Page 91 of Lies like Rubies, Part Two (Savage Jewels)

“Stop,” Sofia whispered, fighting to keep the grin off her face.

Lorenzo didn’t try to outbid us, instead he grabbed her hands so she couldn’t protest any further.

When someone across the room outbid us both, Dante and I cheerfully raised the price until we were paying three times what the painting was worth just to see pink stain Sofia’s cheeks.

“Guys,” Sofia said, a note of censure in her voice.

“Let us spoil you, baby. The money’s going to a good cause,” I said, hoping she saw the warmth in my eyes for what it was.

“Half a million,” Dante called out, putting an abrupt halt to the bidding. Worth it, to see her eyes shining and bright, looking at the two of us like we walked on water.

“Let me split it with you,” I offered, wincing internally as I mentally pulled the money from my retirement accounts.

Lorenzo chuckled. “I’ll write a check for a hundred bucks, but otherwise, it’s all yours.”

Adam Zhang watched us and shook his head. “You boys are ridiculous.”

His date elbowed him. “If you’re going to drop half a million dollars on me, please buy diamonds.”

Dante smiled and pulled out his phone. Sofia gasped, clutching at the table before prying her fingers from the tablecloth and setting them in her lap.

“You all right?” Zach asked.

She nodded as she tried to control her reaction to the vibrations deep within her.

“Sofia’s just overwhelmed with emotion, isn’t that right, kitten?” Dante asked, his eyes intent on hers as she trembled, nodding her head, not quite able to put a sentence together to answer. My eyes cut to his—I wanted her turned on, not utterly humiliated by climaxing in front of her friends.

When the auction ended, he offered her his hand, and she stood, adjusting her skirts. “Would you like to dance?”

My sisters saved us, dragging Sofia, Lorenzo, and me to the dance floor in a show of solidarity. Emilia partnered with Luca, and all of a sudden, we were surrounded by young people. Not that young—people Sofia’s age, her generation, friends and cousins, all kissing her and wishing us well.

Astounding.

It shouldn't have come as a surprise. For nearly a decade, Sofia had smoothed the way for every goddamned family in Yorkfield, her father’s showpiece.

The older generation would never recognize what a gift she was. But her generation? They loved her, and they welcomed her.

As I swung her onto the dance floor, her eyes widened and her cheeks turned rosy. When I drew her to me, I felt the slight vibration in her pelvis and couldn’t stop the smile from breaking out over my face.

“How’re you feeling, baby?”

She took one shuddering breath, and then another, her tongue darting over her gorgeous pink lips as I swung her around.

“You all are fuckers,” she gasped.

“Who are all delighted to be fucking you, sweet slut,” I murmured into her skin as I whirled her around the dance floor. She shivered in my arms, and electricity sparked between us everywhere my hands brushed against her skin. How had she wormed her way into my heart so quickly, so completely? At some point, Sergio would make his move, and as much as it killed me to use our gorgeous woman as bait, her insistence that she could handle it, that she could handle him, was hot as hell.

Too soon, the music wound down and the emcee invited us all to take our seats at our tables. Sofia tangled her fingers in mine as we prepared to run the gauntlet, the shield of dancing among a crowd of people our age melting away.

I stiffened my back. Sofia didn’t. She remained relaxed, smiling and exchanging kisses with everyone who greeted us, introducing me to those rare souls who didn’t immediately recognize the green Lombardi eyes or who couldn’t figure it out from the wild rumors swirling around us.

By the time we’d reached the table, she’d established us as a couple in Yorkfield’s eyes, which made it all the more astounding when she greeted Lorenzo with a dizzying kiss. His eyes widened slightly, then his lips crooked up into a smile as he wrapped one hand around her jaw and the other around her waist, deepening the kiss until they were both so twined around each other I wondered if I’d need to intervene.

When Sofia finally came up for air, her eyes twinkled. She reached her hand out imperiously to me and drew me down for a quick brush of my lips against hers.

The emotion bursting out of my chest wasn’t pride. I didn’t have the right to pride. No, it was fierce admiration for this woman who’d suffered so much, and continued to suffer, but was determined that the rest of us wouldn’t suffer beside her. Even if our relationship ended tomorrow, by making it so public, so relaxed, especially after the community was so accepting of her sister, the blowback on us would be minimal.

On her? It’d be worse, far worse, but she had her degree, or would tomorrow morning, and she had a job offer in New York City, and she had her own bank account now, thanks to Dante. When the entire town turned on her and called her a slut all over again, but for a different reason this time, shenow had the power to leave. I hated how my heart cracked at the thought of her packing up and establishing a life elsewhere, without me, without us.

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