Cara's pov
The dark delight I was feeling died a fast death the moment I walked up to Diana's apartment building and saw a couple men in black lining the entrance, three black cars parked not far off. My muscles tensed up and my first instinct was to turn around and make my escape.
I bumped into a hard chest.
"Easy there, Cinderella." Santino said, catching me when I fell back. He steadied my footing before releasing me. "Trying to make your escape again?"
I put some space between us, my eyes narrowing. "Were you sent to kidnap me?"
"Kidnap is a strong choice of word," he clutched his pearls. "You wound me."
I gave him a dry look that conveyed my skepticism.
He grinned. "Fortunately, no. I'd hate to do it since we're buddies and all."
Funny 'cause I've only met the guy one time and just recently.
I folded my arm, ignoring the deranged pang of hurt that Luca hadn't sent him to get me. "Why else are you here then?"
"You won't believe it," his eyes lit up with a twisted kind of excitement, "but I'm here to make sure you don't run off."
I wrinkled my nose, puzzled.
"Go in, Cinderella." He gestured at the other men, "ignore all of this."
How could I? What game was he playing? What game was Luca playing?
I wanted nothing but to bolt for the hills but Santino was already steering me to the entrance, his pushes gentle yet firm.
"Santino-"
"Santi."
I puffed out a frustrated breath. "SANTI, why the hell are those men outside? Why are you here?"
He didn't need to answer, the answer was leaning legs crossed on the wall.
Excitement, anger, hurt and a throbbing ache hit me all at once.
"What the fuck are you doing here?"
Luca pushed away from the wall, looking unusually different. His jacket was askew, his tie wrinkled, hair a mess and there were dark circles around his eyes. He looked like he hadn't slept since the last time we saw each other. My foolish heart squeezed with concern.
Santino clapped his hands once. "Well, guess my job here is done." He cast Luca a pitying look. "Good luck don, you'd really need it."
He winked at me before disappearing.
Then I turned all my rage at the man who broke my heart. "I asked you why the fuck you're here."
"From your tone I can tell you're still angry. I expected nothing less." He had the audacity to say.
The anger multiplied two folds. "Did you think I was going to beam at the sight of you? Jump into your arms?"
"Bambina-"
"Don't call me that."
"You shouldn't have left. That was a very unwise thing to do."
I immediately went into panic mode. "What, you're here to drag me away?"
He sounded believable when he said, "I'm here to talk."
"What if I don't want to listen to anything you have to say?"
His eyes took on a smoldering look. "You will and after we're done talking, we'll leave together."
I was full on ready to fight or flee. Or maybe do both. Remember you have a gun Cara. Wait, would I be able to shoot Luca if brought with the opportunity? I could if I hated him right?
Did I really hate him?
Luca remained silent as if allowing me to work through my jumbling thoughts and I hated him even more for his keen disposition.
"I'm not going anywhere with you, neither am I going to talk to you. Now leave." I rushed past him, fiddling with my key in the door lock, my hackles roaring at the inaction from Luca's end. Why was he not doing anything? Why do keys fail you when you need them the most?
Why was he silent?
I whirled around to glower at him. "Are you just going to stand there?"
"Do you prefer I kick the door open instead?"
I blinked at the unexpected response, completely thrown off. Unable to come up with one of my own, I went back to unlocking the door. It was when the lock twisted open that the implications of his words finally hit me. "You're not by chance hoping to come in, are you?
His gaze was impenetrable. "Where else are we going to talk then?"
"I told you, I have nothing else to say to you."
He stepped closer, eyes burning intensely. "Well I do, a lot, and I'm not leaving until I've said it all."
I gulped slowly, butterflies bursting into existence in my belly, attempting to flutter away with my frail heart.
"Give me a chance bambina."
My voice was barely the brand of hostility I wanted it to be, "I told you not to call me that."
"It is how I see you." He said in a soft whisper that caressed my ears and tingled my senses.
"I promised not to let anyone in without informing Diana first."
I couldn't believe what I'd just said. I was supposed to be cursing him out and sending him back where he came from, not giving him an opportunity to change my mind.
Was my resolve this weak with him?
Luca stopped me when I tried to escape into the apartment. "Then we'd talk somewhere else."
I sawed on my lips. "Why are you doing this? Why can't you just let me be? You're getting married for goodness sake."
"I'm not."
"You're not? Your father said-"
"My father doesn't make decisions for me, Cara. He hadn't in five years."
"I met Valentina today. She has already decided on the number of her bridesmaids."
Luca exhaled an annoyed breath but didn't seem to be surprised.
"Did you already know that I met her?"
He gave me a look that said he wasn't sure about telling me the truth. "If you really want to know, you'd have to agree to the conversation first."
"Blackmailing me again." I said with a frown.
"If it gets you to speak with me then yes I'd do it a million times over."
"And if I still refuse? You're forgetting how stubborn I can be."
"And you're forgetting how relentless I can be. If you refuse me today, I'd be back tomorrow and if you refuse me again I'd be back the next and I'd keep returning until you agree to hear me out."
I gulped in air. "That's sounds like grounds for a restraining order."
He ignored my smarty talk, boring me with a look that set my soul on fire.
I bit harder on my bottom lip, torn between my anger and the sincerity in his eyes. Then I finally gave in. "Fine, I'd listen to you, then you'd leave because I'm going nowhere with you. I meant it when I said it was over between us."
"We'd see about that."
I sent a nasty stare his way but he just stared at me with an unflinching gaze. I went in to drop Diana's gift and my coat then I quickly wrote a little note.
I followed him out, hesitating for a bit before I got into his waiting car. I was wound up the moment I sat down, half scared that I was throwing my freedom away while insanely aware of how close Luca sat next to me. His strong, spicy scent dominated my senses. When he faced me, the raw intensity in his grey depths reached right into my chest and pulled at my heartstrings, slowly influencing my wariness as well as my anger.
The uncertainty about my wellbeing was seeping away, I couldn't help but feel safe with him sitting so close. Safe yet heavy with want. Want I swore I was halfway through with getting rid of.
With a sinking feeling, I realized that it'd take more than just two days of no contact with Luca to get rid of my constant need for him.
Eyes burning, Luca began, "When I met Valentina ten years ago at my father's birthday party, she was married to her father's consigliere."
Surprise came over my features. The mafia princess had been married?
"If I remember correctly, I'd been drinking when I left the party to answer a phone call and found her with one of my father's enforcers in my mother's garden."
And she cheated too? Fury bubbled within me, the audacity of the bitch to act so superior and condescending when she was the worst of the ilk.
Luca carried on with his story. "I'd wanted to kill the enforcer for daring to touch a Don's daughter and a consigliere's wife but she'd pleaded on his behalf, begging me to say nothing about the incident. I was feeling merciful at that time or maybe it was just the effects of the vodka, but I granted her wish. Not before cutting of the left pinky of the enforcer. It was a light punishment compared to what would have happened to him if I'd told don Cortini what had transpired between them.
She'd tried to seduce me to ensure I kept my word but I pushed her away and left and I didn't see her again until five years later at the funeral of her husband who took a bullet to the head for her father. She showed no hint of sadness and loss, I didn't expect her to, she hadn't loved the man and she didn't even wait until the end of the funeral before she began flirting with me."
Luca's gaze turned guilty and I knew he was about to say something I wasn't going to like.
"We became a thing a few weeks later and I enjoyed the simplicity of our relationship. I assumed she was more mature than the other women I've been with, I expected her not to have the silly notions of love that they had since she was part of my world. A world where duty ruled not love. But I was mistaken. She started demanding more, pestering me to marry her and that's when I left her.
"Our relationship only lasted for a year and her father promised her to someone soon after. There was another attack on the don and he and his family moved to Sicily and remained there for years, delaying the wedding. She was supposed to finally get married around the time my father married your mother but she called off the wedding and returned to Chicago. The first time you saw her was the first time I did in years."
I moistened my lips, not knowing where to begin, there was a lot to say. My befuddled brain ran on a hamster wheel, spinning wildly with questions.
"Say something bambina." Luca prodded softly.
"What about the time you ran to help her?
Luca appeared confused by my unexpected question. "What time was that?"
"I don't know." I fiddled with my fingers in my lap. "I heard something about you saving her from a fight."
Luca's scoff was low. "I didn't save her from anything. She and her intoxicated friends were causing a ruckus at my club so I went there to break them off and send them on their way."
His reply made me light with delight. I peeked at him through my lashes. "What about the diamond necklace?"
"What diamond necklace?"
I sucked in a breath. "The one you got Valentina to cheer her up when her brother died."
I got a frown from him. "I didn't buy it to cheer her up. She'd tagged along one time I went to Tiffany's to get Gina a gift and she'd chosen it for herself, said it was her reward for helping me choose Gina's gift."
"Was there a time where you slept with her during the time we were together?"
"No. I haven't been with anyone but you since we got together."
I bit my lip again, tension spreading through me as my whole body got prepared for what I was about to say next. "As much as it's nice to hear that, I cannot continue being your regular lay. I… I don't want to be that anymore."
Luca took my chin and lifted my eyes to his. The passion shining in them struck me with wonder.
"You've never been my regular lay." He shut his eyes briefly. "God Cara you have no idea. No idea how much you mean to me."
Heart pounding, I whispered. "What are you talking about?"
"It was never just sex, bambina. I know deep down somewhere, you know this. I just don't want your body, I want your thoughts, your time, your smiles, your past, your future and most especially your heart."
I think the organ just stopped working. I began shaking my head, clearly he didn't mean that…
"I mean every word. I want all of you, the good and the bad. I've wanted you since the morning after our drunk sex."
"But you hated me."
"I never did. I was just a fool who couldn't handle the intense emotions you made me feel."
My head was ringing, was Luca Salvatore really admitting he was smitten by me? Was this going somewhere further? Like a love confession? I couldn't stop the leap of hope in my chest.
Don't Cara, hoping meant disappointment and disappointment meant heartbreak. Your heart won't be able to take another.
Luca pulled me closer, weakening me with his powerful aura. "I want to be more than just your lover. I want to be your support, your friend, your partner. I want you to make me yours as you are mine. I'm done trying to pretend that this thing between us it just a sexual relationship because it's not. I need more bambina."
My mind was reeling, here I was sitting in his car but feeling like I'd been thrown off a cliff.
"You said this was supposed to be about sex. Our arrangement…" My words died when I saw the soft smile playing on his lips
"Did I?"
I was breathless. "You deceived me."
Luca kissed my eyebrow. "I had to claim you somehow."
I couldn't believe it, Luca Salvatore wanted to be with me, so much that he even manipulated me into a relationship. This was even more unbelievable than the time I'd won a thousand dollar burrito coupon.
Desperate for some kind of hold on reality, I said, "okay, maybe you're overly infatuated with me but our relationship has always had an expiry date."
His eyes turned smoky. "You think this is infatuation." A humorless laugh. "Since you don't get it, I'd spell it out for you. I'm never going to let you go. You're the only woman for me in this lifetime. I'd die first before I'd let anything happen to you. I can't function when you're not near, I can't fucking breathe properly when you're not near. I fear for your safety all the time. It hurts me to see you cry and not even the pain of getting stabbed multiple times can be compared to the feeling. You've become my single biggest weakness and yet you're the reason I look forward to tomorrow."
His jaw tightened. "Cara, if it isn't any more obvious, what I'm trying to say is that I'm madly and hopelessly in love with you."
My mouth dropped and so did my heart.