Page 39 of Fall
13
Natalia
When the bosses are away, the workers will play.
The boss's daughter will play too.
Father is distracted. He has his eyes on everything but me, so he won’t kill us for crossing forbidden lines.
Nonna has been stuck on her phone and hasno time to talk to me, or to tell me that I’m promised to Giorgio, or that Antonio is like family, or too old or has no business messing with me.
They’re doing what they do best.
Working their asses off to preserve what they’ve built.
To protect me too.
I don't know what to do with myself. I'm overloaded with emotion from the fact that I'm still not in the loop aboutwhere exactly I'll be. Any sane person would be wound up from this much uncertainty.
I have a day or two left here.
The only clarity I have is about Antonio.
I won’t waste a second.
Vinny doesn't object when I order him to take me to Antonio's quarters. His staunch disapproval is visible on the scowl that forms harsh lines on either side of his mouth and between hiseyebrows for the entire walk between the two structures. But I get the sense that it has more to do with whatever's going on between him and Antonio than the idea of sneaking around behind my father's back. Outside Antonio's room, when I tell him to go back to my room and guard the door like last time, he gives me a dismissive head shake, but replies with, "Yes, Miss Romano. And would you like meto lie about your whereabouts should anyone like say, your father comes looking for you?"
"Don't be a pain in the ass," I answer and flash a scowl of my own right back at him as my hand hovers in midair, ready to knock on Antonio's door. Vinny knows that at this hour, Father will assume I'm asleep. He's making this point to provoke me. "What's with you? You know the goddamned answer tothat. If you have a beef with me or disagree with what I'm doing, either say what it is or shut the hell up. I don't need your passive aggressive crap."
“Whatever you’d like, Miss.”
I stand at the door and watch as he charges off, his broad, ripped body surprisingly swift as he disappears around a corner, wishing I knew what his deal was.
"What are you doing here?" I hearAntonio voice the callous question and jump a bit.
"I was about to knock," I say as I turn, stating the obvious, given that my fist is practically at his chest level, my knuckles about to make contact with his bare pec. With my gaze now glued to his correctly defined, gorgeously tanned, naked torso, it's hard to look away from it to meet his awaiting eyes.
He pulls me into the roomwith his hand under my elbow and shuts the door behind me with a hard slam. “How did you get here alone? Did anyone see you?”
The sting of his words is like its own rejection. I shouldn’t feel this way. He’s wise to be cautious. Father would kill for much less than this indiscretion. Sure, I know I’m being reckless. Just a beat, I’d like to hear him sound like there’s something good aboutthis thing happening between. That I’m worth the risk. Not like it’s only a burden. A dangerous misstep. A menace to his happiness.
“If you want me to leave, I’ll go,” I huff.
But as quickly as the words are spoken, he places his open palms on the door on either side of my head, boxing me in.
"If you keep this up, he'll find out." Antonio's tone is cold, but his eyes aresofter than I've seen them all day. "No one around here would ever want to cross your father, least of all me. I'm betraying him by standing here talking to you like this." He slips one hand to my shoulder, and his fingers rake through my hair. "You're standing in front of a dead man. My sentence just hasn't been carried out yet. You see that, right?"
I can’t stand that everything he saysis true. The only thing I hate more is the fact that my body doesn’t care about a word he’s saying. The gritty tremor of his voice goes right to my core. His musky, masculine scent makes my nipples tingle, and my breath catches. And my pussy is clutching tight around nothing at all from the way his large body looms so close to mine.
“Can you?” he repeats.
I look him straight in hiseyes, as headstrong as ever. “I’m just as dead as you are, if not more.”
“So why are you taking another chance?” he demands.
“What are you trying to say? You don’t want me?” I ask, and hear my whispered breath come out so small and meek and full of pain that I immediately regret asking the question.
He huffs out a breath, and his large, callused hand moves from my hair tothe back of my neck, pinning me in place. "I have no right to want you, Natalia. Don't you understand? I shouldn't even look at you, let alone touch you."
