Page 244 of Merciless Desires

I didn’t need to explain myself to him, because I already knew that no matter what my response was, he would have a differing opinion.

So…I gave him what he wanted.

“I’m not.”

“You’re not,” he agreed and reached for my hand, inspecting the ring that didn’t belong there. “I’m glad we both can agree on something.”

He dropped my hand like I wasn’t good enough to touch. But then, with a swiftness that made me freeze, he grabbed my chin and angled my face for his inspection.

“As beautiful as you may be, it’s not enough. It will never be enough. This wedding will not happen, are we clear?”

I chose not to challenge him. “Yes.”

“Yes…”

“Yes, we are clear, Mr. Cortese.”

“Good,” he said and leaned in to press his mouth against mine.

My stomach churned, but I stayed completely still, thankful the kiss was over as quickly as it had begun.

Mr. Cortese lifted a finger to his lips and grinned wickedly through his command for me to keep silent about our interaction.

Matteo held onto his anger. This was something I had learned from experience.

It seemed so simple that I had excused myself from the capo wives who had gathered around me and gushed like I was royalty. I had to pee; the wine that Matteo kept ordering for me went right to my bladder.

I had yet to see him that mad. I hoped I would never see it again, the poorly restrained rage that bubbled just below the surface, and it was all aimed at me.

The day after our engagement party was the first day that I was allowed to leave the house without Matteo. His second in command had collected me from my bedroom just after ten in the morning to tell me that he was bringing me to meet with the Cortese company wedding planner.

I didn’t know they had one. Then again, it was clear that I didn’t know much about the organization. The way the wives had talked around me had almost been overwhelming. The names and relationships were enough to try to memorize, but their ranks and who they reported to were something I hadn’t realized I would need to know.

My heart had pounded in my chest, and my full bladder had been an excuse to get the hell away from the conversation, even if only for a moment. Sure, I had stayed far longer than I needed to in the bathroom, but the majority of my time there was spent giving myself a pep talk to get back out there and smile.

My interaction with Matteo had made me want to curl into a ball and disappear.

So did my interaction with his papà.

I had stayed in Matteo’s line of sight for the remainder of the evening, going to his side when summoned, smiling and laughing and pretending I was fine.

Then, at the end of the evening, I found two of Matteo’s men who were remotely familiar and told them I would like to be accompanied to my room.

I wasn’t sure what Mr. Cortese was going to do to put an end to this wedding, or if I was going to survive long enough to find out.

“Jewel tones are so in right now.”

“Oh, my God, yes! Jewel tones!”

“I wanted to do jewel tones for my wedding, but Vinnie’s mamma put up a fight, so we went with a gorgeous blush pink.”

The capo wives spoke around me, essentially planning my entire wedding for me. The only thing I could think about was how badly I had wanted to plan my wedding with Mamma.

All of this would overwhelm her.

“What do you think?”

The question was actually directed at me, and I yanked my attention away from my sick mamma and faced Alessia with a smile. She was married to…Lorenzo?

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