His Guilt_A Mafia Romance by Cassie Wild

Author:Cassie Wild [Wild, Cassie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Belmonte Publishing, LLC
Published: 2018-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

Fifteen

Briar

I slid out of the family room, teary-eyed and with a knot in my throat.

At some point, Cormac, Daria, and Isabel had all left, and while I understood, I wished Cormac had lingered. I wanted to lean against him.

Normally, I would have just gone to my father and let him wrap one of his big arms around me, but I was still uncertain about how I felt regarding all the things he’d been hiding from me.

Plus…I just wanted Cormac.

It was a crazy thought, but I wanted him more and more, and all the time.

I heard some noise coming from the kitchen and walked in there just as Isabel and Daria closed the door that opened out to the backyard. “Is Cormac with you?”

Daria shook her head, grinning wide. “I don’t think his blood is thick enough for this kind of weather, Briar.”

“Mine sure isn’t,” Isabel said with a shiver, rubbing at her arms.

“You’ve been living up here for a couple of years,” Daria teased.

“And you grew up in Russia.” Isabel stuck out her tongue.

I grinned at the two of them then glanced around. “Okay, I guess I’ll go find him. Hope he didn’t get lost in this place.”

“Oh, I imagine he’s fine,” Isabel said, her voice unusually neutral.

I shot a look at her, wondering if she was hinting at something.

But her pretty face was blank.

Shrugging it off, I left the kitchen and started searching the house.

I found him studying a huge brocade display of the family crest outside Dad’s office. He glanced over at me and smiled, but I couldn’t help but notice the line between his eyebrows.

“Are you okay?” I asked him.

“Bit of a headache.” He slid me a droll look. “I told you that mimosa was a bad idea for me.”

He’d given me a bewildered look when I passed him the fruity drink. Maybe I shouldn’t have pushed it on him. Wincing, I reached up and cupped his face in my hands. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal.

I might have even bought it, but his eyes were just…off. Peering into their dark depths, I studied him more closely. There was certainly signs of strain, especially in the lines fanning out from the corners of his eyes, but it wasn’t just that.

“Are you okay?” I asked him again, even more softly this time.

“I’m fine.” He jacked up a shoulder in a shrug that seemed too forced to be natural. He closed his eyes, and when he looked at me, some of the strain was gone from his face. “I…I don’t know, Briar. Maybe it just hit hard, seeing you and your family watching videos of all of you with your mum…” He shrugged and rubbed the back of his neck. “I couldn’t keep watching. You know how long it’s been since I’ve seen my family…” His voice faded into the night, and after a moment, he looked back at me. “It hit harder than I would have thought.”

My heart ached in my chest. I curled my arms around his waist and moved in.

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