The delicate column of her throat shifts as she swallows. When her veins bulge and a red hue covers her entire face, I force my fingers to loosen.
I just spent hours giving everything to this woman. Fury roars through me as I realize the depths of her deceit. She knows who I am and where I’m from. She could ruin everything I’ve built over the last seven years. My new life. My new family.
Katherine Lanza, the woman pounding on the bedroom door, is the last female I saw before I denounced my brother. Now I know where I saw Mia before.
No, not Mia. Emma. Emma Lanza. The mafia princess my brother was supposed to marry.
Looking into her fearful eyes is too much, so I lean down and growl in her ear.
“Who do you think will suffer the most if the cops knock on the door? Tell her to shut up.”
When she nods, I loosen my grip further and take a deep breath to center myself, but the scent of sex wafting from her skin disrupts my attempt.
I lean back and step as far away from her as possible without releasing her throat.
Mio Dio, even knowing she could destroy everything, I can’t help but lust over her naked curves. My shorts do little to hide the effect she has on me.
She closes her eyes and swallows before lifting her lashes and aiming hostile brown orbs up at me.
“Katherine, it’s okay. We’re okay. Calm down.”
Other than a wobble when she first speaks, her voice emerges firm and demanding. She holds my gaze as her sister responds.
“We are not okay. That’s Fiero Capito! We need to—”
“We can’t. Not anymore. I’m sorry.”
I curl my hand into a fist at my side, struggling for control as she maintains eye contact with me. Her silent challenge stems from the woman I fell in love with, but even though my heart demands I forgive her, I cling to the promises I made to Giorgio Vivaldi.
I did not spend seven years of my life working like a dog to relinquish everything to a liar and potential con artist. All it would take is her making one phone call to my brother for her to ruin the relative peace I’ve carved out for myself.
Katherine’s desperate voice pulls me out of my spiral.
“No! Don’t say we’re caught. We can still—”
“It won’t be enough. We can’t escape this anymore. Calm down. Now,” Emma demands.
Her throat vibrates against my palm as she speaks.
Katherine sobs and kicks the door.
“What did he do to you? Why aren’t you fighting?”
“He married me. He’s my husband. Fiero Capito is mio marito.”
My vision narrows to her face. The world disappears. Other than her sister’s furious voice filtering through the cotton in my ears, nothing exists beyond the beautiful, resilient woman glaring into my soul.
She dares to lift a hand to my wrist. When she digs her nails into my flesh, I snap.
She gasps as I cover her mouth with mine. I take advantage and invade the dark recesses of her mouth. I punish her for deceiving me, devour her for being so tasty, and promise retribution for all the fucked up decisions she made to lead us to this fucked up situation. When she refuses to kiss me back, I tear my face away from hers and snarl as I weave my other hand into her hair. She hisses as I pull her head back.
“Did my brother send you? Was it all an act?” I snarl.
Hurt flares in her eyes but she covers it with defiance.
“Was what an act? You kidnapped me. You forced yourself on me. You married me. You gave me no choice!”
I twist my fingers in her hair and plaster my front to hers, flattening her breasts against my abs and grinding my clad cock against the softness of her belly.
“You lied to me, Emma Lanza,” I snarl.
Her pupils shrink. She digs her nails deeper into my wrist but doesn’t fight as I overpower the rest of her body.
“I had no choice! You wouldn’t let me go.”
The note of betrayal in her tone fertilizes the seeds of doubt in my soul.
“You’re right, mia caramellina; I wouldn’t let you go then and I won’t let you go now. I’ll never let you go. You’re mine.”
She lifts her other arm and completes her bracelet of fingers around my wrist.
“You’re a monster,” she hisses.
“Damn straight. I’m your monster.”
She grits her teeth and glares at me with such intensity I can’t resist the urge to incite her. I need more of her anger. I’m addicted.
Her hard nipples dig into my abs as I crane her neck further back and study her reaction as I speak.
“And now I’m the monster who has to decide whether I worship you or torture you. Are you my wife or my plaything? My enemy or my ally?”
Her nails, despite how short she keeps them trimmed, pierce my wrist. Blood trickles down our arms and pools on her collarbone. A muscle ticks in her jaw and her lip trembles when she opens her mouth.
I’ve never seen someone so furious yet so stunning.
“Two days ago, I was your prisoner. Yesterday I was your wife. Last night I was your plaything. Today I’m your enemy. Tomorrow?” She scoffs. “I don’t have a tomorrow. I’ve never had a tomorrow.”
Ice coalesces behind my sternum at the abject misery lurking amidst her anger.
“Your brother destroyed my life seven years ago, and now it’s you. So, you tell me what I am to you, because the only thing I’ve ever wanted was to be free.”
I pull her hair harder but gentle my grip on her throat and rub my thumb over her jugular as I respond.
“Freedom isn’t something people like you or I can have, principessa.”
“Don’t call me that!”
Her chest heaves so hard my entire torso jostles from the movement.
“Why? Does it make you miss your papà?” I snarl and stroke my thumb over her sensitive earlobe.
She hawks a massive glob of spit onto my cheek. My cock throbs with the need to put her mouth to better use, but as I release her hair and wipe her saliva off my face, the shock of her words erases all thoughts of shoving my dick in her mouth.
“No, you fucking stronzo. That’s what your brother called me as he stripped and beat me in front of dozens of men while vowing to make me his perfect little slave.”
I grab her face and dip closer to better study her.
“What? Ciro Lanza would never allow—”
“My father was there! I don’t know what your brother has on him, but my father sat there and did nothing as Seppi—”
“Do not say my brother’s name while you’re naked in my arms, Emma. Not unless you want me to lose what little control I have left,” I snarl.
“You’re hurting me.”
Any other woman would cower or look pathetic to soften their man’s temper, but mia caramellina hurls the accusation at me with nothing but contempt. She’s gorgeous. I want her.
But she’s not making sense.
“Give me a reason to stop, mia moglie. Why wouldn’t my brother just marry you and inherit your father’s fortune?”
Stinging pain travels up my arm as she creates fresh gouges on my wrist with her nails. Even with my hands clamped around her throat and jaw, she scoffs and lifts a brow.
“Do you know your brother at all? His goal is never to just win; he always needs to decimate his opponent.”
I can’t negate her statement, but making a mafia princess a communal sex slave seems too outrageous, even for my brother. It makes little sense financially either.
“What would my brother gain from hurting you?”
She wrings her hands, destroying the skin on my wrist, but I grind my aching cock against her softness and dare her to lie to me.
“Who better to make heel than the stubborn, outspoken daughter of Ciro Lanza?” Her sardonic sneer slices my heart into tiny pieces. “No one would doubt his capabilities if he had me cowering at his every move.” Pure hatred shines from her eyes as she no doubt recalls my brother’s cruelty. “With one Lanza daughter kneeling at his feet and the other on his arm as a trophy wife, he’d have all the clout he needed to make men across the country respect him and flock to him for their sex slaves.”
I cover her mouth with my hand and drop my forehead to the wall beside her temple, needing a moment to rein in my fury. The mere suggestion of her suffering under another man’s hands is too much. Add in the image of her kneeling at my brother’s feet, and I’m a hairsbreadth away from launching into a cross-country killing spree.
The scars on her back flash through my mind’s eye. Bile surges in the back of my throat. My brother gave them to her.
An even worse realization spears through me. The blood splatters on the wall and floor in Seppi’s private dungeon the last saw him were hers. In the brightly lit room, with dozens of men leering at her, she survived hell on earth as my brother humiliated and hurt her.
Even if it means stealing a plane or driving over forty fucking hours to reach my brother, I’ll beat the literal shit out of him before slowly skinning and dissecting him alive for what he did to her. He’ll never touch her again.
She’s my woman. My wife. Mine.
With every ounce of my doubt shredded, my obsession with her multiplies.
My anger shifts inward. Doubting her was stupid, even though logical. The probability of us meeting again, especially in an alley after I murdered Narciso’s goon, is so astronomically tiny it’s laughable, yet here we are. Add in my failure to recognize her and the situation takes on a wry comical edge.
My scoff morphs into a chuckle of self-disgust. I lift my head from the wall and flex my fingers around her throat and her face, enjoying the way her eyes spark at my display of dominance.
“My brother will never touch you again, mia caramellina.”
She squints in obvious disbelief.
“You’re mine, Emma.”
Lust and longing flash in her eyes, but she buries them with her fury. She shakes her head as much as my hold will allow.
“Mia Rivera or Emma Lanza, I don’t give a fuck what your name is. You’re mine, amore mio. Only mine,” I snarl.
She clenches her teeth, shifting her jaw under my grip. Her defiance only makes me want to push her further.
“Fine. Mia Rivera isn’t enough for me. I’m marrying Emma Lanza first thing tomorrow.”
She jerks her nails through my flesh and rips her face out of my grip with a vicious twist of her head.
“No! That’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever said. Are you trying to paint a big red x on my head? Sure, if your brother kills me, you don’t have to worry about disposing of me yourself, right? Now that you’ve found Katherine, you don’t have to put up with me any—”
I cut off her tirade by capturing her mouth in a fierce kiss. When I pull back, all the oxygen in the room is gone, but I don’t need it. I need her.
She tries to turn her head away, but I clamp down on her jugular and dive back into her mouth. When she bites my tongue, I growl and squeeze her throat until she relaxes her jaw.
The taste of blood coats the roof of my mouth. I grimace and frame her face with both hands as I shift my entire body over hers, highlighting her helplessness. Her stiff nipples draw jagged lines on my abs as her hands smear blood over my sides and arms. I brush her hair away from her temple and tease her earlobe with my fingertips.
“You’ve got it all wrong, mia caramellina. When I say you’re mine, I mean you’re the only one for me. You’re stuck with me. Like I said before, I’m never letting you go. Ever. Not even my brother can make me walk away.”
When her eyes shift behind me toward the door blocking her sister, her true worry snaps into focus. I shift my hand up her throat and curl my fingers behind her ears, spending the least amount of effort while exerting the most control over her face and throat.
“What’s yours is mine now, mia caramellina, which includes your sister. I’ll protect her just as fiercely as I protect you.”
Anger flashes in her eyes.
“Protect? You call this protecting me?”
“I stopped my brother’s man from kidnapping you last night, didn’t I?”
She stills and searches my expression.
“He was from San Francisco?” she asks.
I smirk as I recall his gory ending.
“Yes. He was one of my brother’s favorites. It was my pleasure to ensure he breathed his last.”
Katherine pounds on the door and yanks on the handle as she yells through the barrier.
“Then we have to leave! If Seppi found us—”
“He didn’t,” I interrupt. “Destin wasn’t here for you, but he recognized Emma, so I killed him before he could tell anyone.”
“And when he doesn’t report back to Seppi? What then?” Emma asks.
I shrug.
“He’s in New York City, not San Francisco, and not for wholesome reasons either. It may help us if my brother thinks Narciso killed him.”
Emma shudders and pushes against my shoulders.
“I can’t do this anymore. I can’t talk about these men while I’m naked. Get off me. I need clothes.”
Trapped between wanting to ravage her again and suffering from the same sentiment, I growl, toss her over my shoulder, and grope her ass and thighs as I carry her down the hall. She hisses and digs her elbows into my ribs for leverage as she lifts her shoulders. Her heavy breasts shift against my back.
I dip my fingers into the wetness between her thighs and bite back a moan at how silky smooth her intimate flesh is. She vibrates with frustration and fury but calls out assurances to her sister.
I toss her onto the mattress and enjoy her jiggling and bouncing before snatching my shirt off the floor and dropping it on her lap. She glares at me as she sticks her arms into the sleeves and slips it over her head. The black fabric stretches over her breasts and rests just below her crotch. Any other time and I would die to watch her flouncing around the apartment in nothing but my shirt, but the heavy conversation to come and her sister’s presence require too much concentration, so I find her shorts tangled in the sheets and shake them out before threading them onto her legs and pulling her to her feet. She yanks the waistband over her hips and tries to skirt around me, but I grab her arm and halt her before she reaches the door.
She lifts wary, angry eyes up to mine.
“I meant everything I said, Emma. You’re mine. You belong to me. By extension, so does your sister,” I say.
Her shoulders stiffen. She shoves my hand off her arm and jabs a bloody finger against my sternum as she steps closer to me.
“Don’t you fucking dare touch her again,” she snarls.
All the blood rushes to my cock. My head spins. I pin her against the doorframe and kiss her with every ounce of passion in my body. She fights for a moment before returning my frustration tenfold. I nip her bottom lip, punishing her for the throbbing pain in my tongue from her earlier bite and splaying my fingers around the side of her head, ensuring I have her full attention.
“Don’t make me touch her again. If you have any other secrets, tell me now,” I demand.
With unwavering certainty, she stares into my eyes as she responds.
“I have enough resources stashed away to disappear with my sister. If you ever hurt her, we’re gone. You’ll never find us.”
Ice travels down my spine. She means it.
“Why are you staying?”
The words leave my mouth before I realize they’re forming. It isn’t the question I should ask, but the misery shining from her rich brown eyes holds my tongue.
“We started over once. Seven years later and my sister is finally allowing herself to live again. I can’t take this away from her and leaving doesn’t guarantee we’ll be safe, so just… don’t fuck this up.”
I caress her jaw with my thumb, needing to soothe her pain even though I know I can’t. Only time and consistency will prove me trustworthy. Today’s altercation won’t win me any favors with her, even though the situation could have ended so much worse.
“I’m not my brother, Emma. The night you saw me at his house was the last time I saw him. When he told me he was joining the flesh trade, I cut all ties and left.”
She slaps a hand to my chest and pushes at me.
“This is something Katherine needs to hear,” she says.
I sigh and shift my hips, highlighting my predicament. Her turgid nipples dig into my chest as she gives a sharp inhale.
“Does Katherine need to hear this, too?” I ask.
She swallows and digs her nails into my biceps.
When she aims fiery orbs up at me, I’m a goner. Fully addicted. Wholly enamored.
Mia Rivera is my wife. Emma Lanza is my woman.
Her name doesn’t matter. This beautiful, resilient creature is mine.
I’ll do anything to protect and worship her.
Anything.
