Double pov
Luca
Watching Cara try her damnedest to pretend she didn't want the food before her might just be the most entertaining sight. The woman had been sulky from the moment I finally got her to pack and leave that danger zone of her apartment–former apartment–and drove her here at Salato, my family's Italian restaurant.
She had even refused to choose from the menu, putting the poor waiter in a state of distress, and I ended up having to make the order for her.
Apparently, she did not take being manipulated too well. And she handled it like a little brat. I, on the other hand, felt zero remorse. The apartment gave me the creeps and to say that I was glad to have finally gotten her to leave would be an understatement.
Regardless of her anger, she needed to eat. I pushed her large plate of spaghetti bolognese closer to her. "Refusing to look at the food won't make it disappear, Cara." I said, watching as she angled her body even further away from the table.
A frustrated breath left me. Refusing to look at me won't make me disappear either. She had barely eaten anything the entire day, all thanks to Walter Edwards. It still pricked at me that he was unscathed and alive wherever he was.
I tried not to dwell on the soft pang her disregard brought to my chest. It pissed the fuck out of me, I wanted this woman's attention at all times. Taking on the tone I used as don, I said. "Cara, eat."
I and my command went ignored. Gawd, this woman was stubborn.
"If you don't start digging into the food, I'm going to haul you on my lap and force-feed you."
That earned me a glare. "You wouldn't."
My smile was wicked. "Try me."
Her gaze darted around the fairly packed restaurant and returned to me, her angry blue eyes widening as she registered that I would make good on my threat even with the audience. The mental image made my body fizzle with need, not the force-feeding part but the part of her sitting on my lap with everyone here as witnesses. Witnesses to the fact that she was mine.
I was given one last death stare and then she picked up her fork.
I watched in thorough amusement as her reluctance withered with each time she dug into the pasta and soon she was taking huge mouthfuls of it while managing to look insanely adorable.
I could watch her eat all day and as much as I wanted to do that, I had to make an important enquiry. I pulled out my phone from my pocket, spared her one last glance and texted my father.
Just found out that Cara hasn't been receiving an allowance.
His reply was prompt. That can't be, I've been paying it since the month after the wedding.
My forehead creased with a frown. What account do you pay it to?
Amanda's, she insisted on handling Cara's finances.
There was it. The answer to the mystery.
Typing bubbles floated from my father's end. I could ask her about it.
I let the suggestion flitter around in my mind but I decided against it. I wanted to confront the woman myself and I wasn't going to be all nice about it like the old man would be.
No father, it's fine. I'll handle it myself.
Okay, son.
My fingers hovered above on the screen as my mind pondered on the issue. My father's wife better have a good excuse why Cara's money hasn't been getting to her because if it turned out she was keeping the stipend to herself like I suspected, well I wouldn't know what I'd to her.
Cara's overly conscious attitude with money and why she had been so desperate for a job suddenly made better sense. I had written off the former as a frugal nature and the latter as her mulish will to oppose me. She might have quit working at Rico's to spite me, but her vigorous job search wasn't just to prove a point, this I now realized. She had genuinely needed one.
I put my phone away only to meet Cara's antagonizing glare. "It's bad manners to text at the table." She said through a mouthful of her pasta.
My lips turned up in a lazy smile. "You're the one talking with food stuffed in your mouth."
She ignored me and went back to eating. And I was content to watch her.
After another minute of silent munching, she spoke again. "Are you just going to watch me?"
That was the agenda. "Yes."
Her brows furrowed. "What about you?"
It was silly how that show of concern inflated me with delight. I might as well just starve myself if it meant I'd get it again. I leaned into the table. "As much as your concern for the state of my stomach pleases me, I'm fine with just watching you eat."
She scrunched her nose, turning it up haughtily, miffed that she'd broken character. "I didn't say I cared, I don't. I just found it weird I'm the only one eating. No one might have told you yet but your stares make people uncomfortable."
Amusement rose in me. "Thank you for the observation."
She stabbed into a chicken breast. "You're welcome." She huffed, busy with her food once more.
I ordered dessert when she was done and although she whined and fussed about being full, she ate up the slice of chocolate-chip meringata and shyly requested for a second. Her anger long forgotten.
I made a mental note to feed her Italian pastries when next I pissed her off.
"Where are we going?" She asked after I'd settled the bills and guided her out the restaurant for the parking lot.
My shoulders stiffened as I unlocked the Bugatti, knowing fully well she wasn't going to like my answer. It didn't stop me from saying it anyway. "My place."
Her anger returned the second the two words left my mouth and my chest heaved in an almost sad sigh. So much for driving it away with tasty desserts.
"You really don't listen, do you?" She ground her teeth. "I am not moving in with you."
"Unfortunately, that's not up for debate."
She threw her hands up in frustration and I tried not to notice how the movement caused her oversized tee to stretch across her sexy bust.
I failed.
My heartbeat pulsed in my dick as the image of how they looked without the clothing burned hot in my brain. Gawd, I was forever horny around her.
She, on the other hand, was completely oblivious to my plight. "You're forgetting our agreement." Her voice dropped to a hiss as her eyes darted to the people loitering about. "Nobody can know about us."
"And nobody will know." I snapped with rising annoyance. This stepbrother-stepsister situation was really making things difficult. It was an irritating obstacle, one I itched to get rid of. Cara wouldn't be so uptight if we didn't have the tags sitting between us like the great wall of China. The urge to sabotage my father's marriage filled me and I cursed under my breath.
She turned away from me with a curse of her own before facing me again, all glorious angry beauty. "Luca, people are not dumb. Moving in with you is all they need to put two and two together."
My teeth bared back in a groan. I practically struggled to say the next words. "We're step siblings. There's nothing bizarre."
"To you."
I was done with the conversation. Coming around the car to where she stood, fire for my blood and icicles for veins, I yanked the passenger door open. "Get in and don't you fucking make a fuss about it."
The threat laced in my caustic tone must have gotten to her because she suddenly blanched for a second, only for the fire to return to her gaze the next. But she did what she was told and I was relieved on her behalf. I tried to close the door calmly but I was bursting with furious energy and it closed with a slam instead. If she flinched, that was her problem for getting me worked up.
Cara
If I ever said my step brother's personality was improving, I lied. The man was still as ill-mannered as ever. He had slammed the door after me, gave me a death stare then marched to his side of the car, opened the door in the same brute manner as he'd opened mine and slammed it as well when he slid.
Uncivil might be a better fitting word for his character.
I tried to make him see reason, understand why us living together was the worst idea in the history of ideas but his phone rang and he held up a finger.
"Sergio," he grunted into the phone.
He listened for another minute while I tried to get comfortable in my chair. My stomach was stuffed full with food it felt like I was a six month pregnant woman. I've never eaten this much in my life and it was all Luca's fault. I glanced at him to find his eyes boring into me, intense yet unreadable.
"Is that so," his low timbre responded to whatever Sergio said on the other line. "Let me know if there is any development." He hung up and started the car.
I waited until we'd reversed out of the parking lot and hit the road before speaking up. "So I did my homework and I have a couple of apartments options."
I got no reaction from Luca, not even with an angry look and he doesn't give me one until we stopped at a red light. I refused to meet the glare that burned into the side of my face. The car grew stuffy with the tensed silence and I could taste it on my tongue and feel it on my skin.
A weight melted off my chest when he finally broke the cloying silence. "Some men were caught lurking around your old apartment."
My head shot to him. "What?"
"Unfortunately, they were able to escape." He explained, gripping the steering wheel so had that his knuckles turned white. "We have reasons to suspect that they're bratva soldiers."
I blanched, fear creeping up my spine with it's cold hands.
Luca's stare was intense. "If my decision to have you move in with me wasn't absolute, it is now."
I said nothing, still rendered numb from the news. Some men had been in my home, well former home, but it didn't make it any less frightening. It had been my home up to this morning and if not for Mr Edwards' intrusion, if not for Luca's adamancy, I'd have been there when they came.
The fear wrapped around my lungs and twisted.
"Cara," Luca called, his voice now softer. "You have to understand that this is for your safety. I can't have you living just anywhere now."
I chewed on my bottom lip, the subject of my safety warring with the subject of my reputation. Another would easily pick the former but when one had been through half of what I've been through, they'd realize how much the latter was just as important.
Luca pushed out a frustrated breath. "It's either my place or the mansion."
That got me to react. The mansion? Like where my mother and your father lived?"
A wry smile pulled at his lips. "Yeah, that one."
No fucking way.
The red light was now green and Luca's attention returned to the road.
I'd first jump into a pool of acid before I live with my mother again. I shot Luca a glance, hating that he'd won.
Again.
"Your apartment better be half as cozy as mine." I bit out even though I knew my apartment wasn't up to half a quarter of what his must be. But I was feeling spiteful and didn't give a f u ck. Class distinction be damned.
A low chuckle reverberated through him. "I hope it's to your liking."
I hope it wasn't because leaving it and him when the time was right would be more harder than my weak self will could take.