Filed to story: Bound by Honor (Aria & Luca) Drama Story
I touched his arm and his brows drew together, but I didn’t say anything. Maybe Luca thought he had never loved anyone before me but even if he didn’t realize it, he loved his brother. “Come on,” I said. “I want to see you when you were little.”
“I was never little,” Luca objected as he followed me into the living room.
Matteo held up an old photo album and I settled beside him on the sofa. Luca sank down beside me, grimacing at the first photo. It showed him and Matteo at ages three and five, dressed in suits. Luca was already tall but still scrawny, and his face already held a hardness a kid that age shouldn’t display. Matteo was holding his brother’s hand.
“You are holding hands,” I said with a smile.
Luca groaned. I turned the page and both Luca and Matteo tensed. The photo showed Matteo and Luca, wearing the same suits as before, beside a woman with long dark hair. She was staring into the camera with the most hopeless expression I’d ever seen. I could practically feel her despair. Luca’s mother had killed herself when he was only nine, and seeing her expression, I wasn’t surprised. I quickly turned the pages until I found a photo of Luca in his teens with the most horrible mustache I’d ever seen.
“I’d forgotten your pornstache!” Matteo said, chuckling.
“Pornstache?” I repeated, raising my eyebrows at Matteo. Luca was glaring at his brother.
“Because that’s the facial hair many porn actors had.”
I took another sip of my champagne even though I was already drunk.
“I was fourteen and thought it would make me look grown up,” Luca muttered and turned the page to a photo of him on a yacht in only bathing shorts. The mustache was gone and he was already all muscle, even though he couldn’t have been more than sixteen.
I let my eyes wander over him appreciatively and Luca smirked. I couldn’t wait for us to be alone. chapter 5
ARIA
We didn’t mention the Sylvester party incident again and a few days later, we had to leave for Chicago to attend Dante’s wedding.
My cousin Valentina looked absolutely stunning in her cream sequined wedding dress. The wedding wasn’t a big affair like ours had been, but still, close to two hundred people attended from the Outfit and the Famiglia. I smiled as I watched Dante and Valentina during their first dance. The ballroom of the hotel had been decorated with pink and blush roses, and the atmosphere was almost relaxed.
Luca squeezed my hip. “You didn’t look this happy during our wedding dance.”
I laughed. “I was terrified of you.” Val didn’t look like she was scared of Dante, but she was older than me by five years and had been married before. I supposed the consummation of her marriage didn’t hold the same terror for her.
When the dance floor was opened for the guests, Luca pulled me into his arms and led me along to the music. It still surprised me how well he could dance despite his height. I beamed up at him and his thumb stroked my naked back, the only public display of affection he would probably allow himself. He was still cautious but I didn’t mind, because he never held back with affection when we were alone and that was all that mattered.
As was expected, I had to dance with Dante and Luca with Val. I’d danced with Dante before and barely tensed when he took my hand, but when he pulled me against him and touched his palm to my bare back, I shivered from the too familiar gesture. He, too, tensed at the missing barrier between our skins. That was the problem with backless dresses. Heat rose into my cheeks as I met his eyes.
He gave me a very small smile. “I apologize,” he said formally.
“You can’t help my dress. Unless you move your hand to an inappropriately low level there is no way for you to reach fabric,” I said, hoping to lighten the atmosphere.
The barest hint of amusement showed on Dante’s face. “If I do that, your husband will spill blood.”
I followed his gaze. Luca kept throwing possessive looks my way as he danced with Val. While Val had looked perfectly fine with Dante, she appeared absolutely tense in Luca’s hold.
“Val looked happier dancing with you,” I said with a smile. Dante’s fingers against my back tightened and his expression darkened. Possessive and dominant, not so different from Luca, when it came down to it.
Matteo took over from Luca and Dante released me. I declined a dance from an Outfit soldier with a quick excuse, not wanting to test Luca’s patience and needing something to drink and a break from the possessive dominance surrounding me, but then Val laughed loudly at something Matteo had said. They were dancing closer than was appropriate. Luca narrowed his eyes at his brother, but he wasn’t the one I was worried about. Dante had a look in his eyes I knew from Luca.
Ignoring my thirst, I hurried to the dance floor and stopped beside Matteo and Val. “Why don’t you dance with me now, Matteo?”
Val’s eyes moved from me to her husband and realization filled her face. She stepped back from Matteo, who sent her a grin before he gripped my hand and jerked me against him.
I gasped from the impact against his muscled chest. My indignant look only made him grin wider, and he pressed his palm without hesitation against my back. He and Gianna would kill each other, that was a given.
For Matteo everything was a game-he thrived on provocation and chaos. With anyone but him I would have worried about Luca’s reaction but since this was Matteo, I relaxed in his tight embrace and let him twirl us around the dance floor.
Gianna stood off to the side, a scowl on her face when Matteo winked at her in passing. I dug my nails into his shoulder, bringing his attention back to me. “Don’t hurt her.” It came out sharper than intended, almost an order.
Matteo’s face became guarded. “Or what?”
I squeezed his hand and softened my tone. “Or you will never win her over. She might act all strong, but she has grown up as sheltered as me. Please treat her with kindness.” This was Luca’s brother and I was well aware that kindness wasn’t his forte, but if Luca could be kind to me then I had to hope Matteo could do the same with Gianna.
“I have no intention of hurting Gianna unless she’s into that kind of kinky shit.”
I rolled my eyes at him but when he looked at Gianna again, I could tell that his gaze held a flicker of warmth. Hers didn’t. She looked like she would rather chop her hands off than marry him. It worried me.
LUCA
I rolled over and reached for Aria but touched an empty bedsheet. My eyes flew open and I sat up, looking toward the clock on the nightstand. It was only six thirty in the morning on a Sunday and we’d returned late from Chicago. Where was she? Why wasn’t she still asleep?
That I hadn’t even noticed her getting out of bed showed how deep my sleep was beside her. Fuck.
I swung my legs out of bed, staggered to my feet and reached for my Beretta and stuffed it into my sweatpants. When I stepped onto the first floor landing, the sound of Aria’s humming reached my ears. I went down the stairs and found Aria in our open kitchen, barefoot and dressed in her satin nightgown. The counters and the floor were covered with white powder and so was Aria, her blonde hair piled on top of her head in a messy bun.
