By Virtue I Fall (Sins of the Fathers #3)(17)

If she started daydreaming about Cliffy’s eyes, I’d throw up.

I stalked over to her, took the phone from her hand and turned it off.

“Hey!” Anna said as she shoved to her knees, trying to snatch the phone out of my hand again. I pushed it into my back pocket.

Anna lunged forward and gripped my belt to drag me closer and reach for her phone. I hadn’t expected her to be this forward. I’d have thought she’d have qualms about touching me like that. I’d obviously been very wrong. Her face was right before my crotch while she tried to reach into my back pocket.

I gripped her shoulders and held her at arm’s length. She peered up at me with a coy smile.

“You’d just have to ask if you wanted me to touch your butt, Sonny.”

I took a big step back, narrowing my eyes at her. “This shit right there is exactly why I’ll get killed.”

She raised her brows.

“Your dad’s suspecting there’s more behind me attacking Cliffy than just my sense of duty.”

Anna pushed to her feet. “Well, he’s onto something, isn’t he?”

I bridged the distance between us, snarling. “This isn’t a fucking game, Anna. I won’t get killed because you’re playing games.”

“No, you won’t,” she said haughtily. “You’ll get killed because you’re unable to resist my games. That’s your problem, not mine.”

She was right. I should have more self-control. But with Anna? Control eluded me more often than not. She knew me too well and pushed all my buttons, and I enjoyed it too often.

“That’s over now.”

“If you say so.”

“And you stop provoking me. And stay the fuck away from Cliffy.”

Anna stepped even closer and her scent, like spring and ocean and goddamn sunshine, hit my nostrils. “Why are you really angry, Santino?” she asked with a knowing smile. She was too clever, too cunning, and too goddamn beautiful.





I hurried up the stairs and FaceTimed Luisa the second I reached my room.

Stretched out on my belly, I told her about the kiss, wanting to keep the best for last.

“So how was it?” Luisa asked curiously. I could tell she was sitting at her piano. There wasn’t a day without music for her. For a while, I’d tried to be as good as her but Luisa didn’t just love music, she lived music and I didn’t. I loved drawing, especially humans and clothes. Music was a nice way to get in the mood to do what I really enjoyed.

“Pleasant.”

Luisa made a pained face. “That doesn’t sound as if you enjoyed it.”

“I did. It was nice really. Like a pleasant ride on one of those slow water rides in that theme park we once visited.”

“You hated it. You only rode the craziest rollercoasters afterward.”

I grinned, remembering that day and how pissed Santino had been because he had to go on every ride with me. But a few times I’d caught his excitement. He just didn’t want me to know he enjoyed anything I did. “It was okay. Clifford did nothing wrong. I think he’s a really good kisser.”

Luisa watched me silently. She sighed. “I know you, Anna. Good isn’t what you’re looking for.”

A grin crept up on my face. “Santino caught us.”

Luisa made a face as if she knew I’d set it up. “And?”

I bit my lip, my belly bursting with nervous butterflies.

“That expression…” She points at my face. “Should have been on your face while you talked about your kiss with Clifford.”

I waved her off. This wasn’t about the kiss or Clifford. “Santino completely lost his shit. For a moment I thought he’d kill Clifford. He grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off me.”

“He was on top of you?”

“Not really. He was just leaning into me but that’s not the point. Santino cared.”

“Are you sure he didn’t just follow your dad’s orders?”

I shook my head, still not able to stifle my grin or excitement. “You should have seen the look in his eyes.”

Santino burst into my room like a madman. Luisa’s eyes widened in alarm. A normal reaction seeing the murderous look on Santino’s face. My body, however, flooded with desire for him. My heart began racing and butterflies swarmed my belly. This was the reaction I wanted.





“Why are you really angry, Santino?” I asked.

Santino and I stood close, close enough to smell his aftershave, a familiar scent I often dreamed about since I first smelled it years ago. His brown eyes brimmed with anger, but it wasn’t all there was.

Santino looked as if he was torn between kissing and killing me. I should have been wary of his wrath like any sane person would have been but desire simmered in my veins. Nothing compared to the flood of desire I felt whenever I saw Santino’s furious expression. He was like a caged beast—wild, furious, untamed.

He was the wild ride I needed before marriage and Clifford’s political career caged me in, before life became a string of duties and pleasant kisses.

Santino desired me. Maybe he didn’t dare admit it to himself, much less show it, but I could see it in his eyes. In a few months, I’d be of age, and I knew deep down that then all bets would be off. Like Santino had said, eventually he’d give in. It was only a matter of time and my perseverance.