Page 39 of Playing the Sicilian's Game of Revenge

All he saw was her smiling at another man. Too close together. For a strange, out-of-body moment, he imagined himself bodily removing said man from Saverina’s orbit, but the man was already walking away from her by the time Teo could see past the immobilizing rage that pummeled him.

He breathed out, his face hot, his heartbeat a rapid, rabid thing in his chest. If he stepped back from this situation, looked at the whole thing as an outsider, he might worry that this was jealousy.

But of course, this was all revenge, so he had nothing to be jealous of. It was about the image of it all.

What he found most disconcerting about the moment was that his usual denials felt wrong. He couldn’t fully accept that he was mad about image when the very idea of another man touching her made him want to tear down the foundations of the earth.

But he would get it under control. He would...he would find a way to undo this. To reverse these strange, unnecessary, impossible feelings.

Saverina made her way over to him, and he was glad he’d stayed where he was. Proud that he had stood his ground. Maybe a few wayward feelings had escaped, but he hadn’t acted on them. That was all that mattered.

“I think news will be all over the office on Monday,” Saverina said, sliding her arm into his, easy as you please. “I’ll have to call Lorenzo when we get home and let him know the happy news.” She was close now, her perfume in its normal dance with ruining him entirely as she leaned in closer. “Were you talking to Julia Marino?”

“Yes,” he bit out, his gaze following the man who’d been talking to Saverina.

“Why?”

“We will discuss it later.”

She frowned at that, but she didn’t argue. They made the rounds. Enjoyed different displays. She made him laugh with her insightful commentary about some modern art that didn’t make any earthly sense to him. Then she made him uncomfortable when she got teary over an old artifact of a child’s toy displayed with bits of blanket and earthenware.

“It’s kind of amazing. The things that never change, no matter how many centuries have passed, don’t you think?”

“I don’t think about the past.”

She pursed her lips and looked up at him. “Perhaps you should, Teo.”

“I do not see why. I live in the present.” Case in point, the man who’d been standing far too close to Saverina was presently talking to someone but looking at her while he did so. Teo angled his body to block the man’s gaze from Saverina. He pointed at the ancient artifacts. “What does any of that have to do with now?”

“You live in a present informed by their past and your own, and if you don’t know what any of that has to do with now, perhaps you should consider it.”

“I don’t see why I’d waste my time.”

She sighed heavily, clearly frustrated with him, but it was a foolish conversation. Besides, they’d done what they came to do. They could leave now. Far away from anyone’s too hot gaze. Once he dropped her off, he could leave these twisted, unwelcome feelings behind. He could focus on his plan. On his revenge.

On the only thing that mattered.

When they got into the limousine, Saverina immediately turned to him. “What were you talking to Dante’s wife about?”

“Nothing really. Just gauging her reaction to my name, my face. She mentioned I look like her sons.”

“Oh.” Saverina slumped back into the seat, pushed a palm to her heart. “Oh, how awful for her.”

“I doubt it was a surprise, Saverina.” He didn’t want to consider Julia Marino’s feelings or Saverina’s response to those feelings. It was just the business of revenge. “And if Dante really attacked their son, and she knows he did, I hardly doubt my existence will change her perception of her husband.”

“Maybe. Maybe she knew. Maybe she hates him. But it can’t be an easy thing to know your lawful husband had a child with someone else.”

He did not know why this made him think of the man she’d been talking to. But as he was not jealous, and he did not care, he pushed it away. “She is still married to him,” Teo pointed out. “It cannot be that hard on her.”

Saverina shook her head. “You can’t begin to know what she might feel or think about it. You don’t know...” She let out a long sigh. “You are a brick wall sometimes.”

“Sometimes?”

She chuckled a little. “I suppose it’s my own fault for constantly flinging myself at it.”

“There has been a decided lack of flinging lately, bedda. Toward me anyway.”

Her eyebrows drew together, like she didn’t understand. “Have I been flinging myself elsewhere that I don’t know about?” she asked, as if she genuinely had no idea.

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