Page 14

C ontessa

I lay back on the lounger, my heart beating through the wall of my chest. Adrenaline is raging through my veins, through my bones. I can’t believe I just spoke to Bernadi that way. I can’t believe I just stripped off my bikini top in front of him. If Cristiano saw me doing that he’d probably banish me from the house. I’d be branded a slut, especially when everyone discovers I’m not the virgin they all assume I am.

After five years of being helicopter-parented, told I can’t do this, can’t do that, and being chaperoned everywhere, I’ve grown somewhat allergic to being told what to do. Sure, I apply some flexibility to Papa and Allegra, but not my sisters anymore, nor my tutors to a reasonable extent, and certainly not consiglieres to mafia bosses who seem to think they own me. And even though a week has passed, the humiliation of Fed’s rejection still burns, and seeing as he’s not here for me to direct all my shame-filled fury at, Bernadi is going to be on the receiving end instead.

The sun to my right is suddenly blocked out and I look up just as a fluffy towel and my Cartier watch is dropped onto my stomach.

Bernadi is standing over me, fists curled, face like thunder.

“What’s your problem?” he growls.

My heart thumps at the base of my throat. I thought I’d had the last word, or at least shocked him enough to keep him at arm’s length for a little while. I hadn’t expected him to follow me out to the terrace.

I’m about to yank off the towel when his tone thaws. “Leave it… Just while we speak.”

I realize he doesn’t want the distraction of my naked breasts and I flush. But I’m not thawing that easily.

“You,” I snap, feeling an untethered thread of anger wind its way up my throat. “ You’re my problem.”

“Fine.” He holds his hands up. “Wear whatever the hell you want. See what Cristiano has to say about it.”

“It’s not about the clothes.” I turn and glare at the pool, heaving out hard breaths and feeling a tide of pent-up outrage swelling inside my chest.

“I’m not moving out of the office,” he warns.

“I don’t care about your damn office.” My voice has thinned like a blade. He’s done it. The man has managed to wind me up until I can’t hold back the truth anymore. He needs to know why I hate him. Then, maybe, he’ll leave me the fuck alone.

“Then what is it, Castellano? Because I can’t take any more of your petulance.” He spits out the ‘p’ and that does it.

I leap to my feet and the towel falls to the floor. “You want to know what my problem is? I lost my virginity because of you!” I yell.

He steps backward, his solid legs sending the lounger behind him flying across the terrace.

His eyes blacken slowly and he releases a growled whisper. “What?”

I take a step toward him with gritted teeth. “You shut down the Falconis,” I say, seething behind a clenched jaw. “You ruined them…”

“What does your virginity have to do with the Falconis?”

“They took their son to the other side of America.” I take another step forward but he stands his ground, only seeming to solidify more. “He was my best friend and you forced him away.”

He goes to speak but I cut him off. “You asked me what my problem is, Bernadi. My problem is I felt so sorry for Federico that when he asked me to sleep with him, I obliged. You forced him out of his home and I pitied him.”

I shrug my arms to the side. “And now here I am, part of the damn Italian mafia, in which the only currency a woman has is her virginity, and I no longer have it to give.” I lean in to him and jab his chest, hard, with a pointed finger. “Because of you .”

His features darken like thunder and I retreat, wrapping my arms around my chest. Baring the truth has made me feel more naked than losing my top.

When he speaks again, there’s a darkness in his low whisper. “What makes you think I forced him away?”

Hi eyes search my face then widen for a fraction of a second,

“You saw me. Through a gap in the door. At the Falconis’.”

My lips purse angrily. “Right before you shot Federico’s uncle.”

Bernadi frowns. “I didn’t shoot his uncle. Augie did. But it was justified. The guy had a gun pointed at his head.”

I take a step back, feeling suddenly drained. “I don’t care,” I say weakly. “The damage has been done, and they’ve gone. You did what you had to do. Just know that, whatever happens to me now, you are to blame.”

Then I turn around, pick the towel up off the floor, wrap it around myself, and walk back into the house. And this time, he doesn’t follow.