Page 4 of Playing the Sicilian's Game of Revenge

But she supposed that fear of looking like a failure, like something might be effort, like she was putting something on the line...well, it wasn’t just about her siblings. The idea of telling Teo she loved him to be met with anything other than fall-to-his-knees gratitude left her feeling sick to her stomach.

Luckily she didn’t have to dwell on those conflicting thoughts any longer, because she heard the apartment door open. Forcefully. He stepped inside, the anger vibrating off of him.

Until he saw her. He stilled. It was only the flash of a second, that fury in his eyes, but the daughter of an alcoholic father and drug-addicted mother knew how to look for flashes. How to brace for the storms that might come in the aftermath.

She entered the room carefully, aware of every inch of her body. It wasn’t that she was afraid of him like she’d been afraid of her father. Teo had never been anything remotely close to violent. But temper and words could hurt, and though he’d never unleashed those on her, she knew the potential existed.

“Is everything okay?” she asked, keeping her voice carefully neutral.

He stared at her for a moment in complete silence, and she watched him put it all away. With a breath and some internal control, all those storms calmed into peace.

She found she didn’t believe that peace, even when she wanted to. All she could do was want to help him find the real thing.

The meeting had not gone well, and it delayed his many plans and put Teo in a foul mood. So foul he’d forgotten he’d told Saverina to be here in the first place. He’d forgotten about her entirely, so he was not at all prepared to deal with her as he usually was.

This was what came of being too confident. He’d gotten cocky and made a few missteps this evening. Now he had to deal with the consequences. He knew better, and that twisted his self-directed anger more than the rest.

He hid his fisted hand in a pocket. The role he played for Saverina was not an angry man, not a man with a temper. But it boiled inside of him tonight, and he did not know how to tame it.

Because they had not gotten the necessary DNA. The men he’d hired said it could be another week before they had a chance. A week. Now he didn’t know if he should postpone the engagement or go forward with it. He didn’t know whether to hire new men or stick with the ones who’d promised him careful, clandestine results.

He didn’t know, and it left him wanting to rage. He had to get rid of her without raising any suspicions or concerns, because he did not wish his anger to concern Saverina. And he needed quiet solitude to reconfigure his upended plans.

“Teo?” Saverina said, a little hesitantly. She didn’t act afraid, but he saw her concern and endeavored to beat back everything roiling inside of him.

“Everything is fine,” he said, but his voice was not convincing. Even he knew it sounded hard-edged and mean. “I thought this would be my last meeting with the lawyer, but he informed me we are not quite done yet. I was eager for it to be...over.” He didn’t see the problem with a little truth mixed in with the lies. That’s how he’d won her over, after all. “It’s put me in a foul temper.”

She let out a little sound, like a sigh, then fully crossed the room to him. “It must be very hard,” she murmured, reaching out to him. Ready to soothe.

She did not. If anything, she did the opposite. She was merely a pawn, but she was here in his space, offering kindness, and he did not deserve it. He could not take it.

He grabbed her hands before she could wrap her arms around him, stopping her in her tracks. “I will have to apologize and excuse myself. I’m in a terrible mood, and I cannot see putting it to rights tonight. Perhaps you should just go home.” He’d tacked on the perhaps because if there was anything he fully understood about Saverina, even in this mood, it was that she did not respond well to demands.

“Perhaps,” she agreed easily, but she just stood there, his hand enclosing her slim wrists. She did not attempt to pull away or push forward. She simply stood there, a bit like a prisoner.

It clawed at him, along with the sympathy he saw in her eyes. Not pity. Just warmth and kindness and everything she should not give him. Did she have no sense of self-preservation?

“But perhaps,” she continued softly, “I should stay, as I am not only here to enjoy your good moods and happiness.”

For a moment, he had no words. He could not move at all. He had careful lines, and they all led to revenge. Not complications. He had already blurred too many personal lines with her—having her in his bed, discussing his mother’s death no matter how superficially, and if he did not get rid of her now, he would no doubt cross yet more lines.

Disastrous.

But insisting she leave, drawing that hard line, would also be a problem. She would not care for it, and if he was to go through with his proposal plans, he could not afford to make her angry or upset. If he lost her now...

No. He would not fail this. Perhaps he had to alter his other plans, but he would not alter the ones that made him a Parisi by marriage. That would hurt Dante as much as anything else. So that was what Teo lived for.

He forced himself to release her, to breathe. He could not will the storms away, but he could steer the ship through them. “I’ll just get myself a drink. Would you like something?”

He started to move for his kitchen, but she stopped him, her palm sliding up his chest as she hooked her other arm around his neck.

“How about this instead.” She lifted to her toes and pressed her mouth to his. It was sweet, but he only felt fire. A dangerous mix of frustration and want. The offer of something he wanted, after the denial of what he needed.

It made the kiss dangerous. Untethered. So often the chemistry between them surprised him into going further than he’d planned with her, wanting more than he should from her. But this was different, because the lack of control was both about her and what had happened earlier tonight.

He wasn’t at his best. He wasn’t thinking straight. He could not control that careful line he walked. So the kiss became wild. He held her too tightly, dove into the taste of her too deeply, lost in everything she offered. He had never allowed himself such an utter lack of walls built against his needs.

This would threaten everything.

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