Filed to story: Bound by Honor (Aria & Luca) Drama Story
“I don’t treat her like dirt.”
I knew Aria hadn’t cheated, but the fact remained that she had gone against me. She had taken money from the Famiglia bank account. She had gone to Chicago in a time of war, had let herself get captured by Dante. If he hadn’t used her to make me lose my mind, she’d still be in his hands, and woman or not, we were at war.
Gianna shook her head, disgusted. It was a look I was used to from her. “She’s fading every day, don’t you see? Is your pride worth losing the one person who doesn’t think you’re a psychotic serial killer?”
I’d seen that Aria had lost weight, but it wasn’t anywhere close to being dangerous yet. I’d asked the Doc. He had assured me that she looked healthy enough, even if he hadn’t examined her in a while because she didn’t want him to.
“I am a killer,” I said simply.
“He is,” Matteo said with a shrug, then he added in an attempt to lighten the mood, “Whether psychotic or sociopathic, that’s definitely up for debate.”
Gianna shook her head, then she whirled around and stomped off.
Matteo sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Your problems with Aria are making my life hell, too. I’m barely getting sex anymore, not even angry sex, and Gianna is the best at angry sex, let me tell you.”
I didn’t doubt it. That woman harbored the fury of fifty hungry wildcats. She was completely intolerable, so unlike her sister. Aria hated arguments, tried to keep people together with her beautiful smile and kind words.
Fuck. The slow smile that began with a soft curl at the corners of that perfect mouth, then spread until it broke across her entire face, wide and stunning.
A fucking hole gaped in my stomach whenever I remembered her smile. She hadn’t smiled in a while.
Matteo watched me silently with a too-knowing expression. “Perhaps Aria started the mess but you will be the one to end it, Luca.”
“I won’t apologize.”
“Fine, but I’m so fucking tired of the tense mood that’s been dragging us down. Not just you and Aria, but Gianna and Liliana, and me and Romero. It’s annoying as fuck, and it’s going to bring us all down. If you are certain that you won’t apologize to Aria for accusing her of cheating and for giving her the cold shoulder, then at least end it for good. You’ve changed so much already in the Famiglia. Make a difference and file for a divorce, then you can return to fucking your way through New York’s it-girls and Aria can find a nice guy to marry.”
“No!” I growled. “Aria is mine. I’ll kill every fucker who dares to touch her. There won’t be a fucking divorce. Ever. And I don’t want to fuck anyone…”
“But her,” Matteo finished. He shrugged. “Then your balls are going to turn blue and fall off, because I don’t think Aria will make the first move again.” chapter 22
ARIA
It was already late in the morning. I hadn’t slept most of the night because I’d felt sick but also too exhausted to get out of bed. Turning around, my eyes found the empty space beside me in bed. My fingers traced the soft fabric. I still fell asleep on my side of the bed and always woke half on Luca’s empty one, as if my body tried to seek him out at night. Eight weeks of lonely nights.
I put on the loose silk bathrobe that hid my bump and made my way out of the bedroom with bare feet. The house was quiet, but distantly I heard the rumble of deep voices.
I was surprised to find Luca and Matteo still at the breakfast table. Their plates were covered in crumbs, but they were done eating and caught in an argument from the look of it. Another plate was also covered in crumbs, but Gianna had already made her exit. She and Luca in a room, that didn’t last long. She was probably in the gym. Lily and Romero had left for New York yesterday morning.
Both men looked up at me. I didn’t say anything, didn’t meet either of their gazes. I was too tired to deal with my feelings. Swallowing my nausea, I reached for the thermos with fruit tea that Marianna always prepared for me, and put it in a cup. I drank a sip of the hot fruit tea, not sitting down. I couldn’t stomach anything else in the morning right now, and I didn’t want to risk sitting down lest I had to run to the bathroom.
Luca was watching me, his eyes lingering on my cheekbones, then my collarbones. I knew he could see my bones protruding sharply. The bathrobe couldn’t hide every part of me. I’d lost even more weight in the last two weeks. I was starting to get worried about the baby, but I just couldn’t keep food inside. I took another sip of the tea, one hand clutching the edge of the table to steady myself. Mornings were always the worst.
“You should sit down,” Matteo suggested, and his voice made me look up because it held worry.
Luca rose from his chair, took the basket with Danishes and held it out toward me. He wasn’t close, never close anymore. “Marianna got your favorite almond biscotti. You need to eat.”
His gray eyes were softer than I’d seen them in a long time, but I had given up hoping.
I stared down at the baked goods and felt my stomach turning over. I looked back up. His eyes were desperate. “Aria, please,” he added. He almost never said “please,” especially not in front of others, not even Matteo. A violent wave of sickness gripped me. I shook my head, fighting the nausea.
“I can’t,” I got out, then turned around and walked slowly back upstairs. Running would have made me throw up. I was glad that Luca didn’t follow me anymore. It made this easier.
I threw up what little I still had in my stomach, then I brushed my teeth in a daze and washed myself with a cloth. Dizzy like this I couldn’t risk going into the shower.
I walked back into the bedroom and undressed, then turned around to face the floor-length mirror.
“What are you doing to me?” I whispered affectionately. Fourteen weeks. I cupped my bump. Naked like this, there was no mistaking that I was pregnant. I turned, facing the mirror sideways. A baby. I stroked my bump lightly, wishing it was Luca’s hands, needing his touch and love so much it hurt.
The door to the bedroom opened. “Aria.” It was Luca.
I whirled around, away from the mirror, and rushed toward the clothes stand where I’d left my bathrobe. I ripped it off and made the whole thing topple over. I flinched as it hit the ground before my feet, then quickly clutched the bathrobe to my naked front.
Luca stood frozen in the room, his eyes moving from the clothes rack to me clutching the bathrobe like it was my salvation.
Regret flickered on his face, but I didn’t dare hope. “Aria, are you scared of me?” he asked quietly.
Was I? I regarded Luca. I had been occasionally in the days after he’d thought I’d cheated, but not anymore. He hadn’t hurt me when he’d thought I’d betrayed him in the worst way possible. He would never hurt me.
“No,” I said with conviction.
He moved toward me, movements slow and careful as not to startle me as he picked up the rack and straightened it. He looked into my eyes and the emotion in his tugged at my heartstrings. “I don’t care about pain. I can deal with torture. But when I saw you with Dante, and thought that you…” He trailed off, face twisting with agony. “I wanted to kill you, and I wanted to kill myself because I knew I was too weak to do it.”