to do that Teo. You knew about the alliance years ago and didn’t tell me. I thought we were friends. I thought you cared about me. And to find out everyone close to me knew is so fucked up.”
His eyes softened a bit, and I could see a hint of regret. “I do care about you, Yanna. Always have.” His voice was filled with so much sincerity that it made my chest tighten.
Before I could respond, a soft voice, the same feminine voice from earlier, came from his end of the call.
“Teo, we’re waiting for you in the family room.”
My breath caught in my throat. The familiar, casual way she said his name had me gripping the phone just a little bit tighter, and my eyes rolling. Over the years, I’d never run into a woman he dealt with intimately. Our paths never crossed. I never heard them in the background when we chatted. So, hearing a woman’s voice now, so close and intimate, hours after finding out I had been promised to him, shattered the illusion of a happily ever after I was trying to accept.
“I’ll be down in a minute,” he told her, not breaking eye contact with me for even a second. His expression didn’t even change.
“Alright,” the woman replied, her voice carrying that air of familiarity that grated on me more than it should have. She lingered for a moment, her heels clicking faintly in the background before fading away.
I clenched my jaw, trying to shove down the irrational anger. Teo’s gaze never left mine, daring me to say something, to ask about her. But I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
When I didn’t say anything, he said, “I was planning to come see about you this weekend. I wanted to give you time to wrap your head around this. But I see that this is bothering you. I’ll be on the first flight out of here in the morning. We can discuss it then. Okay?”
