Mafia's Final Play (Mafia's Obsession #3) - Summer Cooper Page 0,49
you go somewhere, keep security tight. It will be a challenge, but if you want to go home, we can.” He turned to her and she touched his face, a little rough now at the end of the night.
He’d shave it all away in the morning. She thought about those few days he’d let it grow before he’d had to shave it off because it itched him so much. “You know my home is you, remember?”
“I do, I meant it too. But you’ve been a prisoner your whole life, Marie. First your mother’s, then mine when this contract was made. I’ve done it to keep you safe, but it’s not much different is it?” His eyes searched hers, begged her to tell him he was wrong, and she could only smile.
“At first, I felt the same, I have to admit. I wanted to escape the seclusion, the inability to breathe fresh air. I knew why it had to be like that, Matteo. I knew this was my life that was in danger. You didn’t keep me at the house to be your maid, to throw things at me, to make me wipe your ass, or change sheets you’d pissed in, on purpose I might add. She did that so many fucking times.”
Marie started to swear as she spoke more about her mother. She didn’t always swear, but when she did, it was usually because she was talking about her mom, or very upset about something. Some emotion prodded her into it, and she knew there must be anger showing through on her face. She tried to calm herself down, to relax as he waited for her to continue.
He needed to be reassured that she didn’t hate him, and she didn’t. She cupped his cheek in her palm, slid a finger over his lips, and looked straight into those gray eyes that made her melt now, as they always did.
“You didn’t keep me there to degrade me, Matteo. You kept me there, you brought me here, to keep me safe. It’s totally different.” A tear slid from her eye, but she wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was the sensation of loving him that made the tears come to her eyes, she wasn’t sure, because she wasn’t sad, just… in love. “You have been nothing but wonderful to me.”
“But I’ve brought my world to you. I’ve brought the shit that comes with it. With me. If it wasn’t for me, you’d be safe right now.”
“Would I? Or would I be homeless, wondering when I would be able to eat next, where I’d sleep?” She smiled, a sad smile, but one that changed as she looked at him. Hope took the place of sadness. “You saved me, Matteo, and you gave me the world.”
“Maybe I should take you away from all of that forever,” he mused as he rolled to his back.
“What? And give up your life there? What you’ve become after all those years of hard work?”
“For you? I just might, Marie. I’ve been thinking about it. I’m independently wealthy. My money doesn’t come from family money. I learned a long time ago that Celeste was looking out for herself, even if she tried to give the illusion that it was all for the family.” His fingers ran over the tattoo on his right arm, the one that ran up from his wrist, up to the point where it became a crown on that side of his chest. “I keep my family in money, but any of them could do that, Trina could.”
He paused, brought his fingers to her face to tilt it back up to him. “I would give it all up for you, Marie. Every bit of it, even my own wealth. We could go buy a farm in Nebraska, or here if you want to. Have babies and cows while we grow wheat or whatever they grow out here. We could disappear, be whoever we wanted to be.”
She smiled, the idea exciting, but the smile faded. “I think we should go back. Let me go to the doctor, find out if this tremor is just PTSD or some trapped nerve, or whatever before we make any radical decisions.”
“Ah, right, yeah. You’re right.” He took a deep breath through his nose and smiled. “Anyway, shall I turn this movie off and convince you why I’m the only man you’ll ever need?”
“Oh, I think you’ve proven that already, Matteo, time and time again. But I could take a little more convincing.”