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)
And there was some of that in him—but the only world he had control over was the one we’d grown up in. The one I wished Leila had no part in.
Without asking, I prepared a whiskey for us both, then sat across the desk from him.
“Car trouble?” he asked after downing half of his drink.
“What?” I was genuinely confused.
“Seems like you were driving pretty slow for a while there.” He turned the laptop on his desk around, showing me the screen. It took me a moment to realize I was looking at details of the drive I’d just made. All of our cars had tracking devices, and he’d pulled up the info on the SUV I’d taken Leila out in this earlier. “Almost tentatively. Any reason for that?”
It was clear he knew damn well what Leila and I had been up to—or at least the driving part, so I didn’t bother to answer. “Any reason you’re being an asshole, or are you just playing to your strengths?”
He bristled, but that was how we spoke to each other when we were alone—or at least it used to be.
“Why are you so hellbent on restricting everything she does?” I asked.
“It’s my job to keep her safe.”
“That's my job, too. But I can do that without forcing her to be some kind of Italian American version of a Stepford Wife.”
“Just remember whose fiancée she is.”
“She’s not your wife yet.” Though I was painfully aware that she would be soon. “Why do you want her to be so miserable?”
Massimo finished his whiskey and set the glass down harder than he needed to. “We all have our roles to play. And hers is to produce an heir. I didn’t want a wife, but now that I’ve got one, that’s what I need from her.”
“You do know that women don’t have to be miserable to conceive, right? In fact, I think that having an orgasm makes it more likely.”
“You think I can’t make her come?” The look he gave me was a challenge, but I didn’t take the bait. No, I definitely didn’t think that. In our younger, wilder years, Massimo and I had shared women before. He knew how to drive them crazy in bed. But it was the second type of sex I’d told Leila about. The out-of-control thrill ride. Not the kind that deepened connections between the couple.
When I didn’t say anything, Massimo continued. “Her father restricted her movements, too.”
Okay, that was a shitty reason. “So since he did, you feel you need to, too? Why?” it honestly didn’t make any sense to me. “Remember dad’s great uncle, the one who was captured in World War II?”
“Yeah, Uncle Vinnie. Why?”
“Well, when he was finally rescued and brought back to the US, he wasn’t thrown into another prison. He was free to live a good life again. Just because Leila was mistreated before doesn’t mean she has to be now.”
“It’s not the same,” Massimo snapped. “No one’s going to kidnap Uncle Vinnie, hold him hostage, and torture him so that they can get me under their thumb.”
“They wouldn’t get very far, considering he’s dead.”
Massimo’s glass whipped through the air and crashed against the bar. “She’s my responsibility, not yours! I say what kind of life she gets to live.” I didn’t flinch, but I was a little surprised.
“If I could give you one wedding gift, it would be that you start looking at her as a real person—the kind and sweet young woman she is—instead of a responsibility.”
He glared for a moment longer, and then some of the tension left his face. “So you’re not getting me a wedding gift?”
I chuckled. One good thing about my older brother is that his bad moods never lasted that long, at least not around me. I didn’t know if Leila had had the same experience. “Now why don’t you tell me what’s really got you pissed off today, because I don't think this is all about me teaching Driver’s Ed.”
He rolled his eyes but didn’t deny it. “It’s the same old shit, just a different day. The families are getting restless. Insisting that I’m jeopardizing everyone’s business. They don’t want anything to change, ever. The whole fucking world has changed, and they want us to use a playbook from the 1940s.”
“So let’s talk about it. Figure out our next move.”
He was still for a long moment, lost in thought, and then he huffed out a long breath. “Yeah, okay.”
And just like that, things between my brother and me were okay again. But the question remained—how to make them good between him and Leila.
23
LEILA
“Are you up for an outing today, Leila?” Carmine asked as the four of us ate breakfast.
“Yes.”
He grinned. “Don’t you want to know what it is?” I’d assumed that it was another driving lesson, which I was eager for, but now I wasn’t sure.