Page 18 of Lies like Rubies, Part One

Jealousy consumed me, the acrid poison hot and sharp in my veins. I jerked my gaze away and jogged inside before I did something fucking stupid, something that would cost me my family and embarrass the Russos.

The cool air conditioning of the house saved me, evaporating the sweat pooling on my brow as I calmed my beating heart and unclenched my fists.

And then fucking Sofia breezed by with empty glasses in her hands, and I lost it. I yanked her wrist and pushed her up against the wall. “Miss Russo, what the hell are you doing?”

For half a second, her eyes widened. Fear, anger, and a darker, needier torrent of emotions rushed through them, before she slammed her mask back down.

“Can I help you, Lorenzo?” she asked, ignoring how my arms caged her in either side of her head, how our breath mingled, how my body angled over hers, a hairsbreadth from pressing up into her the way I craved.

“What’s going on with you and Oscuro?” I asked, not bothering to ease into the interrogation. Angry and jealous, I ignored the peril of being seen as I breathed her in, roses and a hint of danger, like even her scent was bad news to a man like me.

She pressed her lips into a thin line and sighed, her eyes softening as we stared at each other. I wanted to think it was because she thought of me as often as I thought of her—because she missed me as much as I missed her.

“It’s complicated, Lorenzo.”

“Complicated? Is your father forcing you to flirt with him?”

Sofia closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the wall, as if she needed a moment of silence to compose herself. When she opened them, they glistened with unshed tears.

I couldn’t remember the last time Sofia lost her cool in front of me. Maybe the night she’d fled from Sergio, newly pregnant, her face bruised, terrified to tell her parents what happened. Instead of being supportive, I was a jealous asshole. Two years ago, when he returned and used his fists on her again, Sofia had already completed her transformation into the ice queen I knew now and refused to discuss what had happened.

Unable to stop myself, I brushed my thumb across her sharp cheekbone desperate to feel her skin beneath my fingers, heedless of the burn as they caught aflame, my heart aching to soothe the misery in her eyes.

“Miss Russo, what’s going on? What trouble have you gotten yourself into?”

She blinked again and straightened, the movement pushing her chest into mine. I stayed in her space, trapping her against the wall with my arms, torturing myself with her proximity. She was the boss’s daughter, my best friend’s sister, as off-limits now as she was five years ago, even if I did still want her with a strength that left me breathless every time she looked in my direction. Tony might treat me like a son, but he’d never tolerate his daughter marrying the help.

For the millionth time, I regretted turning her down. I regretted not taking her into my arms and showing her that I wanted her as much as she wanted me, offering to steal her away from this brutal, violent world.

“What trouble have I gotten myself into?” Her bitter laugh cut through my reflections like a splash of cold water. “You men, always so sure it’s the woman that got herself into trouble rather than trouble forcing itself on her.”

Sofia nudged me in the side with the glasses in her hands. I ignored the hint, searching her eyes for a clue as to what bothered her, her icy countenance revealing little.

“Move, Lorenzo, before someone sees us and decides I’m a slut because you can’t keep your damn hands to yourself.”

I pushed up from the wall, not missing the way her eyes cut to my biceps as they flexed. “They won’t.”

Her eyes flashed with anger. “You have no idea, do you? Do you know who bore the blame for seducing Sergio? For Ginevra’s marriage to those three men? Stupid, slutty Sofia couldn’t keep her legs together. She got knocked up, and her sister had to charge in from California to save the day. Do you know what’s going to happen when Dante leaves? Stupid, slutty Sofia, they’ll say. Nobody’s going to fucking care that I grease the wheels for this fucking family by making nice and flirting. So yeah, they’ll talk if they see you pressed against me in a poorly lit hallway. Stupid, slutty Sofia, hitting on her father’s enforcer.”

She slid out from between me and the wall, refusing to look at me as she walked away.

“Miss Russo—”

“Stop, Lorenzo,” she snapped, her entire body rigid with anger. “You made it very clear what you thought of me long before I ever got pregnant. I appreciate what you do for my family and my father. But don’t you dare comment on who I do and do not speak with ever again.”

She stormed off to the kitchen, leaving me to curse the day I’d turned her down with such cruelty so many years ago.

Oscuro foundme as the luncheon wound down and the Russos’ guests slowly made their way home. He moved like a lion, confident and predatory, as he walked across the yard to where I relaxed with a cigar. In his hands were two glasses and a bottle of grappa so cold it had frosted over.

“Still on the clock?”

“Do the Russos know you’re still here?” I asked.

He shrugged. “They haven’t sent their sex kitten to charm me into leaving, so they can’t be that upset about my continued presence.”

Indeed, Sofia passed from group to group, smiling widely as she gently placed her hand on the backs of men who didn’t deserve to share the same air as her. She laughed at their jokes, reminded them that their wives were waiting, and made them feel like handsome young men again until she escorted them out the gate.

She was a fuckin’ miracle worker. I hated the way Oscuro talked about her, almost as much as I hated the curling tendril of disloyalty toward Tony Russo that wound its way through my heart when I acknowledged the truth of Oscuro’s words.

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