Bound by Duty (Born in Blood Mafia Chronicles, #2)

by Cora Reilly

Hurt welled in me and I rolled over, away from him. Dante was into women, so why didn’t he want to sleep with me? What was wrong with me that after two wedding nights, I was still as untouched as the virgin snow? I wasn’t sure I could go through this again. I wanted to experience lust, wanted to be desired.

I didn’t like to give up on things. I was stubborn—too stubborn, as my mother always pointed out—but

“So you didn’t mind the company of prostitutes, but you can’t take your own wife’s virginity?”

I was a good liar, didn’t have a choice but to become one.

“There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil. For to thee is this world given,”

Men in our world would be surprised how much their wives and daughters knew about the life the men were trying to protect them from. You can’t grow up in a mob family and not figure out most of what’s going on.

My hand came up to his stomach and I stroked him lightly. Was it the dark that made him more approachable? That made him forget who he was, who he was bound to be?

“It’s not like people choose to be gay. They are gay or they aren’t. You’d force your men to live a lie.”

The next day my gynecologist confirmed my pregnancy and that I was seven weeks along.

“You’re so busy honoring her memory and protecting the image of her you have in your mind that you don’t realize how badly you’re treating me. You lost your first wife through no fault of your own, but you will be losing me because you can’t let go of her.”

“I’ll move into the guest bedroom. There isn’t enough room in our bedroom for me and the memories of your past. If you ever decide you want to give this marriage a chance, then you can come to me and apologize for what you said. Until then, I’m done with us.”

“You know what’s strange?” I whispered thickly. “At one point, I thought I could never love someone as I loved Antonio, no matter how unrequited that love was. And today I’m condemning him to his death for another man who will never love me back.”

And yet I hadn’t even hesitated. I’d chosen Dante, and I’d choose him again. He was my husband, he was the father of my unborn child, he was the man I loved even if he’d never given me reason to. I buried my face against my legs, hurting, hurting so much I couldn’t stand it. There was blood on my hands now. I cried even harder.

I knew many women in our world preferred a beautiful lie to the harsh truth any day, and for the first time, I understood. After all that had happened today, I allowed myself that weakness. Tomorrow would be the time to face reality.

It had taken a while and we’d encountered some bumps along the road, but finally I had what I’d always wanted: a husband who cared deeply about me, and a beautiful baby we both loved more than anything else in the world. It felt as if I’d finally arrived where I was supposed to be.