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“Good idea,” Al called. “Don’t want to die of an infection.”

I lunged to yell at Al, but Sandro hauled me from the room. Hand firm on my biceps, he led me up the stairs, after which he dragged me into his bedroom and shut the door. Then he backed me against it, pressing his body to mine.

I was breathing hard, mostly from matching Sandro’s strides, but my heart almost skipped out of my chest when he lowered his face close to mine.

His eyes were dark and furious.

Before he could say anything, I burst out, “I don’t have control over everything, but I will not have women spoken to that way in my presence.”

“Got it.”

“Then why did we leave the study?”

“Al’s got a smart mouth that’s going to get him killed. You don’t want me shooting Al for insulting you.”

I stilled. I didn’t want someone dying for simply insulting me. “The answer is removing me from the scene? How about talking to them about respecting women not only in the family,but in general? Don’t think just because the Scavo brothers are friends now of the De Luccis, I haven’t forgotten that he almost hit Ivy. If hitting women is an accepted practice of the Rossis, that isnotokay with me. I understand the business of protection money, but if I’m going to be identified as a Rossi whether it’s temporary or not, then I’m not going to stand for that.”

“Got it.”

But the tension that was thick between us didn’t seem to have anything to do with Al. “Anything else?” My voice had fallen into a whisper.

His eyes were no longer angry, but no less intense, with an unnamed emotion that sent my senses skittering into overdrive.

It was heat. It was yearning. A yearning similar to mine until the last few days obliterated that emotion and left me with conflicted pieces.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” I gnashed my teeth. I was determined not to fall for Sandro’s magnetic pull. I refused…refusedto drown in my obsession with him again.

I lost his eyes when he dropped his forehead to mine. I held my breath in suspense on what he was going to do next.

“This was a fucked-up day and I hated seeing you in the bloody aftermath of family business.” He exhaled a ragged breath that sounded like surrender. “But a selfish part of me loved coming home to you.”

Oh my God. And damn him!

“Sandro…” Why did he have to say the sweetest things at the worst time? Why? Why? Why couldn’t he have said this years ago when I threw myself at him?

A groan rumbled deep in his chest before his mouth claimed mine.

Sandro

My control snapped.

I was tired of fighting it. I kissed Bianca with all the pent-up hunger I had kept in check for the past four years. My body trapped hers against the wall, and I could feel the pounding of her heart. Our tongues dueled and my fingers dug into her ass to bring her level, keeping her pinned.

When Bianca showed up in the study in the middle of blood and Rossi soldiers, I battled between my belief that she didn’t belong in my world and the overwhelming urge to keep her at my side.

I wanted her to belong.

I needed her to be mine.

Mine. Only mine.

Her body stiffened and her detachment from me wasn’t physical until in a split second it was. She yanked at my hair with one hand to break the kiss, while she pushed at my chest with the other.

I lost her mouth, and when I tried to capture it again, she twisted her head away.

I persisted, cupping her jaw to bring her lips back to mine, but the angry tears in her eyes stopped me from kissing her. “What?”

“You have to ask? We’re temporary. You’re going to disappear, remember? So why start something that will make it hard for us to leave each other?”