"Still, you are following in his footsteps, so I assume it’s not all bad when it comes to the relationship between the two of you?"
"Some things I do only because it’s tactically the right thing."
"You love plotting your moves, huh? You love to move people around like they are pawns on a chessboard, and only you have control over their futures."
"I am the only one who has control over the destinies of my clan."
"And that includes me?"
"You’re my wife, so you’re part of the clan; ergo…" I raise a shoulder.
"That’s why you did whatever it is you did earlier?"
"What did I do earlier?"
"Don’t bullshit me, Michael." She places the book back on the side table with care, then throws off the cover and rises to her feet. "What did you do, earlier? Tell me."
"I don’t think you want to know."
"You mean,youdon’t think I want to know," She scoffs.
"Getting sassy, Mrs. Michael Byron Domenico Sovrano?"
"I didn’t say that I have accepted being your wife yet."
"Not giving you a choice, Beauty."
"There’s always a choice." She tosses her head, "Also, if you really did think of me as your wife, you’d tell me what happened earlier." She scowls at me, and there’s something in her eyes, some kind of knowledge…a suspicion, maybe, of what happened earlier.
Merda,I ball my fingers into fists at my sides. Why the hell am I second guessing myself here? Why can’t I just tell her what I did? Since when have I become so…worried about someone else’s response? She’s my wife. She’ll damn well take whatever I do to her… And if I had wanted someone meek and servile, I’d have married someone from my clan a long time ago. Maybe I had been holding out for someone like her, and I hadn’t even been aware of it. I shake my head to clear it. And since when have I begun thinking in such emotional terms about her? Love is for fools and poets, neither of which I am.
"You going to tell me about it, yet?" She scowls.
"Do you want me to tell you about it?"
She throws up her hands, "What else have we been talking about all this time?"
"Okay, then."
"What does that mean?"
"It means, okay. I’ll tell you about it."
"So, what are you waiting for?"
There’s a knock on the door and I smirk at her, "This." I pivot, walk over to the door, and open it just enough to accept the covered basket that Seb hands over to me.
"You owe me,fratellastro." He scowls.
I nod, "I won’t forget this." I shut the door on him, then turn back and prowl over to her. I plant the basket at her feet.
"What’s that?"
"Open it."
She hesitates and I chuckle, "Not like you to be uncertain."
"Hmm, let me see... A surprise given to me by the Capo himself," she jabs a finger in her cheek, "why does that not reassure me?"