Page 51 of A Touch of Fate

I rolled my eyes. Danilo and Samuel were like cats and dogs. Samuel pressed his lips against mine. “Especially when you disrespect me like this, I want to kiss some sense into you.”

I gave him a doubtful look, though I had to admit that his kisses definitely wreaked havoc on my senses.

He deepened the kiss, his tongue demanding as it teased me.

I knew someone could come out at any moment, but I simply couldn’t find the strength to end our kiss.

Samuel tasted of the red wine that he’d drunk, tart with a hint of berries.

Soon, my skin was flushed, and my lap felt hot.

Samuel got down on his knees and pressed his face in my lap with a groan.

“I want nothing more than to eat you right here.”

I tugged at his hair. The pressure of his face against where I ached for him and the additional heat almost drove me insane.

But we couldn’t do anything in his parents’ house.

That would be uncouth, as Samuel would put it.

Samuel looked up, and I knew we’d be in trouble.

“Don’t,” I whispered, but it sounded half-hearted.

Samuel raised his brows. “Don’t what?” His low voice sent a shiver down my back. He reached one hand under my dress, stroking along the lacy top of my stockings before he pushed two fingers into my panties, finding me damp.

His eyes challenged me. “Don’t what?”

The alcohol had definitely lowered his inhibitions. I wished I had the same excuse, but my body simply ached for his touch.

Steps sounded. My eyes widened in anxiety. Samuel quickly extracted his fingers from under my skirt, pushed them into his mouth to lick them clean, and straightened just when Ines appeared behind the window and raised four thick photo albums with a delighted expression on her face.

I quickly excused myself to the bathroom to freshen up before I returned to the living room. Danilo, Samuel, and Pietro were already tasting some expensive port.

Samuel’s eyes locked on mine, and a new wave of heat rushed through my body. I tore my gaze away as I moved toward Sofia and Ines, who sat at the coffee table with one of the photo albums open in front of them.

The men quickly excused themselves to Pietro’s office, obviously not in the mood to take a stroll down memory lane. It was quite late when Samuel decided it was time to head home, and that was when the atmosphere became uncomfortable.

“Can one of your men drive Sofia and me to our hotel?” Danilo asked Pietro. “I don’t drink and drive since Emma’s accident.”

Pietro nodded. “That seems wise.”

Danilo sent Samuel a hard look. “What about you? I’m sure your father can also spare another man to drive you home.”

Samuel narrowed his eyes at my brother.

“You could spend the night here,” Ines said with a disarming smile at Samuel. “Then we could spend Christmas morning together.”

We were invited for lunch anyway. “That sounds wonderful,” I said quickly.

I didn’t want to stab Samuel in the back by expressing my unease of having him drive us home in his state.

He didn’t have any outward signs of being drunk, but I doubted the men had held back while they chatted in Pietro’s office.

Samuel was confident in his abilities, but I didn’t want to tempt fate, not after my accident.

“Your present is at our house,” Samuel said.

“We can exchange presents later. I don’t mind.”

Samuel looked into my eyes for a while, then gave a terse nod. “Why not?”

Danilo gave me a small nod, obviously pleased with the outcome. I sent him a warning look. A comment from him might provoke Samuel again.

When Samuel and I lay in bed a short while later in the dark, he murmured, “You trust your brother’s judgment more than mine.”

I tensed. He was pressed up behind my back, and in the dark, I wouldn’t have had a chance to make out his expression anyway. “I trust you,” I said. “But I don’t trust the alcohol, especially not when it comes to driving. A drunk driver almost killed me, Samuel.”

“I know,” Samuel rumbled, then pressed a kiss to my neck. “That’s why I agreed to spend the night here.”

When I entered the ballet studio in my tutu, I immediately relaxed despite my previous tension.

Samuel and I had had an argument in the morning because I’d found him in his office again.

He had fallen asleep at his desk with a half-empty bottle of liquor beside him.

For the first couple of weeks after Christmas, it had seemed like he was drinking much less, but maybe he’d simply gotten better at hiding it from me.

The thought worried me tremendously. I touched the gold necklace of an origami crane that Samuel had given me for Christmas and took a deep breath.

Dancing had become my new reprieve. In the past, it had been a source of pressure and anxiety for me, so I’d never missed it as much as I thought I would, but now freed of expectations, I had rediscovered my love for ballet.

Our dance teacher and Albert were already there and caught up in a conversation.

Leo sank down on the bench in the hallway, right in front of the door to the studio as he’d done the last few times.

By now, everyone had grown used to him being there, and I didn’t feel like an alien among them anymore.

Albert smiled when he spotted me and waved me over to him and Natalya. “Natalya and I think we should try a lifting figure today. You are a natural, and it would be amazing.”

My eyes grew wide with surprise. In the past, lifts had always been my favorite, giving me a sense of freedom.

“What do you think?” Natalya asked, pushing one hand into her waist, her fingers tapping against her belly.

Usually, I would have said no. A lift always meant more closeness than other dance figures, and I had a feeling Samuel wouldn’t like that, considering his jealous reactions before.

For a Made Man, jealousy was a matter of outward appearances and showing their dominance, not love.

But Albert was so obviously not interested in me and women in general that I doubted even the most possessive man would find fault in a lifting figure. “Uhhh. We could try.”

“Wonderful!” Albert touched my shoulder, looking giddy like a child.

I stifled a smile at his excitement. It was obvious that ballet was his absolute passion.

The other dancers filed in, greeting me with honest smiles.

I was so glad that I had found a place among them despite my notorious background.

Natalya clapped her hands. “Time to begin. Today, we’re working on a few new moves.”

After a warm-up, Natalya explained to everyone what she expected of them. I was nervous about our lift as it required me to push halfway out of my wheelchair in a fluid motion so Albert could pick me up, then raise me and twirl me around.

The first take went completely wrong. I pushed up too quickly, and Albert couldn’t grab my waist properly, so I plopped back into the wheelchair with enough force to make it shake violently.

Leo rose from the bench, but I quickly shook my head. Even if I fell, that was part of the process. I didn’t want him to intervene and remind my fellow dancers of my otherness.

“I’m sorry,” Albert spluttered, his face turning red under my bodyguard’s foreboding scrutiny. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

In the mafia world, I was different because of my wheelchair.

Here, among fellow dancers with disabilities, I was different because of my background.

I simply wanted to belong. Danilo had made me feel that way in the past, and on occasion, when I managed to break through Samuel’s cold shield, especially when we were intimate, he made me feel that way too.

But now that he was building another barrier between us because he wanted to hide his alcohol consumption from me, I feared growing closer emotionally was a fight against windmills.

“Ready to try again?” Natalya asked.

I nodded. The timing was better this time, and Albert lifted me out of my wheelchair.

I raised my arms over my head and tried to tense my legs as much as I could so my feet were pointy.

Most lifting figures required tension in your legs and feet, so we had to modify them to work with my body’s abilities.

Albert, too, couldn’t keep me up as long because of his stiff leg.

I grinned when Albert put me down in my wheelchair again. We tried the figure a few more times before we were confident enough to add it to our dance routine.

After our first completed routine, I couldn’t stop smiling, even as I felt out of breath. My body had to grow used to this level of exertion again, but I could already tell it was improving my overall posture.

“Oh,” Albert gasped at the same time as a hush fell over my fellow dancers. I followed their gazes toward the door, and my eyes grew wide in surprise. Samuel stood in the doorway.

“Dammit. I’ve never been into bad boys, but your husband could change my mind,” Albert whispered under his breath.

I couldn’t stop the laugh from bursting out of me.

Samuel’s intent, cool gaze slid from Albert to me. Albert sobered and quickly excused himself, putting some distance between us.

Natalya touched my shoulder. “I suppose you have to leave now.”

I nodded. I hadn’t known that Samuel would pick me up, but I could tell he wanted me to come with him.

“I hope to one day find someone who looks at me the way he looked at you while you danced,” Natalya said. “That kind of adoration is rare.”

I frowned. I wasn’t sure what she saw, but knowing Samuel, I simply couldn’t believe he’d allowed himself to feel that kind of emotion in public.

I moved over to him. “I didn’t know you were coming,” I said with a small smile.

“I should have come sooner,” he said simply, his gaze moving to Albert once more.

“He’s gay, okay? And he’s very nice,” I said quickly.

Samuel gave me a small smile. “I know he’s gay. I had my men do a background check on everyone.”