Page 114 of Veiled Amor

Blowing out air, Capone rubbed a hand around the back of his neck. It was obvious from the strain in his spine how frustrated he was. “Eight months,” he all-but growled, “you weren’t together.”

“We had no interest in each other, Santiago spent the wedding night with someone else.”

That appeared to bring fury to Capone because his voice darkened, “you were his wife, and he disrespected you that way?”

Lucia couldn’t catch on to what was really angering him. She unfurled her legs and watched him pacing. “What are you angry about, Gi? That you thought I was with him, or I wasn’t?”

“I don’t fucking know,” he snapped in Spanish. “You should have tried harder to tell me.”

“How? You wouldn’t listen when I tried to take the conversation there.”

“Easily. ‘Giancarlo, I wasn’t fucking your brother, it was a sham marriage’, that’s all you had to say. Do you know how much it’s fucked me up to picture him shaking your pussy with orgasms the way I do?”

Pain grabbed her throat, she frowned. “That’s not fair, you know you dictated every single conversation we had. I was scared to lose you if I pushed it.”

“I thought you loved him. I didn’t want to hear it. Couldn’t fucking take it.” Resting both hands on the back of the sofa, he leaned into it, head hanging low. “He was always running around with chicks, never the same one twice. Mama was over the moon when he came home and said he was getting married. She thought it would settle his wildness.” He recounted as Lucia listened. “Andrés said at the wedding that Santiago didn’t look like a man in love.” Capone’s married older brother. His other elder brother, Gael, had also been married, “he was too interested in getting wasted.”

She remembered and didn’t care. That day was long and horrible, and she didn’t want to think about it, because if she did, she’d recall Capone’s watchful gaze on her all day.

“You didn’t look happy.” He stated, raising his eyes to her.

She shrugged. “Happiness isn’t considered an important factor when my father wants something. And he wanted free labor from Santiago.”

Capone lowered his head again, cursed.

“The marriage was fake, Gi, but spending time with your family became everything to me. I loved your parents like they were mine. I didn’t intend to get close to them, I felt awful about lying, but you know how persuasive your mom was. And then I didn’t want to stay away from them. From you.” Those Sunday dinners at the Mercado house became Lucia’s everything, because she knew Giancarlo would walk through the door and make her world a million times better. It was dangerous being in love with her husband’s brother, seeing everything she longed for in another man.

“There’s more to tell you.”

He talked over her like he hadn’t even heard. “You were a shy girl,” he stated quietly, “if you weren’t fucking Santi, was there someone else before me?”

Oh.

Flutters started in her belly, butterflies dancing.

It wasn’t an important detail, but of course, Capone would latch onto something unsaid. Her breath stalled at the intense look he was sending her way.

She squeezed her eyes shut, “you were my first.”

The air became palpable.

Silence crackled.

And then.

“You were a virgin when we fucked? You were a fuckingvirginwhen I took you the way I did, Lucia?”

Her eyes pinged open, surprised at his tone. He was angry with her?

“Did you hear me tell you to stop? That I didn’t want it? Or did you feel my nails scraping into your back because I couldn’t get you close enough? I wanted itall, Giancarlo. Exactly in the way you gave it to me, never misunderstand that again.”

Something like dread swelled in her belly, making it impossibly harder to breathe. Her heart stuttered until she placed a hand on her chest.

“There was no blood…”

“That’s a myth, there isn’t always bleeding the first time.”

“I fucked the virginity out of you and then put a baby in you, Lucia…” he was breathing like a running dragon. As unsure as Lucia felt this conversation was going, she tried to smile, and his frown became deeper. “I remember, I was there, Gi. Now you know how long I’ve loved you for.”