Page 47 of Claimed By Him

“I, um… I want you, Tony.” I had to be honest. He looked at me with his intense eyes searching mine, though I shook my head before he got his hopes up. “But… I also want to leave this dangerous kind of life behind.”

He pulled his eyes away and clenched his jaw.

“You’ve seen my life, Tony. It’s been nothing but bodyguards and guns, bloody clothes, and broken hearts.” I paused, watching his face. “I don’t want that. I’ve never had true privacy, and I’ve never had a truly happy relationship with anyone.”

His eyes closed for a second. “I hear you, Fiona. I get it.”

After pausing, I asked, “What do you want?”

Tony put his mug down and stood up to find his clothes where I left them last night—folded on a chair with an extra-large white T-shirt I liked to sleep in and hoped it would fit him.

“One thing that you need to understand about my life is that it doesn’t matter what I want.”

I frowned. “Well, of course it does—”

“No.” He pulled on his pants and fastened them. I looked at his torso, his bulging pecs, and rippled abs, wondering if I’d ever see him naked again after today.

“You might be a princess, baby, but I’m a prince.” He stopped and looked at me meaningfully. “I’m destined to be the Romano don. I have not only my family but a whole community of people with Italian blood that I need to look after. I need to provide jobs for those who need them, help women and children to survive when their husbands and fathers die on my streets, and provide protection so those men don’t have to die in the first place. It’s a whole fucked-up system out there, and I need to run it!”

I could see he was getting frustrated, and I knew it wasn’t with me, so I nodded sadly and looked down at my fingers.

“I know…”

“So, no, Fiona. What I want doesn’t matter when there are people relying on me to save them.”

“But… If it did matter? What would you want?” I really,reallyneeded him to say it. If I knew that he really wanted me, maybe I could compromise. Maybe we could find some kind of middle ground for our dreams to meet.

But Tony didn’t go for it. He shook his head and grabbed the T-shirt to pull it on. It didn’t sit as well as his own T-shirt did last night, but it was good enough to pull his jacket over.

“I have responsibilities. Just like last night, I have battles to fight to keep my people safe.”

“So, you won’t even tell me that you do want me? Even after all this?” I looked at the bed, then up at him. He ran his hand over his face.

“What’s the point, Fiona? What do you want me to do? Just drop my whole family to run away with you? Betray my father after he’s done so much to protect us? I can’t do that!”

I quickly shook my head and frowned. “No, Tony! I don’t want that, I just—”

“You can’t get what you want this time,princess!”

His loud voice echoed through the rafters of my loft. I knew he was hurting, but it didn’t mean he had to hurt me, too. The way he said “princess” held none of the tenderness it had before. He constantly used these names for me in completely opposing tones, and it made me angry. I stood up, taking a deep breath.

“Look, Tony. You came to me for help. You slept inmybed! I was honest with you, with myself, actually! I admitted that I wanted you, but I never asked you to do anything about it!”

He picked his chin up, grinding his teeth together while I walked slowly toward him.

“All I ever did was love you while you just pushed me away!” He started to shake his head, but I wasn’t going to let up. He’d pushed me too far, and now it was finally time for the truth about us to be out in the open. “And if you want to talk about the cold hard truth, here it fucking is,” my finger poked his chest, and I stood right in front of him, fuming, “we would never be in this fucking position if you hadn’t killed Frederico in some immature jealous rage!”

Tony looked down at me with wide, angry eyes. “Are you fucking kidding me, Fiona? You still think that’s what happened, after everything?”

“Yes! And you’re so lucky I never told anyone what I saw, or the Rossi’s might have killed you by now!”

“And what the fuck did you see, huh?” Rage burned in his eyes as he shouted down at me.

“You followed him after you saw us fighting! You said you were going to kill him! How could it just be a coincidence when he died that same night?”

“That’s it! I followed him! That’s all that fucking happened! And you know what? You’re the lucky one here Fiona because you didn’t see whathedid!”

I was quiet, out of breath, and staring at him. I didn’t know what the fuck he was talking about, and apparently, he wasn’t going to explain it either. He started putting his things in his pockets—his phone, knife, and keys.

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