“Then what?”
“If Gian comes in here, things will get ugly. You don’t want that, and neither do I. You may think you hate your brother, but I know you, Evie. You don’t want anything bad to happen to Kon, and that’s precisely what will happen if you tell Gian.”
Her hand drummed against her thigh. Time froze. I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs as I waited. Right now, she was my judge, jury, and executioner.
“Okay. Okay,” she finally conceded. “You’re probably right. I’ll cover for you this time, and that’s it. Don’t ask me again.”
“I won’t.”
She scanned the corners of my room. “Get him the hell out of here and tell him not to come back. I don’t want him in my life or yours. He’s toxic. My whole family is toxic. They’ll drag you through Hell before they’re done with you.”
I should have called her out. After all, this was my home and my life. I didn’t, though. I took her moment of reprieve and embraced it. “Thanks, Evie.”
The second she left, I closed and locked the door behind her, and slid down the wall, tears rolling down my cheeks. I’d made such a mess of my life. I didn’t want to marry Nico. I’d been lying to myself, thinking I could merge my life with someone who I didn’t want. Who I didn’t love. And Kon…well, I couldn’t give him up. The thought of kicking him out of my life made my insides twist. Somehow he’d come to represent my freedom and a rebellion from what everyone expected of me, and I wasn’t ready to clip back on the Trassato family leash. The worst part was that I liked Kon. More than liked him.
Kon crouched down in front of me and his hands circled my waist. “Hey, is everything okay?”
“Evie knows you were in here.”
He tipped up my chin, his brow furrowing when he spotted my stupid tears.
“I know. I heard.”
“She saw your keys and wallet on my dresser. She’s not going to say anything.”
“I’m sorry I forgot about them. Are you okay?”
“Yes. You should probably go, though. I’m sure she’ll act weird the entire way home and Gian will weasel the information out of her. We probably only have a half hour grace period here.”
“I’m not leaving.” His lips brushed over mine, and he unknotted my robe.
“Gian—”
“Fuck Gian.” He wrapped my legs around his waist and carried me to the bed, pausing near the edge. “I only care about you and right now you need me. I need you.”
“If he comes back—”
He placed a finger against my lips. “We’ll deal with it.”
He set me on the bed, pushed the robe off my shoulders, and I shivered when the cool air hit my breasts. His eyes burning like blue flames and the light from the television highlighting the sharp angles of his face, he unbuckled his pants. They, along with his boxer briefs, fell to the floor with the clunk of his belt.
In two strides he nudged his hips between my dangling legs. Reaching up, I sifted through the silky strands of his blond hair. A devastatingly sexy smirk split his face and his mouth sealed against mine. Rocco’s kisses made me glow with happiness, yet they didn’t compare to Kon’s. No one kissed like him. His taste was as intoxicating as the grappa my uncle served after Christmas dinner. He seduced me with every brush of his lips and curl of his tongue.
His tattooed hand blanketed my breast, his calloused thumb rubbing over my stiff nipple. I tugged at the roots of his hair, pulling him on top of me, fusing our bodies together, desperate to have more.
The minute his bare chest collided with mine, a shiver zipped down my spine, and I whimpered in relief. His erection slid against me until I was dazed, needy, and oh so greedy. A sweet ache burrowed beneath my chest. We had sex so many times last night I’d lost count, and now I realized I’d never get enough of the way he made me feel.
Of course, somewhere buried deep in my brain and quilted with a dreamlike haze, I wondered if Evie was right and Kon was toxic. A toxic addiction that would destroy me some time not too far in the future. Only unlike Rocco and my father’s death, Kon could deal the final defining blow, one impossible to recover from.
I was a Trassato. He was a Trincher. I should keep my guard raised in anticipation of treachery. In the beginning, we were enemies united in the common goal in finding a path out of the deal we made. Now we were something else, something fuzzy, indistinct, and undefined. More than that, he’d never indicated his intentions toward me had changed. As far as I knew, he still didn’t want to marry me, and on the outside chance he did, it would never happen.