Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77359 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 387(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
The answer rocked through me. Because he thought Stefano or Carmine had given it to me. And he’d gotten mad after Carmine gave me the lingerie, too.
But that didn’t make any sense. He hated me. And letting me experiment with his brothers had been his idea in the first place.
It made no sense ... but I couldn’t get it out of my head.
Cautiously, I rolled onto my other side, facing him.
“Massimo?” My voice was so soft that if he’d been sleeping, he wouldn’t have heard it. But he answered right away.
“What?”
I rolled over, facing him. “This isn’t working.”
He sighed. “I’m not going to argue that, but it doesn’t matter. There’s no choice here—that’s what an arranged marriage is.”
“Not that.”
His body shifted toward me. “So you think this engagement is actually going well?” I couldn’t see it, but I pictured him raising an eyebrow as he said it.
“No, but ... this thing. This deal where I can ... you know ... spend time with your brothers. It’s obviously upsetting you. I think it should stop.”
I braced, waiting for his anger. For him to berate me for my assumptions, or to deny them.
He didn’t do either.
“Do you want it to stop?”
“I don’t want you to hate me.”
He swore under his breath. “I don’t hate you.”
The darkness—and the fact that he hadn’t yelled yet—gave me courage. “You don’t like me, though.”
He sighed. “And my brothers do.”
“Well ... yes. At least I think they do.”
“They do.” He rolled onto his side, his forearm resting in the place between us. “Allegra, whether we like each other or not is immaterial in a marriage like ours.”
“I know. But ... I wish it weren’t.”
He was quiet for a few moments. “Neither of us wanted this ... but I’ve come to realize that it’s worse for you than it is for me.”
Surprise flitted through me. “Really?”
“You disagree?” He sounded as if he knew the answer to that.
“No.” While it wasn’t exactly easy to talk to him, the cover of darkness helped. And I couldn’t get distracted by his sculpted muscles at the moment, since I couldn’t see him well. “You didn’t get to choose who you wanted to marry, either. But you have a lot more choices in general than I do.”
“Exactly.” I felt his eyes on me as I waited for whatever came next. “Are you in love with my brothers?”
“No!” His question surprised the denial right out of me, but then I truly thought about it. It was true that I liked them a lot. Stefano especially. He was just so easy to talk to. And easy to kiss. In fact, I was a big fan of everything he could do with his mouth, especially what he’d done earlier today.
And Carmine—he’d seemed as scary as Massimo when I first met him, but he wasn’t. He still took me on outings when he could, even though I’d gotten away from him that one time. And he was still teaching me to drive.
He was huge and gruff, but kind of a big puppy dog at heart. I was under no illusions ... if he was a dog, he was also part guard dog, the kind that could rip your throat out. But he also had the good qualities of a dog, like loyalty, kindness, and compassion. The more I thought about it, the more I realized I did like him as much as Stefano.
Massimo sighed. “I know Stefano is closer to your age. And he’s just so fucking nice sometimes. People respond to him.”
“Isabella was like that.”
“Who?”
“My sister. Everybody loved her. My parents lit up when she came into the room. She could get my mom to smile. Or my dad to laugh. She even had my father’s men wrapped around her little finger. She made everyone happy in a way I never could.”
“So you think your parents liked her better than you?”
“I don’t think it, I know it.”
He let out a heavy sigh. “And now I’ve made you think I don’t like you.”
My voice got quieter. “I know that, too.”
“One thing at a time,” he said under his breath. “Have you ever thought that your parents were happier around her because she wasn’t their firstborn?”
I shifted on the bed, sliding a few inches closer, trying to follow his train of thought. “What do you mean?”
“You were told since birth that your only purpose was to be married off, right?”
“Yes.”
“So your parents raised you to do that. Drilled it into you. Taught you things so that you could do your duty to your family.”
“Basically, yes.”
“So with you, they saw it as their duty to raise you to be an obedient wife. But with Isabella, they didn’t have that responsibility. They could relax around her. Enjoy her company without feeling the need to mold her into the perfect wife.”
Something inside my mind clicked—almost. But there were years of resentment to get past, first. “It’s … That’s not what happened.”