I sat up slowly, allowing the silk sheets to pool around my waist, and did not pursue the matter further. Only a few days remained until the engagement ceremony—the night when the alliance between the Ashford and Corleone families would be sealed in the old way, with witnesses and wine and words that could not be unspoken.
"You haven't seemed quite yourself lately," Giorgio observed, his dark eyes studying me with something that might have passed for concern in a man capable of such feeling. "Are you nervous about the ceremony?"
I followed his gaze, meeting his eyes directly, and offered a smile so gentle it left no room for doubt. "Perhaps."
The answer clearly pleased him. He crossed the room in three strides and reached out, pulling me to my feet with a movement that was intimate and utterly unquestioning—the gesture of a man who believed he already owned what he touched.