Fire Bound (Sea Haven Sisters)(36)
“This man betrayed your family?” There was no way for Casimir to keep the menace from his voice. Loyalty was bred in him, deep in his bones. He hadn’t seen his brothers more than once or twice in all the years that had gone by since Sorbacov’s men had murdered his parents and the boys had been taken to the schools to train. Never once, in all that time, did he ever think of betraying his brothers. Not once. No matter what happened to him. He would endure whatever he had to in order to ensure their safety, even if that meant never seeing them again.
“Yes, he betrayed us all,” she said, closing her eyes tight.
Casimir wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her body tight against his, needing to shelter her from the pain he heard in her voice. He knew about memories and how one had to lock them away to preserve sanity. “You don’t have to tell me, golubushka.” He bent his head to hers and brushed kisses along her temple.
“I do. You have to understand why I wanted to find him even more than I wanted to get to Aldo Porcelli.”
“What exactly happened between your family and the Porcelli family?” He continued to soothe her with caresses along her hip. He knew it would be difficult for her to open up and share the information with anyone, after keeping silent for so many years.
“I was a child, but I remember a man coming on to my mother, trying to insist she go home with him. We were at a friend’s house, and he came in with a lot of other men. I wasn’t paying much attention until the room went really quiet. I could tell my mother was upset. She wanted to go and this man kept grabbing her arm and stopping her. No one said anything to him, not even when she told him he was hurting her. We left fast. She told my father, and right away, he told her to pack, that we had to leave immediately.”
“It was Aldo Porcelli, not the acting boss, that made the pass at your mother? Because Aldo only recently came into power. His father died of a heart attack two years ago, and he stepped into his father’s shoes.”
“I was the heart attack,” Lissa said quietly.
“What about your uncle? Why didn’t he take out the Porcelli family in addition to the dog handler? Why put that on your shoulders?”
6
Lissa took a deep breath. She was uncomfortable discussing her family’s history while lying naked in a bed with a man she’d just allowed to do all sorts of things to her. “If we’re going to have this conversation, I need to get cleaned up.”
“Your uncle very politely included a Jacuzzi in the bathroom. We can run hot water and soak with the jets on,” he offered, sliding out of the bed immediately and extending his hand to her.
She took it reluctantly, felt his fingers close around hers and instantly felt safe. He seemed to be able to do that to her. Whenever she had conflicting emotions, if his hand was on her, she seemed to feel much calmer. She let him pull her from the bed and onto her feet. It wasn’t as if she had tons of experience standing naked in front of men, but again, with his fingers tight around hers, she didn’t feel as strange as she thought she might.
“It’s essential my uncle doesn’t know or even think that we’re in a relationship of any kind, even if it’s just having sex.”
He stopped so fast that she bumped into him and he had to steady her. “Giacinta, I’ve had a lifetime of just sex, and what we did wasn’t that.”
She winced a little at the low, fierce note in his voice.
His fingers caught her chin in a firm grip, forcing her to meet his eyes. “I gave myself to you. The real me. I wanted to be gentle and tender and give you what you deserved, but with you, I lost control and that fire inside me I have to keep hidden at all times got loose. That doesn’t mean what we did didn’t mean anything.”
“I know,” she agreed instantly, giving him that. “I feel a little awkward, Casimir, because I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”
He bent his head and skimmed his lips over hers. The light touch sent heat curling in the pit of her stomach and made her heart flutter. When he lifted his head, it was only a scant inch or two, leaving his silver eyes to pierce right through her, seeing too much. Seeing how vulnerable she felt.
“I just wanted to get that straight with you, Lissa. We’re in this together.”
She nodded her head, still very uneasy. She didn’t know how to make him understand. He took them through to the bathroom and immediately turned on the dual faucets to fill the Jacuzzi. She wrapped her arms around herself, grateful he didn’t turn on the overhead light. He snapped on a single nightlight that was plugged into the electrical outlet at the other end of the room.