Page 14 of Marry Me Not
“I hope so too,” I said, and I meant it. At lunch, Vita had all but told me not to expect anything from my marriage beyond duty, but Gino seemed to believe something real might grow inside it. From a couple that had been together for as long as they had, it was an interesting difference in opinion.
But I didn’t have long to dwell on it.
As I glanced toward the entrance to the backyard, I saw Cosimo had arrived.
CHAPTER 6
COSIMO
A breeze ruffledthrough my hair as I stepped into Messero’s backyard. Backyard seemed like an insufficient term to describe the space given its proportions. There was a terrace, a pool, a maze of hedges, and flowers bursting out of every corner. The work of his wife or just Messero overcompensating for something? I didn’t care enough to find out.
What I did care about was how quickly my gaze found Nettle—and how it seemed to get stuck there.
Beside me, Rom whistled. “Your fiancée looks angelic in white.”
My response was a dismissive grunt, the most I could manage without admitting he was right. She stood by my father just to the right of the pool and looked annoyingly perfect. Her sleeveless dress exposed swaths of smooth tan skin, her lips were painted a dark pink, and her hair fell around her shoulders in a mane of hypnotic waves.
My eyes moved lower despite myself—to the dip of her waist, the flare of her hips, the way the fabric clung to her thighs.
Fuck. Did she have to be so fucking pretty?
By now, I’d hoped Rosa would have found something useful. Instead, she was still in Geneva, still spending my money, still calling every few days to report she’d found fuck all. According to her, Fabiana had lived with her sister in downtown Geneva, had gone to hot yoga a few times a week after work, brought the doorman pastries on Fridays, and rarely went out on the weekend. It was all so wholesome and sweet it made my teeth ache.
Maybe there were no skeletons after all. Maybe Fabiana was just an innocent mafia princess whose years abroad hadn’t managed to undo the conditioning she’d grown up with—the kind that taught her marriage was her ultimate duty. If she’d never had to go up against anyone in my mother’s league, she’d be an easy target for manipulation. If that ended up being the truth, it was unfortunate she’d been swept up in all this, but that didn’t change my plan.
As I walked toward her, I watched Vita step in and hand Dad a drink. She said something to Fabiana that made her laugh. They were already rubbing elbows and looking way too fucking friendly.
“Cosimo, there you are,” Vita said as I came up. She placed her hand on my arm in a gesture of apparent affection, and I forced myself not to recoil. I couldn’t stand it when she touched me. “I was starting to worry you’d gotten lost on your way here.”
I pulled my arm away. “Our business interests don’t run themselves,” I drawled, giving her a bored look.
Her eyes narrowed.
She wanted me on my best behavior. It was shocking she hadn’t already confronted me about the total lack of interest I’d shown Fabiana over the last few weeks. After seeing how chummy the two of them looked together, I assumed my fiancée must have complained.
Dad patted my shoulder. “It’s my fault he’s late. He was working on a few things I asked of him this morning. All good, son?”
“Of course,” I said, even though it wasn’t. Our cocaine supplier, Alvarez, was becoming a fucking thorn in my side. He was refusing to sell us the quantity we wanted at the rates we’d agreed to last year because he said someone else in New York had offered him more. Who? For now, Alvarez refused to tell me.
But I’d get on top of it. My father was relying on me. I hadn’t worked my ass off to prove to him I deserved to be his underboss at the age of twenty-eight only to disappoint him now that I’d finally gotten the position.
My gaze moved back to my fiancée. “Fabiana.”
“Good to see you again, Cosimo.” She rose on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to my cheek. Her scent—lavender and lemons—muddled with my next inhale and made heat crawl beneath my skin. “It’s been a while,” she said low enough so only I would hear.
“Not long enough,” I muttered back.
When she pulled back, I saw her expression and almost felt bad. She covered the flash of hurt quickly with a smile and greeted my brothers, but the look on her face stayed with me.
Collateral damage. It was what it was. If she was as innocent as she appeared, I didn’t relish breaking her down, but I also wasn’t going to stop until she pulled out of this marriage.
“Working the morning of your engagement party,” Vita laughed. “Cosimo hasn’t always been this disciplined,” she said lightly. “When he was younger, he had a tendency to be led by his impulses. It’s been so gratifying to help him grow into a more mature version of himself.”
My jaw clenched. Yes, she’d done her very best to teach me how to stay in control. I still had the scars to prove it.
The photographer approached us. “The light is perfect right now. We need to take advantage of it. Are you two ready for the engagement photos?”
Fuck me. I’d forgotten we were supposed to do that today. The thought of being forced to have Nettle in my arms for some unspecified amount of time made me itch all over. She was a safer quantity to deal with at a distance.
