Vee ignored him. She moved around the kitchen like he wasn’t there, stirring, tasting, adjusting.
"Come on, Vee," he pressed, pushing off the table and moving toward her. "How am I supposed to fix it if I don’t know what I did?" He reached her just as she covered the pot, trapping the simmering contents beneath the lid. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, pulling her against him.
For a second, she let him.
Then she turned.
"When was the last time we fucked?" she asked.
The question hit him like a misfired bullet. Of all the things he thought he had done wrong... That hadn’t even crossed his mind.
"Uh..." he blinked, thrown off, his grip loosening slightly. "If memory serves... that was before I went to Singapore."
Her eyes didn’t leave his. "That’s about a month and a half ago."
"Yeah?" he replied slowly, still trying to catch up.
"You don’t see a problem with that?"
Before he could respond, she wriggled out of his arms, slipping away from him, taking a few careful steps back.
Luca ran a hand through his hair, exhaling. "Bambola, I—"
"You what?" she cut in. "Saving yourself for when you go to Italy to fuck your wife again?!"
"You said you trusted me!" Luca snapped.
"I must have been high on painkillers," she shot back instantly, turned and walked out of the kitchen, her steps uneven, her limp a bit pronounced.
"Vee—" he started, already moving after her.
She made it to the bottom of the stairs before reality caught up with her body. Her pace slowed. Then stopped. Because no matter how angry she was... her body refused to cooperate.
The betrayal of it. The humiliation.
"Going somewhere?" Luca mocked.
Veronica stilled at the foot of the stairs, her hand gripping the railing. She didn’t turn immediately. When she did, her eyes were blazing. "You’re an asshole."
Luca gave a small, unapologetic shrug, the corner of his mouth twitching. "I know." He stepped closer. "Vee," he continued. "You really think I wouldn’t be able to fuck you, Bianca, and fifty other women and still not have the stamina to fuck you all over again?"
The arrogance in his words. Uggghhhh....
"Again?" she snapped. "You are a fucking asshole!"
Luca exhaled sharply. "Besides, what are you even talking about? We do other stuff," he added. "I thought that was enough. At least for you."
"It would be," she fired back instantly, stepping toward him despite the protest in her leg, "if you weren’t flying off to your pretty, perfect, spotless wife in a bit! How do you expect me to feel, Luca? Enlighten me."
"I cannot fuck you because I don’t want to hurt you, you stupid baby!" he yelled.
"What?" she breathed, the anger faltering, confusion slipping in.
"I..." He exhaled, shaking his head slightly. "Haven’t you noticed?" He gestured vaguely, frustrated at himself. "I don’t know how to do soft," he admitted. "Or tender. Or any of that vanilla bullshit." His jaw tightened. "You had a bullet in your thigh, Veronica. Hell," he continued, "I’d be celibate for a decade if it meant I wouldn’t add to your pain."

Veronica’s brows pulled together, her heart tightening at the way he said it.


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