Necessary?
Zorah looked at Icaro as he followed her into their bedroom and closed the door behind him with a quiet click.
“Was that really necessary?” she asked after several long seconds of silence.
“Absolutely.”
“Icaro, really?”
“Most definitely.”
“You punched him in the face.”
“It was for appearances. I needed to make whoever is watching think I still felt he was behind this shit.”
“His nose was bleeding everywhere!”
“It was, wasn’t it?” he snickered as he held up his hand, “my hand hurts. You should kiss it better.”
“Icaro. You punched a man in the face. You said no more violence.”
“He agreed to it! He said he’d do anything for your protection.”
“He didn’t know you would break his nose!” She couldn’t stop thinking of the way blood and tears mixed as they streamed down the man’s face.
“I had to make it real.” He shook his hand, “it does hurt.”
“His face probably hurts more.”
“I sure hope it does.”
“Admit it. You hit him for reasons other than my protection,” she sarcastically drawled out the word.
“Oh, I fully admit it. He’s been under my skin since the night at the club. He’s been trying to steal my wife from me.”
“Jealous.”
“I’m not jealous.” He scoffed at the accusation, “he has nothing I need be jealous of. Now, am I annoyed and angry he would betray our friendship in such a way he would chase my bride so relentlessly and would flat out do his worst to sabotage our relationship? Fucking right I am. He’s lucky all I did was break his nose. I considered using a tire iron and breaking his knees.”
“Icaro!”
He threw his hands up defensively, but a wide grin was on his face despite him trying not to laugh, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Forgive me, amoré,” he chuckled as she lunged at him.
“You’re laughing at me.”
“I’m not. I’m not,” he swung her up in his arms. “Don’t be angry. I asked him first and he agreed.” He nuzzled her neck, “can I say though you inspired me. Your shut down of his behavior was very mean and cold and incredibly sexy to watch. I channelled your brutality.”
“You’re terrible,” she huffed burying her face in his neck. “I still say you shouldn’t have hit him so hard.”
“Ah, he’ll be fine. He walked out of here on his own accord.”
“Are you sure? It seemed like a lot of blood.”
“He’s a big guy so he has a lot of blood. I promise Zorah, he’ll have black eyes for a few days, but he’ll be fine.”
“Black eyes, why would he have black eyes? You hit his nose.”
“You’ve never seen someone get a broken nose before. You always get two black eyes from a broken nose.”
“Has anyone ever broken your nose?”
“Yes. Vodingo broke my nose,” he took her finger and ran it over a small bump, “right here.”
“How come? Why did he break your nose?”
“We were always fucking around as boys. We always played pranks on each other. One time I was tasked with cleaning out the barns and he was laughing and making fun of me for it. I decided it would be hilarious to put all the shit in a pile and then call him over. He was looking for me and I jumped down from my hiding spot and pushed him face first into the dung. It was everywhere. Up his nose, in his mouth, in his eyes,” Icaro chortled with the memory, nearly gasping for breath. “When he finally caught me, he punched me in the face and broke my nose. I would rather the broken nose than a mouthful of shit.”
“You shoved your best friend into a pile of animal poop.”
“I did!” he laughed louder. “Why are you angry?”
“It’s gross.”
“Kids are gross. We did lots of nasty things. Once we tricked Amauri into trying to collect the semen from one of the rams in the sheep pen.”
“What? Why?”
“We told him it was how you got milk from a boy sheep.”
“Dear heavens.” She pulled away from him and sat on the edge of the bed, “are all boys so rambunctious?”
“I can’t speak for all boys, but the ones raised on farms, yes.”
“How much time did you spend in the city, in New York, growing up?”
“Half the year,” he shrugged. “It was a good blend of both worlds.”
“If we have children, will they have the same experience?” she asked nervously twisting her fingers together.
His smile was huge on his face as she asked her question. “Zorah Lucchesi, are you thinking about having my babies?”
“I’m keeping an open mind,” she fought the smile on her lips, his smile was so contagious.
He knelt in front of her on the floor, taking her hands in his and kissing her fingers, “I think, if we have children, they are going to be the most difficult, hard to control, spoiled little bastards on the planet. They are going to have the love of a huge extended family who will let them get away with murder, literally and figuratively. They will play in mud and know how to plant and weed a garden and to sheer a sheep and milk a cow. They will ride bikes and get dirty and be mischievous. They’ll also spend time in the city, going to plays and movies and seeing the sights. They’ll know how to navigate the cities they will someday run.”
“Will they be safe?” she asked curiously. “The last two days with the people interfering as they have been, it’s been reminding me there will always be some kind of security issue.”
“I will protect you and our family with my life, Zorah. I will always keep you safe. I promise.”
“But even right now, you don’t know who it was who was trying to get between us.”
“Says who?”
“You did. You said so downstairs.”
“You mean when Vodingo said our lead was unconscious?”
“Yes.”
“Uh, he lied. She is wide awake and doing fine. She didn’t hurt her head. We simply don’t share our shit with outsiders, Zorah and he made himself an outsider, despite our history of doing business together, by trying to come between us.”
“So, you know then who was sending me text messages?”
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