Distance between us

PRESENT DAY

Nico was gone. He told me he would keep an eye on me and make sure nothing happened to me again, but he lied. If his idea of keeping an eye on me involved going back to the U.S., then he was fulfilling his promise. 

He told me that some of his capos lost close loved ones during our wedding when the explosion went off. I couldn’t push away the guilt I felt fast enough. The explosion was because of Samson and me.

I had managed to befriend Serena and make her forget she didn’t trust me, but I didn’t want it to come at the cost of people’s lives.

When Nico told me most of those people died because they were shot by Alexei’s men, it didn't make me feel any better. Samson said there would always be casualties in war, but I wasn’t sure I was okay with it.

“Hey, Tally,” Serena said as she walked out to the outdoor pool to find me. Italy was scorching hot compared to Ireland. I constantly needed to be in the water to cope with it.

I was in the water when she beamed at me. How someone could be so nice all the time didn’t sit right with me. She made me feel like I was a terrible person—I was, but that didn’t mean I wanted to feel like it.

“Hey, Serena. What are you doing here?” I asked as my eyes went to the bag she was holding. She was obviously planning to stay the night.

“I’m here to keep you company. Nico said you were lonely.”

I rolled my eyes at that. Nico lied to her that I was lonely because he didn’t want me to be alone. While Serena had fallen face-first into my trap, Nico was not naive. He still hadn’t let go of the phone call Serena overheard.

His caring attitude faded when I stopped needing help doing tasks like getting dressed and eating, since it was my right shoulder that was injured during the attack.

He grew distant again, and when he thought I wasn’t looking, he stared at me like he was trying to figure me out. He also didn’t touch me. He knew every crease and crevice in my body, every scar, every tattoo, and every mark. He had tied me on his bed, put me in every position, fucked me on the floor, in his room, in my penthouse back in New York, and even on the balcony of several hotels and his houses.

But he wouldn’t even sleep in the same bed as me. It had been like that for months. It was as though he was afraid something would happen if he touched me.

He was still caring, making sure I got unlimited access to his credit cards, making sure I ate, keeping away from his relatives, and just generally making sure I either had security, or he would escort me if I was going out somewhere. 

But touching or kissing me was out of the question. I didn’t know where he slept or where he went. He didn’t talk to me unless it was necessary. How was I supposed to get him to trust me if he didn’t at least talk to me?

I was starting to think he was having an affair. Before he and I got married, no one ever thought he would settle down. He was known as Italy’s most eligible bachelor and also the biggest womanizer known to man.

He never shared a bed with a woman for more than one night. You would be lucky if he slept with you twice. And even if he did, it didn’t mean anything to him.

He had slept with people’s wives and daughters for revenge. He had every hot model and actress on his arm, and he was praised for it. Ridiculous.

He was hot without a doubt. There was no denying those Italian genes did him nothing but favors with a five o’clock shadow beard and a jawline that could slice through an apple.

His intense gray eyes had a way of holding you captive while exuding danger and allure at the same time. His dark hair had no gray hair in sight, and that wasn’t because he dyed it.

In fact, Nico didn’t look a day over thirty-five, but he acted way older than thirty-eight, minus his womanizing ways. The glaring age difference between us, fourteen years, only highlighted how much more mature he was than me. He knew how to handle my attitude in ways I never thought any man would.

Sometimes I felt like a petulant child when we argued. And he didn’t argue with me back. It was mostly me doing all the yelling and complaining while he listened calmly. That always drove me insane.

All in all, Nico was smart and perceptive, and I should have known it would take a lot to fool him. I was a fool for thinking I could easily manipulate a man who had seen all the tricks in the book.

The only options left were to make him fall for me. I almost laughed out loud at that. Nico’s heart was as cold as Antarctica. He would never fall for a woman like me. The only reason he married me was that he had already slept with me during my engagement party to his brother, and he wanted an alliance with the Irish mafia, my parents.

I was first arranged to marry Nero, the man I hated more than Nico. I didn’t want to marry him, and I thought I would die just by sharing the same bed as him. I already knew he was in love with someone else—Serena—at the time, but it did nothing to ease my worries.

But then we found out Nico and I had a sexual encounter, and I had to marry him instead. Nico would have never willingly put a ring on my finger.

There was not a monogamous bone in that man’s body.

“Earth to Tally,” Serena said as she snapped her fingers in front of me. “You zoned out.”

“I’m sorry. What did you say again?”

“I’m going to change into my swimsuit and tell you all about the mini wedding I’m planning for you and Nero. You deserve a redo.”

Before I could protest, she was already headed inside to change. For once in her life, could Serena just think of herself and not other people?

Remarrying a man who was probably cheating on me made me want to shoot myself in the fucking head.