Page 23 of Between Steel and Secrets
I can’t see her face, watch her expression, to try to read what she isn’t telling me. The girl has no poker face, everything she feels is easily seen in her eyes, the curve of her lips, her brow line. She’s an open book.
Except when her back is to me, her shoulders tense.
“Maybe I should leave.”
“What?” That catches me off guard.
Honestly, I was expecting her to bolt into the other room, sleep on the spare bed in Zeke’s room. I’m tired of one of us being in there, but it beats what she just suggested. But her body language screams that she means something else … and that terrifies me.
“You heard me.” Harper spins around and meets my stare. “I want a divorce.”
Six
Luca
She wants a divorce?
There’s no smile. No laughter.
She’s serious.
Well, tough shit.
“The hell you do. Riccis don’t get divorced.” I scowl and stride the distance between us, leaving little space. There’s not much for her to breathe without the heat of her lips practically on mine.
“Well, maybe I’m not cut out to be a Ricci!” She jabs my chest, her nose twitching.
I grab her wrist, pressing it against my heart. “You’ll always be a Ricci. You’re married to me, that’s for life. If you want protection from my father, then you stay married to me.”
Harper stares up at me defiantly. “I’m not afraid of Dante.”
I laugh, darkness seeping out of me. “You should be. Hell, princess, I’m afraid of him.”
She stomps her foot and smacks my chest with her free hand. “Quit calling me that!”
A smile tugs at the corner of my lips. I tilt my head, enjoying that I can rile her up with one simple term of endearment, which she hates.
“I’ll quit calling you princess when you get it through that thick skull of yours that you’re not the one in charge.”
Her eyes tighten, and I’ve definitely said the wrong thing.
She throws her other hand up at my face, but I’m quicker and I grab her wrist before she can land it across my cheek.
“You’re so irritating!” She fights my grip on her wrists. I back her up against the door to settle her down.
“Really? Coming from the woman who tried to have me arrested.” I stare into her darkened gaze, and she flinches.
“I didn’t … Luca, is that what you honestly think?” Her voice trembles, but it’s not from fear. She sighs and loosens her fighting grasp as her hands come to rest against my chest.
Staring at her is like staring into the sun, and it takes everything I have not to look away. The intensity is hot and overwhelming.
“Luca?” she whispers, and her fingers gradually move up to my cheek. But this time, she’s much more tender and gentler. I loosen my grip on her wrist as she caresses my face. “The blood from earlier, the fog in your eyes when you came home. Something happened.”
My jaw clenches, and my spine tingles. “I’m not discussing any of it with you.” I refuse to bring the words to my lips and speak them aloud, that I killed a man.
Flashes of blood still haunt my vision.
I can’t help but replay the scene with Massimo over and over again. It’s like a bad movie I can’t turn off.
