Page 191 of Claimed At First Sight

We’re venturing into territory I’d much like to vacate. Best to steer this conversation somewhere safer before it does permanent damage to my blood pressure.

“You’ve been unusually thoughtful today,” I remark.

“No,” he says. “You’ve simply never been in a position to see this side of me.”

His eyes lock on mine.

“I take good care of what’s mine. As my wife, you’ll always be well looked after.”

I look at him, really look at him. There isn’t a trace of arrogance in his expression now.

“I don’t doubt that.”

I try to articulate what exactly bothers me about him… without my usual snark.

“It’s your view on women and their place in the world I don’t like. Your insistence on six heirs… oh sorry, a minimum of six heirs when I’m only nineteen—”

“It’s the perfect age for a woman to have her first baby.”

“Only in your world. Most women these days wait until they’re thirty.”

“I could be killed tomorrow. I need to secure my line.”

“You have three brothers. Your family isn’t exactly on the brink of dying out.”

“It’s my duty as head of the family, and not one I intend to neglect. It’s not negotiable, Mialina.”

Uh-oh. He’s using my full name.

This conversation is chasing its own tail. Neither of us is going to convince the other tonight, and judging by the stubborn man beside me, probably not in the next fifty years either.

Silence settles between us, broken only by the soft crackle of the fire.

“Tell me about your brothers,” I say, steering us onto safer ground. “You seem close.”

“We are.”

“All of you?”

He takes a moment, as if deciding where to begin.

“In different ways.”

I wait, resisting the urge to fill the silence.

“I’m probably closest to Gabe.”

That doesn’t surprise me. I suspected as much. I liked Gabe when we talked at Aldo’s birthday ball.

“We’re quite alike,” Maximo says. “We tend to arrive at the same conclusions.”

“Your humor is definitely similar.”

He chuckles. “So I’ve been told. He’ll officially take over as consigliere when Aldo retires.”

“When will that be?”

“There’s no set timeline,” Maximo says. “Aldo intends to stay on for a few more years.”