His Tesoro: An Arranged Marriage Age Gap Mafia Romance (Empire of Royals Book 1)
His Tesoro: Chapter 32

I was taking the day off.

I couldn’t remember the last time I took a day off.

When I told Romeo before leaving the office yesterday, his shocked expression had turned into a shit-eating grin. He had even texted me this morning, wishing me a happy day with my wife.

I hadn’t responded. I wasn’t here for her. I needed to supervise the service dog trainers. This was the last day they would work with Sofiya and Noodle.

“I was thinking maybe we could go to the park after the service dog people leave? If you don’t have other things to do?” My wife’s sweet voice cut through my brooding, and I looked up from my breakfast.

“The park?”

“Umm, yeah. Central Park? I haven’t been and, I don’t know, it looks pretty in the movies. I bet Noodle would like it. I thought we could walk around and get a hot dog.”

Her cheeks blushed so prettily as she said it, but my lips turned down in a frown. She wanted to go to Central Park and eat a hot dog? I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gone to the park. It wasn’t like I had any business there, and it was way too fucking exposed for my liking. The entire city was my territory, so in theory, it should be fine. Safe. But picturing Sofiya there, out in the world where I couldn’t control everything, made my chest tight. I rubbed it absentmindedly.

“It’s okay,” she said, and I realized I’d been sitting in silence a beat too long. “I’m sure you have more important things to do.” Her smile was brittle, and she wasn’t quite meeting my gaze. My heart pumped faster, each thump sending a shock of pain through me because I caused that, and nothing in the world was right when my tesoro was sad.

“My men will need to sweep the area we’re going to before we arrive, and they’ll keep eyes on us the whole time,” I said gruffly. A smile transformed Sofiya’s face, and I wanted to burn it into my mind forever.

“Really? We can go?”

I nodded down at her pancakes. “You need to eat your breakfast. We’ll go this afternoon.”

Maybe I could convince her to go to a nice restaurant. Somewhere impressive that showed how I could care for her. Her hand slipped into mine, and she leaned against my shoulder. I froze at the unexpected contact, desperately wishing I wasn’t wearing this suit jacket. I wanted to feel the heat of her skin against mine.

“Thank you.” Her words were soft as she tilted her head to meet my gaze.

I willed myself to say something, but my mouth was so dry my words caught in my throat. So all I did was grunt and pull her chair closer to me. Now our sides were pressed together. A smile teased at her lips as she picked up her fork to resume eating. Keeping her left hand in mine the entire time.