Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 118245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 591(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118245 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 591(@200wpm)___ 473(@250wpm)___ 394(@300wpm)
Catching my gaze, he smiled and winked at me as he chewed.
The sweet yet salty bite of shrimp with its hint of citrus cutting the earthy taste of the olive oil it was grilled in practically melted in my mouth. A groan escaped my lips before I had a chance to stop it.
Matteo leaned in close. “Fuck, you’re sexy as hell when you eat.”
My eyes widened as I swallowed my bite and then exclaimed, “You, sir, are a bald-faced liar.”
His gaze focused on my mouth. He then reached up and brushed his thumb over my lower lip. “If I hadn’t promised not to fuck that beautifully tight pussy of yours the other night, I would have drizzled your breasts with honey, spread your knees, and pounded my cock into you while I suckled your honey-coated nipples.”
“Sciatiri e matri,” I breathed, my shaking hand reaching for my drink. I took a large swallow, choking as a few droplets went down the wrong pipe. “You shouldn’t say such things to me. Especially not in public.”
His large hand wrapped around the arm of my chair. The legs screeched against the ancient stone floor as he pulled the chair away from the table.
Then he reached for me.
I recoiled as all the heads in the cafe turned to watch us. “What are you doing?”
He grasped my hips and lifted me out of my chair and onto his lap. With the folds of my wool coat shielding his hand from view, he wedged his fingers between my thighs.
Nuzzling my ear, he rasped, “If I didn’t know your pussy was too sore from earlier, I’d take you up to my office right now, bend you over my desk, and fuck you all over again.”
My head spun from a dizzying blend of humiliation and titillation. The edges of my palms pushed against his chest. “You have to stop. People are staring.”
“Let them stare.”
“They’ll think we’re together.”
His brow lowered. “We are together. You’re my fiancée.”
“No, we are not. Just because you broke your word and we had… we had…” I lowered my voice to barely a whisper. “Real sex changes nothing. I am not your fiancée. My sister is your fiancée.”
His finger and thumb clasped my chin as he forced my gaze to his. With narrowed eyes, he ground out, “The fuck it doesn’t. You’re mine now, Ella. I don’t give a shit what happens with Dante and your father and the whole rotten lot of them. You will be my wife.”
CHAPTER 35
MATTEO
Clearly the only way to silence Ella’s objections was to marry her or knock her up.
Preferably both.
The idea of this sweet and talented woman carrying my child made me want to drag her back to my bed and not let her out of it until she was pregnant. Looking at her now, thinking about a future together, I finally, truly understood the drive to preserve and protect the Cavalieri name. Finally understood the importance of fostering the next generation and the weight of that responsibility.
Like our grapevines, we grew stronger with each generation.
And each new generation carried the honor of caring for those vines for the next one to come.
I had almost poisoned the vine by marrying her sister.
Someone who would not have respected our family’s legacy.
While it may or may not have been the right decision for the present, it could’ve had terrible ramifications for future generations. Greater families than ours had been destroyed by the actions of one errant father, or one weak-willed son.
Legacies were fragile. It would only take the wrongful actions of one generation to ruin the hard work and dedication of the ten generations before.
In marrying Ella, I was at least still stepping up and saving someone who was vulnerable and needed my protection, while also responsibly securing my family’s future.
That was assuming we survived the ticking time bombs that were Dante, Antonius, and her sister, Antonia.
My father would be here tomorrow. And I already received a text from Sebastian Diamanti that he was coming in as well. Although not directly involved in our conflict with the Agnellos, the Diamantis had an enormous amount of power and influence which could tip the scales in our favor if things turned ugly and the Agnello syndicate fractured. It was a distinct possibility and one we worried about when I first stupidly agreed to the arranged marriage.
Dante was still a new Don and did not have his entire power base solidified. There was a chance Ella’s father could make a play for the throne.
So tomorrow our plan was to basically come up with a new plan on how to deal with Dante, Ella’s father, and the fallout from Liliana’s godfather’s death without starting a full-out mafia war in Sicily.
And that plan definitely would no longer include me marrying Antonia.
Because of their little "parent trap" prank, Ella was now in just as much danger as her sister, this time from her own father, especially if the rumors about her mother were true.