Anastacia chose not to fight with him. She stood up from the table and took one of his hands in hers. He didn’t pull away, she knew he wouldn’t. She took his other hand, turned him toward her, then pulled him close and wrapped her arms around his waist. She laid her head against his chest and ran her hand up and down his back, calming him. After a moment, his arms went around her, too, and she felt him kiss the top of her head.
Anastacia melted into the embrace, remembering how incredible it felt to be in his arms. She was not an affectionate woman, but Angelo held her so perfectly. For a moment, she could let go, and it felt so damn good. “It wasn’t like that, Angelo. I promise,” she said softly, still holding tight to him. “It’s complicated, and there’s only so much I can tell you right now … but I came back to you because I missed you, and I was hurting. I left because I was broken, Angelo, and what we were doing was wrong. Anya didn’t deserve it,” she whispered.
Angelo pulled back, lifting Anastacia’s chin so that he could see her eyes. She looked up at him sadly. It was the truth. Anastacia could no longer be with Angelo, loving him the way he loved her, because her heart had been ripped from her chest when she had been unable to be with her baby. Anastacia had come to Angelo because she knew he would comfort her— no questions asked— and he did. He had been there for her whenever she needed him, but then her heart had broken when she received a call from Anya.
“Anya?” he asked with confusion in his eyes.
Anastacia nodded. “Yes, Angelo. Anya. She didn’t deserve the pain I caused her. The trouble I caused in your marriage.”
Angelo took a step back. Anastacia wished he hadn’t because she still needed him to hold her, but she didn’t say anything.
“You didn’t cause any trouble in our marriage, Anastacia.”
“Yes, I did, Angelo, and I was tired of it. I was tired of screwing everything up. You married her. You had chosen to be with her. I should never have gotten involved with you after that.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Anya and I were never supposed to marry. I married her for my son.”
Anastacia backed away from him, shaking her head. “Don’t say that. Angelo. Don’t ever say that. She fell in love with you. How could she not? You saved her life. She thought she would come to America with you and have the life she had always dreamed of— and I fucked it up. By the time I left, it was too late … she was already planning to leave you. And then she was killed a year later.”
Angelo frowned in confusion. “One, you saved her life. Two, leave me? What the hell are you talking about, Anastacia?” he asked.
She shook her head and sighed. It was time. “Anya called me.” Angelo’s eyes opened wide, and he was about to say something, but Anastacia raised her hand to silence him. “Listen, Angelo. Anya called me and told me she knew about us. Initially, I didn’t give a shit, but then she went on and on about how she couldn’t believe I would ruin her chance at finally having a family— and I felt guilty. She had already been through all that shit with Ivan. So I ended it with you and decided to focus all my attention on protecting my baby, which is what I needed to do anyway.”
“But I still don’t understand. You said she was leaving me. That’s not possible,” Angelo said, still confused as to where Anastacia’s story was going.
Anastacia nodded. “Yes, it is Angelo. She was leaving you … and Nathan,” Anastacia said sadly. She hated to tell him this, but she had to. “She knew that you wouldn’t let her leave with your son, so she had made a decision to go without him. She said she just couldn’t live with you anymore. Her plan was to divorce you and leave Nathan with you in Manhattan.”
“How do you know this?”
Anastacia let her head fall back, and she groaned. God, this was going to be difficult. “Robert. He was going to help her so you wouldn’t be able to find her.” Anastacia watched for a reaction, but Angelo’s face had gone completely expressionless. She continued, “She was afraid of you, Angelo. She said it was just like being with Ivan again except she didn’t have to give her body to other men. She felt trapped, and she was willing to leave her son to get away from you.”
Anger flashed through Angelo’s eyes, leaving as quickly as it came. “I didn’t trap her. I gave her everything she needed— more than she’d ever had. You and I took her out of that whore house, and brought her to America and gave her everything.”
“Angelo, calm down. Please don’t yell such things. Nathan is in the house …”
“Her own family wouldn’t even accept her until I married her— until she had my son. The bloodsucking fucks!”
Anastacia placed one hand on his chest and another on his face, trying to calm him. “I know honey, I know. You are a good man. But Anya wasn’t getting what she really wanted from you. She wanted your love, but you didn’t love her the way she wanted you to. You must calm down, please. We cannot say such things so loud, not while her son is so close.” Anastacia pushed him back toward his seat. “Sit down, please.” He did, and Anastacia straddled his lap. “Are you calm?” she asked, looking into his eyes.
“Why didn’t Robert tell me? He was my friend, he worked for me. Why didn’t he say anything?” Angelo asked.
Anastacia stroked his hair softly as she spoke. “He was going to tell you after he helped her. She reached out to him one of the times she and Nathan visited you in Manhattan. She told him her story, and he said he would help her.”
“Did he believe her?”
“Shhh, Angelo …”
“Did he actually think I would trap her? Because all she had to do was say so, and I would have let her leave, but there was no way in hell I was going to let her take my son with her!”
“Angelo, please … Robert just wanted to help her get away. He had a soft spot in his heart for what she had gone through— you know where he came from. I know he told you of his childhood, what he and Si—”
“Don’t say that name,” Angelo interjected quickly. “He might appear somewhere.”
Anastacia nodded. She didn’t want to say the forbidden name, either. She hated the man, she had no idea why Robert loved him.
“Yes, Robert told me. I can’t believe she would compare me to that sick bastard, Ivan,” Angelo said with hurt in his voice.
Anastacia hated to see him like this. She knew he was combing through every moment he’d had with Anya in his head, trying to figure out what he could possibly have done to be compared to a man such as Ivan. Anastacia cupped his face in her hands. “You are nothing like that dirty twisted prick, Angelo, and you know it. Anya was just upset, that’s all.”
“Tell me the rest. I know there’s more, Ana.” His jaw ticked. He kissed her hand, then her lips. He lingered there for a moment, and his hands tightened on her hips as if he was fighting for control. Anastacia knew he had felt the electricity when their lips touched— she had felt it, too. After another moment, he pulled back.
Anastacia smiled. She’d been waiting for him to kiss her, but she wished he hadn’t because now she wanted him … and she needed to focus.
“Go ahead, Ana. I can take it. I won’t get upset again,” he said, still looking at her lips.
Bullshit, Anastacia thought. They had yelled enough for tonight. She silently thanked God for soundproof walls because if Nathan and Carter had heard any of this shit, she and Angelo would be fucked. “Okay, I’ll tell you. But only because I have to, for my baby.”
“What does this have to do with Carterina?” he asked.
Anastacia spoke in hushed tones. “Robert had already decided he would help Anya disappear, and they had decided to start meeting so they could make a plan.” Anastacia stopped talking and took a deep breath. This would be the hard part.
Concern entered Angelo’s eyes. “What is it, Ana?” he asked.
“He didn’t mean for it to happen, Angelo,” she said softly.
“For what to happen, Anastacia?” Angelo asked, beginning to feel like things were about to get very bad.
They w
ere.
“It wasn’t his fault. It was mine,” she whispered. “All of it is my fault, and I’m so sorry.”
Now the panic was evident on Angelo’s face. Anastacia had just apologized, which was something she didn’t do, ever. “Anastacia, what are you talking about?”
“I’ve been protecting everyone I love and keeping my distance. I placed my men among the Salerno family so that I could have eyes everywhere. I stayed away from my baby and begged Robert to take her and protect her based solely on the fact that she was his blood— and he did. She was just a baby. Even though Robert and I hadn’t particularly cared for each other for a very long time, it didn’t take him long to start loving our daughter … and me …”
“Anastacia …”
“ … but he was watching us,” she whispered. “He was trying to take my baby. Robert and I told him if he came anywhere near her, we’d kill him …”
“Ana, I don’t—”
“He kept following me. He was jealous of Robert and Carterina’s relationship. He had some kind of sick obsession with her. He wanted her to love him like she loved her father …” Anastacia’s body began to tremble, both with fear, and anger— anger at herself for her stupid mistake. This man, this monster, was the only man in this world that Anastacia feared. Robert had told her many times not to fear the man that he was weak, but Anastacia was afraid. She would never be able to fight him without Robert.
“Anastacia, you’re shaking. Calm down and tell me what it is,” Angelo said, wrapping his arms around her waist.
An angry tear fell from her eyes, and Angelo’s body went still. “Ana,” he said frantically and wiped the tear from her face.
“I fucked up, Angelo. I fucked up big time.”
“What are you talking about? Whatever it is it can’t be that bad.”
“Yes, it is.” Shit! Another tear fell from her eyes.
“Ana, now you’re worrying me. You don’t cry— you never cry,” he said as he pulled her closer to him.
Yes, that’s what she needed. She needed to be closer to him. “It was my fault,” she whispered sadly.
Angelo frowned and held her face. “What was your fault, honey? Tell me.”
Anastacia wiped the tears from her eyes and got her emotions back in check. “Your wife, Angelo. It was my fault she was murdered. She didn’t deserve it, and it was my fault,” Anastacia said. She never broke eye contact with him— that would show weakness. She would own up to what she had done while looking him in the eyes.
Angelo hands dropped from her face, and he stared at her blankly. “Why would you say that, Ana? Do you know who killed Anya?” he asked slowly.
“Yes …”
“Who?”
“The same man that wants my Carterina—”
“Who, Anastacia?” Angelo’s voice was a deep growl.
“He thought she was Robert’s lover. They were meeting so often, and he wanted to take something away from Robert, too, even after he had promised to stay away.”
“Who, Anastacia?” Angelo asked again sharply.
Anastacia worried her bottom lip. She didn’t know if the answer was written all over her face or not, but Angelo figured it out.
He took in a deep, shaky breath, shock and terror masking his face. “Oh, fuck,” he whispered. “No, Ana … not him …”
Anastacia closed her eyes and breathed deeply. It was time for her to tell Angelo a very long story. She opened her eyes and looked into Angelo’s as she began to tell him everything that she should have told him fourteen years ago. Angelo’s shook his head back and forth slowly, chanting, “Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit,” over and over again.
7
Home
Four months later.
It was unseasonably warm outside. The sun burst through the windows of the living room, blinding Nathan’s view of the work in his hand.
Nathan groaned. “It’s too damn early— and too sunny— to work,” he complained. “Come on, baby, let’s go back to bed.”
“We can’t keep putting this off, Nathan.” Her tone was serious as she continued to focus on the work in her hand with a frown on her face.
Nathan rolled his eyes. Carter was all business when she wanted to be, and that was fine. Nathan could be that way, too. But right now, admiring her in that thin, pink, silk robe that barely touched her thighs, Nathan could only think one thing— she’s naked under that.
The thought had him licking his lips hungrily, wishing he was tasting her. It had been nearly fifteen hours since he’d last partaken of his irresistible wife.
Yes, that was correct— wife. And Nathan was loving every minute of being Carterina Anastacia Salerno’s husband. It had been four months since his Carter, a vision of angelic beauty, had been escorted by his father down the aisle in their garden. She wore a white chiffon wedding dress, her long flowing curls dancing in the wind. Just the memory of that day brought a smile to Nathan’s face and a warmth he had never known before Carter to his heart.
Nathan had waited only four weeks after Carter had awakened after the accident before marrying her. He wanted to get her through her recovery before he dragged her down the aisle. Her recovery had turned out to be a little more difficult than they had thought it would be, but his beautiful rose dealt with her dizziness, headaches, and exhaustion like a champ.
The doctor had told them it would take her some time to return to her bouncy, energetic self, and Nathan was sure to make Carter follow every rule the doctor set down for her. He even went so far as to cut out their wild sex for the entire recovery period after the doctor warned about the dangers of overexertion. Of course, Carter was mad at him, but Nathan was creative. He kept his wife satisfied, even if it meant he had to go to bed with a horribly painful erection. He hadn’t really been able to reacquaint himself with Carter’s body until their wedding night.
They traveled to the Bahamas— at Carter’s request— barely leaving the hotel room, and then they made their way to Fiji. The place was romantic as hell, and even Nathan— who was not romantic in the least— had to step back and say damn. They had private quarters and a private pool and beach area. Nathan took advantage of all the privacy they had, and they spent an entire two weeks in heaven.
Nathan smiled. Heaven, he thought as his eyes ran up Carter’s exposed legs. He could use a little piece of heaven right now. Damn, their home looked good on Carter. She sat next to him in the living room of their home, neither of them dressed for the day yet. Nathan had never thought he would be here— in the living room of his newly remodeled and decorated childhood home, lounging on a big plush sofa in his boxers, eye-fucking his breathtakingly beautiful wife.
Wife! He still couldn’t believe it! Not even a year ago, Nathan had been fully prepared to live out his entire life as bachelor. Then boom! He was married to Carter— the girl he had said he would marry when he was just a little boy, the only woman he had ever confessed his love to, cried for, dreamed of marrying. She now belonged to him, and she would be his forever. Who would have guessed that his mother’s rose shit actually worked. It took nineteen years, but it worked.
Nathan shook his head and chuckled softly. If only his mother had been alive to see this. She would’ve loved the woman Carter had grown up to be.
“What are you laughing at?”
He looked at her and smiled when he heard her mumble the question. She was still completely focused on the deal his father wanted her to go over. His little genius had become a rock star where business was concerned at the Salerno Organization. Nathan loved to watch her doing what she loved— as long as it was from home. He had found out from her mother that his mysterious wife had been hiding more information about herself from him. Turned out she was actually a genius! She was a child prodigy.
She had been home schooled and had finished her high school course work when she was just eleven years old. She then took online classes at an Ivy League university, and by the time she was sixteen, she had her MBA. Anastacia had also confid
ed to Nathan how Carter would go on and on to her father about one day living in Manhattan and becoming a business woman so she could work in one of the “big buildings”. Nathan asked Carter why she had never told him, and she just shrugged and said it wasn’t anything important.
Carterina continued to be an intriguing mystery to him, and he couldn’t get enough of the new things he learned about his modest wife every day.
“Are you going to answer me or just continue to stare?” She looked up from her work with one eyebrow raised. When Nathan continued to stare at her, she crossed her eyes and made a ridiculous face.
Nathan chuckled and tucked a long, loose strand of hair behind her ear. “My mother would have loved you, мое красивое Роуз. You remind me of her sometimes.”
Carter smiled warmly and turned toward him, tucking her legs under her body. “How so?”
Nathan pulled her into his lap and wrapped his arms around her waist. She giggled softly as her gaze drifted down to the tattoo on his chest, and she grazed her soft fingers over it. Nathan smiled every time she did that. The tattoo was a tribute to her, honoring her as the owner of his heart. It was a tradition started by the younger generation in the Salerno Crime Family to have their woman’s name permanently written across their heart. The guys had taken Nathan to get his the night before he and Carter’s wedding. The tattoo consisted of a short prayer of protection- for his love-written in Russian, the words “Psalm 91” under the prayer, and Carterina Salerno on the right side of his chest, where his heart beats. Of course the tattoo artist- an old friend of Nathan’s- had to complete his artistic masterpiece by adding a black rose next Carter’s name, and Nathan didn’t object. He actually thought it was the perfect addition. And Judging by Carter’s reaction to the artwork now on Nathan’s body, she loved it too. Every day since the day his tattoo healed Carter kissed the spot where her name was written. One day more names would be added under hers … the names of their children.
Dangerous Beauty: Part Two: A Mafia Princess Page 12
