Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96129 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 481(@200wpm)___ 385(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“Do you want me to leave you alone to your scheming?” He shrugged. “Give me five minutes of your time and I will, as long as it doesn’t involve kissing or number five on the questionnaire.”
“What’s number five on the questionnaire?” Jimmy asked, genuinely curious.
Nico laughed even harder and patted him on the back. “I love this guy.”
Dominic swung his glare from me to Nico momentarily.
“Number five on the questionnaire is fair game,” I said. “We’re both single.”
“Roselyn.” Dominic’s jaw was set.
“I’m going to go—” Jimmy started.
“I’ll go with you,” Nico said.
They walked away.
“I’m going to kill you for this,” I gritted.
“I already told you, dying by your hands—”
“Shut up.” I put a hand up. “Just shut up and tell me what you’re doing here.”
“Five minutes of your time.”
I rolled my eyes and took a deep breath, but followed him out of the room, into the hall, and stood quietly next to him as we waited for the elevator to arrive. In the elevator, I kept my distance as he pushed down a button for a random floor. How I managed not to scream as I stood there, I wasn’t sure, but I took the time to breathe and rein in my emotions. Still, how dare he show up the other night and then vanish without another word and then show up here, looking like the star of a fucking action movie and expecting me to just, what, crawl back to him? Yeah, right.
“Penny for your thoughts,” he said.
“Trust me, you don’t want my thoughts right now.” I crossed my arms.
He chuckled. It was low and sexy and annoyed me to no end. When the doors opened up on the sixth floor, he let me step out first and followed. The building was smack in the middle of the financial district, and it was Saturday night, so I wasn’t surprised to find we were in a huge empty office space with endless cubicles.
“Don’t tell me you own this,” I said, arms still crossed.
“No.” He frowned, looking around. “It’s a more private option than the lobby.”
“Why do we need privacy? Why are you here?”
He took a deep breath. “Can I kiss you?”
“What?” My voice was so loud, I was pretty sure they heard it upstairs and in the Empire State Building. I tried again. “What? Dominic, do not tell me you paid twenty-thousand dollars to ask me to kiss you.”
“I would’ve paid thirty.”
“I can’t with you.” I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms again as I turned around and took a few steps into the empty lobby. He came up behind me, engulfing me with his long arms and pulling me flush against his chest. I shut my eyes, heart skipping a few beats. “Dominic.”
“Do you still want me?” he asked against my hair.
“Dominic.” It was a shaky warning.
“You look so goddamn beautiful in that dress.” His arms tightened around me.
A shiver rolled through me. “You need to stop doing this.”
“Do you want me?” he asked again, lowering his voice.
“We had this conversation already,” I said, eyes still closed. “You know I do.”
“Marry me.”
“What?” My heart fell into my stomach. I pushed away from him and turned around. “What?”
“Marry me,” he said. “It’s the only way I can guarantee you’d be safe.”
“Wh . . . You’re asking me one of the most important questions you could ask a person, and it’s just to keep me safe?” I blinked, trying to wrap my head around this. Had he seriously paid all that money and interrupted my four-thousand-dollar date to ask me this? Like this? “No.”
“No?” He took a step back as if I’d hit him.
“You can’t just buy expensive tickets to support a team you hate because you’re jealous, and take me out of said event to tell me to marry you, and use that lame excuse as the reason.” I crossed my arms again and started pacing, feeling like my heart might just explode on this floor. “No.”
“Let me start over.”
I stopped pacing and looked at him, waiting.
“Wives and children are off limits,” he said. “We had a meeting. All the families, the whole fucking Epcot, and agreed to get back to abiding by rules that should have never been ignored.”
This guy and Epcot. “Because of what happened in Providence?”
“That’s a big part of the reason, since all these guys are next generation, my generation, we felt it bore repeating.”
I nodded and looked down at the floor.
“Tommy’s out.”
“Out?” I glanced up. “Dead?”
“That umbrella company you heard about? Someone practically rose from the dead and tried to take over; the rest of Epcot didn’t like that, and Tommy was their only link to the Italians.” He sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair. “We don’t have time to discuss all of the details since you have to get back to that.” He pointed a finger up and shut his eyes for a second. “I’ll explain it later, but right now, I need to know if you want to be with me.”