Dangerous Beauty: Part Four: Beautifully Broken (51 page)

Stunned to silence, Reanna pressed her lips together tightly.

“Mr. Valente is accepting messages, just not from you.”

Reanna’s brows lifted at that. “Excuse me?”

“Consider yourself excused. I don’t know who you think you are, but calling here as often as you are is a bit inappropriate for a nanny, don’t you think? Unless there is an emergency with Miss Sofia, there is no reason for you to be calling this office. If I spent my day transferring calls from Mr. Valente’s mistresses all day, then he’d never get any work done.”

“But I’m not—”

“Furthermore,” the woman cut her off. “While I’m sure he made you feel like you were special whenever he was with you, you should know that he is very much in a committed relationship with a good woman, and has been for nearly two years.”

Yes, Reanna’s heart stopped.

“They may be going through a rough patch right now, but trust me, sweetie, they always get back together. So just let it go. Whatever fairytale ending you have going on in your head, just stop dreaming and move on. He loves his girlfriend, okay? Don’t be a home-wrecking whore. Stop calling.”

And with those last few painfully piercing words, the evil bitch had hung up the phone.

“See what I’m saying?” Reanna stressed to Michele as she relayed her experience.

They were sitting in the car on the side of a busy New York street, people watching and talking about life … her life. Not much about his. All he’d been willing to share was he was indeed a Salerno, he was here to work for a while, maybe longer, and he’d been honored when she told him he had qualities that reminded her of Nathan.

So cute.

But yeah, back to the present.

“She was a bitch, right?”

As he had been doing most of the time during her story, Michele chuckled, giving her a smile which made her feel far more charming than she actually was.

“I agree she was quite unprofessional indeed.”

Shaking her head and taking another lick of her incredibly delectable, milky, vanilla ice cream, Reanna voiced her agreement with Michele rather clumsily, then wiped the fallen ice cream off of her chin.

“Why do you not just tell your husband what she has done?” Michele asked, taking a few more French fries into his mouth. “I’m positive he will do something about it.”

Stuffing a few French fries of her own in her mouth, Reanna frowned. “Something like what? Fire her?”

He nodded. “Yeah. Salerno organization doesn’t tolerate unprofessionalism.” He chuckled. “And then there is your husband, who wouldn’t tolerate anyone upsetting you.”

“But I wouldn’t …” Reanna shook her head vehemently. “I wouldn’t ever want to get anyone fired or anything.”

That’d be so horrible, so mean. All throughout her life Reanna had never been vindictive, and doing something like that would
definitely
be vindictive … right?

“No,” Reanna resigned, “I can’t do that. I couldn’t.” It’d be wrong. She’d be the worst woman ever …like, just ever. “I am not the type of woman who would do that to another woman.”

Nope, no way.

Michele’s laughter rang out through the car. “
Gesù Cristo,
woman.” He found whatever she said so damn amusing he could barely keep the fries in his mouth.

Reanna pursed her lips at the jerk. Whatever she said hadn’t been that damn funny.

Lightly kicking the back of his seat, Reanna gave him her best scowl. “What the hell did I say that was so funny?”

Once his laughter calmed, he turned to look at her. “Everything you said was funny,” he answered honestly. “Especially the part where you tried to convince yourself you don’t want the woman fired.”

“I don’t want the woman fired!”

He chuckled deeply as he glanced back down at his ice cream sundae. “Uh huh, sure you don’t.”

“I don’t,” Reanna pouted, stuffing more fries in her mouth.

“I will never understand you women …”

Reanna gasped in dramatic shock. “We women?”

“Yes,” Michele emphasized unashamed. “You women. Reanna, you are marrying one of the most powerful men in New York City. You know what, actually, you are marrying one of the most powerful men in the world. The Salerno Organization’s reach goes further and deeper than your pretty little head can ever imagine.”

Time out! Time out!

He thinks my head is pretty? Aww.
Reanna knew she liked him the best.

Okay, back to listening.

“You can have anything you want.”

“I cannot,” Reanna protested.

“You can,” he insisted. “Anything your heart desires, that man will do it for you. All you have to do is say please, or show him a few tears, and wars will be started just because you say so. Don’t tell me any different, because I’ve seen it before. You are marrying the consigliere of one of the world’s most powerful and deadliest crime families, and with all of that power in your delicate little hands you can’t even have a woman, who referred to you as a whore for calling your own husband might I add, fired.” He slapped his hand down on his leg. “Fire the bitch, Reanna.”

“No!”

“Fire her!”

“No,” Reanna laughed, then kicked the back of his seat again. “I will not be the bitch who gets the secretary fired just because she can.”

“That you will not be, Mrs. Valente,” he corrected, turning to face her, a smirk appearing on his face. “You will be the wife who had the secretary fired for pissing her off. There’s a difference.”

Chuckling softly at the silly man, Reanna sat back in her seat, and refocused her attention on eating her feelings. “Whatever, crazy man. Just shut it and eat your food.”

Michele chuckled.

“And don’t tell anyone about this impromptu snack we’re eating.” She peeked up at him playfully. “I’m cheating on my diet right now.”

She wasn’t really on a diet. She needed to be, but she wasn’t because she didn’t have the patience or
willpower. But she didn’t want Michele to think she snuck to fast food places for a few ‘guilt’ fries every now and then. Or rather, she didn’t want him to
know
she did. Because she did.
Way
more often than she should.

“Please, woman,” Michele said, seemingly dismissing her words. “You do not need this diet. You are a bountiful, beautiful, full-figured woman, with child bearing hips that would be praised in my country.”

Raising a brow at his words, Reanna smiled. “All that, huh?”

Michele looked back at her with an exceptionally handsome smile. “And more,” he replied. “Your husband—”

“Fiancé.”

“He does not have any complaints about your womanly beauty does he?”

She seriously tried to fight against the stupid girly giggle, but, of course, it still slipped out anyway. “No, he does not,” she answered shyly.

Kyle actually loved her body … way more than she did. Though Reanna adored the voluptuous sexiness that God had bestowed upon her, she did have her moments—which mostly occurred when she watched the Victoria’s Secret fashion show every year—where she felt a little self-conscious. Like all women do … probably even those Victoria’s Secret models! But Kyle loved her body all of the time. Ever since the day she met him he’d told her that she was beautiful. And she believed him even more now that he’d spent an entire weekend showing her just how sexy he thought she was.

“Well, it’s settled then,” Michele said, bringing her out of her thoughts and back to the present. “You will stay as beautiful as you already are, Mrs. Valente, yes?”

Her smile grew wider, even as she nodded her head up and down. “Yes,” she answered simply. “I think I’d like to keep you, Michele. You’re not as scary as your height and tattoos suggest you are.”

Michele laughed softly. “Why thank you.”

Laughing in response, Reanna relaxed back once again, and whispered, “You’re welcome.”

A comfortable silence fell around them, as they both quietly continued to enjoy their food, and listen to the radio.

It was … nice.

Everything was nice. Her conversation with Michele, the time she’d spent away from work, away from her drama with Braden, her sister. Every now and then, she’d get a flash of sadness at the thought of her day thus far, but for the most part, spending a little time in a car, and having a nice afternoon snack with a new friend had been just the medicine she needed to get her through the rest of her time without Kyle and Sofi … Both of whom she missed so much it was beginning to cause her heart physical pain.

“Well, well, well …”

Soft chuckling coming from the front seat where Michele sat cut through Reanna’s somber thoughts, bringing her back to the present.

“I knew he wouldn’t be able to stay away.”

He shook his head after saying the words, then lowered his voice and muttered something in Italian as he glanced out of his window.

Curious to what the man was talking about, Reanna sat up, leaning in between the front seats to stare out of the windows with him.

“What is …” Her words trailed off the moment she laid eyes on what Michele had been looking at. “What. The. Hell?”

A line of Black SUVs—Reanna counted five to be exact, and that was not counting the police escort leading them through the traffic—was in front of them.

“What on earth is going on?” she whispered. “Is it the president?”

“No, sweetheart,” he laughed softly. “That,” he pointed in the direction of the cars, “is your fella …”

Reanna frowned. “My fella?” Her eyes widened even more. “Bullshit. That is not Kyle.”

Impossible! Just completely impossible.
Not
possible. No man would literally hold up traffic by shooting through just to see her. She watched as all of the cars came to a stop and a few police officers came running out in the middle of the bustling New York traffic, one of them running over to the window of the first car.

Her stomach twisted with nerves.

Oh shit! He was getting in trouble, wasn’t he? Capturing her bottom lip between her teeth, Reanna shook her head back and forth.
What the hell Kyle
, she thought warily. Why the hell would he hold up traffic in the middle of the city. The place was swarming with cops; he had to know that he’d be asked to … no, wait.

They weren’t telling them to move?

“What the …”

Reanna continued to watch on, stunned by what she was witnessing. After what looked like a brief interaction with the driver if the front SUV, the police took a step back from the cars, then turned away from them as if blocking them off from the oncoming traffic, and began directing traffic to move around the SUVs.

What!

Frowning once more, Reanna, for the first time, began to actually wonder just how much pull the Salerno Organization had in New York City. Maybe it was more than she could fathom.

Okay, this was giving her a huge headache. She seriously understood nothing about the world Kyle lived in.

“That cannot be Kyle,” Reanna attempted to rationalize with herself. “He wouldn’t … or, why would he …”

Dear lord, she was stumbling over her own words!

“I don’t know, sweetheart,” Michele replied in response to her unspoken question. “Perhaps he missed you.”

“Missed me?”

Still staring wide-eyed at the line of cars, Reanna gasped softly when they all came to a stop in front of the car in which she sat.

“Oh my God.”

Was it him?
Oh God please let it be him
… And it was.

The moment the cars came to a complete stop, the backseat door from the car second in the line flew open, and out stepped Kyle in all his, once again, disheveled glory. He appeared anxious—as if he were troubled—as he fiddled with the buttons of what looked like a different shirt than she’d last seen him in this morning.

It was perfect. He was perfect. And best of all, he was here.

Reanna could not
still
her rapidly beating heart! A huge smile spread across her face and she leaned forward, longing to be closer to him.

“He’s here,” she almost cried as she whispered the words. “What is he doing here?”

“I think this may be a good time for me to have a smoke …”

Reanna agreed wholeheartedly. Kyle looked like a man on a very serious mission. He made his way through the crowded streets effortlessly, his men clearing the path for him with each step he took.

She couldn’t breathe; the closer he got to her the more excited she became. And when he finally neared her, when he finally made it to her car, to her door, and she heard the clicking sound of the latch being pulled, she quickly sat back down in the seat. Right as she sat, the door swung open … and there he was.

Not many words were exchanged at all.

The only thing Reanna recalled was saying his name, hearing him say
‘Baby’
in response, and then he’d reached forward, gripped her thighs, and pulled her toward him, immediately slamming his mouth against hers in a kiss that stole her breath, her thoughts, and her ability to do anything but cling to him, kiss him back, and thank God in heaven he was here. In her arms. Exactly where she wanted him to be.