Chapter 126

To my chagrin, Christian just shakes his head and tightens his arms around me, turning me again in the bed so that I’m flat on my back and he’s on top of me, his weight balanced on his forearms. “Let’s not talk about it now, Daisy,” he murmurs, pressing a lazy kiss to my neck and then to my chest right above where my sundress – which I slept in, too lazy to get changed into some of Christian’s pajamas – makes a deep v over my chest. I sink my fingers into his hair as he does, unable to help it.

“Christian,” I murmur, a little bit of a pout in my voice. Because he’s being unfair and I want to know. I mean, if the plan is to really just hang out and boil more lobsters, then great – we can lounge around in bed and delay talking about it all we want.

But from the way he’s acting, I know it’s more than that.

He sighs again, pressing a kiss lower on my chest, and then raising his eyes to mine. “Honeymoon’s over, Daisy,” he murmurs, looking steadily into my eyes. “We have to go introduce you to the family.”

“What?” I gasp.

He grimaces a little and lowers his head, pressing another kiss to my skin. “Told you you didn’t want to know.”

“Chris,” I hiss, sitting up a little and obliging him to do the same. “Why on earth are we doing that?”

He sighs and gets up to his knees, holding out a hand and helping me to sit up all the way. “Come on, let’s have breakfast. No sense briefing you on the plan alone if I just have to do it four more times. Okay?”

I glare at him for a moment, wanting to know right now, but then I tilt my head up to him, silently begging for a kiss in payment for my patience. “Okay.”

Christian grins, and obliges me with a long, soft kiss, before he hops out of the bed and pulls me up with him, carrying me off to the bathroom in his arms. I shriek and then laugh.

“Put me down! Where are you taking me!?”

“To brush our teeth! Oral hygiene is important in the morning.”

“A task we can do alone! Independently!”

“Not anymore, Daisy,” Christian replies, grinning at me as he sets me on my feet next to the sink. “We’re married now. This is one of the perks.”

I roll my eyes at this nonsensical logic, but somehow I can’t stop smiling.

I feel a great deal of pressure about fifteen minutes later as I stand in front of the coffee pot, waiting for it to finish brewing. As I glance over my shoulder, I see three big mafia guys standing with their arms crossed, glaring at the pot, with Lucy in front of them doing the same. Christian lounges patiently on the couch, flicking through his phone.

“I’m going as fast as I can, guys!” I protest, gesturing towards the nearly full pot. “There’s nothing I can do to speed this up!”

“Coffee. Now.” Frankie murmurs, somehow managing to glare even as he rubs one eye with the side of his hand.

Tony just grumbles an incoherent noise of agreement. Nico continues glaring, silent.

“What is with you guys,” I mutter, turning back to the pot and re-straightening the already-straight line of six coffee cups.

“We didn’t sleep in a very soft, very expensive bed,” Lucy quips, her voice snappier than usual. “After an evening of debauchery in which far too much whiskey was quaffed.”

“You don’t get to talk,” Frankie grumbles. “You slept on a couch.”

“I had to share the couch with a big lump,” Lucy gasps in protest, spinning to glare at Frankie even as she points at Tony, who growls louder in protest. “You had the whole floor to stretch out on!”

“Oh, lucky me!” Frankie returns, rolling his eyes and re-crossing his arms. “Just foot after foot of antique hardwood floor! The luxury of my life!”

“Enough!” Christian calls from the living room, though I can tell his order is laced with a great deal of humor. “We’ll get you guys…air mattresses. Or something.”

“You’ll get us a hotel room!” Lucy tosses over her shoulder, glaring.

Christian just smirks, not replying, but then the coffee pot hisses its final breath and drops its final drop, and all eyes return to me.

Hastily, I pour out everyone’s cups, handing out the black coffee to the men before mixing cream and sugar into the two last cups for Lucy and me. She beams at me as she takes her mug like I’m the great savior of her life, wrapping an arm around my waist.

“Thank you, sister-in-law,” she coos. “I knew I liked you. You were my favorite bartender and now you’re my favorite barista.”

I laugh, moving with her into the living room. “Sister-in-law,” I say, smiling down at her. “I like that. I’ve never had a sister.”

“Well, I’m the youngest of five girls,” she says, rolling her eyes skyward. “So, if you ever want another, you can take one of mine.”

I laugh and, seeing Christian raise a passive hand inviting me to come sit with him, Lucy lets me go and goes to settle herself in Tony’s lap. I curl up at Christian’s side, ignoring, a bit, how close my feet are to Frankie on the other side of the couch. I mean, I try to curl up – but it’s a little couch, and I have long legs for such a relatively short girl.

But I notice Nico noticing that little detail from his ever-stoic spot on the floor.

“So!” Nico snaps, moving his eyes from the scant inch between my toes and Frankie’s thigh to Christian’s face. “What’s the plan, boss?”

Christian glares at him a little, not really liking his tone and taking a long sip of his coffee before looking around the room at all of us. “Fun’s over, unfortunately. We have to go home. Make amends with the Big Guy.”

Lucy’s eyes go a little wide at this. “Really?” she whispers. “You want us to go…home?” She bites her lip, and I remember that Lucy freed Frankie without Romano’s permission. But does Romano even know how Frankie got out? Does he know Lucy was behind it?

“You two have to make your own decision,” Christian replies, looking between Lucy and Tony. “But I’m taking Iris home, tonight, to meet the family. Introduce her as my wife. I need to see where things stand and make it perfectly clear that what I did wasn’t a betrayal – that it was me protecting the family.” He looks quite steadily at me now. “Even if she wasn’t officially family. Not yet.”

“Turning the tables,” Frankie says, his voice interested. “That makes it your dad’s betrayal for letting Bonetti have her in the first place.”

“Exactly,” Christian replies, his words quick and efficient. “She was mine and he took her without my permission. I need an apology for that.” He gives me an apologetic shrug when he says this, letting me know he knows he doesn’t own me, but that in the context of a mafia family that this kind of possession is important. I nod, letting him know I understand.

“I don’t hate it,” Nico says on a sigh, like it still makes him anxious. “Gives us time, allows us to mend fences until we’re able to make…whatever move it is we’re going to make.”

“Are you seriously not going to kill dad?” Tony asks, leaning forward a bit towards Christian and making Lucy shift anxiously in his lap, likewise looking towards my husband.

“No, Tony,” Christian snaps, and I blink a little at the ease with which he tells such a blatant lie. Because I am aware that that is the real plan, even if Tony isn’t allowed in on it yet. “I don’t want dad dead – I just want to start my own business in this world – do things on my terms. And tonight we’re going to ask dad his terms on that – see what it will take for him to let me loose from my commitments to the family. Help me get established, even.”

Tony raises his eyebrows like he’s surprised by this. And as he does, I see his mind work, see him study Christian. See him try to decide for himself just how much of this he believes.

“So.” Christian snaps, making me jump a little as my attention is drawn back to him. When I turn, I see that his eyes are on Nico. “What do we need to do to make this happen?”

“Well, as usual, I will arrange all of it,” Nico says with a sigh, glaring around at everyone. “Since you are all useless and lazy.”

“He needs more coffee,” Lucy whispers loudly, not at all trying to be secret.

“And,” Nico continues, deliberately ignoring her, focusing his eyes on me. “Someone is going to need some clothes.”

“You don’t like my dress?” I ask, half playful and half sarcastic, gesturing down at my beachy sundress wedding gown.

“Oh, I think it suits you perfectly, Iris,” Nico says, his voice bone dry.

And I laugh, taking his point that he thinks I’m just as cheap and tasteless as this dress implies, and not caring at all. Christian smirks too, running a proud and possessive hand over my hair, letting his fingers trail down my back.

“But,” Nico sighs, studying me and speaking seriously now. “You’re about to go into the lion’s den, Bambi. And you’re going to need some armor.”

“What does that mean?” I breathe, half scared and half excited.

“It means we’re going shopping!” Lucy squeals, putting her coffee cup down and eagerly clapping her hands.

And I can’t help it – I smile, caught up in the excitement, nodding. Because Nico’s right – if I’m going to meet the family as Christian’s wife?

I’ve got to dress the part.