Chapter 3 - The Unseen WarMy breath caught in my throat. The heat radiating off his body was overwhelming, cutting straight through the chill that had gripped me in the ballroom.
"He... he said men like you are always busy," I confessed, my voice dropping into a small, fragile whisper. "Until someone touches what they thought would wait forever."
Mateo’s grip on my jaw tightened slightly—not with pain, but with a fierce, possessive intensity that made my chest heave.
"He lied to you, Vivienne," Mateo murmured, his thumb gently stroking my lower lip, wiping away the last trace of the linen cloth. "I have never taken my eyes off you. Not for a single second."
"Then why?!" I wept, tears finally spilling over my lashes down my cheeks. "Why do you push me away?! Why do you act like I'm a stranger in my own home?!"
Mateo let out a long, shuddering exhale. He closed his eyes for a fraction of a second, his forehead dropping gently against mine.
"Because three weeks ago," Mateo revealed softly, his baritone thick with an raw, agonizing weight, "Declan Fitzpatrick’s men placed a car bomb under Lorenzo's vehicle outside our primary distribution terminal."
I froze. My breath hitched in my throat.
"The war between our families didn't end at our wedding, Vivienne," Mateo continued, his gray eyes opening, looking deep into mine with terrifying honesty. "It went underground. For three weeks, I have been systematically dismantling Declan’s network in Brooklyn to keep him from realizing that you are my only weakness. I stayed away from this penthouse because every time I stepped through that door, I brought blood on my shoes."
My hands came up instinctively, my fingers clutching his crisp white shirt, pulling him closer to my chest.
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"You didn't tell me..." I whispered, my heart aching with a sudden, profound realization of the heavy burden he had been carrying alone in the dark.
"I didn't tell you because I swore an oath on our wedding day that the shadows of my world would never touch your skin," Mateo swore, his broad arms wrapping tightly around my waist, pulling me flush against his hard frame. "And tonight... you pulled the devil himself straight to your mouth."
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