“I’m not afraid of a little danger.”
“No, you certainly are not. But I’m pretty sure Luc will say no.”
“Let me deal with Luc. He feels so bad about last night, it’s the perfect time to hit him up with something I want.”
She laughed and tapped her glass against mine. “Okay then. To being partners.”
I smiled, finally feeling like I was pulling my own weight in this crazy twisted world. “To being partners.”
“No way. Absolutely not,” Luc said hours later as we sat outside on the patio under the string lights, listening to the crickets in the fading light of early evening.
“Why not?” I turned toward him on the double chaise and stared at him.
We’d had a nice dinner on the patio, just the two of us, and talked about Luc’s new position as president of the Salvatici Wineries—a position I’d been relieved by because it was a normal job. But ever since we’d moved to the chaise and I’d brought up the topic of working with Felicity, he’d been a bear.
“Because you think it’s dangerous?” I asked.
“Absolutely because I think it’s dangerous. Because it is.”
“Marco doesn’t have a problem with Felicity doing it.”
He snorted and reached for his wine from the table at his side. “Marco’s a basketcase every time she leaves on one of her damn relocation trips.”
“I wouldn’t be going with her, Luc, just helping her at the safe houses when she’s treating the girls before they’re transported.”
“Helping them how? You’re not a doctor or even a nurse.”
“Reassuring them, being a calming presence for them. The same things I did for Dante and you, even though you didn’t want me anywhere near you.”
He frowned at me as he swallowed his wine. “I did want you near me. That was the problem.” He set his glass back on the table at his side with a scowl. “And no way am I letting you go comfort someone the way you comforted me.”
I smiled, loving that possessive streak.
Throwing a leg over him, I straddled his waist and pressed my hands to the back of the chaise as I looked down at him. “Do you really think I would comfort someone the way I comforted you?”
His hands landed against my hips, and the bracelet I loved to see on his wrist slipped down against the cuff of his dress sleeve. “I hope not. Especially since you’ll be comforting mostly women.”
My smile widened. “Does that mean that’s a yes?”
He frowned up at me. “Are you going to listen to me if I say no?”
I shook my head.
“Merda. If anything happens to you, I’m going to kill Felicity. Then Marco.”
I laughed and kissed him.
“I’m not kidding. It’ll be bloody,” he said against my lips. “I’ll probably go to jail. Get the death penalty.”
“Do they have that in Italy?”
“In my House, they sure as hell do.”
I laughed as he pulled me down and rolled me over, then gently bit my throat.
He drew back and looked down at me, his expression sobering. “I’m serious, though. It worries me. If something were to happen—”
“It won’t.” I brushed my hand across the soft stubble on his jaw.
“You don’t know that.”
I looked up into his silvery eyes. “Everything we do is dangerous, Luc. You said so yourself. I can sit here and grow bitter about that, waste away until I’m a shadow of the woman you married, or I can do something to make a difference. Like you’re making a difference.”
“I’m running a winery. I’m not changing my House.”
“No, but you will. And this is your first step toward making those changes.”
He sighed and pressed his cheek against my chest, right over my heart. “I never wanted to be the one to bring change to this House.”
“I know that.” I sifted my fingers through his hair and looked up at the twinkle lights in the pergola and wisteria above us. But he would. We both knew he would, because it was the right thing to do. And as much as Luc claimed he wasn’t a hero, he was one. A reluctant one I loved more with every passing day.
He was silent for several minutes, then said, “If we’re really staying here for the time being, we should probably talk about where we want to live.”
My fingers stilled in his hair.
“I have plenty of money,” he went on. “We could go estate shopping if you want. Or...”
“Or?”
“Or Marco offered to let us stay here in the guest villa as long as we want. I know it isn’t very big, but—”
“I want to stay here.”
He lifted his head and met my gaze. “You do?”
I nodded. “I love this villa. It’s kind of a second home at this point.”
“Second?”
“After your island.”
His eyes softened. “I thought you hated my island.”
I brushed the hair back from his temples. “I only pretended to hate it to cause you trouble.”
He pressed his fingers against my ribs, making me laugh and twist beneath him. “You are trouble, angioletto. My trouble.”
Sighing, he laid his head back on my chest and slid his arm around my waist, holding me tight. “For what it’s worth, vita mia, if it were up to me, we’d build boats together in Tahiti and raise half a dozen babies on our island.”
I smiled at the picture he painted—me, the girl who was deathly afraid of water, building boats—then sobered. My heart pinched as I thought of all those babies we were never going to have.
I blinked back the burn behind my eyes, determined not to be sad about one more thing we’d lost. “Babies turn into obnoxious teenagers. I should know. I was terribly mouthy at sixteen.”
“I don’t believe it.” He pushed up on one arm and looked down at me.
“It’s true. My mother and I used to get in horrendous screaming matches. She threatened to wash my dirty mouth with soap multiple times.”
A mischievous smile curled his lips. “I like your dirty mouth.” He leaned down and kissed me. “I like it a lot. In fact, why don’t you show me just how filthy that mouth can be right this very second?”
I laughed as he deepened the kiss, relieved that my Luc really was back.
This might not be the life either of us wanted, but we had each other. And that was all we ever needed.
I just prayed Giovanni left us alone to live it.
“It has to be delivered directly to Signore Polermo,” Felicity said several days later as she handed me the manila envelope with a nervous expression. “As in, placed in his hand and no one else’s.”
“I got it. Stop stressing.”
“You’ll need to cover your tracks. Wander around the market for a while first in case anyone’s following you. You remember where to meet him, right?”
“Yes.” We’d already been over this a dozen times. “I can handle this, Fee. Trust me.”
She didn’t look so sure. I was acting as a courier between her and a contact in Florence. She’d been hesitant to give me the assignment, but she had a transport later today and couldn’t make the drop herself. When I’d offered to do it, she’d been wary, until I’d convinced her I was the perfect person for the job. No one would ever suspect the American wife of the recently returned Salvatici heir would be involved in something shady.