Chapter 13

FREYA

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was that I had fallen asleep. After all the protesting I’d done, insisting to Bruzzatore that I wasn’t going to fall asleep, I had. The second thing I noticed was that I was still wrapped around him. He was running his hand up and down my back in a soothing manner.

Slowly, I remembered Bruzzatore pressing himself against me before I went to sleep. But the calm and gentle way he was currently brushing my head didn’t seem like that monster.

“Luca?”

He kissed my head. “Yeah, ~bella mia~, it’s me.”

I noticed that I was holding on to his body like a koala to a tree.

I quickly untangled myself from him and sat up a little, feeling my face heat up.

I looked at him. ~Did I dream the whole thing?~

“You’re you again?”

He smiled a bit.

“Yeah. After you fell asleep, Bruzzatore gave me back control.”

“I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” I muttered, angry that I had lost yet another battle with Luca.

He tucked a piece of hair behind my ear.

“I know you didn’t. You were being stubborn. But thank goodness you did because Bruzzatore would not give me back control until you fell asleep. He cares about you even more than me, in his own strange way.

Suddenly, I realized that Luca’s abs pressing against me were bare, his skin was pressing right against my blouse. It seemed he had stripped in the night.

“Luca, if I look down will you be wearing pants?” I asked, my heart pounding.

He smiled widely. “Curious about that, are you? Why don’t you check, ~il mio amore~?”

I gaped at him. “Ew, no!” I grabbed a pillow and shoved it in his face. “You’re disgusting!”

He laughed loudly and lifted the sheet from his body. I was afraid to look, but was thankful when I saw boxers covering him.

“Someday you won’t feel that way,” he said. “Someday you’ll be looking all you want. In fact, you’ll be doing a lot more than just looking.” He smirked.

My mouth fell open in shock at his words.

“Ugh, you’re so gross!” I yelled. “Is that all you can think about? Sex?”

He ran a hand through his hair and shrugged, still smiling widely. God, he was beautiful.

“Yeah, basically. If we were a normal couple, we would’ve had sex multiple times by now.”

That took me aback. “If we were a normal couple? A normal couple?” I asked angrily. “We’re not a couple at all! You forced this on me! I don’t even want to be here!”

He sighed and sat up. He brought a hand up and cupped my cheek, running his thumb over my cheekbone.

“I’m sorry, Freya. I know how confused and overwhelmed you must be. I promise this wasn’t how it was supposed to go. God, if they hadn’t tried to hide you from me, this whole mess could have been avoided.”

“They? What? Why would that have made any difference?”

“I could have courted you the proper way, completed the bonding, and marked you as a Conti when you were ready. “But then you were lost and we just stumbled on each other on the plane. You’re not part of a family anymore, at least not formally. You’re so, so vulnerable, and I could see that you had gone through so much. I had to protect you. I guess I could have just let you go once the plane landed.

“But I knew you needed to be near me. Once I’d claimed you as part of the family, there’s no telling who might come after you if you struck out on your own.”

He looked truly and genuinely apologetic, and for that I was grateful. But it didn’t make it okay.

“I need answers,” I said. “I’ve never been so confused in my life.”

He nodded. “I know. Ask away. I will tell you anything.”

I let my shoulders sag in relief. It surprised me he was being so compliant.

“Um…” ~Where do I even begin?~

As I sat beside him, I felt his hand on my leg, starting to rub up and down.

My body relaxed a bit. I leaned toward him. His other hand went to my waist and squeezed.

Our bodies were gravitating toward each other, becoming closer and closer by the second.

“No!” I suddenly snapped out of it. I pushed his hands away from me. “No, you can’t touch me. I can’t think when you touch me.”

I grabbed one of the pillows and put it between us, then placed more pillows atop and around it.

“What are you doing?” Luca asked.

“This is my side of the bed,” I said, pointing to where I was sitting. Then I pointed at Luca’s side.

“That is your side of the bed. You stay on your side, I’ll stay on my side. Then I think I’ll be able to get through this.”

“You think a pillow barrier will keep me from you?”

I shook my head.

“Well, if your touch didn’t turn me into a pool of melted goo, then we wouldn’t have this problem!” I yelled. When I saw him trying to contain his laughter, I sighed.

“Just please stay on your side, okay?”

He raised his hands in surrender. “Whatever you say.”

“Okay,” I said. “Okay, so what do you mean when you say family?”.

“What I mean,” he said with a smirk, “is that I’m in the mafia.”