I thought about her nearly every moment of every day.
We’d had one earthshattering night together. One I’d never forget.
But then the intimacy that I thought had been burgeoning between us had come to a screeching halt. After having a dream so upsetting she’d been weeping in her sleep, saying “Daddy, no. Please no,” she chose not to open up to me. Not at all.
In fact, the second I left her alone that morning, she’d scurried from my room as if she couldn’t get out of there fast enough.
It made me comprehend something for the first time.
I was tempting fate.
Her leaving, her not sharing her dream or why she’d been upset, it bothered me. A lot. It meant she didn’t trust me like I’d trusted her. Which meant I cared about her more than I should.
What we’d done had been more than a booty call, more even than a friends-with-benefits romp. What I felt for her was more than carnal desire, more than friendship and more than an appreciation of her becoming an integral part of our business. No, I’d started to fall for her.
And I couldn’t allow that to continue.
The women the Varasso men were in love with were destined for tragedy. We all knew it. Had been exposed to it. I personally had lived through the sheer hell of it. So I did my best to turn off those feelings.
Which had proven to be tremendously difficult. Nearly impossible.
She’d kissed me, so I’d given in to her, thinking it would only be sex. But it wasn’t. I’d made love to her that night. There was no other word for it.
Which meant I’d put her in danger.
She’d seemed to accept it when I stopped pursuing her physically, then when I limited our time together, which was a huge relief. As long as we didn’t pursue this, and as long as she didn’t feel for me what I felt for her, maybe it would be okay. Maybe the curse would continue to pass us by. Pass her by.
I hoped.
Now I just needed to keep my subconscious from dreaming about her every time my head hit the pillow.
“So Queen Molly is out there kicking ass and taking names,” my brother said, pushing his new pair of glasses up his nose and dragging me back to the current moment.
I cleared my throat. “Yes.”
“You don’t sound overly thrilled at the prospect.”
“No, it’s great. She’s doing great. Everything’s going great.”
Alessandro changed position from hovering over his keyboard to slowly sitting back. He leaned in his chair until the front two legs left the floor, then tipped his head down and looked over the frames of his glasses. “So, is it great or is it great?”
“What?”
“You just said the word ‘great’ three specific times. Which means you don’t think it’s great at all.”
Well, fuck my life. Sandro had always been a nosy bastard. “Mind your own business.”
“But see, that’s what I’m doing. This is our family’s business. A business that has never done better. Not under Dad. Not under Grandfather. Not before that. I know because I have access to the records, both in the computer and on paper. These profits are explosively good. And it’s all down to you saving the woman our father wanted to kill. So why do you look so…”
“So what?”
“Honestly? You look like you need to get laid,” he said, wearing a smirk.
The joke was on him, though, because getting laid had been what had swung all this lunacy into motion. “Go back to your inventory,” I ordered pointedly, staring him down. But that ended up being an error on my part.
Alessandro’s expression altered. Became far too knowing. “Oh… I get it. Well, shit.”
“There’s nothing to get.” But my brother wasn’t our tech expert for no reason. He’d always been sharp as a tack, both book smart and streetwise. It amounted to an almost unbeatable combination. Then he spoke again with purposeful intent.