Cold Family Dinner

Giovanni let out a low, rumbling chuckle, his shoulder nudging mine in the leather booth. "No need to play the blushing virgin now, sweetheart," he murmured. "We both know exactly how wild you get behind closed doors."

I slapped my palm flat against his chest, heat flooding my cheeks. "What is actually wrong with you?" I laughed, completely scandalized.

Our private life had honestly shattered my previous expectations. Giovanni was a master at blending tender reverence with raw, unapologetic dominance. He claimed every inch of me without hesitation, dragging an insatiable hunger to the surface that I hadn’t even realized I possessed. Yet, he never crossed the line into actual roughness, anchoring his demands with sweet pet names, even when my mind drifted toward submissive fantasies I usually blamed on unrealistic porn.

Our brief bubble of levity popped the second Dario exchanged a brief nod with the hulking figure seated across from us and stepped away. My attention immediately snagged on the absolute wall of a man taking up the opposite side of the booth. A cold knot formed in my stomach.

Giovanni rested a hand on the small of my back, guiding me to settle properly against the plush seat. "This is my cousin, Corrado," he offered casually. "We have a meeting soon, so I hope it's okay if he joins us for dinner."

I swallowed hard, forcing myself to meet the other man's stare. His eyes were like twin shards of glacier ice. The sheer intensity of his stare sent a cold shock through my system. The guy didn't just look dangerous; he carried the exact, calculating stillness of a serial killer.

Pushing past the dread, I stretched my lips into a polite smile. "It's really nice to meet you, Corrado."

The moment his name hung in the air, he offered zero verbal response. Instead, he simply turned his head to summon a passing waiter, ordering top-shelf liquors strictly for himself and Giovanni, completely ignoring my existence.

Sensing the sudden tension, Giovanni laced his fingers through mine. "So, how did your university exam go today?" he asked smoothly.

"It was a breeze, actually."

"A breeze?" Giovanni arched a skeptical eyebrow. "Isn't that the class where sixty percent of the students fail the midterm?"

I flashed him a knowing smile. "Well, I happen to have an incredibly dedicated study partner."

The humor in his expression melted instantly into heavy lust. His hand slipped beneath the table, his fingers gripping my upper thigh with possessive force. "I do take my research on this body very seriously," he rasped.

"Giovanni," I scolded in a hushed whisper, biting my lower lip. Displaying this kind of shameless behavior right in front of his terrifying relative was making me squirm.

Before he could distract me further, I pulled the conversation back to reality. "You explicitly promised me a full explanation about last night."

Instead of answering, Giovanni just shot me an infuriating wink. He intercepted the returning waiter, rattling off an order for my cocktail and dinner course without pausing to consult me for a single second.

I crossed my arms firmly over my chest, glaring at his profile. "Since when do you dictate what I eat and drink? And you still haven't explained a single thing."

Before Giovanni could speak, Corrado leaned forward, his voice dripping with venomous contempt. "Are you genuinely serious about wasting your time with this woman?"

The hostility was suffocating. I shrank back slightly under that punishing stare before snapping my attention back to the man I was dating. "Are you in some kind of deep trouble?" I demanded.

"Impossible," Giovanni replied smoothly, a careless grin stretching across his handsome face.

"Are you in danger?"

"Always!" He raised his brows as if the concept was merely a joke.

"Giovanni, I am being serious," I insisted, refusing to back down. "This has clearly escalated past some casual friends-with-benefits arrangement. You marched into that venue last night looking like a professional hitman ready to slaughter any guy who breathed in my direction."

"It was a harmless hen party at a strip club. I wasn't even drinking," I continued. "Then you and a pack of lethal-looking men crashed the place and shut the entire building down. Normal bachelor parties don't operate like that. You had absolutely nothing to worry about."

The easygoing charm vanished from Giovanni's face. His voice dropped into a harsh, commanding bark. "I do not want to discuss this here. Can we just eat our meal now?"

"No, we can't!" I shot back, my temper flaring at his tone. "You don't get to storm into my life and refuse to explain yourself. What did you expect a bachelorette party to be? It's the twenty-first century, Giovanni. We are not subservient property. I have rights as an independent woman."

A dangerous smile curved his lips at my outburst. He leaned across the minimal space between us, his mouth hovering near my ear. "I understand women's rights perfectly," he whispered, a low, terrifying vibration. "But I understand even better that you belong entirely to me."

Seeing the raw, unhinged ownership blazing in his dark eyes terrified me.

I sucked in a sharp breath and forced my gaze away, colliding with Corrado's silent observation. Those frigid blue eyes tracked our every movement with undisguised disgust.

Seeking to defuse the standoff, Giovanni dragged his fingers soothingly over my bare arm. "Baby, I apologized multiple times last night. Let's just focus on your day, not my family. You are in zero danger, I guarantee it."

"Can you at least assure me things are okay at home?" I pleaded, ignoring his touch. "Was that older man your father? Is your family furious we're together? Because if this is going to cause problems, maybe we should just call it quits right now."

"No!" The word erupted from his chest, sharp and final.

"No to what?" I challenged. "No, they don't hate me? Or no, he isn't your dad?"

"Stop!" he roared, the sheer volume and force of the command causing my shoulders to jump involuntarily.

I stared at him, hurt mixing rapidly with boiling outrage. "I refuse to put up with this treatment," I stated coldly, standing up abruptly from the booth.

Giovanni instantly reached out, his fingers catching my wrist. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"

I ripped my arm out of his grasp. "To the bathroom, you asshole. Or do I need your explicit permission to take a piss now?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a mocking smirk curling Corrado's mouth. Giovanni exhaled a harsh breath, muttering an apology under his breath as he grabbed his drink and knocked it back in frustration.

Rolling my eyes, I spun on my heel and marched straight toward the restroom corridor, thoroughly convinced that his dark family and I shared nothing but deep, mutual hatred.