Page 100 of Lies like Rubies, Part One

I stalked toward her, trying to calm the maelstrom of emotions in my gut, knowing that whatever I said in the next few minutes would set the course of our relationship going forward. I trapped her between my body and the table, energy sizzling between us.

Sofia stood up straight, irritation running through her like an electrical current. “Go back to my father, Lorenzo. I won’t hate you for it, but I can’t even open the door of my life to you until I’m certain of where your loyalties lie.” Her voice cracked out like a whip across my heart. She didn’t trust me to keep her secrets.

Fuck.

Dante reached across the distance between them to take her hand, but she snatched it back. “Keep your hands to yourself, Dante. This isn’t about you.”

A slight smile played at his lips as he watched her, frankly admiring as she stood stiff-backed and straight, like a queen.

I weighed my options. Tony Russo raised me, and Luca was a brother to me. I’d run their security operations since Ginevra killed my predecessor for kidnapping her five years ago. “It’s complicated, Sofia.”

She nodded sharply and pushed against my chest. “Thank you for stopping by.”

No, I wouldn’t leave her like this, not until I understood what hold Dante had over her.

“Sofia, what trouble has found you now?” I raised my hand to her face, cupping her cheek. “Tell me what you need from me.”

She pressed her cheek into my palm, a lone tear streaming down her face and running down my fingers. When she collapsed against my chest, sobbing, I didn’t know what to do. Her slender arms wrapped around my waist as she cried into my suit, and all I could do was take her into my arms and gently rub her back as she poured out her misery into my chest.

“Hey, hey, Sofia—sunshine, it’s going to be okay. Whatever it is, I promise we’re gonna figure it out. We’re going to stop Sergio. And I will never judge you for what you do with another man, okay?”

She looked at me, the blue of her eyes bright with tears, somehow only more beautiful as she cried. When she surged up to capture my lips in hers, I froze. She moved her soft lips over mine, and then—

I was too fucking slow to respond. She pulled away, her face red with embarrassment. “Fuck, Lorenzo, I’m sorry, that was so inappropriate. I don’t know—”

I yanked her to me, crashing my mouth to hers, letting her feel all the frustration, the hurt, the love I’d held in my heart for her since she was a fucking teenager, and I’d hated myself for lusting after the boss’s daughter. When she slid her arms up my back to pull me closer, I wrapped my hands around her jaw and held her face to mine as we kissed.

Kissing Sofia was like a cool drink of water after a years-long drought, the sunlight of her affection filling all the broken cracks in my heart until I was full to bursting. I slid my hands down her neck and shoulders until I cupped her ass, pressing her tightly against me. When we finally slowed, she took a deep shuddering breath, her eyes wide open and vulnerable, storm-tossed in a sea of emotions.

We leaned our foreheads together.Fuck.The last thing she needed right now was another emotional entanglement that would piss off her family. Tony and Patti would never forgive me for getting involved with their daughter.

Yet, the moment she wrapped her arms around me to cry on my chest, I’d known I’d do anything to have her in my life. I’d do anything to protect her, even from the other man in this room.

Decision made, I nuzzled my face in her hair, inhaling her rose scent and enjoying the feeling of this beautiful, determined woman in my arms. I’d do anything for her, even if it cost me my relationship with the Russos.

“Sofia,” Dante grumbled from somewhere behind me. For a man who’d just watched his lover kiss me, he sounded remarkably sanguine. “Kitten, tell him.”

Sofia stood up straight. “No. Not yet.” Someone rapped on the door. She gently pushed against my chest and freed herself from my embrace.

The door opened, revealing a blond man I was only passingly familiar with. “Nick!” Sofia cried, and he rushed past me to take her in his arms.

Dante OscuroandNick Lombardi in a fucking polycule like her goddamned sister? I closed the door softly, remaining inside the apartment, then turned to face the group. A polycule I could live with. A polycule with Dante Oscuro?Oh, hell no.

Dante stalked over to me, his dark curls falling over his face, menace written in every sharp line of his body. He caged me against the door with his arms. “You’ll keep Sofia’s secrets, even if you don’t like what you hear today.”

“I will,” I promised softly. He searched my eyes, his own so dark they were almost black, even in the bright light of the bland corporate apartment. Whatever he found in mine must’ve satisfied him because he pushed off the door with a grunt.

By that time, Nick had settled on the couch. Dante sat beside him, their knees brushing together in a way that screamed comfort and intimacy. Sofia sat in the apartment’s sole armchair, regal despite her wet hair and borrowed sweats.

Her eyes never left me as I pulled a chair from the dining table and turned it around so I could sit in it backward, leaning my arms across the back.

She inhaled, as if to begin.

“Did you order dinner?” Dante interrupted her, and, to my utter surprise, she flushed.

Nick rolled his eyes. “She’s not your maid, Dante. Lorenzo, any allergies or dietary restrictions?”

When I shook my head, he turned his attention to his phone, sliding his thumbs over the screen.

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