Page 9 of Disarming Caine

“He’s Kevin’s best friend, Antonio. I told you, he’s like a big—”

“Did you spend all day with him?” I shot off the couch and put a hand on the back to steady myself. He’d been with her when we spoke earlier. And he kissed her. He thought he could steal her from me while I was away. “You willnotsee him again!”

Her head jerked back, lip curling. “As if my day couldn’t get any worse. You didnotjust say that.”

“I did!”

“That’s not your decision, Antonio! He’s been my friend for almost twenty years!”

That was it. That was the last straw. She and I had been apart too long. Damn this contract. I squeezed my eyes shut to regain my center before scanning the crowd for Mario. He was on another couch, speaking with a woman with dark hair. I marched up to him and leaned toward his ear.

“I am leaving! I’m done!”

He grabbed me as I straightened. “What are you talking about?”

I held the phone up to point at him and realized Samantha was still there. The look of defiance remained on her face, but she was not angry enough to hang up on me or give up. That was something, at least.

Looking at her tense face, I bit back on the rage bubbling inside me. “I love you, Samantha. Don’t forget that.”

Before she could give me her absurdGoodresponse, I hung up, and turned back to Mario. “You can tell the Board I’ll be back after New Year's!”

He stood next to me, raising his voice so I could hear him. “You’re not making any sense!”

“I’m flying home for Christmas.”

“You are not.”

“She’s with Nathan Miller—”

“What?”

“They’re at her sister’s house together. He wants her, Mario, I know it. I can’t give him four more months—”

He grabbed my arm, leaning in. “She’d never cheat on you, cugino!”

“What do you know?” I jerked out of his grip, throwing the club into another spin around me. “I didn’t think Faith would, either—”

“You should have listened to me then, too!”

I shoved him away. Five years ago, I’d come home early from a research trip to Napoli to find Faith—my fiancée at the time—in bed with another man. And Mario had warned me about her months before it happened. Samantha would never do that. Would she? Was she capable of doing that to me?

How long would it be until video calls and texts were not enough? Before her bed was too cold and those blue eyes too warm?

“What’s going on here?” Thomas appeared next to me, arm falling around my shoulders. “You two look awfully serious!”

Did I honestly just tell her she couldn’t see Miller again? That would only help him get closer to her. “I’m going home for Christmas.”

Thomas jostled me, smacking my chest. “A holiday break from the taskmaster?”

Running fingers through my hair to clasp my neck, I nodded. “We’ll work tomorrow to shut things down until January.”

Mario laughed. “That will be a rough day. But I’ll take one of those to earn two weeks off!”

I sighed, the memory of Samantha’s raised chin battling with her smiling face and with Nathan Miller’s kiss. “I only hope two weeks is enough.”

Chapter 4

Samantha