Page 32 of Urgent Vows
The nurse appears to hear both the threat and the impatience in my voice because she rushes through the instructions.
"That's all stuff the doctor said before. Why the hell did my wife have to wait through you going over it again?" I demand.
"I'm s-so s-orry," the nurse stutters out. "It's hospital policy, Mr. De Luca."
"Get another tube of that arnica shit. My wife says it helps and I don't want to run out."
The nurse nods and runs from the room.
CATALINA
After he finishes terrorizing the nurse, Severu pulls a shawl out of the bag and drapes it around my shoulders, and then lifts me from the bed.
It's soft and I rub the material between my thumb and forefinger. It will cover as Severu wanted, though the dress itself is an opaque fabric that will not reveal my braless state. If I'm warm, I can wear the shawl bunched up, exposing my arms. If I get cold in the air conditioning of the car, I can cover my arms and wrap up in it.
Did Aldo instruct the guy who went shopping to find the perfect compromise to make both Severu and me happy? I kind of hope he did because then I would feel like I'm not so alone in my unexpected and new situation. That my voice is heard.
Severu settles me in a wheelchair. I don't even try to insist I can walk, because that would mean reminding my husband about my shoeless state. I don't want to put the heels back on, much less try to walk in them.
I don't have to worry. Severu has no intention of allowing me to walk at all. When we reach the parking garage, his SUV is parked right by the bank of elevators. My husband lifts me from the wheelchair and carries me to the car. He puts me in the backseat and does up my seatbelt, before going around to the other side and climbing in beside me.
He spends the ride to his home on his phone and rather than feeling ignored, I'm appreciative of the chance to retreat into my own thoughts.
I cannot believe I am married to Severu. The most powerful don in New York. I'm still a little stunned that he touched me like that in the hospital room too. If his fingers feel that good, what will it be like to have his sex inside my body?
I shiver at the thought.
"Are you cold?" he asks without looking up from his phone.
"I'm fine." I let the shawl spread down my arms and hold it to myself.
"Turn off the A/C," he barks out. Then he's back to texting, or maybe writing an email. Something where his thumbs are busily tapping away on the screen of his smartphone.
The order leaves me feeling almost as stunned as him touching me so intimately at the hospital. When I suggested that solution if I was chilly, he gave me a look like I'd thumbed my nose at him and flipped him the bird at the same time. I'd apologized for goodness' sake.
My husband confuses me. Like a lot. He also intrigues me, and I can't stop stealing glances at his harsh profile. He can be cruel and domineering. Yet he seems to care about my comfort. I think he's ignoring me, but he notices when I shiver.
He's a big man and strong, which should frighten me after my experience with my father. Only, when his muscles rippled against my side when he carried me, it excited me. The fact he didn't so much as take an extra breath doing it was also a turn on.
Chapter 11
CATALINA
I am surprised when we pull into yet another parking garage. This one is underneath a U-shaped art deco building.
"Where are we?"
"Our home."
From the way Carlotta talked, he lived with his family in a mansion. "I thought you had a house."
"We do. In the Hamptons. But we live here."
"Uh. Okay."
"What?" he asks as he pulls me out of the car and lifts me against his chest for the umpteenth time today.
"From the way Carlotta talked, it sounded like you lived in a mansion even bigger than my father's."
