Page 30 of Mafia Boss

The way he had told me not to touch Marco with such cruelty made it seem like he was almost possessive. But he had let his men take me so easily the other day. Again, another Cristian paradox that I would never understand.

After I got out of the shower, looked through all the old-woman clothes from Barneys, and foundone damn dressthat I liked, I walked out the apartment door, hoping to find Marco. Yet there was a man I had never seen before standing outside my door with dark sunglasses and dressed in a black suit.

“Roxie?” he asked me.

I eyed him. “Who are you?”

“Your bodyguard for the day.”

I balled my hands into fists. “Where is Marco?”

Instead of answering me, he ignored my question completely. “Cristian is at his club, working.”

“You’re wearing the clothes I bought you,” Cristian said to me when I arrived, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in his chair. Looking me up and down, he curled his lips into the smallest of smirks. “I thought you’d fill these out quite nicely.”

I glared at him. “It’s not like I had much of a choice. You won’t bring me back to my old apartment. I have to fit into these grossly expensive clothes that aren’t even worth the price tag.”

“You can’t politely accept anything, can you?”

“No, I can’t. Why are you doing this?”

“Doing what?”

“Being nice to me? Buying me clothes? Telling me you want to marry me?”

An unreadable expression crossed his face. He grimaced and stood, walking over to me and grasping my chin in his rough hand. He pulled it to one side and then the other, as if he was searching my face for something. Eventually, he frowned and shook his head.

“You really don’t remember me, do you?” he asked, sadness laced in his words.

I shoved my hands against his chest and forced him back a few inches. Every time he got this close, I … I fucking hated it. It made me feel things I should never ever feel for him. And it irked me to no end.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, so desperately confused.

Cristian cleared his throat and walked back behind his desk. “Go.”

“Fine.” I turned on my heel and walked right out of the room, bumping into Marco.

Though he was supposed to be my bodyguard, it was the first time I had seen him today. And to say he looked bad was an understatement. He stepped away from me with a nasty black bruise under his eye and a busted lip.

Did Cristian do that to him?

“Marco,” I said loud enough for Cristian to hear, “come have a drink with me.”

It probably wasn’t the best idea for me to get drunk here for the second day in a row or to even be around booze after watching what I had for the past few days. Yet I planned to stay sober and get Cristian angry enough to stop being an annoying asshole who talked in phrases that didn’t make sense.

“Marco,” Cristian growled from the office.

Marco went to step beside me, but I grabbed his wrist and brushed my thumb over the bruise on his face.

“What happened to you?” I asked, brow furrowed, even though I knew exactly what had happened to him. “Walk me home, and I’ll get you some ice.”

To my surprise, Marco actually didn’t refuse as quickly as I’d thought he would.

He grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand off his face. “You’re going to get me killed, Roxie,” he said so quietly that Cristian wouldn’t be able to hear.

“You don’t want me to take care of your wounds?” I inched closer to him. Though Cristian might’ve been the boss of this family, I found Marco to be one of the most attractive Riccis here. I stood on my toes, loving the feeling of being so small beside him, and brushed my lips against his jaw. “Nurse you back to health?”

Marco glanced down at me, gaze traveling from my eyes to my lips, then back up.

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