Page 70 of My Solemn Vow

There’s a fleeting few seconds of awkward silence, but then Valor leaves me to my own devices.

Guess I am the Mafia wife, married off and left alone. Could be worse.

Drumming my fingers on the countertop, I pick up my phone, where I had been plugging ingredients into a search engine to look for a new recipe.

I hesitate over her name.Leticia D’Medici.It’s so formal written out like that. But it’s not my phone. Not really. I’m guessing Royal put it together and organized it, so it made sense to him. The apps are sorted alphabetically with a little folder separating the ‘Tools’ — the weird apps and things that are preloaded on the device that I don’t know anyone ever uses — and tucked away out of sight.

Antonella:

Hey, it’s Toni. Are you still alive?

I send her a picture of my hand in a half-heart shape, so she knows it’s me. Just another one of our childhood symbols.

A split second later, I get her hand in the other half of the heart followed by a flurry of messages.

Leticia:

OH MY GAWD. YOU’RE STILL ALIVE?!

I miss you so much. Ugh. It’s been so weird without hearing from you.

Tell me what you can without getting killed.

I love you so much.

33

VALOR

LITTLE BOXES

“The boxes of your stuff are on their way up the driveway,” I tell Antonella as I come into the kitchen.

The morning spent on the patio, doing paperwork for the pack’s hunting registrations, calling Doyle in Ireland, and calling the vendor my mother has been struggling to track down for the winter festival is squandered time I could have spent with my girls...My girls, that stupid fuckin’ thought again...But when Kerrianne pulled out the puppy dog eyes and imitation of a tail wag, asking to go to the robotics convention, how could I say no?

I confirmed that Royal did line up a full six-man team of guards. It might be overkill at a convention of a bunch of nerds, but after Sean, I’m not risking it.

“Oh, that’s great.” Antonella gives me a smile, looking up from the dough she’s been kneading. I knew she wanted to cook dinner for us today, but fresh bread was unexpected. “This’ll have time to rise then.”

I’m mesmerized, stopped dead, as I watch her. Her movements are so graceful around the kitchen. She places the dough in a bowl with a dishcloth covering it before moving it to thestovetop. The apron tied around her is sexy, cinched in around her waist. I wonder if she’d wear just that apron and only that apron for me on days we’re alone like this. I push that from my mind. She hasn’t shown any signs that she’s interested in a physical relationship.

Antonella washes her hands, pulls off the apron, and then walks toward me.

Ours.My wolf is locked onto her.So fucking ours.

The sway of her hips has me feeling like a teenager, wanting to enjoy her in any sort of way she’ll allow. It’s unusual. It’s not who I am. Yet, I act cautiously, testing the waters by wrapping an arm behind her and resting it on her waist as I turn us toward the front door, where her boxes will arrive.

Antonella follows my lead, fitting in against my side as we head toward the front of the house. I open the door as the cargo van Neil took over to the D’Medicis’ comes to a stop.

We opted to send Neil to pick up Antonella’s stuff because he brings authority without directly risking the path to the head of the family or line of succession.

Dad and Gregorio will start taking meetings together and try to strengthen the bonds with the families, but there’s still a freshness in the animosity. The discussion of me going was quickly thwarted when I mentioned, offhand, that it would give me an opportunity to poison Berto.

Neil tips his hat in a mockery of being formal. “Top of the morning to ya.”

I laugh, keeping Antonella tucked into my side. “That’d probably be more realistic if you had an Irish accent and not a midwestern one.”

Antonella bites her lips together, but her shoulders quiver as she holds back a laugh.