Page 120 of Vows of Blood

"Where is he now?"

"Onyx. Enzo's been keeping him company." A pause. "Says it was all Alfonso's idea, and he was just following orders."

I scoff.

“Of course, he is.” It’s easy to shift the blame now that father is dead, but there’s no doubt in my mind that he was egging him on. The arrogant shit is still convinced he can negotiate his way out of this, still believing that being blood comes before everything else.

And it does, just not for him.

"Do you want to handle it yourself?" Corso asks. "I can hold him here. Or bring him to you."

I straighten and look down at the pool below.

Sienna climbs out of the water, rivulets streaming down her tanned skin as she pushes her long dark hair back from her face with both hands. She's topless, completely unselfconscious, knowing nobody is watching her here.

Except me.

She looks up and gives me a saucy grin, knowing exactly what she’s doing to me, and how to get me off the phone.

“Don’t bring him here.”

Leaving him at Onyx for that long is risky, and I have no intention of returning early. Part of me wants to be there, to be the last thing he sees, but Sienna's finally relaxed. Not recovered, but the constant tension in her body has begun to ease.

She woke up in a panic the first night here, clawing at the sheets, and I held her until she eventually dozed off. We’ve done nothing but laugh and eat, and it’s been good for both of us. Just like the old times.

I'm not cutting that short for a man who isn't worth the fuel.

She stretches out on the beach chair, face tipped up toward the sun, with one arm hanging over the side. The white bikini bottoms sit low on her hips, and water still glistens across her stomach, begging me to come down there and lick it off.

"No." Sienna shifts one knee bending. "I have better things to do."

A beat of silence.

"Just make sure they never find him."

"Understood." No questions, no hesitation. "Anything else?"

I could ask about the shipments coming in this week, about the renovations at Bellini’s, but frankly, right now, I couldn’t care less.

"No. That's all."

I end the call, turn the phone off, and take the stairs down to the pool two at a time.

Sienna doesn't look up when she hears my footsteps on the deck, just smiles, that slow, lazy curve of her lips that gets me every time.

"You're blocking my sun," she murmurs.

"I know." I don't move, just drink her in.

Her breathing picks up, and her exposed nipples stiffen, her body's reaction to my mere presence making me hard already.

She opens one eye, squinting up at me, and her smile widens when she sees the way I'm staring at her.

I reach down and pull the bikini strings on either side of her hips.

She gasps and sits up, laughing, swatting at my hand while trying to keep the tiny triangle of her bikini bottoms in place, but I'm already kneeling over her, one knee on either side of her hips, caging her in.

"Luca, we're outside."