Chapter 3 - An Untouchable Vow
The master bedroom on the second floor was larger than my entire apartment. High ceilings, a roaring fireplace that cast flickering amber shadows across the cream-colored walls, and a massive king-sized bed draped in Egyptian cotton. It smelled faintly of him—woodsmoke, expensive cologne, and crisp night air.
Matteo placed me gently on the edge of the mattress, then immediately knelt before me to untie my practical work shoes.
"Matteo, stop. Don't do that," I whispered, pulling my foot back. The sight of a man whose name made hardened criminals shudder kneeling at my feet felt entirely surreal.
He caught my ankle lightly, refusing to let go, his thumb rubbing a slow, soothing circle against my ankle bone. "Let me, Sera. Please."
There was that word again: Please. It sounded so foreign coming from a mouth built for issuing lethal commands.
He slipped off my shoes, set them aside, and stood up, removing his ruined coat and tossing it onto an armchair. Underneath, his black dress shirt clung to broad shoulders and a narrow waist. He unbuttoned the top two buttons, rolling up his sleeves to reveal forearms corded with muscle and crisscrossed with faded combat scars.
"A doctor will be here in twenty minutes," he announced.
"I just came from a hospital! I don't need a doctor!"
"Dr. Elena Vance is on my private payroll," Matteo stated, his tone brooking no argument. "She is discreet, she is the best obstetrician on the eastern seaboard, and she will verify that you and the baby did not suffer any physical trauma from that fall."
He walked over to a side table, poured a glass of still water, and handed it to me. I took it with trembling hands, sipping slowly. The water helped settle my fluttering stomach, but nothing could calm my racing thoughts.
"Why didn't you look for me?" I asked suddenly, the question bursting from my lips before I could stop it. "After the gala... after that night. You disappeared. And now you show up with guards and ambushes."
Matteo stood before the fireplace, staring into the flames. His silhouette was stark and imposing, like an ancient statue carved from dark marble.
"I did look for you," he confessed softly.
I frowned. "I worked the same shifts for three months."
"I knew your shifts. I knew where you bought your morning tea. I knew you liked to read paperbacks on the bench behind the children's wing during your twenty-minute breaks."
A cold chill ran down my spine. "You had me followed?"
"I had you protected," he corrected, turning his head to look at me, his eyes dark with an unreadable torment. "Sera, you are pure. You spend your days healing broken people without asking who they are or what they've done. You looked at me that night—not as the head of the Ferrara syndicate, not as a killer—just as a man who was bleeding. You gave me something I hadn't felt in fifteen years: peace."
He took three slow steps toward the bed, stopping just inches away.
"I stayed away because I knew what I was. I knew that touching you again would pull you down into my world of blood and betrayal. I wanted to keep you clean. I wanted you to have a normal, beautiful life with a normal man."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out the ultrasound scan once more. He held it up between two fingers, his jaw clenching so hard a muscle twitched in his cheek.
"But fate had other plans," he whispered. "You are carrying my heir. The bloodline of the Ferrara family is inside you. From the moment this child was conceived, your peace was shattered. And since I cannot give you a quiet life anymore... I will give you an untouchable one."
May you like
He leaned down, placing one warm palm flat against my belly over the fabric of my scrubs. The heat of his hand seeped through the cloth, sending a strange, intoxicating shiver through my core.
"I swear to you, Sera," he murmured, his voice heavy with the gravity of a blood oath. "No harm will come to you under this roof. Anyone who seeks to hurt you will have to step over my corpse first. You and this child are mine now. Completely."
