I had to hope that once Lino found Connor, things would settle down, but looking at Ivory's life I sincerely doubted it.
Thirty-Six
Lino
Walking in the front doors of Matteo's home with Samara at my side felt surreal. Of all the times I'd wished I could bring her there with her hand in mine, that I could kiss and touch her like she was mine in the same way that Ivory was Matteo's, I'd finally gotten that wish.
Our journey might have been different, it might have taken us longer to find our way to the place where we could just be together, but it was no less beautiful now that we'd made it there. If anything, I valued what we had more for the fact that I'd had to work for it, just as I had everything in my life.
People might have thought that Matteo and I had been born with a silver spoon in our mouths, and while it may have been true to some extent, we'd also had to do things that most people could never dream of to survive. We'd had to endure childhoods without love. We'd had to survive fathers who took their frustrations and disappointments out on their sons with their fists.
We'd had to bleed.
We'd had to kill.
And all of it had brought us full circle, back to the first and only women who ever made us feel anything. Samara and I hadn't had the conversation about what had kept me from claiming her all those years, but I could see from the openness in her expression that she finally started to understand that not everything was as it might have seemed. That my feelings hadn't been so straightforward, even though she hadn't been mine. It didn't change anything, couldn't erase the years of pain that came from thinking I didn't want her. Of the knowledge that I'd been with other women, and she'd been with other men when we should have been together. I knew, because there were still moments when I looked at her and saw her as she was on the day she married Connor. So serious, so serene in her gown of white that drowned her petite figure. The gown Connor's mother had convinced her was perfect for her.
And when Yavin and I walked her down the aisle, the kind of pain that had torn my chest in two was the kind that would never go away. It only got worse when Connor gave me a knowing smirk, all arrogance that Samara was officially his. Like he'd gotten one over on a Bellandi, and I hadn't made the sacrifice of giving her away to keep her safe.
Maybe one day it would all just become part of our history.
Maybe one day it wouldn't hurt so much.
Just like it no longer hurt to see my cousin nuzzle his face into his wife's neck and breathe her deep like she was the best scent in the world. I knew the feeling, wanted to spend every second of my life buried in Samara.
Luna was absent from the sitting room, but I noticed Donatello was too. It would figure that the man would manage to hog the baby when I could see her. "Samara!" Ivory hopped up from her seat, swatting Matteo's hands away when he reached for her.
Samara stepped forward to hug her, and the two of them swayed side by side as they embraced joyfully. It made me regret that I hadn't brought Samara to visit more often.
"It is much nicer to see you under these circumstances than when you’re mad with anxiety. We're sisters now so you have to come
and visit with me more," she whispered.
"But they're cousins," Samara returned with a half-hearted laugh, but my heart clenched at the sight of the happy tears that had started to build in her eyes. My woman didn't cry very often, didn't let emotions get the best of her when she could just shrug it off and kick ass. So the knowledge that being welcomed into my real family meant as much to her as it did to me was like a kick to the teeth.
"Please," Ivory scoffed. "They might as well be brothers, so I'm claiming sister status. There are way too many men in this fucking family. You, me, and Chiara have to stick together."
"This is getting too gushy for me." Scar stalked toward Matteo's office. Leaning in to tug Samara away from Ivory for a moment, I took her lips in a fierce kiss. Her hair felt like silk sliding through my fingers when I cradled the back of her head, feeling like I had my entire world in the palm of my hand. She giggled against my mouth, trying to tug back when she felt the appropriateness of the kiss had gone too far.
My Little Dove had never been particularly fond of public displays, often not even letting Connor kiss her at all in public. She swatted my chest playfully, narrowing her eyes. But before she could open that firecracker mouth of hers, I turned and strode down the hallway. Matteo roared out a laugh and followed behind me, leaving the women to catch up.
She still hadn't entirely forgiven me for trying to convince her to leave Jasper, but I knew it would be a slow battle I would eventually win. She was a Bellandi, and if she wanted to work that was fine, but she would eventually come to work for our family. I'd convince Matteo to hire her as a full-time lullaby singer for Luna if I had to.
The thought, the image of her singing to a baby made my heart pang in my chest.
The only thing that made me pause before I hit Matteo's office was the sound of Yavin's voice when the front door opened. It made me turn back, stalking to the sitting room where Yavin and Samara stared at one another. Crossing my arms over my chest, I watched with interest and dared Yavin to say something I didn't like. Instead, when he met my eyes, he crossed the distance between him and Samara and drew her into a hug. Whatever he said made her toss her head back with a laugh, and I relaxed, knowing I wouldn't have to beat the shit out of my friend.
But he continued on, giving me challenging smirks every time she responded to him with her own casual affection. The ridiculous display of ownership, as if a brother ever really owned his sister, made me roll my eyes and turn back down the hallway. I'd barely settled in to lean my ass against Matteo's desk when Yavin strolled in to join us, and he greeted everyone but me pointedly.
Matteo grunted. "Alright ladies, looks like we've got something to clear up."
"I don't have a problem, Matteo. I got everything I could ever want waiting for me in the other room. Yo, Yavin." I leveled him with a bright smile, daring him to start shit but he just returned my casual greeting and took his place to talk shop.
"Ryker's working on Connor still, so he'll miss out today," Scar grunted, not saying another word about the piece of shit who had hurt Samara. While there was still tension bleeding off Yavin, he turned his attitude around real quick and got down to work.
It wasn't what we'd been before I’d married his sister, but the unfortunate reality for Yavin was that if I had to choose between him and Samara, I'd choose her.
I'd always choose her.