“Twenty fucking questions.” He sighed. Then he dipped down and took my nipple in his mouth, and as his tongue did really magical things to me, I pushed against him. My lower stomach contracted, and immediately, the ache between my legs started to make me feel sensitive all over. He bit me, hard, and I pulled his hair. He released me suddenly. “Ask.”
“What?” I panted. “Now?”
He chuckled and told me to stop pouting. “You wanted to do this. Play this ridiculous game of info hunting.”
“I do.” I lifted up, resting on my elbow, facing him. My nipples tingled, craving the friction against his chest, but I soldiered on. “Have you ever been in love?”
“No. Next.”
“Wait. Wait.” I held a hand up. “That’s it? No?”
He narrowed his eyes at me. “That question deserves no more than a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer.”
I waved a hand, dismissing his clipped tone. “What’s your favorite color?”
“Gold.”
My questions continued in this vein for a while. I kept the questions basic, because after the first one, I knew he’d say that I tripped some invisible line and use it to get to my question. I was saving the burning questions for last.
After I ran out of the basic ones, I asked, “Is your dad a bad man?”
I had seen pictures of his mother, was told stories of her, but no one had ever mentioned his father. It was like he was a hot subject that no one wanted to touch. I tried to bring him up with the sisters, but they refused to gossip about him, claiming that he was rotten, and that was all I needed to know.
He became quiet. “He’s not a bad man. He’s a bad soul.”
The intensity in his eyes made me turn mine away. I looked at the sheet, picking at nothing. “Is that why you’re so close to the Faustis? They treat you like family?”
What Keely had said to me before the wedding, about how lonely people find criminal crowds to get close to, came back to me. Was that what had happened to him? Was his father missing from his life? Abusive? So he ran to the Scarpone family? Then to the Faustis when that didn’t work out—when he refused to let them kill me?
From what I had learned about the Faustis, their word was as good as their blood, and if they took you into their fold, you were there for life, as long as you didn’t double cross them. They seemed exceptionally close to Capo.
Of course, Uncle Tito shared blood with Capo, and Uncle Tito was married to Lola Fausti, so there was a connection. But it seemed stronger than that. They were loyal to him. Just as loyal as he was to them.
It seemed…a little overkill to me, though. Why go looking for that kind of family, swearing fealty to them, when you had an amazing one, a real one, right at your fingertips?
“Use all of your words, Mariposa, since they cost so little.”
I breathed in and then out. “Do you…do illegal things for the Faustis?”
“Yes.” The word was clear-cut, but far from simple. “I have and I do. The Faustis were there for me during a really hard time in my life. They didn’t have to help me, but they did. I call the people on this land my family because I share blood with them, and they’ve never been anything but good to me and mine. Including you. The Faustis are my family because when I was in the trenches bleeding out, they sat beside the angel and promised me that vengeance would one day be mine.”
“You’d kill for them.”
“I have.”
I swallowed hard. “Do they…protect you?”
“They keep an eye out, but for the most part, I make my own way. I asked one thing of them, Mariposa. That they give me time—that means a few different things. They keep an eye out. They tell me when someone that’s not supposed to come close does from time to time. I needed to secure time to set things in motion, and that’s what they’ve done for me. But when the time comes to collect dues, it’ll be my enemies and me. No one else.”
“I really don’t understand.” His words made me nervous. I knew he was into bad dealings from the moment I saw him outside of the restaurant. Each time I was near him, something around him alerted me to the fact that he was powerful, in control, and there were people who wanted to test those hard lines.
He had never hidden anything from me, but I knew there was more. The heart, as he had called it during the meeting, and all of the veins that led to it. When was he going to share them? My life was on the line. So was his. And that made me nervous. More than it should have. The thought of never seeing him again did wicked things to my thoughts and feelings.
Keely and her brothers, the Faustis, all of Capo’s family, they all felt like veins in my body. Capo. He felt like my heart.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Where did that come from?
“You will,” he said. “In time.”
I couldn’t understand the look on his face. Either he had gone deep enough to see the thoughts I’d just had, or he was close to discovering them. Even though it wasn’t love, it had to do with matters of the heart. He couldn’t find out, or he might terminate the deal on grounds that love, or anything close to it, was never supposed to be a part of our deal.
“Time to pay up.” He squeezed my thigh, bringing my attention back to him.
My eyes found his. I’d been staring at the tattoo on his hand. “If words have a price, take my money,” I barely got out.
“Have you ever liked a boy?”
“You mean like a crush?”
“Whatever you kids call it these days.”
Despite my sudden fear, I smiled to hide my earlier thoughts and the feelings they left behind. “No.” Lie.
“Have you ever been in love, Mariposa?”
I squeezed the sheets, and then pulled the covers up to hide my breasts, or maybe my heart. “That’s two questions.”
He shrugged. “Since your words cost niente, I might as well go for broke, since they cost me so much. Tell me if you’ve ever been in love.”
“Love wasn’t created for girls like me.” Avoiding a lie.
He was right. Words were not free, and mine had cost me il tutto. Everything. I had never been so broke in my entire life.
The breath whooshed out of me when Capo suddenly flipped me on my back, his body hovering over mine. When I’d thought of him as a wave sweeping me out to his ocean? Yeah, I’d hit the mark. Half of the time, he could steal my breath without even touching me. Luckily, he hadn’t slammed into a metaphorical rock yet.
“Game over, Mariposa.” His eyes were intense on mine. After a few heartbeats, he said, “You trust me.”
That took me for a wild turn. “What? Are you in my head now, Capo?” His chest barely touched my breasts, and a soft, whimpering sound came from my mouth.
“More than words, Mariposa,” he said. “Learn what it means to speak to me without words.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant, exactly, but my head was getting too clouded by him to figure it out. I looked at my wrist pinned in his grip. “I do. Trust you.”
“You do. I had my hand over your mouth earlier and you didn't even notice.”
Shit. I hadn't.
“You trust me,” he said again.
Something told me his statement had nothing to do with my feelings, but something more...sexual. I was thankful for the turn. Maybe he wouldn’t see how broke my words had made me while he was busy with other…things.